by Nina Lindsey
Letting out a sigh, Jake hurried to unbox more books. Sam’s voice mixed with Mrs. Bowers’ as they returned to the register. She purchased her books, made some comment about the upcoming Spring Festival, and then the bell jingled as she exited.
Wary, Jake peered around a shelf to the front counter. Sam crossed his arms. Their gazes locked like two wolves about to circle each other in battle.
“I heard she took over the Ground Hogs a few years ago.” Sam tilted his head toward the street. “She also runs a book club and a bridge club.”
“Does she?”
“Yeah. She also ran for mayor last year and won, unseating a decade of male town rulership.” Unfolding his arms, Sam set aside the newspaper spread on the counter. “Apparently Mrs. Bowers is a real trail-blazer.”
Jake flexed his fingers on a book. Silence stretched.
“That reporter sounds like an asshole.” Sam drew his eyebrows together. “I’d have punched him too.”
Jake swallowed. “You want the details?”
“Not my business, man.”
He tightened his jaw. “Stupid of me to think I could hide out here.”
The other man shrugged. “You haven’t been mobbed, have you?”
“Not yet.”
“Yeah, well…” Sam turned to the computer. “This town is full of loons, but they’ll leave you alone if you want to be left alone. Unless they have a reason not to.”
Jake gave a short nod and went back to shelving the books. Clarity broke through all the tangled thoughts he’d been wrestling with since he’d left Los Angeles and headed north on Highway 5.
This was why he’d come back to Bliss Cove. It was more than his desire to be left alone or his need to escape a public scandal. The townspeople, even this guy Sam who hadn’t been living here for more than a year, would protect his need for both anonymity and privacy.
In the aftermath of a shitty event that hurt his family, his career, and his personal life, Jake had instinctively returned to the one place where he knew he’d be safe.
Home.
Chapter 13
Oh, to have that kind of love. Callie could only imagine it.
“I can’t believe Rick did that for her.” Breaking out of her reverie, she sat up slowly as the black-and-white credits for Casablanca began to roll. The patrons in the half-filled theater began rising and chattering as they collected their empty popcorn buckets.
“I can.” Jake picked up her jacket and stood to hold it out. “When you love someone that much, you’d sacrifice anything for them. Even your own happiness.”
“Have you ever loved someone that much?” She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know if Jake had a passionate, be-all-end-all love in his past, but she couldn’t help asking.
“Not romantically. But I’d do anything for my mother and sister, especially fight the good fight. Like Blaze Ripley, I guess.”
“No.” Callie slipped her arms into her jacket. “Blaze is like Jake Ryan, not the other way around. Anyone can see how much of you is in that character, which is why he’s become so iconic. You’ve calibrated and polished your role to perfection. But I think that’s also why you’re looking for different roles now. Even if it weren’t for the lousy script and all the rest of it, Blaze wouldn’t be a challenge for you anymore. You’re too good an actor to have a career that doesn’t challenge you.”
She reached back to pull her hair out of the collar just as Jake took hold of her ponytail and tugged it free. His warm fingers grazed her nape, sending a rush of heat down her spine. Then he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“I like you a lot, Professor Prescott.”
Her heartbeat quickened, and she turned to face him. “I like you, too. And I’m glad you’ve taken a step that will show the world how much more there is to you. Have you heard anything from Conrad Birch about the Truth role?”
He shook his head, his eyes clouding. “He’s probably cast it already, and my agent is pissed off so he wouldn’t have pushed me for the part.”
“Sounds like you need a new agent, then.”
“Yeah, but I have to wait until this mess dies down.” He took his phone from his pocket and turned the screen toward her to show her the hundreds of text and email notifications he’d received. “Everyone is talking about me walking away from Fatal Glory. I don’t need more crap right now about firing my agent.”
She frowned at the phone. “What are they saying?”
“I’m trying not to pay much attention to it, but it sounds like what I’d expected. People are shocked and upset, and there’s a lot of buzz that I was greedy and wanted more than the studio would offer.” He held her hand as they filed out of the row and descended the mezzanine steps. “I gave my PR firm a statement to put out, especially for the fans. If nothing else, at least this news has lessened the rumors about the paparazzi incident.”
“Since you’ve walked away from Fatal Glory, are you free to do what you want now?” Callie asked. “Can you make your own movies?”
“With the right backing, I could. But I should work with different filmmakers first, see how they do things.”
“Why? You should do things the way you want to, not how they would. Make the movies you want to make.”
“Eventually I’d like to.” He opened the auditorium door for her as they stepped into the lobby. “I love movies that have something to say. I mean, something more nuanced than good triumphs over evil. I’ll never get tired of that message, but there’s just a lot more than that.”
“What’s the message of Truth?”
“That at the core, we all want the same thing. That everyone has a unique and fascinating story, if we take the time to listen. That nothing is ever ordinary. Every minute of our lives is amazing.”
A mixture of pleasure and sorrow swirled through Callie. She’d never thought of every minute in her life as amazing. Just the opposite, in fact. Her life was composed of minutes packed with work and responsibilities. She had enjoyable moments with her family and proud moments when she broke through a difficult theory or received a copy of a published paper, but…amazing? Not so much.
