by Tawna Fenske
“That’s kinda brilliant.” Kate beamed. “We can build a whole promotional campaign around it, really get people excited for the show before the pilot even airs.”
“I’m glad you like the idea.” He sat up and stretched, then glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand. “I should probably get going. I fed Marilyn in the evening, but she probably wants breakfast.”
“Not to mention we’re all shooting today.”
“Right.” Jonah gave her a lopsided smile. “Hopefully it won’t be too weird.”
“Oh, it will be.” Kate smiled and stood up again. “But I’m a professional. I deal with weird all the time.”
“Perhaps not this precise brand of it.”
“True. I don’t usually sleep with the stars of the shows I work on.” She turned to face the mirror, resting one hand on the headboard as she smoothed down the front of her skirt. “Just the camera crew. And the lighting guy. And the makeup artists. And the—”
She shrieked as Jonah grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back down on the bed. He tickled her until she was breathless from giggling and her cheeks were pink with laughter. Her blouse came untucked and her skirt hiked up and she gave serious thought to just crawling back in bed with him and calling in sick for the day.
Then he stopped tickling and planted a soft kiss on the tip of her nose, followed by one more on the lips. “Enough,” he said, taking his hands off her. “I suppose we both have to go to work.”
“Right.” Kate sat up reluctantly and heaved herself off the bed. She groaned as she glanced at the bedside clock. “Damn. I was hoping to be on set in fifteen minutes.”
“You’d better get ready, then.”
She pushed herself off the bed, then leaned down for one more kiss. Then she scuttled away, hustling toward the bathroom as Jonah eased off the bed behind her. “Let me just grab all my stuff out of here so you can shower and get ready,” she called.
“No rush,” he answered from the other room. “I’m going to see if I can get this complicated-looking contraption to make us some coffee.”
“And I’m going to see if I can use this complicated-looking contraption to dry my hair.” She pulled the blow dryer off the holder on the wall and started to switch it on when she heard the knock at the door.
She set the dryer down and poked her head out of the bathroom. “That’s housekeeping. I asked them to bring a couple more towels so you’d have one.”
Jonah looked up from where he was standing next to the door, fiddling with the coffeemaker. He wore nothing but a pair of blue-striped boxers, and Kate’s stomach did a somersault at the sight of all that flesh on display. How was it possible she wanted him again?
“I’ll get it,” he said. “You finish getting ready.”
“Thanks.” She picked up her hairbrush again and watched for a second as he moved toward the door. A faint track of parallel lines ran across one shoulder blade, and she remembered putting them there, raking her nails down his back as she arched under him.
Quit staring, she commanded herself as she slid back into the bathroom and faced the mirror.
Her finger was on the switch of the blow dryer when she heard the thunk of the door handle, followed by Jonah’s voice: “Thanks so much for—oh.”
Silence, followed by a familiar female voice.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
All the blood drained from Jonah’s head as he stood in the open doorway and stared at the unexpected visitor.
Footsteps thudded behind him, and he turned to see Kate running into the room with her shirt untucked and her feet still bare. “Amy! What a nice surprise! I thought we were meeting on-set this morning.”
Jonah—who’d been doing his best to keep his lower half hidden behind the door—took a step back as Amy pushed her way into the room. She surveyed him from head to toe and gave a cluck of approval.
“Oh, very nice.” She grinned. “No wonder everyone wants to get your shirt off.”
Jonah did an inward grimace but ordered himself not to look down at his boxers. If his dick was hanging out the fly, there was no point drawing attention to it. “Amy,” he said. “Nice to see you again.”
Kate had somehow managed to tuck in her shirt while Amy ogled him. She stepped forward now, doing her best to divert the assistant producer’s attention. “What brings you by so early, Aim?”
Amy grinned and folded her arms over her chest. “My morning conference was canceled, and you’re always up by five,” she said. “So I figured I’d grab my dress back and borrow your navy one for tonight’s meeting.” She shifted her gaze back to Jonah and gave a nod of appraisal. “Obviously, I didn’t anticipate you’d have company at this hour.”
