by Donna Fasano
Jenna quietly walked out of the room, glancing back once to see if Sean noticed. He didn’t. She wandered the house, and when she reached sliding glass doors leading to a broad deck, she stepped out. The cold, crisp air stung her cheeks, its refreshing bite a welcome antidote to the syrupy phoniness inside the house.
She scolded herself for being overly squeamish and judgmental. If this was the world of her future, she ought to be inside learning to be a part of it.
But as she arched her spine, stretching the kinks of tension from her neck, she gazed up into the clear night sky. An all-encompassing blanket of deep black, studded with countless diamonds. A universe of infinite possibilities.
She tried to identify Orion and The Great Square of Pegasus that Aiden had shown her. Had he returned to the B&B yet? Was he outside now looking at this same sky?
Her lips formed a slight smile. She hoped she’d get to talk to him again. Funny how her ideas about him kept changing every time she saw him.
Or saw something on his computer. Who was he really? The thought of Aiden being a secret agent tickled her.
Speaking of which, Jenna suddenly found herself being tickled. Literally. Reflex reaction took over as she giggled and tightened her elbows to her sides. “Sean, what are you doing out here?”
“Came out to get you.”
She stepped away. “It looked like you were having a great time in there.” Without me.
He came toward her. “All part of the game.”
Jenna dodged as Sean reached for her. She wasn’t even sure why. “So, enjoy the game. You’ve got your big role in the K.Z. Knight movie coming up in a month. This is an exciting time for you. Maybe even a breakthrough moment in your career.”
“Maybe yours, too.”
She pursed her lips. “That’s doubtful. I’ve got a long way to go.”
“Or things could move faster than you think—with my help. For starters, you’ll be on my arm at the movie’s premiere.”
Really? Did he mean it? Jenna had never been to a movie premiere. And this would be an important one, being the film version of such a big bestseller. The concept alone made her giddy. The famous red carpet. The cameras. The paparazzi and fans.
Guess I’m just as star-struck as everybody else.
Jenna sprang forward and hugged him. “That is so cool. I better start looking for a gown. Where are they holding it?”
“In New York City at the Ziegfeld.” His arm around her waist, Sean led her through the sliding doors and back to the party.
David, the assistant director, shuffled toward them. “Hey, guys, we’re taking bets. Rumor has it the reclusive K.Z. Knight might actually show his face at the New York opening.”
“Or her face,” Michelle said. “Knight might be a woman, you know.”
“Doubt it,” Sean said. “The writing style is a giveaway. He’s a guy.”
“Who knows? But one thing’s for sure. If Knight shows his face, it’ll be the biggest story of the week.”
Michelle laughed. “He might even upstage you, Sean.”
Chapter 7
Aiden’s black Chevy Volt forged ahead as he focused his sunglass-covered eyes on the highway, its pavement dry as a bone beneath a blustery winter wind that came sweeping in from Long Island Sound.
The North Fork’s long stretches of single-lane roads snaked through acres of farms, fishing villages, and wooded hollows. It was a world where the bucolic scents of grasses and leaves intermingled with the invigorating freshness of briny salt air.
A far cry from the neighborhood he’d grown up in. Not a day went by when the thirty-one-year-old Boston native didn’t count his blessings. He’d come up the hard way. The product of a broken home where he and his two sisters and three brothers only felt safe when his abusive father was too drunk to stand up. So of course, Aiden had spent most of his days on the street getting into trouble—and landing himself in the juvenile tank.
Who knew where he would’ve ended up if it weren’t for Buster Cotes, or Coty, as they called him?
Aiden drove well past Richardson’s Bed and Breakfast to Greenport at the far end of the Fork. With the Bay on the south and the Sound on the north, this narrow tip of Long Island had taken a beating during Tropical Storm Sandy. Like others, Aiden had given all he could to help the recovery, and he was happy to see the place looking like its old self again.
