She took another sip of her water and told her nerves to calm down. It was just a friendly kiss, the kind she’d planted on plenty of people in her life. It didn’t mean anything more and she resolved not to think about it further.
They celebrated their agreement with dessert. This time, Ava didn’t have to tell him he was helping her eat it. When she pointed out that it seemed he was capable of being trained, he laughed.
“I’m a dog?”
She swirled a forkful of apple pie through the melting ice cream. “I believe I have heard men referred to that way once or twice.”
“I hope not by you.”
“Hope away.” She popped the pie into her mouth.
He gave her that crooked grin of his, the one that made her forget she wasn’t supposed to be thinking about kissing him. She stuffed in another bite.
When they’d finally finished their meal and made their way outside, they were the only ones there. Most of the customers had left earlier and those that were still hanging around were busy kicking up their heels on the dance floor. That, or they were waiting for the sleigh indoors where it wasn’t freezing.
Ava tucked her hands into her pockets. They probably had about ten minutes before the sleigh would arrive to take them back down the mountain. She didn’t mind the wait. The fireplace in the lodge had been kicking out enough heat for an entire country, and the winter air felt good on her face.
Jake was standing close to her, really close. She shivered.
“Cold?” He reached out to slip an arm around her. She shifted away.
“I’m fine.” Or would be as soon as her heart returned to its normal rhythm.
They waited in silence. The occasional hoot of an owl and whisper of pine needles as the wind gusted through their branches were the only sounds until his phone rang. That annoying old-fashioned rotary phone ringtone. The one that had been cute when it first came out, but was now just annoying. “You need to change that ringtone,” she told him.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s impersonal. And, to be honest, a little lame.”
“I’m lame?”
“Your ringtone is.” She had a few good ideas of how to fix it, too. Never let it be said that Ava Christensen identified problems without having a ready solution.
He smiled and pulled out the phone to check the display, but shoved it back into his pocket without answering.
“You’re not going to answer it?” Wild curiosity had her wanting to know who it was and why Jake would ignore it.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because it isn’t important.”
“Why? Who is it?” He took the phone out again to show her the screen. “Rachel?”
“My sister,” he clarified before she had a chance to assume that Rachel was a girlfriend or wife or something worse. Though she didn’t know what could be worse. And that clarification brought her much more joy than it should have. Had she already forgotten that they were friends, colleagues and no more?
She was spending far too much time thinking about this little flirtation they had going and not enough thinking about the job. She should be thrilled by Jake’s proposal. The chance to host a pilot that had potential to be so much more. Instead, she was looking at him with what she feared were moony calf eyes and wondering if he might be tempted to kiss her. She held out her hand. “Your phone, please.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“I need to fix that ringtone.”
“Because it’s lame.” He placed it in her palm.
She ignored the sizzle of connection when his gloved hand bumped against hers. Seriously, it wasn’t even skin-on-skin contact and she was weak in the knees. How sad was that? “It lumps you in with all those people who think it’s the awesomest ringtone ever and show it off by never answering on the first ring.”
“I always answer on the first ring.”
She tucked the phone into her pocket. “You can do better.” She had a few ideas already percolating, but she needed to think about it.
“Wait.” He frowned. Was it wrong for her to notice how cute he looked doing it? “You’re not changing it now?”
“A good ringtone requires thinking time. It can’t be rushed.”
“No deal.” He put out his hand. “Decide on the ringtone and then you get the phone.”
She sidestepped him. “I have to see which carrier you’re with to see what’s available.” And if the address book should happen to open and if she should happen to read the names and research those of the female persuasion, well, he didn’t need to know that. “I’ll give it back tomorrow.”
“So I won’t have my phone all night?” He shook his head. “Forget it”
“What? You’re so important that you need your phone every second? Do you have another career as a surgeon that I don’t know about?”
“Ava.” There was a warning note in his voice, but it still made her shivery.
“Having a night away from your phone isn’t going to kill you.”
He thought about it. “Fine. But only if you give me yours.”
“No.” He would see her email and texts, all those discussions with Jilly about her feelings and what was or wasn’t going on. “No way.”
“Why not? It’s only fair.”
“Because I need my phone. I have a blog to update.”
“You update using your computer,” Jake reminded her.
He had a point. “Still, the answer is no.”
“Then I guess you’ll be giving mine back.” He reached for it again.
“Wrong.” She jerked back out of his hold and when he advanced on her, turned and ran.
She heard his grunt of surprise before his footsteps pounded after her. “Ava, come on.”
