Bianca turned her radio off and the volume on her GPS up. She entered the address that would lead her to the James estate and after signaling into traffic and making her way to the highway, she clipped her Bluetooth on and hit number one on the speed dial. Her sister picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?" Kat said, sounding a bit harried. But that wasn't uncommon these days. William and Wilson kept her running most of the time.

"Hey," Bianca said.

"Bianca!" Kat said. "I'm so glad to her from you. Patrick! I'm going upstairs. It's Bianca and I want to talk to her!" Bianca heard a muffled response, and then a sigh from Kat. "Boy, did you call at just the right time."

Bianca laughed. "What's going on?"

"Oh, the boys decided that they needed to finger paint Harley Davidson," she said. Bianca could almost hear her sister roll her eyes. "And the freakin' dog just sat there and let them."

"Stupid dog," Bianca agreed, stifling her laughter. She thought it was funny, and in a few days, Kat would, too, but for now, it seemed to be stressing her sister out, so Bianca let it go. "So, hey. Let me ask you a question. Has Chastity always been so self-involved?"

Kat snorted. "Even more than Paris Hilton," she informed her sister.

"Yikes," Bianca said. "Honestly, Kat, these have been the longest two days of my life! I overate at lunch to make myself sick today so that I'd have an excuse to leave."

Kat laughed. "I'm so proud of my little sister," she said. "You're really growing up."

Bianca laughed. "Yes, eating myself so that the seams on my clothes were bursting was very adult of me."

"Hey," Kat said. "You got away from Chastity, and as far as I'm concerned, all bets are off when it comes to that girl. And they always have been."

Bianca sighed. "Yes, well, I am so on that bandwagon."

"It took you long enough to get here, but welcome aboard."

"Thanks," Bianca said. And then, "Are you DVRing America's Next Top Model for me?"

"No," Kat said sarcastically.

"Kat! I'm serious. I need to find out who wins. I want it to be Brittany, but all of the other girls are jealous of her, and I'm pretty sure they're going to try and sabotage her!"

"Yes, Bianca," Kat told her sister. "I am DVRing America's Next Top Model for you."

"And Project Runway?" Bianca asked urgently. "Are you DVRing Project Runway?"

"Yes, I am DVRing Project Runway. And that other show, too. What was it? Make It or Break It?"

"Oh, yes. One of my faves," Bianca said. "Good to know. I will be on vacation when I get back, and I want to make sure that I have plenty to do to keep me busy!"

"You mean to keep you in your pajamas on the couch eating bon-bons?" Kat joked.

"Aren't they one and the same?" Bianca returned.

Kat laughed. "So, you're going to be gone for two weeks?"

"Yes," Bianca said. "The hope is that I'll be able to get the James estate photographed within a few days. Some morning shots, some day shots, and some evening shots. And then they want me to get acquainted with some of the shop owners in town and see if they'll let me photograph some of their places, too. They're going to do a whole spread if they can get permission from enough places."

"This is new," Kat said.

"Yeah," Bianca agreed. "It's usually just the one house and that's it. But they're thinking of dedicating the entire issues to three places. They want to find three towns that are perceived to be 'quaint' and focus on them. Small town America," Bianca explained.

"Well, small towns do tend to be more traditional," Kat said.

'Yeah," Bianca agreed. "Anyway, I just wanted to check in."

"And make sure I was DVRing all of your fluff?" Kat asked.

"Yes," Bianca admitted.

"I am," Kat promised. "Have fun with Olympus," she teased. It was a running joke between the sisters that the only thing Bianca would commit to was her camera.

"I will," Bianca returned. "Bye, Kat."

"Bye."

Bianca heard the line click and hit the button on her blue tooth, then took it back out of her ear and put it in the console of her Yukon Denali. Bianca hadn't seen Chastity since their days at Rhode Island School of Design and quite frankly, after this last visit, she had no plans to see her again anytime soon. After being kept on such a short leash all through high school, she'd spent much of her college years in a drunken haze. She liked to think that that was the reason she'd remained friends with Chastity for so long. But she knew it wasn't true. In her younger years, Bianca's main ambition was to be popular. And Chastity was the fastest avenue to achieving that goal. She sighed as she wondered if that made her as shallow as Chastity was. She hoped not. She'd moved far away from that aspiration and was just trying to live her life. But it was clear to her that Chastity hadn't. She'd spent most of their time together complaining about the people she worked with at the magazine Boston Today. Chastity wrote a small column—barely half a page, really—regarding fashion do's and don'ts, and while it was a fine job, Bianca didn't quite think it qualified Chastity to decide whether or not the other writers should be there.

Bianca pushed Chastity from her mind—instead taking in the sites as she made her way out of Beantown. Normally the magazine put her up in a hotel when she went on a shoot, but the James estate had a small, one bedroom guest house that they had insisted on putting her up in. Bianca's plan after she'd arrived and unpacked was to tour the estate on foot; she'd received permission prior to arriving. She hoped to get a feel for the layout of the property. She'd check it out to see if there was anything that would need rearranging—sometimes people thought that more decorations meant more festive, but sometimes it just meant tacky. It was her job to decide what would look best on camera and do whatever sweet talking was necessary to make that happen.

She turned the radio on to drown out her thoughts—she had a tendency to think too much—and enjoy the rest of the ride.

___

Forty five minutes later, Bianca checked the address on the mailbox and proceeded to turn into the long driveway. It was lined with what she assumed were Red Maples—she'd never been good with trees and these ones didn't have leaves on them anymore—and she could just imagine what it would look like in the fall with leaves the colors of Golden Delicious apples gracing the branches. "Beautiful," she whispered to herself.

Bianca had seen a lot of beautiful houses during her years of employment with Traditional Country Magazine, and this one was no exception. It was an uncomplicated two story Cape with an attached three car garage, but for some reason, the simplicity only added to its allure. The house was a slate blue color with a white trim, and there was an old fashioned fence on each side of the house—the ones that were held up with two wooden posts, and then another two pieces of wood going across. Simple and elegant looking. They were decorated with pine garland and pine cones mixed in, and twined in with them were blue colored Christmas lights. Bianca assumed that there was more to see, but her stomach was bothering her—karma for lying to Chastity, she was sure—and all she could think about was getting out of her vehicle and onto unmoving ground.

She pulled up in front of the house and got out of the vehicle. She held onto the door for a minute to steady herself because she was feeling a little light-headed. She closed her eyes, and after a few deep breaths, she closed the door and made her way up the paved footpath to the front door. She rang the doorbell and waited. It wasn't long before the door was opened. "Bianca," the man who opened it said in astonishment just as she began seeing spots.

"Cameron?" she said weakly. And then promptly threw up on his shoes.