Jonah sighed, wishing he’d at least thought to pull on his jeans. Maybe he could pretend they were reviewing promotional ideas or story arcs or—
“So you’re sleeping together,” Amy said. She didn’t sound perturbed by it, but Jonah did a mental groan anyway.
“Just this once,” Kate said, and Jonah turned to look at her.
“Okay, twice,” she admitted. “Unless you count that last time, when we just—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Amy waved her hands in the air like an air traffic controller. “Please stop! I don’t need details.” Her gaze flicked back to Jonah’s chest, and she gave a salacious grin. “Well, maybe a few details.”
“I think I’ll get dressed now.” Jonah spotted his jeans on the floor behind Kate, so he bent to retrieve them. “Stop looking at my ass,” he muttered.
“Sorry.”
The word was a chorus of two female voices, which almost made him smile. But he’d prefer to just hit rewind on the whole morning. Well, maybe not the whole morning. Not the moment where Kate leaned down and kissed his neck, baring her breast through the opening in her robe. He’d kind of enjoyed that part.
Jonah finished buttoning his jeans and turned back to where Kate and Amy stood watching him. Spotting her dress on the back of a chair, Amy reached out and snagged it. “Thanks for this,” she said to Kate. “Looks like it saw more action than I’ve managed to give it.”
“I’ll, um—have it dry cleaned for you,” Kate said. “As for what’s happening here—”
“You don’t have to explain,” Amy said. “The less I know, the better.”
Jonah found his shirt on the floor and tugged it on. “Is there any chance this all could stay right here in this room?”
Amy leaned against the edge of the bathroom door. “That sounds like a proposition for a threesome,” she said. “Not interested, but I do know this little swingers club—”
“I know,” Jonah said. “And the fact that you left Kate there alone is kinda how I ended up here.”
“Ah, so it’s my fault you two bumped uglies?” She turned to Kate and grinned. “You’re welcome.”
Kate sighed. “Technically, doesn’t Chase Whitfield get credit? He’s the one who called you away.”
“I really think it’s best if we never mention your sex life and Chase Whitfield in the same breath,” Amy said.
“Agreed.”
Jonah cleared his throat. “So about keeping this quiet—”
“It’s okay,” Kate said. “She knows how to keep a secret.”
Amy laughed and tossed her blond hair. “You don’t last long in show biz if you can’t. Besides, it was pretty obvious this was going to happen.”
“Obvious to whom?” Jonah asked.
“Obvious to me,” Amy said. “Not to your ex-wife, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
It annoyed Jonah that anyone would think he cared about his ex-wife’s opinion on who he slept with.
It annoyed him a lot more that he did care.
Not about Viv, exactly. He cared about the working conditions on the show, and whether this might jeopardize his chances to earn the kind of money that would make a difference in Jossy’s life.
Christ. Maybe this was
a mistake.
He looked at Kate again and his stomach flipped over. Nope. Definitely not a mistake.
“We’ll be careful,” Kate said. “And it won’t happen again. Right, Jonah?”
She gave him a hopeful look, and Jonah’s heart skipped. He knew what the answer should be. He knew there was no future here, but still.
“Yeah,” he said, raking his fingers through his hair. “It was just a onetime thing.”
Was it his imagination, or did Kate’s smile falter just a little? She looked away and met Amy’s gaze again. “So we’re all good?”
“Never better,” Amy said. “And you two can act natural around each other on set?”
“I can,” Kate said. “Jonah?”
“Sure.” He nodded, doing his best to underscore his own belief in himself. “No problem.”
Kate smiled, and Jonah did his best to pretend he was glad, too. To pretend this whole thing didn’t feel like an icicle through the center of his chest.
“Sam, why don’t you tell Elena how you feel?”
Kate watched as Vivienne clasped her hands together atop her thighs and looked back and forth between the husband and wife who’d agreed to broadcast their marital woes on national television.
