with your makeup brush. Nothing you can do would improve on this look. Is our camera set for ‘glow’?”
The last question was fired over assistant producer MacKenzie Ryan’s shoulder in the general direction of the set where their afternoon show …And Now a Word from Dakota was being shot. The rest of the words rushing out of MacKenzie’s mouth as she quickly crossed the threshold into Dakota Delaney’s dressing room were aimed directly at her best friend.
Offstage, the latter’s name was now officially Dakota Delaney Russell due to her recent marriage to Ian Russell. The star of the popular daytime talk show had just returned from her two-week honeymoon and the only one who had missed Dakota more than her audience was MacKenzie.
To her left, MacKenzie was aware that the tall, gaunt makeup artist who insisted on being called Pablo was scowling at her for preventing him from doing his work. For the moment, she ignored him. It wasn’t as if Dakota were one of those people who needed much makeup anyway. Fresh-faced, she was still drop-dead gorgeous.
Battling another annoying wave of queasiness, MacKenzie forced a grin to her face, aimed at the woman with whom she had once shared dreams and a dorm room. She pushed a strand of strawberry-blond hair out of her eyes. “It has been absolute hell without you, Dakota. I hate working with guest hosts. They’re so not you.”
Dakota shifted around in her seat to face her best friend. “Nice to be missed.”
“Missed?” MacKenzie echoed with a hoot. “If you’d called to say you were extending your honeymoon with that hunk of a man you landed for another week, I would have put my head in the oven.”
Pablo shot her a look that swept over her five-foot-three body swiftly and critically. “You’re small enough for all of you to fit in the oven.”
The comment was punctuated with a haughty snap of his wrists as he closed the lid down on his huge makeup case. Pablo had just taken over for the previous head makeup artist, Albert Hamlin, who had been moved to a prime-time talk show. Today would have marked the first time he’d worked on Dakota, although he had the opportunity to apply makeup to the various guest stars who had temporarily helmed the show. It was evident that Pablo didn’t like limits being imposed on his work.
Dakota offered the temperamental man a conciliatory smile. “Maybe just some lip liner,” she suggested.
Pablo sighed dramatically and opened the case again. “Whatever you wish, Ms. Delaney.” After finding the shade Dakota favored, he held the wand out to her.
Unable to hold back any longer, MacKenzie moved the man aside in order to hug not the star of the fan-favorite program, but her best friend. The woman she still turned to in the middle of her best moments, as well as her worst.
Right now, it was the latter, but this was no time to share.
The embrace was warm and enthusiastic.
“Was it wonderful?” she asked, releasing Dakota. “Tell me it was wonderful.” MacKenzie sighed, for one moment taking a mental journey back to their college days when they had sat up until the small hours of the morning, talking about their dates. Life was a great deal simpler back then. All you had to worry about were grades and trying not to break out before a date. “I need daydreams and I haven’t any of my own.”
“That’s because you don’t have a life,” Pablo said under his breath but audibly enough for the man in the hall changing the lightbulb in the ceiling to hear. The latter chuckled.
MacKenzie spared Pablo a dirty look, but made no protest. That was because what he said was true. She didn’t have a life—at least, not a social one. Since her promotion to assistant producer, all of five days ago, she had decided to dedicate herself to the task of overseeing every aspect of the program. It was the kind of job that didn’t end when she pulled out of the parking lot late at night.
But it wasn’t just her newly attained position, that was responsible for her not having a life. She didn’t have a social life by choice. Because the life she’d been leading up until a few weeks ago had blown up in her face. Her heart broken, she was not about to go back into the dating pool and lay herself open to endure another possible mishap.
It bothered MacKenzie no end to discover that she wasn’t as resilient as she’d thought she was, but there you had it. She wasn’t and she was just going to have to learn how to live with that instead of some kind, loving, mythical male who didn’t exist except perhaps in the pages of a script.
Accepting the lipstick that Pablo held out to her, Dakota applied the soft pink shade to her lips herself. The natural energy that had been the hallmark of Dakota’s life since she’d first met her seemed to be hyped up by several amps, MacKenzie noticed. Or maybe that was just because she felt pale in comparison to her friend. It seemed like she was tired all the time now, like an old-fashioned clock that couldn’t be fully wound up anymore.
Of course, there was a reason for that, she thought darkly.
Dakota handed the lipstick back to Pablo and turned in her chair to face MacKenzie. She studied her friend’s face for a moment. Concern nibbled at the outer edges of her consciousness. “Pablo, would you mind leaving us alone for a few minutes?”
The man’s dark head popped up, his black eyes alert. “Girl talk?” Pablo pouted at the exclusion. “I have as much right to listen to girl talk as the nex— Oh, all right,” he huffed. He hefted his makeup case, a tiny muscle defining itself in his thin arm as it strained under the weight. “I know when I’m not wanted.”
MacKenzie closed her eyes and shook her head as Pablo exited the room. He closed the door behind him with an audible jolt that all but shook the door frame. She sighed. “He has gotten so temperamental since his promotion.”
Dakota had no desire to talk about the makeup artist. Her thoughts were all centered on her friend. She rose to her feet, taking MacKenzie’s hands into hers. “Speaking of promotions, Zee, I heard that they made you assistant producer.”
MacKenzie shrugged off the honor disparagingly. “Yeah, they did.”
Dakota couldn’t resist hugging the other woman. The top of MacKenzie’s head came up to her chin. “God, I am so proud of you.”
MacKenzie struggled to block out another wave of queasiness that threatened to overwhelm her. Mind over matter, Zee, mind over matter, she kept repeating fiercely.
“Forget me, look at you.” Stepping back, she looked at Dakota again. “Married. Glowing.”
Dakota laughed, sitting down in the chair again. Her eyes shone as she thought of Ian. “He does have that effect on me.” She wasn’t aware of the sigh that escaped her lips, but MacKenzie was. “Love is really, really wonderful—” She stopped abruptly and looked at MacKenzie sharply, suspicion entering her eyes. “Speaking of which, how are you and Jeff—or shouldn’t I ask?”
The shrug was evasive. Hapless. She knew she didn’t have a prayer of fooling Dakota. Nor did she really want to. It was just that saying the words hurt. “I’m fine. Jeff’s fine.”
Dakota’s eyes narrowed. They’d been friends since college and no one could read the diminutive, bubbly woman like she could. The conclusion wasn’t difficult to reach. “But you’re not fine together.”
“No,” MacKenzie sighed. Two weeks and she still felt as if she were juggling hot coals bare-handed
