by Emma Lea
“Connor!” Dawn called before he had a chance to leave the room. “I know that in that container are some of Georgie’s famous muffins and I will know if there are any missing.”
Georgie made the mistake of looking at him as he flashed his mega-watt grin at his Gran and she felt a few of her brain cells melt in the blinding rays. Oh, God, she couldn’t do this. How was she supposed to facilitate an interesting and lively discussion with him here? She could barely string two intelligent words together, let alone a full sentence.
“Let me look at your shirt,” Dawn said as Connor left the room with her muffins.
Georgie grinned. Her customers loved her custom made t-shirts. When she wasn’t reading or playing online games, she was designing bookmarks, posters, and t-shirts with quirky sayings and obscure quotes from books and movies. Today’s shirt was ironically appropriate considering the company, and also completely accidental. It was hot pink with three check boxes that said, ‘Single,’ ‘Taken,’ and ‘Waiting for Prince Charming.’ Of course the check box next to ‘Waiting for Prince Charming’ had a great big tick in it - a nod to her love of fairy tales, not the real life Prince Charming in the other room.
Dawn laughed. “I love it,” she said.
There was a knock on the door and they heard Connor call out, “I’ll get it.”
“Sit,” Dawn said, “I can’t wait to get started today. I loved this book.”
And so Book Club began as the rest of their rag-taggle members trooped in and took the seats. Georgie took a deep breath and put Connor Faulkes determinedly out of her mind.
2
When Connor had agreed to help his Gran host her Book Club, he expected a bunch of old ladies sitting around talking about cozy mysteries or serious biographies, not romance stories. Since coming to stay with Gran while she recuperated, he had discovered her romance book addiction and he'd been a little shocked. He knew RomComs were popular at the box office, but he didn't realise people still read them.
He was twice surprised when he discovered the book they were reading this month, a book he was well acquainted with, unbeknownst to the women in the next room. He'd had the script for months and shooting was supposed to begin in a few weeks. His presence here was actually delaying the shooting schedule, but he couldn't let Gran try to survive on her own with a broken leg. His mother was with his sister, who was expecting her first baby, and didn't want to miss the blessed event. Neither of his brothers could get away from their jobs and his father was next to useless when it came what he thought of as ‘women’s work.’ Besides, he loved Gran and more than that, enjoyed her company. It wasn't a hardship to spend a few weeks in the country with her until she got back on her feet.
Despite the rumours, he hadn't grown up here, but he had spent a lot of time in Oxley Crossing. With both parents working, school holidays meant being shipped off to his grandparents. He much preferred Gran to his father’s parents, who were a little too staid and stoic for a boy who loved adrenaline and would seek out adventures whenever left unsupervised. Gran’s house and large yard in the quiet Northern Tablelands town was a safe place for him to act out all his imaginative adventures and Gran encouraged him, much to the displeasure of his parents who had high hopes of him becoming a doctor or accountant or something with a future.
Connor wanted to be a stunt man at the very least and an action hero at the most and he'd ended up somewhere in between. He'd managed to pick up a few jobs on local television and then when ‘The Lavender Keeper’ was being filmed right here, just a few miles from Oxley Crossing, he'd scored a job on set. When the lead actor had had a meltdown due to some insignificant detail to do with his accommodations, they'd asked Connor to step in so they could at least rehearse a few scenes and check lighting and blocking. The director had seen something in him in those very raw and unrehearsed scenes and had offered him the job after firing the other actor. And just like that, Connor had become a star.
It wasn't the fame that had attracted him, it was the chance to be someone else for a while. He liked the escape and he liked the challenge of playing a different character, although lately, they had all started to blend into one. He would dearly love to take on a meatier role, something with more depth and a bit of action, or even do a stint behind the camera as a director, but for now he was type cast as the romantic lead. He'd made a commitment to this next movie and then he was going to take a break and find something that reignited the passion that had been lacking from his last few roles. He was a big enough star and made enough money to be choosey with his next role and he'd been working diligently to get to this point, so why not take the time and choose something he really wanted to do?
He heard the group laugh and the soft chuckle of Georgie made his ears prick up. She had been the biggest surprise of all. When he thought of ‘Book Club’, he did not think of a cute little blonde in pig tails with big blue eyes and converse shoes wrapped up in skinny jean shorts and a bright pink t-shirt. If anything he expected a matronly librarian type or a septuagenarian like his grandmother. She also didn't seem to recognise him which, despite being a hit to his ego, was refreshing. He knew that with fame came fans and he appreciated them, but it was nice to be normal for once and not on his guard for some misguided young woman who might throw herself at him. He didn't think he would ever walk into his room here at Gran’s and find Georgie waiting for him with more than conversation on her mind. It sounded conceited to even think about such a situation, but unfortunately it had happened to him on a few occasions when his hotel location had been leaked. After the fourth time, he demanded more security. Not that he was afraid for his safety, but he did not want to wake up to pictures of himself sleeping splashed all over social media. The paparazzi was bad enough without adding the rabid fans to the mix.
“Connor,” Gran called, “Come and meet the ladies and bring those muffins of Georgie’s.”
