Megan Richards threw herself into college life at Northwestern University. She devoted herself solely to her studies, wanting to absorb every aspect of creative and performing arts, speech and communications. Her courses varied widely from creative writing to music to drama to an introduction into directing, editing and movie making... and she excelled at and loved it all. Instead of bringing her attention to those aspects that better suited her talents and her interests, she found herself feeling more and more confused.
And it especially hadn't helped when she went home for the holidays between semesters her freshman year and discovered that she and Jonnie North seemed to have lost some of that spark between them. They had been genuinely happy to see each other as they'd held each other tightly when he met her with her parents at LAX.
But when they kissed, they both looked at each other nervously when they didn't feel the fire that had always existed between them roar instantly to life. Megan had still felt a fluttering in the pit of her stomach when she saw his aqua eyes staring at her as she flew toward him coming out of the gangway at the airport gate. And she had expected the fluttering to burst into flames as soon as she threw herself against him and he picked her up in his arms... but that didn't happen and he'd realized it, too.
They knew they still loved each other but they were confused as to why the raging inferno between them seemed to have dwindled so drastically. They reasoned together that they were both concentrating so hard on their goals that it was nature's way of giving them the peace of mind to do that instead of missing each other so terribly... that seemed perfectly logical to them. Their relationship had felt anything but logical up to that point, so they tried to take it as a good sign... but they were still worried that they'd lost something very special...
They'd spent as much time together as they could during that holiday, talking about how things were going for them and catching up with their whole group of friends. Megan told Jonnie about her inability to narrow her interests as far as the entertainment world was concerned and it made him realize that she was a very talented and creative person... something he'd never been that interested in.
His whole life had been geared toward staying in good physical condition to get into police work, just like his Dad. But he didn't want to be just a cop... he wanted to be the best... to solve the cases that were unsolvable... to find sick serial killers who were still on the loose... to help people feel safe again...
It had always bothered him that the one person he knew he was supposed to be with as they grew up together had always been so frightened of him... but at least he finally understood why. It was just ingrained in him that people needed to know there were still people like him... and his Dad and all of his Dad's friends... who were dedicated to trying to stop all the sick and evil individuals still out there so everyone wouldn't feel so scared all the time...
That was why he was attending USC part-time, taking courses in criminal and behavioral sciences. But he was going to have to come up with most of the money because he didn't want his parents to have to take out a loan to pay for what they hadn't been able to set aside. His Dad had always assumed he would just go directly into the police academy after he graduated, but he'd come to understand how important it was to Jonnie to get into working the really bad cases as soon as he could without having to work his way up as a street cop for years. Now Jonnie just had to figure out how to start making enough money to cover his education...
Megan's twin half-brother Charlie and his girlfriend, Lily Wilson, were still keeping their relationship secret from their parents. As far as Charles and Diana and Larry and Maria knew, Charlie and Lily were just best friends who were attending UCLA helping each other with their studies for pre-med. Which did keep them busy most of the time, but they still found time to sneak to one or the other's house every so often and remind each other what they shared together when they weren't so buried in their studies...
Tom and Lynda Seldon were so proud, as well as everyone else, of how well Brad was doing at the Air Force Academy. He was one of the star players on their football team, and his academic curriculum had him on track for getting into the space program. He was also spending as much time as he could logging in flight hours to finally get his private pilot's license. Gordon had promised him he would give Brad his plane as soon as he had his license.
His Dad and Uncle Charles' old friend and the former pilot for the FBI Los Angeles office, Gordon Brown, had gotten him hooked on flying when he was a boy. Gordon had bought an old used Cessna years back and had taught Brad how to help him work on the engine and get it ready for flying. Then he had given Brad flying lessons starting when he was fifteen when Lynda had finally relented to her son's constant pleading despite her fear of all the things that could go wrong...
