September Canvas Read Free

to be more to a job than that.” Frustrated with her agent, but not surprised, Faythe knew no matter how she tried to explain, her words wouldn’t sink in. Like Faythe’s mother, Suzy was very much about appearances, and on the surface Faythe’s life was perfect. “I don’t mind the hours, but the days are rushing by me. I have friends and live in a great area, but no time to enjoy it, no one to come home to. I sacrifice a lot for a job that doesn’t seem worth it.” Suzy kept trying to convince Faythe to reconsider, but she didn’t budge. The next day she called Nellie and arranged to stay at the lake.
    Faythe settled against the pillows, her mind drifting back to the woman next door. She wondered what had annoyed or frustrated her enough to pound the railing. After her outburst she stood there in the fading light like an obsidian statue, black hair the only thing moving in the breeze.
    Faythe padded over to the bathroom and brushed her teeth. She could hardly remember when she had thought so much about another woman. She wiped her mouth and made a wry face at her reflection.
    She was not going to count how many months had passed since she had been on a date, or even had time and energy to think about it. At least she could admit that it was far too long ago and that it was time for a change.
    * * *
    Deanna moved the pencil in long sweeping strokes across the paper, annoyed that her mental image refused to translate to the sheet on the table before her. She tried to wrap her mind around the loose idea, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to get it out of her head until she put it on paper. She had managed to outline a female figure, but the woman in her picture was faceless. When she squinted, Deanna could almost see the person she was trying to depict.
    It wasn’t hard to figure out what distracted her. Her dinner sat uneaten on the kitchen counter, and though she tried to ignore the voices of the women in the bookstore earlier that day, they pierced her thoughts. Deanna was well aware of Gloria Henderson’s leading position in Grantville. She lived with her husband and daughter in a colonial mansion and chaired several charities with absolute power.
    Gloria’s daughter, Savannah, had ruled Grantville High School much the same way. She’d held court with her peers in the hallways or the cafeteria, and was the undisputed queen bee among the girls.
    Deanna jerked at a sharp sound and stared at the broken pencil that had perforated the sheet of paper before her. The shattered remainder had stabbed the sketchy woman in the heart.

Chapter Two
    Faythe drew a deep breath, then several more as she stretched her calf muscles to warm up for her run. She pulled her short ponytail tight and took off along the path that led down to the water.
    She kept an even rhythm, paying attention to roots and rocks that might send her flying if she tripped on them. She smiled widely, suddenly feeling free.
    What a difference it was to run on honest-to-God forest paths, rather than on a treadmill at the gym. There people always appeared to inspect and judge her, which was certainly one of the downsides of being a household name. And the paparazzi sometimes seemed to live on her doorstep, especially after her interview with the glamorous Hollywood starlet Isabella Talbert. Nobody, especially Faythe, had anticipated the little vixen would reveal such sordid details on an eight a.m. morning show.
    What began as a common interview, designed to plug Isabella’s debut movie, had turned into something entirely different when she broke down, sobbing and throwing herself into Faythe’s arms. Isabella confessed to a romance with the director, who was married to a very rich and powerful Hollywood mogul’s daughter. It hadn’t been quite clear if Isabella was crying because he broke up with her, or because she feared his wife would kill Isabella’s budding career. The director was at least thirty years older than Isabella, which the tabloids