Connor smiled as he plated up the muffins and flicked on the kettle. No doubt the ladies would like a cup of tea with their muffins and the least he could do was play host for Gran. He took the muffins into the airy sitting room, his PR smile on his face.
“Ladies,” he said, winking at Gran.
The group of women looked back at him, their eyes wide, all except Georgie who seemed more interested in the loose thread on her jeans than him.
“You’re Connor Faulkes,” one of the women said, awe in her voice.
“Yes ma’am,” he replied.
“No, I mean, you are the Connor Faulkes. Prince Charming.”
His grin turned wry. He'd done three back to back movies, a trilogy, in which he played the fairy tale prince bought to life by a bunch of teenage geek girls and their computer. They had become his highest grossing films, popular with both teenagers and adults alike.
“Don't gush over him,” Gran said, “His head is already filled with enough of that crap from his agent and all those breathless fans that follow him around.”
Trust his grandmother to keep it real, but he wasn't upset. He liked that she was the one to make sure the fame didn't change him.
“She’s right,” he said, “While I'm here, I'm just plain old Connor, Dawn Hawkes’ grandson. Now, would you ladies like tea or coffee?”
While the ladies gave their drink orders to Connor, Georgie took particular interest in her iPad, which had indeed cracked when it hit the shiny, wooden floor in the foyer. It was not the first time something like that had happened and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Georgie carried her iPad everywhere with her, it was an extension of herself, and being as clumsy as she was it was inevitable that she dropped it often. Even with a case on it, she’d managed to crack the screen several times and was grateful that one of her LAN party buddies knew how to fix them. Of all the times she’d dropped it though, this was the most embarrassing. Even the time she knocked it off the bathroom sink in her ensuite while she was on the loo wasn’t as embarrassing as what had happened earlier.
“Georgie?”
; That voice. Oh God, that voice saying her name. Her brain froze as their eyes met and she felt like a blubbering idiot, but was incapable to do or say anything under his hypnotic gaze.
“Tea, coffee, Bonox?”
The room tittered with the old joke, but Georgie just swallowed thickly.
“Ah, water,” she croaked, “Please,” she added hurriedly as an afterthought.
Connor winked at her and turned to leave. Did he really wink at her? Oh God he winked at her and now all the ladies of Book Club were looking at her. She cleared her throat, trying to think of something, anything, to say to get the attention off her and her stupid inability to be able to behave like a normal human being in the presence of a man.
“So, the book. What did everyone think?”
Georgie barely listened to the comments as she tried to corral her thoughts into something resembling intelligence. Her stern part gave her simpering part a talking to, reminding said simpering part that Connor was a mere mortal and just as fallible as any other mere mortal. Both agreed that he was the most delectable mere mortal they had ever had the privilege to lay eyes on. With the two of them discussing him and bickering over him, Georgie could barely keep herself from running from the house in a fit of crazy. With a good bit of hard won self-control, she managed to shut up the voices in her head and refocus on the discussion.
The book they were reading, or had read, wasn’t anything too deep but it did discuss some issues relating to women in authority and the ongoing glass ceiling that a lot of women still faced as they rose up the ranks in their chosen career. Of course this was told in a whimsical tale of an imaginary country with an imaginary Royal family. Despite the fairytale-esque setting, it still managed to convey the struggle of a young modern woman thrust into a politically unstable environment where the ‘Boy’s Club’ was still very much in power. And it was a romance, which was the whole point. The Bookish Book Club was all about romance, the members being fiercely loyal to the genre and not afraid to admit it.
“I liked the parallels to Pride and Prejudice,” Dawn said, capturing Georgie’s attention.
“How so?” she asked.
“Well, Lord Darkly is most definitely based on Mr. Darcy, don’t you think?”
“Oh, yes,” Maureen chimed in, “I didn’t see it at first, but I do now. The way he is so gruff with her at first and so disapproving of her association with Jordan.”
Maureen was a lovely fifty-ish woman who looked more like seventy. She was all grey hair and blue rinse with a tight perm and thick glasses. Georgie thought perhaps she was trying too hard to fit in with the septuagenerian crowd and she was a Dawn devotee, agreeing with nearly everything the other woman said.
“That’s the only similarity, though,” Georgie interjected, “I mean, the story itself isn’t anything like Pride and Prejudice.”
“No, I suppose not,” Dawn agreed, thoughtfully and Maureen doggedly nodded along too.
“And Will had every right to be upset with her for associating with Jordan,” Kendra said, “After all, he wasn’t very nice in the end.”
Kendra was the only other person in the room the same age as Georgie and they were best friends. Kendra worked on her parents’ sheep station on the outskirts of town and when she was working she wore the uniform of the bush - jeans and a flannelette shirt with boots and an Akubra. When she wasn’t on the farm, Kendra was all woman. Pretty dresses and high heels, makeup and her dark hair glossy and styled. If Connor was going to wink at anyone, then it should be Kendra, not her.
“Here we are, ladies,” Connor said returning to the room with a tray of cups.