After turning into the retirement community’s drive and parking in his usual spot, Aiden snatched up a brown bag and loped toward the one-bedroom apartments.
When he rapped a singsong knock on A-14, a rasping voice called, “Get in here.”
Funny how Coty’s gruff exterior had never frightened Aiden—while his own father’s smooth, murmured threats could chill him to the bone.
He stepped into the sunlit room and saw the thickly built black man limping toward the door.
“Impatient bugger, aren’t you?”
“Let’s go, homey. I want my butterscotch.”
Aiden handed him the bag. “Keep eating this, and you’re not going to have a tooth left in your frikken head.”
“Better to scare off the nurses.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Had a fine-looking one last month. Made my day seeing her come through my door each morning. But on account of some dumb technical bullcrap, wouldn’t you know they decided to switch her with a mean old bag?”
“Murphy’s Law.”
“All trying to push too many pills down my throat. Plus they’re trying to get me to use that damn thing.” He pointed to the aluminum walker in the corner.
Aiden rolled his eyes and snorted. “They don’t know you too well.”
“Sooner walk on my hands and knees. A man’s gotta operate under his own power.” Coty took a seat at a breakfast table next to the window.
Aiden went to the perpetually filled coffeemaker and poured two cups before joining him. “Finally got my mojo going on the new book.”
“What’s her name?”
Aiden laughed. “I said book.”
“I’m not talking about no book. I’m talking about what got your mojo going.”
“Sonofabitch. You always could read my mind.”
And it was a darn good thing he could. By the time Aiden was fourteen, he’d made it onto the police blotter for robbery and assault. During his years in the correctional facility, he’d been lucky enough to fall under the watchful eye of Buster Cotes, the C.O. who could see through any lie and sense when you were gunning for trouble.
“She pretty?” Coty asked with a sly grin.
“Yeah. Beautiful.” He shook his head. “But it wouldn’t work. She’s so different from me. Besides, I can’t abandon Wendy and all that she—”
“Cut it out. I’m not saying you should ever forget Wendy, but you can’t have a relationship with two women at the same time. Especially when one has gone to the other side.”
“But it’s so difficult to—”
“Who said life is supposed to be easy? You gave Wendy all the love you had. You were there for her right to the end. But she’s gone. After five years it’s time to move on.”
Aiden pressed his fingers to his temples. “It just seems so unfair that my life should keep going when hers ended at twenty-six.”
“Cancer isn’t about what’s fair, son. Life’s one big mystery, and all we can do is give it our best. And you gave Wendy your best. Just like you gave me. Setting my ugly face up in this fancy place after I got knocked on my butt.” He snorted.
Aiden had searched high and low for the best retirement home for Coty after he’d had his stroke and could no longer manage on his own. No way was he going to let the man who’d been a surrogate father to him go into some dingy senior home that left him depressed. All of Coty’s next of kin were either dead or lacked the financial means to help him. So Aiden had found this place right on the Sound where Coty could get plenty of sunshine and good care. His friend and mentor was worth far more than the money it cost to make t
he arrangements.
And he continued to pay all the bills for it. As far as Aiden was concerned, he owed this man a lot more than that. It was Coty, with his street-savvy style, who had convinced the angry delinquent boy in the correctional facility that he was too smart to waste his brain, that he should start reading and go back to school. “Education and ambition combined create an unstoppable force,” he would say over and over to him.
But there was one quote Aiden cherished the most after all these years. He’d first heard it the day Coty stood there in the yard after breaking up a fight. He’d pointed his index finger to the sky, and said, “The universe has no limits. And neither do you. We’re all part of the same big picture. Go for the stars.”
Aiden looked into his face now. One of Coty’s eyes was half shut all the time these days, and the corner of his mouth stayed locked in a permanent frown. The stroke had also rendered his left leg and arm nearly useless. After several months in rehab, he’d regained a certain amount of functionality, but he still walked with a bad limp and shuffle, and his arm hung fairly lifeless at his side.
