numbers, so you can use me as your point of contact to schedule everything,” Kat says. “It’d take you five times as long to get anything done if you had to go through official channels.”
And off we go to the ledge of the pool to grab our phones and exchange information.
“So, hey,” Kat says, after she’s input my number. “I think I might have put my foot in my mouth earlier, when I said that thing about my brother, Ryan, not liking Reed. Josh overheard that and got pissed at me. He doesn’t want you thinking badly of Reed, and neither do I. Reed is actually a good guy, Georgie. A sweetheart, once you get past all that swagger.”
I open my mouth to reply, but quickly close it again. Kat knows about Reed and me? Or is she simply concerned she’s said the wrong thing about her husband’s best friend to the woman assigned to write an article about him?
Kat continues, “Honestly, Georgie, I can’t even count all the times I’ve seen Reed being a fantastic friend or brother. Did you know he paid for all his sister’s schooling? He also hosted Henn and Hannah’s wedding here at his house. Also...” She looks behind her, apparently making sure nobody is within earshot. “This is off the record, okay? Not for your article.”
“Sure.”
“Don’t tell my brother, Keane, but Reed really helped his career behind the scenes.” She looks behind her again. “When Keane first moved to LA to try his hand at modeling and acting, his agent wouldn’t send him out to audition for anything serious. Every role he auditioned for was a dumb jock or stripper or frat boy. Keane was grateful for the work, and excited at first, but after a while, he really wanted to throw his hat in the ring for more serious roles. So, he took acting classes, and really worked hard, but, still, his agent wouldn’t take him seriously. So, Maddy told me about Keane’s predicament. She said Keane was getting discouraged. So, I mentioned it to Josh, just, you know, to catch my husband up on my life. I didn’t expect Josh to do anything with the information. But Josh, being Josh, he immediately took action and called Reed. Who then called the head of Keane’s talent agency—because Reed knows everybody in this town—and Reed told the guy it would be a personal favor to him if Keane’s particular agent would start taking a chance on him and send him out to a few serious auditions. And guess what happened? Keane got hired for the first serious role he tried out for! And that led to the next role, and the next. And now he’s starring in a hit show!”
Of course, none of this surprises me. Indeed, everything Kat just said sounds exactly like something Reed would do. Like Reed told me that day in the gym, he won’t compromise his professional judgment, but he’ll do just about anything else for the people on his short list. And since Josh Faraday is one of the people on that list, all he had to do was give Reed a call to send him into action.
“And that’s Reed for you,” Kat says, her blue eyes twinkling. “And Josh, too. Both of those guys are so generous.”
“Why don’t they want Keane to know they helped him? Wouldn’t Keane want to know, so he could thank both of them for helping him out? If someone helped me with my career behind the scenes, I’d want to know about it, so I could thank them profusely.”
“Josh and Reed don’t want to take anything away from Keane. Especially Reed. He never wants the spotlight for himself. He loves pulling strings behind the scenes.”
Ping.
That soft cotton ball from earlier poofs softly against the back of my head again. A fuzzy idea is once again trying to sharpen and take root inside my brain. But before the amorphous thought crystallizes, Kat speaks again.
“And Keane is just another example on a long list of them. When Hannah first moved from Seattle to LA to be closer to her then-boyfriend, Henn, do you know what Reed did for her, simply because she was Henn’s girlfriend?”
“He helped her get a job?” I throw out.
Kat looks surprised. “Actually... yes. I was going to say Reed gave Hannah a smoking good deal on an apartment in one of his buildings. But, yes, Reed also helped Hannah get her current job, too. I guess he knew someone who