Georgie couldn’t look away as his biceps flexed, stretching the sleeve of his t-shirt, when he lowered the tray to the coffee table in the centre of the circle of chairs. He plucked a dainty teacup and saucer from the tray and handed it to Dawn, followed by handing out the rest of the cups to each person. The women smiled and blushed prettily as he gave them attention, remembering their names and their beverage requests. He saved Georgie for last, but it still wasn’t enough time for her to get her hormones under control and as he handed her the glass of ice water, the ice cubes clinking merrily against the rim. Her hand shook so much that she ended up dumping the whole lot in her lap.
Georgie jumped up with a squeal to a chorus of gasps from the assembled women. Her crotch was saturated with water cold enough to give her frostbite and rivulets of water ran down her bare legs and pooled in her Converse high tops. She saw the twitch of his lips as he tried not to laugh and flushed with embarrassment as she realised he was looking at the wet patch on her shorts. His eyes flicked up to hers, not worried in the least that he had been ogling her, and he grinned, his dimples blinding her and making her forget momentarily that she was embarrassed and mad at him.
“Oh, Georgie,” Dawn said, trying to get out of her chair to help, “Are you okay?”
“She’s fine, Gran,” Connor said, “You stay where you are. I’ll help Georgie clean up.”
“NO!” Georgie took a breath and said more calmly, “It’s fine, it’s only water. But if I could get a towel?”
Connor grabbed her hand and tugged her towards the door of the room, “Come on, I’ll show you where the bathroom is.”
The heat of his hand on her arm burned a trail through her body, warming her from the inside out and she followed him, numbly. He really should come with a warning label.
3
The events of Book Club stayed with Georgie for the rest of the week and by Saturday, Book Club being on Wednesday, she expected the burning humiliation to have been just a distant memory. Unfortunately, when she saw Connor’s large frame walk through the door of her shop, it all came rushing back over her like an avalanche and she headed for the stacks in the back so she wouldn’t have to face him. Thankfully Millie, her part-time employee and second best friend, was manning the front counter. Georgie couldn’t help but watch him, though, from her hiding place, curious to know why he was even gracing her store with his movie-star presence.
“Hi, welcome to Bookish,” Millie said brightly.
She knew all about the incident at Book Club, thanks to the gossiping mouths of Kendra and several of the other ladies that had been present. By now half the town knew of her humiliation and nearly everyone had given her that knowing look when they’d come in for their daily caffeine fix.
“Uh, hi,” Connor said, his very masculine voice at odds with the very feminine atmosphere Georgie had created inside Bookish. “My Gran sent me down to pick up some books?” He sounded so unsure that Georgie had to smile. The one thing she had never imagined was Connor Faulkes being less than alpha male confident in everything he did.
“Okay,” Millie said, drawing the word out, and Georgie knew she was puzzled.
It was at that moment that she realised she hadn’t given anyone the list of books that Dawn had requested and she was the only one who knew why Connor was here.
“Shoot,” she cursed under her breath. She was going to have to face him after all.
She took a breath and banged her head on the shelf a couple of times before working up the courage to go out there and do her job. She just had to think of him as just another customer, not the man who starred in her dreams at night, or the man she had made a complete fool of herself in front of, not once, but twice. She could do this. She could.
“It’s all right, Millie,” she called, taking a step from behind the shelf where she had been hiding, “I have Dawn’s list.”
He looked up and saw her then, their eyes meeting across the rows of books, the smell of old books and new in the atmosphere, the sunlight dancing through the front windows and gathering around him like a halo. She took a step towards him, her foot connecting with a pile of second hand books she had yet to shelve, and with the elegance of a newborn giraffe still trying to find its legs, she sprawled across the floor, landing at his feet. How many more times was she going to humiliate herself in front of him? Surely three times was the charm?
“You really need to stop falling for me,” he said as he squatted down in front of her.
She banged her head on the floor a couple of times before pushing herself up and onto her backside, giving up any pretence of gracefulness or even normal human behaviour, and leant against the bookshelf at her back. He sat beside her in companionable silence, but he didn’t have to speak to have her body in a tizzy and her mind a mush of garbled rubbish, just his closeness was enough.
“You must think I’m a complete fool,” she said, her voice flat and monotone.
“Not at all,” he said, bumping shoulders with her, “I think you’re cute.”
“Cute? Isn’t that something you say about a kitten that gets themselves all tangled up in a ball of wool?”
“I suppose that would be cute too,” he said with a nod, “But I like the way you get all tongue-tied and clumsy around me.”
Georgie dropped her head in her hands and moaned. “That’s the only way you’ve ever seen me,” she whined.
“Not true,” he said, “I listened in to your Book Club. You had some well thought out things to say.”
“Which makes my performance whenever you’re around so completely obvious. I say again, you must think I am a complete fool.”
“Nah. I’m flattered, actually. I’ve never had that effect on anyone before.”
Georgie snorted and then gasped in horror which only made him laugh.
“Surely I am not the first woman that you’ve left in a snivelling heap?”
“I have to say that of all my interactions with women, none have even come close to those I’ve had with you.”
“Oh God,” she moaned, her face blazing, “Kill me now.”
He chuckled and stood, holding out a hand to her.
“Come on,” he said, “I need to get these books for Gran or she won’t let me go out to play this afternoon.”