To Have and to Kill Read Free Page A

accompanied them to dinner. Piper had tried to ignore it for a few months, but when she caught Tom taking his mother’s hand one night while the three of them sat together in a movie theater, she knew she had to end it.
    Despite all the false starts, Piper believed in love, in following dreams, and in happy endings. But with her acting career stalled and her bank account running on empty, she needed some time to take a step away and, hopefully, breathe. She wondered what Glenna would say when she told her that she was giving up her apartment at the end of the month, eliminating the rent-check panic, and moving back to her parents’ house in the New Jersey suburbs.
    Going home to live with Mommy and Daddy for a while.
    She was pretty sure Carrie Bradshaw had never done that.
    W hile she waited at the restaurant, Piper ordered a glass of the cheapest merlot on the menu, picked out a piece of Italian bread from the basket on the table, and took out her BlackBerry. She had several messages on her voice mail. The first was from Glenna Brooks.
    “I’m going to be a little late, Piper, but I have a big surprise. Big and great. Can’t wait to tell you. See you soon.”
    Piper guessed that Glenna had gotten the part in that film she wanted or that the soap’s writers were creating an even more outrageous story line for her. Viewers loved the Maggie Lane character. They were excessively blogging about everything, from what she was wearing to whom she was dating. Glenna received more fan mail than any actor on the show. It was common on the soaps to replace an actor for the same character when necessary, but for the Little Rain audience, Glenna Brooks was Maggie Lane. Glenna’s agent had deftly used that popularity when negotiating her last contract.
    Piper resolved that, whatever Glenna’s news was, she was going to be stoked for her friend even though there was a lull in her own acting career.
    Everyone has highs and lows. I’m just in a little down period. Eventually, things are going to get better.
    Piper knew that Glenna had had her own down times, particularly in her personal life. She had gone through a miserable divorce while she and Piper worked together. That’s when they had become friends.
    Even though Piper was brand-new to the show, she and Glenna had connected immediately. Piper was younger and far more green than Glenna, but the star treated Piper as an equal. She ended up confiding in Piper about the challenges of divorce, especially when the gossip columnists were paying attention. Despite Piper’s insistence that she’d feel different eventually, Glenna vowed that she would never marry again.
    These conversations had helped them bond. Glenna became a Piper Donovan champion, sharing theatrical contacts and praising her acting talent to various people in the industry.
    Since Piper left the show, they hadn’t seen each other as much. In fact, Piper realized that they hadn’t really talked in several months. They’d scheduled this holiday lunch to catch up. Piper was especially curious about the recent announcement that A Little Rain Must Fall, in an effort to cut production costs, was leaving New York and following so many of the other soaps out to Los Angeles.
    The waiter placed the glass of wine on the table. Piper took a sip as she listened to the next message.
    “Piper, it’s me. Thanks again for doing those roses for me yesterday, honey. We can’t wait for you to get out here. Daddy is almost finished painting your room. I think you’re going to like it, sweetheart. Got to go, the brownies need to be iced. Call me when you can. Love, Mom.”
    Piper smiled to herself. Her mother always signed off on voice messages as if she were dictating the close to a letter. Once, when she had been really annoyed at Piper, she closed a terse voice-mail message with “Sincerely, Mom.” But Piper’s brow knit in concern as she thought about the “painting your room” thing. It made her nervous. Painting her