“What’s she like?” Coty asked.
“Very girlish. She’s a ballerina. A sleek and sexy fairy princess with long limbs and big brown eyes. And not an ounce of guile that I can see. But she doubts herself. Doesn’t seem to know how much she’s got going.”
“Then maybe it’s time you came out of the woods and stepped up before somebody else moseys along and nabs your fairy princess.”
Aiden shrugged. “Easier said than done. She has a boyfriend already. Except I have a feeling he’s playing her.”
“If that’s true, then you’ll be doing a good deed to take her away from him.”
“Not sure I can. I haven’t told you who it is she’s seeing.”
“Uh-oh.”
“You know that actor Sean Risk?”
“No shit.” Coty guffawed. “The star of that TV show? You do have a problem.”
“That’s only half of it. Get this. That film coming out based on my book? Well, Sean Risk has one of the a bigger roles in it.”
“I’m guessing the lady doesn’t know you’re K. Z. Knight.”
Aiden shook his head emphatically. “Of course not. Nobody does. And that’s how I like it.”
“Hey, I understand. You wanted to disappear from the face of the earth when you lost Wendy. But if you want to get to know this lady, it’s only fair that you come out of hiding. Otherwise she’s gonna be mighty angry when she finds out you’ve deceived her.”
“It’s a moot point, Coty. I’m just some guy renting a room in her mother’s B&B. No use trying to make it any more than that. I’ve already decided to forget about her.”
Coty chuckled, a deep gravelly sound. “Okay, son, you just keep telling yourself that.”
Chapter 8
Aiden stood outside his porch door on the second floor deck of his room at Richardson’s Bed and Breakfast. His mobile read 7:40 p.m. The sky had that wet inky darkness of late January. He nipped a taste of brandy from his glass as he spoke to his rep, Michael Nubell, from the Golan-Mazar Literary Agency. Michael called to break the news about the sudden passing of one of the longtime associates on their team.
“Keeled over. Flat on his back,” a somber Michael said. “While he was speaking at a pro-literacy conference out in Tucson.”
“I am so sorry,” said Aiden. “I knew Jim had a bad heart.”
“Hey, we all knew that. I used to beg him to lose weight. Even Jennifer in publicity offered to buy him a membership to a health club for his birthday. But he just laughed it off.”
Aiden’s concentration was briefly disrupted when he heard the sound of a nearby window sliding open. It had to be Jenna. The idea of her being just on the other side of his bedroom wall excited him. He took another sip of brandy, then shifted his attention back to the call. “Yeah, I’ll really miss him. When Jim and I worked together I always knew he had my back. Now he’s gone. At least he died while doing what he believed in.” Aiden sighed. “He was one helluva dedicated agent.”
~*~
Jenna had given a less than stellar performance on the set today. Now back in her room at her mom’s B&B, she began reading over her lines for the next shoot but couldn’t concentrate. So she practiced pirouettes. The challenge of maintaining perfect balance and form while turning never failed to resurrect her confidence when under pressure.
After working up a sweat, she went to open her window, and as she did, she heard a voice coming from Aiden’s side of the deck. Sounded like he was talking on his phone.
Naturally she listened in.
“Yeah, I’ll really miss him. When Jim and I worked together I always knew he had my back. Now he’s gone. At least he died while doing what he believed in.” She could hear the emotion in his voice. “He was one helluva dedicated agent.”
Ohmigod. Another agent? A colleague no doubt. Killed in the line of duty?
Jenna held still and paid attention, hoping to hear more. Unfortunately, it sounded like he was signing off.
Knowing smart and sexy Aiden slept right on the other side of her bedroom wall already sent tingles through Jenna. But to think he was a secret CIA or FBI agent, a man who lived a life of danger…
When she was certain the call had ended, she stepped out on the deck, first flicking on an outside light to warn him in case he was doing something top secret. Too late she realized he might want to be alone to mourn his fellow agent.