Tom had also helped try to win her over for their son by reminding her that she'd feared early in their marriage something would happen to Tom because of his job, but he'd always managed to get out of every dangerous situation he'd faced unharmed. But Tom didn't tell her that most of the time it was because Charles always had his back... But he didn't need to tell her that... she already knew.
The only reason she'd relented was because she knew Brad had already set his sights on becoming an astronaut... she'd seen it on his face when they'd watched the televised moon landing in July 1969... and she simply couldn't continue to stand in the way of her brave son's dreams. She'd realized he was every bit as brave as his father, but she was worried that he didn't possess the healthy respect for fear that his father did, which would help keep him calm if things ever did go wrong...
Barbie Estevez was the only one of their group who was floundering... still trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. She was happy in her relationship with Brad, ecstatic that he'd given her a ring for Christmas and told her it was his promise that as soon as he graduated from The Academy, he was going to marry her. But that was still almost four years away... she had to figure out what to do with herself until then...
**********
The next spring, she and Jonnie lucked into something that turned out to be very rewarding for her and very lucrative for him. Jonnie's mother, Barbara, had agreed to put together a charity fund-raising fashion show because of her association with a Rodeo Drive boutique she'd worked at for years. It was to raise funds for one of the L.A.P.D.'s community programs designed to keep kids off the streets and away from drugs. She had also immediately enlisted Dawn Estevez's help as she'd always envied her good friend's exceptional organizational skills.
Due to Dawn and Barbara's enthusiasm, the press made a big deal out of the event and it gained the attention of a lot of Hollywood bigwigs who wanted to attend the function and help them raise as much money as possible for such a worthy cause. They learned from Diana that The Duke had been largely responsible for talking it up after he'd read about it in the paper, so they'd sent him a nice "Thank You" note and told him they hoped he would be there.
Barbara had also been able to enlist the services of some top professional models who agreed to do it for free since it was for charity. But the day before the show, one of the male models called to cancel because he had suddenly taken ill and it was discovered that he had appendicitis and was going in for surgery that afternoon. Barbara had told him not to worry and that she was sure she could find someone to take his place...
But she'd already had trouble finding male models who were willing to do the show. Most of them had acted like selfish creeps when they were asked to waive their usual pay for the charity event. She was lamenting her dilemma to Dawn and Barbie over lunch that day as they were working on the last minute details for the show the next day when Barbie said, "Why don't you just get Jonnie to do it... he's as good looking as those other guys and he's got a better body, too!"
Dawn and Barbara had frowned at each other as Barbara replied, "Oh, Jonnie would never go for an idea like this! He's just not into this sort of thing!" But as she kept picturing her handsome son sauntering down the runway in some of the skimpy underwear and bathing suits they had thrown in with the men's fashions to entertain the mostly female crowd they were expecting, she started to smile as she realized Barbie was right...
Jonnie was not thrilled with the idea, but he succumbed to his mother's pleading when he met the two other male models and saw them eyeing him with envy and he also realized Barbie was right... In fact, he turned out to be the hit of the show! Every time he stepped out onto the runway, loud applause and feminine shouts of "woohoooo!!!" followed his every move.
He held his breath, clenched his jaw and continued to hide the shy smile that wanted to form and kept his eyelids slightly lowered so his mild fear and embarrassment wouldn't show. He had no idea how sexy he looked parading his perfectly toned body up and down that runway... until he saw the photos Barbie had taken of him.
Then he was glad he had hung onto the business card that a woman from some modeling agency had handed him at the reception afterward and told him to contact her if he was interested in making money at something he was born to do. It was the only card he'd kept because it was the only one that hadn't been shoved into his hand and followed by a look that had told him he would be required to perform in other ways besides just modeling or acting...
Jonnie had been astounded at how much attention he'd received as a result of that show, but he had been happy to learn that the charity had raised more money from that event than they had in the previous two years. It was so successful that Barbara and Dawn had been asked to make it an annual event and Diana had agreed to be involved with subsequent ones because of her Hollywood connections.