The husband cleared his throat and looked down at his feet. “When you nag me like that, you make me feel—”
“Sam, remember what we talked about,” Viv interrupted gently. “No one makes you feel something. Using judgment words is only going to start the spiral of defensiveness.”
“Trust me on this, man,” Jonah added, crossing his arms over a green flannel shirt that brought out the color in his eyes. Not that Kate noticed.
“That shit goes on for a long damn time,” Jonah continued. “And you’ve got better things to do. Like watching reruns of The Man Show on YouTube.”
Vivienne nodded sagely. “What Jonah is saying is that you need to let her know how you feel, but do that independent of any judgment of her actions.”
“What Jonah is saying,” Jonah interjected with a look of irritation at his ex-wife, “is that criticizing, blaming, or processing someone else’s actions through your own fucked-up filter is a surefire ticket to heartache. Is that what you want?”
Sam frowned. “But she’s wrong about—”
“Buddy.” Jonah shook his head, and the compassion in his eyes made Kate’s chest ache. “You can be right or you can be married. What’s it gonna be?”
Next to Sam, Elena sat with tears shimmering in her eyes. From across the room, Kate thought she saw a glint of emotion in Viv’s eyes, too. Kate signaled Pete to zoom in, wanting that shot. This was so important. For viewers to see how much the doctor really cared, to know these couples weren’t just names on a chart to her.
“I know you’re hurting.” Viv reached out and took one of Sam’s hands in her own. “And you have a right to your feelings. You and Elena have both done things to wound each other, whether you did it on purpose or not. But wouldn’t it feel good right now to stop fighting? To put down your sword and build a bridge instead?”
Perfect, Kate thought. Insert a dramatic pause, maybe a close-up of Elena’s face, then of Sam’s, then cut to a commercial before we—
A movement in the corner of her eye caught Kate’s attention, and she glanced at the doorway to see Amy waving to her. She cast a quick look at the center of the room, where Viv was putting an arm around Elena and offering her a tissue. Jonah had his head bent low, talking close with Sam in a low tone she knew would be picked up by the gazillion mikes they’d placed all over the room.
They had things covered. She’d see later how this ended.
Kate tiptoed out of the room and met Amy in the hallway. She pulled the door closed behind her.
“Is everything okay?” she whispered.
“Yeah,” Amy said. “I just talked with Chase. He reviewed our mock-ups of the promotional videos and went nuts. I wanted to give you some notes about a couple tweaks at the midpoint, but that’s not the most important thing.”
“What’s the most important thing?”
“He said this is almost certainly in the bag for us. Like unless one of the cast members dies or something, we’ve got it nailed.”
“That’s amazing!” Kate’s heart was pounding, and this time it had nothing to do with Jonah.
Reading her thoughts, Amy glanced back toward the door. “You doing okay in there?”
“I’m fine. Everything’s fine. The couple is endearing, Vivienne is intelligent and compassionate, and Jonah is—”
She stopped, fumbling for an adjective that sounded professional and indifferent instead of like the words of a woman who’d spent the whole day remembering how his mouth moved over her breasts.
“You think you’ve got it bad for Jonah,” Amy muttered. “I swear Chase has a big, fat man crush on him.”
“How do you mean?”
“Chase won’t stop congratulating himself over coming up with the idea to pull Jonah into the show. He’s seriously going to dislocate his shoulder with all the time he spends patting himself on the back.”
“I’m glad he’s pleased with the decision.”
Amy looked at her for a few beats, then leaned closer. “I wasn’t asking you about Jonah as he relates to the show,” Amy added. “I just wondered how you’re doing. If you’re feeling weird about things.”
“I’m a professional,” Kate said. “I’m here to do a job, and it doesn’t matter if—”
“You’re also a human.” Amy put a hand on Kate’s arm. “And my friend. And I’m asking how you’re feeling.”
The kindness in Amy’s eyes made Kate take a deep breath before responding. “Yeah. I’m fine. I mean—you tell me. Do you think I’m acting unusual?”
