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Red and Ruatha were delighted to have riders, and Melia felt a moment of reproach getting on Ruatha's back. She hadn't ridden since.... Since the day Jared had his seizure. She shuddered.

Ruatha sensed her shudder and tossed her mane reflexively, almost like asking, Where's my owner? You're just the girlfriend. I was his first.

Melia braced herself, and then leaned way over and pulled Ruatha's ear back so she could pet her, and scratched her the way she liked. She whispered. "It's okay, honey, he's here with us. He will always be here for you."

Matthew was a skilled rider as well, and came up behind her, prodding Red gently. "Where to?" He personally thought Melia was gorgeous with the afternoon sun turning her hair to flame, and her skin to gold. She wore blue jeans that accentuated her slim legs and enclosed her tiny waist, and a white blouse over a black tank top. She was absolutely fabulous.

Melia squinted up in the hills behind the cottage. "There's a trail up there. I can only be gone about an hour. My sister is watching Hannah for me."

Matthew nodded and wheeled the horse around to follow Melia. He started up the trail and then when it widened on the higher plateau, he pulled up beside her.

"So, I heard you're auditioning for a few flicks." He said.

She gave him a look meant to show surprise that he knew. It hadn't been that long since she'd accepted the audition requests. Like twelve hours.... "With Sam Cassetta and Robert DeMarco." She said.

He nodded as if this confirmed what he'd already heard. "It's kinda soon."

He prompted her, ready to take his obligation seriously to help her through her grief. But she didn't seem to be grieving as much as he'd thought she would. She looked a little drawn, her summer tan glowing in full swing, and all in all, she seemed okay.

"Is it?" she replied, her tone one that he'd never heard before. She actually sounded uninterested.

He shrugged. Grief was something he'd not had to deal with in his life. No one really close to him had died before. Nor did he read Melia's grief. To be honest, he really didn't know her well. He knew Megan better, had spent more time with her, but wasn't attracted to her as he was to Melia.

It was possible that she hid her grief well. He thought that was likely the case. "So, are you throwing yourself back into the business head first?"

Melia shrugged. "It's good to stay busy. I have a lot of time to make up for. I was gone for almost a year."

"Yeah.' He said, listening to the clop clop of horses hooves, feeling the early summer air briskly turning cool around them. He wished she'd just open up and talk to him, he wanted to feel close to her.

"So, what about you? What projects do you have lined up?" She was gently solicitous, seeming relaxed, but a little on edge. He sensed that, but couldn't tell if she was building at all.

"Tom Roberson and I are doing an action flick this month."

"Roberson? Wow! That's pretty big. Sounds fun." She answered, but he detected the false interest, the fake cheerfulness.

Well, he thought she could have just been saying it to be nice, or she could have been showing a small amount of interest. "Would you be interested in working with us?"

"Working with you?" she repeated, dumbly, caught off guard. "Do you have something in mind?" Her voice definitely sounded interested now, and he was flattered, felt his chest swelling under her scrutiny.

"Maybe." He tried to think of anything he'd been offered with Roberson that could include Melia. Off hand, he was drawing a blank...

"So, did you know he and Annette split up?" She ventured and caught him a little off guard.

"Yeah, I guess the tabloids really reported on that one."

"I didn't hear it from the tabloids." Melia snorted as if reading tabloids was abhorrent to her.

He gave her a look meant to ask where she had heard it then, but when she didn't give him any answering looks, he went on: "I'm actually staying in Malibu with Tom right now."

Melia's brows rose. "Because of the flick?"

"We're friends." He said.

"So, you became friends because of the flick, or you were friends before the flick?"

He laughed. "We've known each other for awhile. Rivals."

She gasped, realizing it vaguely, having not followed all of either of their films. "Are you rivals?"

"Were." He said. "Were rivals, now we're friends. It's better to be friends in this industry than rivals. Even though we both tend to get call outs on the same type of projects. He has his amazing following, dark, muscular, quick and methodic... every director's dream. Like a Brando, or something."

"And you are?"

"Breaking into the scene." He laughed. "Obviously I look nothing like him." He indicated his blonde hair, his taller and more slender physique.

Melia decided to acknowledge his contribution to Hollywood big shots. "You certainly are built though." She said and gave him a once over.

He laughed, feeling the fire she had intended to ignite rush though his veins. He liked her playful, liked her a little sassy, liked her soft and not grieving as well.

"So, how about that current? It still bugging you?" he asked her, trying to refocus on what Jared had asked him to do.

"Bugging me? Yeah, it bugs me. It bugs me all the time. But I can live with it, as long as I don't get real upset, or freaked out about anything, or...." She was about to say, turned on, and thought better of it.

"Jared asked me to keep you diffused." He said gently, reaching for her, but Melia pushed her horse away from him expertly.

The look in her eye was repellent. She wasn't ready to be touched by anyone else. "He did, huh? Well, I've not had any builds worth diffusing. The horse grounds me, the earth grounds me."

"So, no major episodes? You can call me, you know." He offered.

"Thanks." She said. "No, no major episodes." Her breath was coming tight now, and she did feel the build, the kind that spoke of anger or tears, and she wasn't about to let on that either of those things were about to happen. She turned Ruatha around. "This is as far as I can go." She said, and felt her milk come in right on cue.

"How are you going to return to acting while nursing a baby?" he followed her back disappointed that she hadn't made an exception and tried to stay out longer.

"How do other mom's do it? They have nanny's right on set sometimes. My own mother has done it for years. Even with twins and seps." Her laugh was fake and too bright, and he realized she wasn't ready to talk to him yet either. Further disappointment.

He closed his eyes and let the horse have its head. Jared hadn't made it easy, had he?

*****