“Jenna.” Was it her imagination, or was he looking at her differently tonight?
She took mental stock of her appearance. Not her favorite sweatshirt. Her jeans were okay, but her long straight hair was falling out of the ponytail she’d put it in a few hours ago, and her makeup had washed off in the shower she’d taken after returning from her day on the Sunrise Lane set.
“Hello, Aiden. I missed you out here for the past three nights.” Geez. She couldn’t believe that came out of her mouth. How embarrassing. Had she forgotten the coy and careful way she measured her words around Sean? Except Aiden gave her a smile that made her heart race, and she liked that it might’ve been her words that did that.
“Good to see you,” he said. “Things going all right with the show?”
“Really well, actually.” She almost said that she was sorry about his friend but stopped her idiot mouth just in time.
He caught her reaction. “You okay? Feeling panicky again?”
She twisted her fingers together, trying to think. But she’d always been better at dancing than talking. “I know who you are.” Her hand flew to her mouth.
Aiden’s brows knit. “How’d you find out?”
What could she say? She could never fess up about her snooping into his computer. Unless of course she was in the mood to face a firing squad. “I just guessed. But I promise you, my lips are sealed.”
“Glad to hear that.”
“I can’t tell you how much I respect what you do. Just tell me one thing. Is my mother safe? I mean, are there people who might come here looking for you?”
“Trust me, no one knows I’m here. And I doubt anyone is looking right now. They have bigger fish to fry than me.”
“That’s a relief,” she said.
“Now can I ask you a favor?”
“Sure. What?”
“We don’t ever bring up this subject again.”
“Deal.” She bit down on her lip and paused. “One last question?”
“Go on.”
“Do you ever get scared?”
“All the time.”
“The pressure must be intense.”
“That, plus working with some characters can be a real problem.”
“I’ll bet. How do you handle it?”
“I told you already. Peanut butter brownies.”
Jenna laughed. What did she expect him to say? He wasn’t going to start talking to her about carrying a gun or anything. Did he carry a gun?
Aiden walked closer. She could hard
ly believe the way her body reacted to him. Although he was tall, he wasn’t a brawny man. But he had a runner’s grace and a lean muscularity that had her fantasizing about getting naked with him. Then there was his Prince Aragorn face and…
“On that final note,” he said with a polite but distinctly no-nonsense resolve, “we’re done talking about it.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, almost wanting to salute. Then quickly added a jittery, “What I mean is, absolutely.”
His eyes instantly warmed. “So, what are you up to tonight?”
“Nothing.” She’d turned down Sean’s invitation to a party in Manhattan. The fact that he didn’t try to talk her into going disturbed her a little. But how could she fault Sean for that when she’d chosen to stay home in case Aiden came back?
“Want to go look at some stars?” he asked. “From a different location.”
“Sure.”
He pointed to her pink fuzzy slippers. “Get some shoes on, and we’ll head out.”
“Meet you on the stairs in ten.”
Back in her room, Jenna quickly slipped into her sneakers. Then she neatened her ponytail, swished on some eyeliner and lipstick, changed into a black sweater, and tossed on her pea coat. Aiden stood waiting outside her door, his tall frame leaning against the wall in a sultry pose, hands in the pockets of his leather jacket.
“Custer Observatory is open to the public tonight. Ever been there?” he asked.
Jenna nodded. “We went there on a class trip when I was in tenth grade. But to be honest, I wasn’t all that, um…”
“You were too busy flirting with Josh or Eric or whatever his name was.”
“How’d you know?” She giggled and gave him a poke on the arm.
“Ouch.”
Sitting next to Aiden in the confines of his car, Jenna could tell the tidbits of conversation he made about the North Fork being a great place for stargazing were a cover-up for his nervousness. Strange thing was that it relaxed her a bit knowing he was also feeling awkward, maybe also wondering if this was a date or not.