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down with a sip of sweet, creamy coffee and sighed contentedly. “No, thank you, Mama. It was so good, truly, but I couldn’t eat another bite.”
    Corinne shook her head of neatly tended iron gray curls. “I wish you’d eat more, baby. You’re nothing but skin and bones.”
    Kat laughed. “Mama, I’m already at least three sizes bigger than any woman is supposed to be in Hollywood, and if I keep eating your biscuits and gravy, they’re never going to let me back over the border.”
    “Oh, pish ,” said Corinne, “that is nonsense. And even if it was true, you’re behind the camera, not in front of it. No one cares about your dress size.”
    Kat brought her dishes to the sink and began to wash up. “You’d think that would be so, wouldn’t you?”
    Her mother joined her at the sink, drying the dishes as Kat cleaned them. “Isn’t it?”
    Kat snorted. “Heaven forbid any woman in Hollywood should forget that they are, first and foremost, eye candy.”
    Corinne’s brow wrinkled. “Well, that must be an awful hard place,” she said, “if someone as beautiful as you is convinced that they aren’t good enough.”
    Kat smiled. “It’s not so bad, Mama. I’m just telling you about the worst parts, is all. There’s a lot of good stuff, too.”
    “Like what?”
    “Oh, lots of things. There’s the weather, for one.”
    Her mother rolled her eyes. “We have perfectly good weather here.”
    “You have humidity so thick you can practically eat it with a spoon. The weather in L.A. is always warm and dry, but not too hot, and the sky is always a perfect blue.”
    “Well, the sky is blue here, too.”
    Kat laughed. “And everyone thinks that Hollywood is full of mean, selfish people just looking to make a buck, but actually, if you think about it, it’s full of artists. Deep down, almost everyone in Hollywood is a dreamer. Even the people making the worst movies and the crappiest TV shows started out planning to make something great.”
    Corinne frowned. “Katy Ann, are you sure you’re going to be okay cleaning for me today? I just haven’t had a chance to replace the maid that quit last week, and I need someone I can trust to fill in. But it seems like an awful lot to ask of you.”
    “Oh, Mama, I did it with you all through high school. I guess I’m not too proud to pick up a broom.”
    “How about scrub a toilet?”
    “I don’t suppose I’ve forgotten how to do that either.”
    “I could always go to work—and you could go to the hospital.”
    “I was with Daddy for hours last night. He needs you. He’s trying too hard to be strong for me. He needs someone he can lean on.”
    Corinne nodded. “True enough.” She sighed. “You know I hate to even ask, Katy Ann.”
    “I know, Mama.”
    “But with the hospital bills and your daddy missing work for a while…”
    Kat looked at her mother. “Mama, I’m going to help you however I can. I just wish I could do more.”
    “You’re doing plenty.”
    Kat put her arm around her mother’s shoulder and squeezed. “You go on. I got this. I’ll take care of those Del Campos, no problem. I’ll do such a good job, they won’t even miss you.”
    Corinne looked at her daughter, deadpan, “Well, maybe don’t do that good a job, hon.”
    *  *  *
    Sebastian lay on his back, squinting at his brother through his one good eye, his broken wrist propped up on the back of the couch. “I told you,” he said. “This is not my fault.”
    The muscles in Alejandro’s jaw twitched. “Then just whose fault is it, Sebastian? Because I do not see anyone else to blame at the moment.”
    Sebastian struggled to sit up, ignoring the pain in his sore ribs. “I could have just as easily broken my wrist on the field, Jandro. It’s not as if we don’t get injuries all the time.”
    “But you didn’t hurt yourself on the field. You broke it in a bar fight.”
    “It wasn’t even a fight. It was a more like una masacre . There were three of them. And they