“Argh! How did I ever let you talk me into this?” Gwen fussed with her hair and her makeup. “Do I look all right, Stace? My face feels like I have about six inches of crud on it. And it doesn’t do anything for my eyes! They look all washed out, not as green as they should be…oh, this is going to suck so bad!” Her voice was an anguished wail. 
Stacy looked up from her seat, pausing in pulling on her socks. She looked a lot like Gwen when they were out of costume. At the moment, though, Stacy’s hair was cut very short and she wore far too much flannel to resemble her older sister. “It is not going to suck at all, thank you very much. Stage makeup isn’t supposed to be like regular everyday makeup. You’re going to feel like that. It looks fine, though. Relax. You sound like you used to when you wanted that boy to call you back in sixth grade…what was his name?” 
Gwen didn’t stop primping. Her tone was absent as she answered “His name was Mike, and you’re not going to succeed in distracting me this time. I’m too stressed out.” 
Stacy laughed softly, standing to smooth out her costume. “Gwen. It’s OK. You’ve been stellar in rehearsals. You were great during tech week. The performance for the school kids, you didn’t even blink. Your makeup was just as thick then.” She laid a hand on her older sister’s shoulder and repeated “Relax. It’ll be OK. You’re a born actress, they loved you in auditions, your blocking is perfect, and I think Corey would jump your bones for real and not just in character if you’d let him. It’s gonna be fine.” 
Gwen took a deep breath and closed her eyes, leaning on the counter. “Relax, you say. It’s easy for you to do that,” she murmured. “You’ve been doing this since high school. I only got bitten by the theater bug six months ago.” Louder, she said “Relax. Right. Sure. My hands are twitching to rub my eyes, and you want me to relax?” 
Stacy grinned up at Gwen. “You’ll be fine. You’re just obsessing on the makeup because you think you should be fretting about something. Besides, Mom told me she was proud of you.” 
The pretty brunette blinked at her lighter-haired sister. “She did? When?” 
Stacy’s smile was impish and her blue eyes sparkled. “After I snuck her into the light booth to watch the kid’s performance two days ago.” 
Gwen blinked again, not realizing her baby sister had in fact distracted her after all. “You did what? Why?” 
Stacy shrugged. “She wanted to see you, and she knew if you knew she was out there you’d be tenser. It was fun! She might end up running lights for another show, you never know.” She adjusted Gwen’s headband slightly. “Now, chill! Get in character! You’re no longer Gwen Murphy…you’re Shannon Dean, and you’ve got an annoying kid brother, an even more annoying kid sister and her girlfriend to deal with, and a man who’s falling at your feet and you don’t even see him.” 
Gwen closed her eyes again. “OK. Right.” She padded in stocking feet over to a chair to put her shoes on and began murmuring lines to herself. 
Stacy smiled and slipped out into the hall. She could hear Jason and Kelly laughing together, already in costume and in character. Her smile faded as she glanced at her cell phone. The clock showed almost thirty minutes to places, and the cell was silent. 
“Where the hell is he?” she muttered in exasperation. “He promised me he’d be here!” She dialed a number and swore as she got voice mail. “She needs him to be here…” 
“Who needs who?” a voice asked from behind Stacy. She gasped and whirled. Her expression was reproving. “Kel! Don’t scare me like that!” 
Kelly giggled unrepentant. “Sorry. What’s got you so agitated, baby?” She was fully in character, smiling warmly at Stacy. “I don’t necessarily like it when my girl’s all in a lather.” 
Stacy let the comments slide. She knew that she and Kelly looked good together in costume. She also suspected that Kelly had a real crush on her out of character. Keeping her voice low, she filled the shorter, curvier girl in. “Oh, it’s Gwen’s boyfriend. I invited him to the performance, and he said he’d be here. She doesn’t know he’s coming. She thinks he has family stuff he has to do. But he said he’d call me when he got in, and he hasn’t called yet, and his cell is still off.” 
“Isn’t he the one from the other side of the country?” Kelly asked, visibly fighting the urge to stroke Stacy’s hair back from her cheek. 
“That’s him. I really hope everything’s OK. Let’s let Gwen chill, though, and get something to drink?” 
Kelly was only too happy to agree. “I have five bottles of water in my room, you can have one. Corey’s still working on that scar his character has, but we can let him know to leave Gwen alone.” She tugged Stacy down the hall. 
Over the intercom, the stage manager announced “The house is open, the house is open. Thirty minutes to places.” Inside the tiny, cramped dressing room, Gwen leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. She took long, slow calming breaths. “Relax,” she murmured to herself. “It’ll be all right. Stacy says so. She knows.” She reached blindly for her CD player, hooking one side of the headphones over her ear. One finger found the play button and the CD spun to life. A soft, comforting man’s voice whispered in her ear “Relax, love. Just relax and listen to my voice. I’m so glad you’re doing this show. You’re very brave, and you’re very good at it. Just listen to my voice now and let it all go…” 
After a moment, Gwen’s hand slipped from the CD player and came to rest on her thigh. The voice went on, but she was barely aware of it. Her lips parted and she began to go over her lines again. Her eyes remained closed. The worry lines smoothed from her face. She smiled faintly. 
Kyle growled to himself as he stood impatiently at the baggage carousel. “Two hours late,” he grumbled. “Two whole hours, and I still have to get my car…glad I reserved it…” His bag came around and he grabbed it, turning quickly and almost running for the rental car counter. He ignored the looks and comments as he pulled up just quickly enough to keep from slamming into its bulk. “Reservation for Kyle Davis, please.” He bounced on the balls of his feet as they were printing out the signature forms. The directions crackled in his back pocket. As soon as they passed him the keys, he picked up his bag and jogged toward the pickup point. I can still make it, he thought. It’s going to be all right. Just like I promised her, only better. 
Stacy fidgeted, trying not to watch the clock.