Sedona Law 6 by Dave Daren (best non fiction books of all time .TXT) 📗

haven’t even decided on a city to have the wedding.”

“I think we should have it here,” Vicki said.

“There’s some super cool places to have a wedding here,” AJ said. “What about Cathedral Rock?”

I sent her a dirty look and then pulled up my e-mails.

“What?” AJ shrugged.

“His parents did theirs on Cathedral Rock,” Vicki informed her.

“Awww,” AJ clutched her hand over her heart. “Saffron and Moondust got married on Cathedral Rock? That is so awesome.”

I sighed. I forgot AJ thought my mother was the coolest person in all of Sedona.

Vicki and AJ continued to discuss wedding plans, I caught up on e-mails. I had read a couple of them at the courthouse, but now I had some time to ruminate on a couple of the responses. I buried myself in answering e-mails when a visitor popped in.

“Hey,” Leila Jaxson’s voice rang through the office.

Leila was a petite Persian woman, with dark skin and dark features. She worked as a reporter for an edgy music blog, so she looked the part, in a black skinny jeans and a striped button down shirt. We had met her in an ill-fated film that Jerry did. I was supposed to be playing Thomas Jefferson. But, it never made it past the second rehearsal.

“Hey,” AJ rushed to greet her, and enveloped her in a hug. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“I know,” she said. “I came by to talk to you about the new project.”

“Yeah, yeah,” AJ pulled a flash drive out of her purse. “This is the new script. It should be ready to cast.”

“It’s finished?” Leila asked.

“Yep,” AJ smiled. “All we need are actors and a film crew.”

“Oh my gosh,” Leila gushed. “I can’t wait to read it.”

“You guys are doing another play?” Vicki asked.

“A film,” Leila answered.

“We’ve started our own production company,” AJ said.

“A production company?” I raised an eyebrow. “That’s ambitious.”

“Well,” Leila qualified. “It sounds a lot more impressive than it is. Right now, we just wrote a script, and are scraping up Jerry’s old contacts to see if we can pull together a film.”

“You have funding?” I asked as the wheels in my head started to turn.

Leila and AJ looked at each other and shrugged.

“Our paychecks,” Leila laughed. “No, I’m joking. We’re trying to get some of Jerry’s old investors.”

“Jerry’s investors were crooks,” Vicki protested.

She was right. Jerry Steele had gotten in over his head with crooked investors and it ultimately led to his untimely demise.

“Some of them were legit,” Leila said. “I’ve got meetings with a couple of them this week.”

She held up the flash drive. “It helps that we have a screenplay. Well, I’ll let you guys get on with suing people and shit.”

She cast one last glance at AJ, who smiled brightly.

I laughed. “See you around, Leila.”

“See you, Thomas Jefferson,” she teased and then walked out the door.

I shot Vicki a look, and she shrugged. After everything Phoenix had just said, it seemed like our firm was traveling in a different direction than I had expected.

Chapter 3

The Sedona Nightlife taping was done in a converted barn, and when Vicki and I arrived, it was actually pretty cool. The barn was part of a defunct farm.

There were fenced off areas where cows and horses had once lived, but they were long empty. Now, it was evening and hipsters with man buns and ironic glasses milled around the lawn drinking craft beer and smoking pipes.

Musicians with long beards sat outside on benches and strummed guitars, while groups of fangirls fawned over them like the Second Coming of Christ.

“Phoenix was right,” I told Vicki. “They’re trying too hard.”

She laughed. “Yeah. I can see that.”

On one side of the field, I saw a guitarist with a large following was playing a love song with a haunting melody. He was truly captivating, and as we sat and listened to him, I wrapped my arm around my fiancee and she smiled. We let the music wash over us, and envelope us like a warm blanket, while the stars blinked endlessly in the Arizona sky. I turned to Vicki and kissed her, and the world faded away.

The song ended and the crowd dispersed. We went inside, and folding chairs were set up audience style, framed by intimidatingly professional grade camera and lighting equipment. At the front of the room, an empty stage set was up with basic gear--drum kit, keyboard, monitors, microphones, and guitars and a bass.

The room was filling up now, and I spotted my mother and sister in the crowd. Harmony’s face lit up when she saw us, and she almost tripped over a light tree trying to get to us.

“Vicki,” she gushed and hugged my fiancee so hard I thought she would knock her over. “We’re going to be sisters!”

Vicki laughed. “I know. Isn’t it great? I’ve never had a sister!”

“Me neither,” Harmony laughed. “I have brothers, and they’re both a pain in the ass.”

I cleared my throat. “I’m right here.”

“You’re a pain in the ass but we still love you,” Harmony corrected as she moved to hug me. “How was Tahiti? Did you go scuba diving?”

“We didn’t do that,” I said. “What did we do?”

I turned to Vicki who had a puzzled look, and then Harmony’s face blushed red and then she laughed.

“You guys are awful,” she laughed. “You didn’t leave the hotel did you?”

“Umm,” Vicki searched my face and I racked my brain.

Did we?

“Oh my god,” Harmony said. “I don’t even want to know.”

I laughed deep and heartily, and Harmony smacked my arm. My mom showed up and gave me a quick hug but there was a bit of distance that I attributed to my somewhat neutral stance on Phoenix and