“I’m doing you a favor,” she called over her shoulder. “Saving you from being part of the bad-ringtone club. You should thank me.” Her boots crunched through the formerly untouched snow. She could hear him behind her. Probably gaining ground with every step. She stepped up her pace.
The trees spread out before her, creating a clear path that she ran through. The snow was deeper here, and it was harder to get through, but she did her best. She could hear him getting closer, but then he wasn’t wearing heeled boots and running with a broken wrist. She thought she was doing pretty well, all things considered.
When she realized she couldn’t hear him anymore, she eased her pace slightly. Was it because the blood was pounding too loudly in her ears to hear anything or had he actually given up? She hoped it wasn’t the latter. What would be the fun in leading him on a merry chase if he didn’t play along?
She slowed a little more, just enough so that she could turn and peek without accidentally slamming into a tree. Before she’d even had a chance to try, his arms snaked around her waist and lifted her off the ground. She gasped. “Jake, don’t you dare drop me.”
He was laughing in her ear, his breath brushing her skin. “I won’t drop you.” When he loosened his hold, it was just enough to let her slide down the length of his body. “I would never let you get hurt.”
A shiver raced through her. “You better not.” Her boots touched the ground, but Jake didn’t let go. Ava started to wonder what game they were really playing. Nerves reared up. “Jake, I—”
“Shh.” He spun her so they were facing each other and placed a finger against her mouth. “I have something for you.”
Ava didn’t need to be a romantic-movie e
xpert, even though she was, to know what was coming next. Her breath caught. She knew she’d told Jilly that one more kiss would cure her of this attraction, but the one at the restaurant had only intensified it.
He moved closer, curving his body around her like a shield, and she swore that if he didn’t kiss her, she was going to die. Shrivel up into a pile of cold, untouched snow and blow away.
So when he lowered her to the ground, she went along with it. It was just like the last scene in Serendipity when John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale finally reunite after all those years apart. Okay, so there was no chance meeting in a department store or a lost phone number. No leading separate lives and getting engaged to other people. No reconnecting just as they were about to walk down the aisle with the wrong people. But otherwise, it was totally the same.
And while John Cusack was no Rob Lowe and wasn’t considered an official member of the Brat Pack, he was pretty close, and she’d avidly followed his career through the years.
“Close your eyes,” Jake said.
Ava did and felt something cold pass across her lips. Confusion cooled some of her internal fire. “Jake?” She opened her eyes.
He was still hovering above her, but there was a very large snowball in his hand. One held only inches from her face and dripping. He grinned. “I suggest a trade. You hand over the phone and I’ll drop the snow.”
“No.” She tried to scrabble back.
But he had her trapped. He caught her around the waist with one arm and held her firmly. “Yes. Hand it over.”
“Never.” She turned her head to the side, but he anticipated the move.
“Last chance.”
She could feel the cold radiating from the snow to her skin. Another drip fell onto her cheek. She bet Kate Beckinsale never had to deal with anything like this. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would.”
Which meant there was only one thing she could do.
She clutched a handful of snow with her good arm and threw it at him. He shook off the light dusting and rubbed his handful into her face. Then they were both laughing, shoving snow at each other and rolling around on the ground.
Ava was pretty pleased when she managed to jam a chunk down the back of his neck, less pleased when he got her back. But she was laughing so hard she couldn’t catch her breath.
“Truce?” Jake asked.
She nodded. What was she going to say—“Actually, no. I’d prefer another face wash”? She let him help her to her feet.
“Are you giving me back my phone now?”
“I’m cold,” she answered instead and brushed the snow off her jeans. It was cold standing, more so when the wind blew through the trees. “Make that freezing. My jeans are all wet, thanks to you.”
“You started it.”
“I know. And it’s not very gentlemanly of you to remind me of that. Just for that, you are definitely not getting your phone back tonight.”
They made their way back to the front of the restaurant. They were still the only ones waiting in the small alcove.
This time when he made a move to put his arm around her, she let him. She was too chilled to worry about professionalism and propriety. Plus, there was no one around to see them.
And when he put a finger under her chin and tilted it toward him, she didn’t stop him. She didn’t even put up any resistance when he bent his head and covered her lips with his. She could tell herself that she was just trying to chase away the need so that they could move forward into friendship, but it would be a lie.
So she let him kiss her until she was breathless, until her hands were twisted in his coat as she tried to get closer and the snow around them threatened to steam. Maybe what happened in Idaho could stay in Idaho?
CHAPTER TWELVE
JAKE DRUMMED HIS FINGERS on his desk and tried to focus on work. He and Ava had arrived back in Vancouver yesterday afternoon and he hadn’t stopped moving since. He’d managed to explain their extra day away by telling everyone that Ava’s wrist had started bothering her and they’d decided to have it looked at by the doctor immediately instead of waiting until they got home.
