Fame Read Free

the last minute.”
    “I know.” The idea was taking root. It was definitely possible. What girl wouldn’t want a chance like this? Dayne sucked in a slow breath. He couldn’t get ahead of himself. “Listen, Mitch, give me a week. I have someone in mind, but she’s out of state.” He leaned against the windowsill. “I think I can have her here in a week, by next Monday.”
    Mitch folded his arms, his expression hard. “Some girl you met at a club, Matthews? Someone you made drunken promises to? Is that what you want me to wait for?”
    “No.” Dayne held up his hand. “She’s the real deal. Give me a chance.”
    A moment passed when Dayne wasn’t sure which way the casting director was leaning. Then Mitch swept up the six files and the clipboard and shot him a look. “One week.” He was halfway out the door when he turned once more and met Dayne’s eyes. “She better be good.”
    Dayne waited until he was alone to look out the window again. What had he just done? Buying a week meant putting the other talent on hold. It meant playing with a budget of tens of millions of dollars so he could find a girl he’d seen just once and
    4
    ask her to read for a starring role opposite him in a major motion picture.
    All when she might not have the interest or ability to act at all. The idea was crazy, except for one thing. In the past year the only time he’d seen genuine innocence was when he’d watched this same girl light up the stage at a small theater in Bloomington, Indiana, directing the chaos of a couple dozen kids in costumes at the close of what was apparently the theater troupe’s first show.
    He remembered most of what he’d seen that day, but still the details were sketchy. The location of the theater was easy, something he could definitely find again. But he had almost no information on the girl except her name.
    Dayne gripped the windowsill and leaned his forehead against the cool glass. He could fly out and try to find her, but that would bring the paparazzi out of the woodwork for sure, make them crazy with questions about why Dayne Matthews was in Bloomington,
    Indiana.
    Again.
    He turned and grabbed his keys and cell phone. There had to be a way to reach her, to ask her out to Hollywood for an audition without the story making every tabloid in town. Dayne shoved the phone in his pocket and headed down the hall toward the elevator.
    A coffee, that’s what he needed. A double-shot espresso. Most of his friends in the industry had found offbeat coffee shops, places where they were less recognized. Not Dayne, He was a Starbucks man; nothing else would do. If the paparazzi wanted to take his picture coming and going with his double espresso-and they almost always did—that was fine with him. Maybe he’d get an endorsement deal and he could stand out front and pose for them. Dayne chuckled.
    That would send them packing. Take all the fun out of it.
    He opened the back door of the office building and felt a blast of warmth as the sunshine hit his face. The weather was perfect, 5
    not the usual June fog. He crossed the studio’s private parking lot to his black Escalade near the bushes and high privacy fence. Usually the studio back lots were free of the press hounds. Sometimes a lone photographer would climb the trees or sit on adjacent hillsides with high-power cameras trained on the office door. But only when a big deal was coming together or someone was in need of rehab–something like that.
    Today things looked calm, This time of the day there wouldn’t be too many camera hounds on the hunt. Besides, his SUV was new. Only a few of them would know it was him behind the tinted windows. He pulled out of the studio lot and turned left on La Cienaga Boulevard.
    Two blocks down he looked in his rearview mirror and saw a familiar Volkswagen, Paparazzi. Even now, even with his new vehicle. He shrugged. Whatever, They can’t crawl into my mind,
    Once in a while he liked to lead them on. He glanced in