Falling Star by Diana Dempsey

His hand."
    In silence they touched glasses and sipped.
Natalie smiled. "That's lovely. You have to be the only man in LA
who can recite an Irish blessing from memory."
    "A product of my classical education. My
parents insisted on it. My father, really." He sipped his
champagne. "But once my father decides something, my mother can't
go along fast enough."
    Natalie nodded. "A traditional woman." She
cocked her head and the errant curl again fell loose from its
moorings. "There aren't many of those around anymore."
    There's Janet , he thought, but
remained mum.
    "Didn't you tell me that your dad's an
actor?" she asked.
    "He is. Ian Marner?"
    Natalie shook her head.
    "I wouldn't expect you to know him." Geoff
raised a finger to summon a server. "Most Aussies don't even know
the name, though his face is highly recognizable. He's a character
actor, not a star."
    The server appeared bearing menus. Natalie
laid hers down unopened. "Is it from your father that you get your
love of the entertainment business?"
    "I'm sure it is." Geoff ran his eyes down the
menu. "But his career convinced me that the rewards are more
dependable on the agenting side of the business."
    "Why didn't you stay in Australia and become
an agent there?"
    He stared at the menu, torn between the pink
dourade and the halibut. "I like being at the center of the action.
And Sydney's a long way from Hollywood."
    Natalie laughed. "Not for Australians!"
    "Nats, you're not exactly on solid ground
here." He laid down his menu. "Would you give up LA for
Lubbock?"
    "No way. Touche." She laughed and raised her
flute to his.
    The server reappeared to take their orders,
then glided away.
    "So," Geoff said, "let's turn the tables and
probe your family history. I know almost none of it, despite
how long I've known you." It was true. Natalie was an enigma to
him. Unlike most of his clients, especially the women, she shared
little of herself, as if she considered even minor revelations
somehow threatening. "Come on." He topped off her champagne. "Tell
me about your mother." And at that he watched her face soften.
    "She was kind. Gentle. She smelled good. She
laughed a lot. I can still hear her laugh." Natalie fell silent,
then shook her head. "I remember her in faded pastel
housedresses."
    "She passed away?"
    Natalie didn't meet his eyes. "She died when
I was seven. Of cervical cancer."
    He watched pain wash over her face as she
seemed, for a moment, lost in the past. It was the first he'd ever
thought of Natalie as a bit of a wounded bird. "Did your father
remarry?"
    She gave a bitter laugh. "Sure did. He moved
fast. It took him no time at all."
    "Did you eventually get close to your
stepmom?"
    "Not really. In the beginning I hated her.
Eventually I came to understand that she was just young." Natalie's
eyes, clouded with hurt, met his. "She was 21 when she married my
father. He was 36. No wonder she didn't want to deal with a kid by
his first wife." She shook her head, "Her I could probably forgive.
But my father—" Her jaw set. "I never forgave him for the way he
shunted me aside. Never."
    Forgave him . Past tense. So her father
was dead as well. Geoff frowned. No surviving parents. No siblings.
And her husband had left her for another woman.
    Geoff didn't see much of his family. But he
could if he got to Australia more often, or flew them out. She
didn't have that option.
    For a moment Geoff ignored that Natalie was a
client. He reached across the linen-draped table and took her hand.
She met his eyes, her own big and blue and no doubt much as they
had been when she was seven years old and lost her mother.
    He spoke carefully. "You've done wonders with
your life, Natalie. You should be very proud of how far you've
come, all on your own."
    "Right." She pulled back her hand. "All on my
own."
    Geoff was parsing that remark when the server
reappeared with their first course. He watched her observe the
complex proceedings that for some reason surrounded the serving of
pumpkin