“You’ve avoided eye contact with Jonah, but you’ve been doing that from the start,” Amy said. “I doubt Viv has noticed.”
“I’m glad. And I’m glad tomorrow’s filming schedule has them in different places. I just—” She stopped herself, not entirely sure what she’d been ready to say. How much she wanted to admit. “I don’t want to mess things up.”
“And you haven’t. Everything’s fine. If you want to know the truth, I’m glad you did it.”
Kate frowned. “Why? So we can drag my skeletons out of the closet if there’s a ratings slump?”
“No, hon. Because you needed to get laid.”
She sighed and glanced at the closed door. Shaking her head, she looked back at Amy. “Could I have possibly chosen a worse person to scratch that particular itch?”
“You tell me,” Amy said. “From the look on your face this morning, I’m guessing he wasn’t that bad.”
Heat crept into Kate’s cheeks, but she couldn’t resist smiling a little. “That isn’t what I meant.”
“I know.” Amy grinned. “Look, it’s not like they have any claim on each other. Even if she found out—”
“She can never find out! Can you imagine how unprofessional that would look?”
“Relax, Kate. I’m just saying, they’re divorced. They’ve been divorced for a year. That means neither of them has any say in who the other sleeps with.”
“I know that. In theory.” She sighed, trying to think of how to explain this. “It’s just—she’s been this constant presence in my life, getting me through all the toughest stuff. And now I’m repaying her by sleeping with her ex-husband?”
“She’s a professional colleague, Kate. Not your girlfriend. Not even your shrink.”
“Well, you’re my professional colleague, too.”
Amy laughed. “A professional colleague who loaned you a dress to get laid in. And if I had an ex-husband, you could borrow him, too.”
“You’re a good friend, Amy.”
Amy grinned and gave her another squeeze. Then she glanced down at the buzzing two-way radio on her hip. “Looks like they’re about to break for the day.”
As if on cue, the door pushed open, and Kate and Amy sprung apart like two teenager
s caught kissing. Viv floated into the hallway with her shimmery orange silk top billowing behind her. She wore black velvet pants that fit like a second skin, and dainty red boots that laced up the back. The second she spotted Kate and Amy, she beamed.
“We did it!” She clasped each of them by a shoulder, practically radiating joy. “We had a major breakthrough in there just now.”
“That’s wonderful!” Kate kicked herself for missing it, but at least it was on tape. She’d see it later. “So they decided to save the marriage?”
“It was beautiful,” Viv gushed. “Sam confessed to Elena that his greatest fear is losing her, so he’s been pushing her away to test her. And Elena explained how that was bringing up all these memories of her father leaving when she was six, and the way her mother used to—well, you’ll see it all when you watch the tape.”
“Congratulations,” Amy said. “Sounds like a job well done.”
“Thanks.” Viv closed her eyes and tilted her face toward the ceiling. The gesture would have seemed weird from anyone else, but from Viv, it looked like a prayer. “It feels so incredible to be part of something like that. To know I played a role in someone deciding to fight for a marriage instead of throwing in the towel.”
There was a wistfulness in Viv’s voice, and Kate wondered how many clients she’d had just throw in the towel. It had to feel good to get the hard-earned happily-ever-after. Kate studied Viv, hoping the cameras had done their job capturing this exact look from the doctor. If they had, the viewers were going to eat it up.
Viv opened her eyes again and sighed. “Do you think you got the footage we needed?”
“We had four cameras in there,” Kate said. “I was looking over Pete’s shoulder and saw some of the shots he was getting. It’s safe to say you nailed it.”
“The network guys are happy so far,” Amy said. “They love the rough clips we sent yesterday.”
“Good,” Viv said. “I’m so glad. It’s wonderful when all the pieces fall together like this. It’s like it was meant to be.”
The parlor door pushed open again, and Jonah stepped into the hall. He blinked, looking startled to see them, and Kate’s heart lodged in her throat. The two exes locked eyes for an instant, and Kate wondered what separated a couple who threw in the towel from one who decided to stay and fight.