The fact that everyone, even Harvey, had bought the lie without question made him feel guilty. He didn’t like people who traded on their personal relationships to further their own ambitions, and he didn’t like being one of them. But it had been an emergency. If Ava hadn’t agreed to host the pilot, he might have lost his permits, and the money already spent would have been wasted.
But his solution had created its own set of problems. Although he hadn’t slept with Ava, he was pretty sure things were heading that way.
The only reason they hadn’t yet was because he didn’t want their first night together to be one where she was shivering so hard that her lips turned blue. He’d dropped her off safely in her hotel room and returned to his own, where he’d stood under the shower, running the water so hot that it left his skin the color of boiled lobster. But even that hadn’t eased the itching beneath it.
Though he told himself that he should have been grateful that cooler heads—or in their case, icy jeans—had prevailed, he was annoyed. Whatever was going on between him and Ava wasn’t going away. That kiss in the snow had proved it.
He intended to find out what they were going to do about it tonight.
Last night, he and Alex had met with the investors. The dinner meeting had gone well. Well enough that he thought the money would soon be rolling into his account. But until that was official, he had work to do here, and there was a lot of it.
He spent an hour weeding through the mess that losing a producer had left him with. He hadn’t yet decided if he should hire someone or let Hanna do that, but was leaning toward narrowing down the field with a couple of rounds of interviews and stopping there. He made a mental note to ask Harvey if he’d contacted Hanna yet.
He also had to book some space to run auditions for the travel-show host. It was great that Ava could fill in so he could get the pilot finished, but it wasn’t a long-term solution. He’d lived the disaster that came from mixing personal and professional lives already, and wasn’t willing to risk it again.
After making a note to look through his files for the number of the audition space they’d used last time, Jake picked up his cell. He was the proud owner of a new ringtone featuring the chorus of Loverboy’s “Everybody’s Working for the Weekend,” and though he still didn’t think his old-fashioned ring had been lame, he could admit that Ava’s choice was better.
He scrolled through the numbers until he found the one marked PITA and hit Talk. Two rings later, his little sister answered.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?”
Jake grinned. “Just good luck. That or you must have earned some good karma in another life since you’ve spent the majority of this one tormenting me.”
There was a brief pause. “Oh, my, oh, my, my, my.”
“What?”
“This is the first time in a month that you haven’t snarled at me. Not only that, you actually made a joke. I feel like I should call the press.”
“Hilarious. Listen, I just called to let you know that I talked to Mom last night, so you can stop accusing me of being a bad son.” A bad son would never have spent the time talking to his mother when he could have been devising a way to get a late-night invitation to Ava’s place after his meeting.
“I know. How was the Skype chat anyway?”
“Yeah, about that. Th
anks for telling her that if she had Skype I wouldn’t always be rushing to get off the phone.”
“I do what I can. Did she actually get the camera to work or did you just look at a black screen the whole time?
“She got it working, but I wouldn’t say it was a success. The camera got stuck when she tried to adjust it, so I spent most of the conversation looking at her forehead.”
Rachel laughed. “Why didn’t you tell her?”
“I was afraid she’d adjust it again and miss the other way.”
“You didn’t want to spend the call looking at your mother’s breasts?”
Jake flinched. “Stop talking. Now. Seriously.”
“Why?” He could picture the evil smile on his sister’s face. “Those breasts nourished you as a baby.”
“Stop it. You’re sick. Sick.” He wiped a hand across his forehead. “What is wrong with you?”
She was laughing too hard to answer. Jake didn’t think it was a laughing matter. She was ruining breasts for him. And Skype.
“All right, I just called to let you know I talked to Mom. I’m hanging up now.”
“No.” The giggling finally ceased. “You aren’t getting off this phone before telling me about the meeting.”
Jake hadn’t planned on telling anyone else in the family exactly when the investor meeting was scheduled, hoping to keep the details to himself until he had the deal all sewn up. But he knew he could trust Rachel. She was the only one in Toronto who hadn’t told him he was crazy to give up everything he had there to try starting over here. “It was fine.”
“Fine? How fine? Are they putting up the money?”
“I hope so.” Jake kept his voice neutral. He didn’t want to give Rachel any reason to go blabbing to their parents before the contract was signed.
While a secret part of him had hoped the dinner would close the deal, that the investors would feel reassured that he wouldn’t waste their money on a project that looked as if it had been shot by someone’s phone, he was practical. They’d need to look at the proposal more closely and work out exactly how much they were willing to put up before moving forward.
That Weekend... Page 14