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spot was a new BMW, and the keys were on a hook by the door.
    But the damned car wouldn’t start. He took a moment to think about how everything about this place had been a lie, then he picked up his cell and called his sister.

When Nina saw Tate’s name on the phone’s caller ID, she didn’t want to answer it. She knew all this was difficult for her big brother, but she also knew she wouldn’t help by babying him. When their mother died, Tate had taken her death very hard. Since he was nine, he’d helped support his mother and sister with his acting. And he’d always promised them that someday he’d make enough money to buy back Tattwell, the plantation that had been in their family for centuries.
    But that hadn’t happened while their mother was alive. She never got to see Tate’s great success, and it was only after her death that he’d been able to buy the plantation.
    After he bought the place, Nina and Emmie spent a lot of time there. Nina oversaw the restoration and Emmie explored the grounds. Nina hired a local interior designer, Stacy Hartman, to decorate the house as close as possible to what their mother had described to them. With Kit’s help—and his memories of the place—furniture, wallpaper, paint, light fixtures were all put back the way they had been when Ruth Tattington was a girl.
    Nina’s problem had been getting her brother to visit the place. He’d been in one movie after another, filming in several countries, and he’d used that as an excuse not to go to the plantation.
    She knew Tate dreaded the memories that Tattwell would bring to the surface and also that he was angry at himself for not having been able to buy it sooner. But Nina also knew that the only way for Tate to let go of the past was to see the place.
    It had taken a lot of work on her part to get Tate to promise that when he finished his last movie—in which he played yet another angry, brooding man—he’d spend a whole month at the plantation.
    Nina refused to go with him because she knew that with her and Emmie there, Tate would stay with them and never venture out into the pretty little town of Summer Hill, Virginia. She’d even told Stacy that under no circumstances was she to put any food in the house. Maybe hunger would force Tate out to meet people.
    And, well, okay, what Nina especially wanted was for her brother to meet Stacy, the decorator. The pretty blonde young woman was smart and funny and had a good outlook on life. She was exactly what her brother needed.
    Taking a breath, Nina reached for her phone to answer her brother’s call, but then the ringing stopped, and she smiled. Her six-year-old daughter, Emma, was home ill from school today and she was as restless a patient as Tate was. Nina had been up most of the night with her, and right now she had to see what her daughter needed.

When Tate’s call to his sister went to voicemail, he gritted his teeth. “Just so you know,” he said from his end, “that girl, Stacy, left only coffee. No food. I’d go get some—if this two-bit town has a restaurant, that is—but Jack took the truck and the car is dead. I’m starving but I have no transportation. And by the way, the new script my agent sent me is worse than the last two I got. Why can’t I play a villain in a Batman movie? Jack’s leaving tomorrow and I’m going with him. After I spend a few hours helping Kit find someone to play Elizabeth, that is. Then I’m free to get out of here. Call me when you can.” He clicked off.
    He got out of the car and pushed the button for the garage door. He was sure his sister was avoiding him, and he knew why. He’d promised her that he’d give the place a chance and he wanted to be able to say that he’d done that, but it wasn’t easy. Look what had happened to him on his first excursion onto the property!
    As the door went up, Tate was greeted with the sight of a truly gorgeous garden. Huge old trees shaded a pretty brick path that disappeared