Free Back in Black by Zoey Dean Page B

the others out front in an hour, okay? That'll give you time to do … whatever you need to do. Take whatever you want. Or don't want.”
    “Sure.” Dee put a minuscule hand on Sam's arm. “And Sam … it will be fine. Really.”
    Yuh. Whatever.
    An hour later, having rewatched the opening reel of
Apocalypse Now
in her father's screening room, Sam meandered back to the front hall, where Svetlana had just let Cammie and Adam inside. Adam had on faded no-name jeans and a plain red T-shirt—his usual under stated look. Cammie wore a beige Sass & Bide silk camisole under a beige Michael Kors fitted suede jacket, and a paler beige Calvin Klein beaded silk skirt, with French Mephisto walking sneakers. She'd kept her lips glossy and pale, her eyeliner smudgy, and her hair wild.
    In comparison, in her own travel outfit of a black Armani T-shirt under a red leather J. Crew blazer, and Seven jeans with black satin peep-toe Stuart Weitzman pumps, Sam felt like a dump truck.
    “Sorry we're late. Adam would not let me out of bed,” Cammie reported.
    Adam winked at his friends. “Don't let her fool you. We just grabbed a burger at Tommy's near the Westside Pavilion.”
    Cammie smiled and stood on her toes to kiss him. “I know. But before that.” The kiss turned into something more passionate, which made Sam recoil from the public display of affection. It was annoying, like a ninth grader showing off that she was hot enough to kiss a guy in public. But Cammie wasn't in ninth grade, for God's sake. She was a senior. Eduardo would never have done anything like that. He was far too cultured, too civilized. For a fleeting moment, Sam was tempted to go join the meditation circle in the living room, but the sound of laughter and the photographers packing up meant the shoot was over.
    Four days in Vegas. Gawd. Cammie and Adam would have their tongues down each other's throats the whole time. Dee would be converting sinners. Parker wasn't exactly stimulating company. Her friends Krishna and Blue had copped out at the last moment because Krishna's parents were in a vicious custody battle and Krishna had to testify. Blue was hanging out with Krishna to offer amoral support.
    If Anna wasn't going on this trip, I swear I'd bag the whole thing
, Sam thought.
    As if on cue, the front doorbell—a renovated antique French one that had been programmed to play the first five notes of the theme from
Snow Job
— sounded. Sam opened the door to find Anna. “Hi. I'm not late, I hope.”
    “Nope, right on time. If we can pry Dee loose from the young mothers' brigade in the family room, we might be able to get out of here early. Parker's meeting us at the Van Nuys Airport after his callback for
Everwood
. It's at the WB studio in Burbank.”
    Anna looked great—pulled together as always, in a vintage Channel tweed blazer over a simple white tee and no-name black trousers from some bygone era. She wasn't even wearing heels; instead, she had on black Ferragamo ballet flats. She carried a Maschera Italian pink woven tote bag over her shoulder that could only have carried half the gear that Sam had chosen to bring along.
    “He won't get it,” Cammie decreed. “A client of my father already has first refusal.”
    “So why do they bother giving him a callback?” Anna wondered aloud. “He'll get his hopes up for nothing. That's just mean.”
    “Aren't you sweet to care,” Cammie cooed, in a way that made it perfectly clear how much she
didn't
. “I'm sure Parker will let you kiss it and make it all better.”
    “Meow,” Sam said. She picked her stuff up, thinking it was time for them to get going.
    “You really need to be declawed,” Adam told Cammie, but he put his arm around her anyway.
    “Not while I'm in heat, sweetheart,” Cammie purred. “Because you know how much you love it when I scratch.”
    Sam sighed. It was going to be a very long four days.

A Deep Thinker
    P arker Pinelli was a man with a plan: Get in with the innest of the