Except for these moments with Jake.
“That’s the appeal of smaller movies.” He shrugged, looking faintly embarrassed. “I know it sounds stup…silly, but it’s like the difference between going to a big, wild, extravagant party with five hundred of your closest friends or sitting down for a quiet candlelit dinner at home with the woman you love. The first one is fun and crazy, and you have a great time and are lucky to be there…but the second is the way you want to spend most evenings for the rest of your life.”
An ache of longing pushed at her heart. She was enough of a realist to know she could never be the woman sitting across from Jake at the candlelit table, but she loved that he wanted to be at that table. For the rest of his life.
She squeezed his hand and let go as they stepped outside into the cool evening air. “The Mousehole again?”
“Let’s go for a drive.” He peered up at the sky, which lacked its usual cover of marine fog. “I haven’t been outside of town much at all. Do people still visit the lighthouse?”
“Yes, but it closes at dusk. We can drive up there, though.”
They walked to his car, and Jake started on the coastal road leading out of Bliss Cove. The ocean spread out along the base of the rocky shore, moonlight glimmering on the water’s surface. The Bliss Cove Lighthouse sat at the top of a steep cliff, silhouetted against the sky like a pawn in a game of chess.
A gate barred access to the parking lot, and Jake stopped the car on a turnout near the cliff’s plateau known as Lighthouse Point. Callie leaned forward to peer out the windshield at the star-sprinkled sky.
“Come on.” She opened the door and got out, pulling her jacket more closely around her. “I want to show you something.”
She walked to the front of the car and leaned her hips on the hood, still searching the sky. Jake joined her, resting his hands behind him.
“There.” She pointed. “See that cluster of stars shaped like a V? That’s the constellation of Andromeda. Her father and mother were the king and queen of Ethiopia. Her mother insulted Poseidon by saying Andromeda was more beautiful that the sea nymphs, so as punishment Poseidon sent a sea monster to devour the kingdom. The desperate king consulted the oracle of Apollo, which told him that the kingdom would be saved only if he sacrificed Andromeda. So the king chained his daughter to a cliff and left her to be eaten by the monster.”
“Huh. Not great parenting.”
Callie smiled. “There’s not much great parenting in Greek mythology. That’s actually part of what makes the stories fascinating. There’s so much conflict. And they often bring up questions about the nature of love and sacrifice, kind of like Casablanca does.”
“Interesting.” Jake straightened, folding his arms over his chest. “So was Andromeda sacrificed?”
“Luckily, Perseus was sailing by and saw her chained to the cliff. He fell in love with her and promised to rescue her if her parents would allow him to marry her. They agreed, so Perseus killed the monster and freed Andromeda. She married Perseus, and Athena put her image among the stars as a reward for keeping her vow.”
“Did Andromeda and Perseus live happily ever after?”
“I like to think so. They had seven sons and two daughters.” She squinted at the constellation. “I’d live happily ever after with the man who slayed a monster for me. I’d especially look forward to all those candlelit dinners.”
She glanced at him and caught him looking at her, unmistakable tenderness softening his eyes. A warm current arced between them.
“That’s a great story,” he said.
“Mythology is filled with great stories.” She tilted her head toward the sky again. “Have you ever thought of writing and directing your own screenplays?”
“I guess every actor has thought of that, at some point.”
“I’m not asking about every actor. I’m asking about you.”
He scratched the back of his neck and shrugged. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“At the beginning.”
His low chuckle warmed her from the inside out, and she wished more than ever that nothing would change in that moment.
“This is weird, isn’t it?” She shot him a smile and gestured between them. “Handsome popular Jake Ryan and bookworm Callie Prescott?”
His expression darkened, and he averted his gaze. “Weird, huh?”
“Not many people back in high school would have believed you and I would end up here. I don’t imagine many of them would believe it now.”
“Because you should be with a neurologist or a scholar, right?” He leaned his head back, scanning the multitude of stars. “Not a guy who stages fist-fights in front of a green screen.”
“Oh, come on.” Regret dimmed the light around Callie’s heart. “I didn’t mean it like that. I was thinking the other way around…like you should be with Ms. Gorgeous Megastar Hollywood Actress, not academic Dr. Prescott.” She nudged his arm with her elbow. “Don’t get all offended. Just because it’s weird doesn’t mean it’s not good.”
Though Jake was still frowning, his posture relaxed a little. “You think it’s good, huh?”
“So do you.” She bumped him with her elbow again.
“Truth.” He peered at the sky. “Was that a comet?”
“There’s one.” Callie pointed toward the east as a white light flew across the darkness. “You can see the tail.”
“Why do they have tails anyway?”
“A comet is a bunch of icy matter that warms up when it gets close to the sun,” Callie explained. “The process of outgassing and the solar wind creates the little tails when it shoots across the sky. Greek philosophers named them around 500 B.C., using the Greek word kometes meaning ‘long-haired.’”
He glanced at her, his eyes crinkling. “You’ve got more, don’t you?”
“For a long time, comets were considered harbingers of disaster.” Callie put her hand up teasingly as he began closing the distance between them. “Plutarch recorded a comet right around the time Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. Shakespeare mentions the same warning sign in his play about Caesar.”
