“Thank you again for the lift and the scones.” Sophia tapped the top of the foil bundle Esther and Diane had loaded full of pastries. She glanced around the nearly deserted entrance to the nature preserve. “I think you managed to get me here undetected. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”

“Tickets to your next premiere?” Diane asked.

“An introduction to that handsome Scotsman playing opposite you?” Esther suggested.

“Deal.” She would’ve gladly paid a lot more not to have to deal with reporters this morning.

“We’re only teasing, dear,” Esther said, probably reading the exhaustion on her face. “We’re only too happy to help a friend.”

“Yes,” Diane added, “getting to play chauffeur to the stars is merely a bonus.”

“Bless you,” Sophia said sincerely.

“Take care of yourself.”

“Get some rest.”

“And eat something!”

She waved as they backed out of the nature preserve shouting various bits of motherly advice.

“New fans?” a voice asked from behind her.

She turned to find Talia leaning against the stone wall of the stable. “They might be new friends.”

“Lucky you,” Talia said drolly. “You’re going to need as many of those as you can get around here.”

“That bad?”

Talia shrugged. “Come on inside and pull up a hay bale.”

Sophia sighed, wishing she could go back and follow all of Diane and Esther’s advice. Instead she followed Talia into the stable, taking a seat beside her on one block of straw, and setting the package of scones on one in front of them. “I brought breakfast.”

Talia grabbed one greedily. “It’s the least you can do after the last twenty-four hours of shit storm you’ve put me through.”

“I didn’t exactly start it.”

“You didn’t exactly end it,” Talia said without any real bite to the comment. “I might’ve strangled you on sight if I didn’t have a pretty good suspicion of where you’ve been all night.”

“How’d you know I’d end up here?”

“Criminals always return to the scene of the crime,” Talia mumbled around a mouthful of scone, then swallowed. “Also, this is flipping delicious. Are they angel cakes from heaven?”

“Scones, from my new friends.”

“You get new friends and a new food source while I get a sleepless night of fielding calls from studio execs, press coordinators, and one smarmy reporter who somehow got hold of my personal number.”

Sophia grimaced. “I hate that, I really do, but if you’re waiting for me to apologise for something Brian screwed up, you’re going to be here a long time.”

“No, I’m actually on Team Sophia on that particular front.” She cradled the scone in her hands like a precious treasure. “I didn’t appreciate your lover/landlord pulling rank on my film schedule, but if Brian can’t stick to the screenplay as I freaking wrote it, then we absolutely need an intimacy coordinator.”