I laughed aloud when Flo tased Lexi to shut her mouth, but I quickly stepped over and escorted Flo out. I didn’t need my security person involved in a fight any more than I needed to be in one.
“Give me the keys,” I ordered.
“I can’t. You’ve been drinking,” Flo said.
“How many did I have?”
“Two,” she admitted.
She handed me the keys. I took her to a local diner and bought her pancakes as a reward for being a badass.
◊◊◊ Sunday January 10
After the excitement at Maria’s house, I’d decided to behave the rest of the weekend. Halle and I went surfing and hung out at the beach house. I wore Bandit out playing with him and then did the same with his mom. We all watched Weekend Live. Craig killed it. They did a skit about Star Academy, and I laughed aloud at the caricature they turned me into. They had one of the regulars dress up in a muscle suit and had him dance around as he fawned all over Craig. I was sure Craig loved that.
I did receive a surprise call. Sage wanted to get together, so I invited her to go with me on the yacht. I would’ve invited Halle, but she and Rita were having another mother-daughter day.
I did notice that Fritz was my driver for this trip. We picked up Sage and drove to the marina. Rita had made sure I wore the proper attire: white cotton pants and shirt with boat shoes. I did break out my sunglasses. I rolled my eyes when she reminded me to wear sunscreen. It sounded funny when she said stuff like that because you don’t expect a movie star like her to behave so much like a mom at times.
When we arrived, we were introduced to the first mate who gave us a tour of the yacht. I was told that I had a stateroom for my use on our trip. Sage had brought a bag with a swimsuit and wrap in case she wanted to change out of her sundress. We were escorted to the back deck. They served us drinks while we waited for everyone to arrive.
Someone must have told Jessup and Janice that I was here because they came out and joined me. I introduced them to Sage. Then a man in his late 30s joined us.
“David, I’d like you to meet Paul Andon. He’s the one who’ll be negotiating your deals for the next two movies,” Janice said.
I politely listened as Paul told me that they wanted to get me under contract because they needed to solidify their budget for the movie. I noticed that as they talked to me, other people from the film began to arrive. From Star Academy, I saw Lori, Ben, Elizabeth, and Bree come aboard. The studio must have thought they needed me to sign first, or some such nonsense. I was never so relieved to see Saul. I noticed he eyed Sage, but Saul was in a place where he had to behave, so the leering was kept to a minimum. Saul pulled Paul and Janice inside for a chat.
That was when Caryn arrived with her parents, and I smirked to see Zak was with her. She came over to introduce her parents to me. When they left us to get a drink, I looked over at Zak, and she gave me a hard look.
“It’s my fault he’s here. I made the mistake of talking about this. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Caryn said.
“He finally wore you down?”
“Bite me. Zak said that he’d leave me alone and would owe me if he got to come.”
“So, you’re a couple now,” I persisted.
“I bet I can throw you over the side,” she threatened.
“Fritz would protect me,” I said.
“I’d help her,” Fritz said as he came out of nowhere.
I hated it when he did that. And he wouldn’t teach me how. I just threw my hands up in surrender. Since I couldn’t count on my security, I made the rounds and caught up with my fellow actors. Ben introduced me to his girlfriend, whom I recognized as an actress in the new Baywatch movie. I had to admit, she had a great body.
Suddenly, twenty hot girls showed up. I realized they were party hos. You have to love LA. It was confirmed when they began to talk to the men here. Zak found one and was soon gone. These girls didn’t seem to be too picky because some of the studio guys would never score if the girls weren’t professionals. My smile grew when I spotted Lexi Andon. At least the studio people knew who she was. Our eyes locked, and I made a quick retreat to find Sage.
The yacht pulled out of the marina. There were several boats following us with paparazzi taking pictures. I pointed them out to Sage.
“I think I’ll go change so they can get some good shots,” she said.
Of course, that left me alone to be approached by the party hos. Being a good guy, I made sure I was gracious and spent some time talking to them. Ben came over and sat on my couch; that seemed to attract more of them. I was sure the paparazzi were having a field day. Zak came out and sat in a seat across from us.
“Hey, ladies. Give me fifteen minutes, and we can go have some fun,” he announced.
Ben and I looked at each other and shook our heads. Then Sage came out, followed by Ben’s girlfriend. Sage had a dancer’s body, which means her butt was out of this world. She wore a bikini that showed off her best asset to the fullest. Ben’s girlfriend had the Pamela Anderson-type body, and she looked damned fine in her bikini, even though it covered more. Models aren’t body-shy, so Sage didn’t seem fazed to be walking around almost naked.
Then the day almost ended abruptly.
“Hey, Isabel,” Zak said, and stood up and gave Ben’s girlfriend a full-on kiss.
I was glad Fritz was there. He saw Ben’s expression and grabbed Zak, who squawked, but Fritz marched him off before Ben could end his life. Even though Zak was well built, I knew that Ben worked out almost as much as I did. He also trained, and from my experience with our fight scenes, I would guess Zak would last about two seconds.
Isabel looked confused until she saw Ben’s face. I recognized the guilt for what it was and felt sorry for Ben. She pulled him inside to explain things. I feared that with that body, she might convince him it was all innocent. The problem was I knew Zak. When he’d kissed her, it was the kind of kiss you gave a past lover. I’d seen him kiss other girls like that.
“That was interesting. Do you think …?” Sage asked.
“I would hate to speculate,” I said.
“That bad, huh?”
“I didn’t say anything,” I defended myself.
Sage caught me up on what had been going on since we saw each other last. She’d gone to Europe and did a couple of jobs there. As we talked, our conversation came around to Bill.
“I finally got it through his thick head that we were through,” she said. “I can’t believe he thought I would be okay with him cheating on me on road trips and then with whatever sick games he played with Ridge and Penny. Here I thought she was my friend.”
“She can be persistent. It might not have been Bill’s idea.”
“Why, have you been with her?” Sage said with some heat in her voice. “You have.”
I grabbed her wrist, but she was having none of it, so I followed her to our stateroom. She tried to slam the door in my face, but I pushed in. Usually, when girls try to hit you, they flail at you. Often, you’ll get a wild right that you can catch with your left hand, and then the left will come. Their next move is to knee you in the balls. The trick is to capture both hands and then twist to the side to avoid the knee. You then pull them tight to your chest and lean your head back, because they’ll head-butt you.
Sage surprised me when she landed a double-handed punch to my chest.
“Ouch!” I complained as I wrapped her up into my arms.
She was a hellcat. For a minute there, I was afraid I would have to hurt her to save myself. Out of self-preservation, I picked her up and deposited her on the bed. I quickly landed on her and wormed my legs between hers so she couldn’t knee me. I pinned her hands above her head and jerked back to avoid getting her forehead in my nose.