“Hmm.” Jake slipped his hand to the back of her neck and drew her gently closer. “Are they still considered bad omens?”
“Considering we just saw one…” she rested a hand on his chest, her nerves lighting up with anticipation as their mouths touched, “…I’d say they’re very good omens.”
“Me too,” he murmured against her lips. “All your knowledge is pretty sexy.”
“Yours is too.” She drove her hand into his hair and gave it a light tug. “So’s your hair. And that twist you do with your mouth when you’re being ironic Blaze Ripley.”
“I can do a lot of other things with my mouth.”
“Show me.”
Their kiss deepened. Callie edged closer and spread her palm over the front of his T-shirt. Even through the thick cotton, she felt the burn of his body heat. She was unbearably tempted to slide her hand underneath the hem and touch his warm, strong muscles.
A cold wind blew in from the ocean, wafting under her thin jacket. Goose bumps prickled her arms. Jake lifted his head reluctantly.
“Much as I’d love to hear you tell me more about the stars, it’s getting cold.”
“Let’s sit in the car.” She glanced back at the windshield. “Except you can’t really see stars from inside a car.”
“Sure you can.” He winked.
Callie’s heart jumped. Before she could talk herself out of it, she opened the door of the backseat and climbed in.
Jake leaned partway inside, his eyebrows drawn slightly together. “You know what can happen in the backseat of a car at Lighthouse Point?”
She didn’t really, but Callie was bone-deep certain that Jake had a very good idea of what happened in the backseat of a car at Lighthouse Point. Heck, he’d probably invented the “happenings.”
“I have no idea.” She lifted her hands and blinked innocently. “Maybe you can teach me.”
Warmth darkened his eyes. “You ever make out in the backseat of a car before?”
“Once.” She twisted her mouth wryly. “With Billy Jackson when I was sixteen and going through a rebellious phase.”
“You? A rebellious phase? How long did that last?”
“A few hours.” Callie shook her head and laughed. “I should have picked someone other than Billy from AP History, though. There was a lot of bumping and panting, and then we both decided we’d better get home before we got caught, and he had a tutoring session the next morning at nine anyway. So that was the end of my walk on the wild side. Billy’s too, I think.”
A grin flashed across Jake’s face. “So you want to give it another shot?”
“Do you have a tutoring session tomorrow morning?”
“No.”
“Then get in the car.”
Despite the casualness of her tone, her heart was thumping a low, heavy beat in time with the excitement brewing in her core. She’d come to intellectual terms with the fact that her time with Jake was limited, but that didn’t mean she had to curtail her attraction to him or the urges of her body.
And since their time was limited, why shouldn’t she enjoy all he had to offer and all she wanted to take? She’d never have another chance like this, certainly not with a man like him.
She just had to make sure her heart knew this wasn’t forever. It wasn’t even a month from now.
Before she could lose courage, she grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him into the backseat. “Kiss me where it’s warm.”
With a groan, he closed the door behind him and slanted his mouth over hers. “That means I have to kiss you all over.”
Callie brought her hands to his jaw, his slight stubble rubbing deliciously against her palms. The air thickened, stretching with both tension and anticipation. He urged he
r lips apart and slipped his tongue into her mouth, shocking her with arousal. The tastes of buttered popcorn and chocolate flooded her. Jake pushed closer, moving one hand to her nape and sliding the other over her abdomen to her breasts.
Her breath caught. Under her jacket, she wore a thin, maroon scoop-necked shirt that she’d picked out because it was another one of the few non-neutral shirts she owned. He covered her breast, and her nipple budded up against her palm.
Callie squirmed, her lungs tightening. She wanted his touch on her bare skin, his fingers seeking and exploring, his mouth finding all her secret places. They eased away from each other only long enough to pull off their jackets before their lips crashed together with increasing frenzy. Everything inside her fired with colors—blue, red, purple, bright orange, all mixing together in a chaos of sensation.
Not taking his mouth from hers, Jake lowered her back onto the seat and settled his muscular body over hers. Dizziness swept through her. A distinct hardness in his jeans throbbed against her thigh. She shivered with a combination of excitement and trepidation.
She pushed her hands into his hair as he trailed his lips from her mouth over her cheek and down to her neck. He licked the hot hollow of her throat and moved one hand down to the hem of her shirt. Arousal coiled in her lower body. Callie closed her eyes, letting herself slip into this warm, growing passion that she hadn’t experienced in…ever.
Settling his mouth over hers again, he slipped his hand underneath her shirt. A shudder rocked her at the sensation of his warm palm against her skin. He stroked upward and cupped her breast, rubbing his fingers across her hard nipple underneath her bra. With a moan, she arched against him, seeking relief from the ache coiling inside her.
He kissed her with exquisite care and attention, as if he were the only man in the world who knew exactly what she liked. First soft and gentle, then hot and open-mouthed, then soft and gentle again. He put his hand underneath her chin, tilting her head to just the right angle so their lips locked seamlessly together. His body was all hot, tensile strength on top of hers, his fingers still teasing her sensitive nipple.