Reilly's Return Read Online Free PDF

couldn’t,” he said, his neon-blue gaze trapping hers as if in a tractor beam. “The year was up.”
    He was very good at his craft, Jayne thought, the critic in her trying to detach itself from her emotional self. He knew instinctively just how long to pause between sentences to make the utmost impact. He’d had her giggling just seconds ago, but with that one well-delivered line, he hadher holding her breath and trembling with anticipation. The man was a natural. His movies might have been horrible, but he was never horrible in them.
    That was one of the things that had always irked her about Reilly. He had a wealth of talent and regularly wasted it on scripts that required nothing of him. He was handsomely paid to look irresistible and act tough while this abundance of ability simmered inside him just begging for some capable director to draw it out. He could have been great. Instead, he chose to be lazy.
    “What are you doing here, Jaynie?”
    She pulled out of her musings at the sound of his voice. He had wandered off and stood with his hands on his hips, looking at the wall she’d been washing.
    “I helped organize the community theater group,” she said. “I’ll be directing our first production, but cleaning up the place comes first. This theater hasn’t been used in years, and it seemed a shame. The box office proceeds from the plays will go toward renovation of the building and to our young artists’ program. There are a lot of talented young people here. They deserve every chance to develop those talents.”
    “A worthy cause. What’s the play?”
    “
A Taste of Starlight
. It’s a romantic comedy with lots of emotion—”
    “I know it,” he said, nodding his approval. “Should draw a good crowd.”
    “I hope so.”
    “And this is what you left L.A. for?” he asked, gesturing to their surroundings. “To join charity groups and hide from me?”
    She didn’t deny the charge. It was true, in part. She had left Hollywood half hoping Pat Reilly would forget about her. But it wasn’t the whole truth. She hugged herself and leaned back against the scaffolding, staring out at the dark, empty expanse of seats. “I didn’t want to handle Hollywood without Mac. Too many sharks in the water. And losing him made me see how precious time really is. I wanted to spend mine with my friends.”
    She had continued writing her syndicated column. Once a week she drove down to San Francisco to screen films. But she’d given up her weekly television show,
Critic’s Choice
. Her life had taken on a saner tempo. She still kept up on the business and found it was nicer to watch from a distance than to be thrust into the center of the storm.
    Being removed from Hollywood let her feelcompletely objective. When she’d lived in L.A., there had been a constant stream of people trying to get into her good graces. None of them had wanted a genuine friendship or a real romance. All of them had wanted good reviews.
    Good reviews meant big money. A thumbs up from her could make a movie a runaway hit. A thumbs down from her could kill a film before it even got out of the gate. Her friendly, conversational style and her reputation for honesty had won her a tremendous following among the moviegoing public.
    “And what are you doing here, Reilly?” she asked. “I thought you’d signed on to do
Road Raider Part III.”
    He wouldn’t quite meet her eyes when he said, “Yeah, well, the deal … fell through.”
    The truth of the matter was he’d backed out. He was sick of sequels and shoot ’em up action pictures. In his heart of hearts he wanted to do a movie that demanded something of him. But he was terrified of doing just that. What if he took on a part that demanded something of him and he found he had nothing to give?
    For months now he’d lived with the horrible, choking fear that one day the whole world was going to figure out that he wasn’t really an actorat all, that he was just a jackaroo from a sheep