by Unknown
If I didn’t put them back they might wash right out to sea.
I tried to grab the umbrella but the wind pushed hard in resistance and I couldn’t get the pole out of the little round hole in the table. Frustrated by the wind, and even more by my performance, I grabbed the pole and yanked as hard as I could. The umbrella stayed put but I lost my grip and flew backward toosh-first onto the sand.
“Let me help you with that.” Luke’s warm voice came from behind me.
Tingles skittered across my chest. Luke had come out here? Had he followed me? I was so embarrassed, though, I just wanted him to leave me alone.
I jumped up, dusting the sand off my bottom. “Thanks, but I’ve got it.”
He reached for the umbrella pole anyway, lifting it out easily and setting it on the sand next to the table. “With this weather, we should probably put the furniture away. I can get that chair nearest the water since, you know, I’m wet anyway.”
He was totally still wet, too. I could see the damp splotch on his shirt and the front of his pants. His usually-slicked back hair fell across his forehead in a messy way that looked equally sexy on him. I gnawed at my bottom lip. “I’m so sorry. That was an accident.”
“Was it?” He grinned, his white teeth showing between his full lips.
“Of course it was!”
He started laughing. “You really threw me off there for a second.”
I swallowed hard. “I forgot my lines.”
He faced me. A long bar of watery sunlight fell across him, outlining the breadth of his shoulders and the narrow cut of his waist and hips.
“You look pretty good wet, though,” I added, my heart beating a little faster. Had I really said that aloud? I was supposed to be breaking off our date, not flirting with him.
“Why, thank you.” He stepped toward me, his expression turning serious. “Charlie, were you ad libbing because you forgot the lines? Or were you trying to ask me if I’m seeing Adele?”
I dug my foot into the sand. “I saw you with her at Frankie’s Fiesta last night. It sort of looked like you were dating.”
“We make appearances for publicity and we’re required by contract to do them. She and I aren’t dating. We’re just friends. I’m not seeing her beyond my obligations.”
“Well, that’s good to know.” I believed him, but I still took a step backward. Being too close to him felt dangerous. I wanted to kiss his full lips, and badly. So I took another retreating step.
The surf rolled up, nearly knocking me off my feet. Luke caught me and I sagged against his hard body for a blissful moment. Then I moved back from the water as another wave set to ride in. Luke came with me, holding my hand.
“I think you’ve just wrecked those shoes.”
I stared down at them. “Oh, great. They belong to the set.”
“I hate to say this, but you should probably chuck those ugly things right out to sea.”
“They are pretty hideous.” I laughed, the tension finally breaking between us.
“You could have just asked me, you know. Instead of pouring the water on me . . .” He slipped an arm around my waist. The weight and heat of him felt good. Very good.
I lifted my lashes. “I’m sorry. My last relationship made me a little skeptical.”
He winked. “I know. I saw the tabloids.”
I smiled. “You can’t believe everything in those things because that’s where I first read you were dating Adele. I was going to break our date and I felt nervous on set. I haven’t acted in years and never in front of a camera. The whole water thing really was an accident, though.”
“Don’t worry about it. You shouldn’t worry about forgetting your lines either. It happens to everyone, and we just do another take.” He pulled me closer, resting his forehead against mine. “To tell you the truth, I froze up and forgot my lines the very first time I had a part.”
“Really?” I asked, loving the feel of his skin against mine. I wanted to melt against him but something made me hold back.
“Yes, I was the only guy in the drama club at my little county high school so I had a really big part. But when I got up there to say my lines I totally forgot them. I just stood there, never saying a word. Everyone laughed at me.” He let out a long breath. “I had nightmares for years.”
My throat tightened. “That’s . . . awful.”
“I’ve never told anyone about the nightmares,” he whispered. The wind whipped through us, and he turned so his body shielded mine completely. His hands moved lightly up and down my arms. Sheltered. That was how he made me feel. Sheltered and safe.
“Why would you tell me something so private?” I asked, mesmerized by his openness as well as his touch.
Luke opened his mouth to answer right as one of the chairs caught in the wind, spinning and sailing across the sand. I shrieked. Luke ran after the small chair, grabbing the arm just before it landed in the ocean.
Without another word, we started moving the furniture back to the house, setting them in the little storage space. When we were done, he pulled me into his arms again, his eyes serious. “I know you’re worried about our date, but don’t be. I’m just a small town guy who enjoys acting. I never forget that, and I won’t ever forget that.”
“You won’t?” Staring into his blue-gray eyes, I realized that he knew. He knew exactly what had happened with Rex and how scared I was. Rex had been a small town guy, too, but as soon as he got famous he became someone else entirely.
Maybe Luke really would be different. . . .
He leaned closer, his face only inches from mine. I breathed in the scent of his cologne and parted my lips. My breaths shortened as the moment drew out and I wondered if he was going to kiss me. Maybe I should just kiss him? I wanted to, and badly.
A few seconds passed, and I counted them on my heartbeats. Slowly, his head dipped toward mine . . . and then his phone rang, shrilling through the silence between us.
He drew back, looking as flustered as I felt. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “That’s the producer’s ringtone. We have to get back on set. But we can pick this up on our date. Right?”
I smiled back at him. Oh, yes. We would most definitely pick this up again.
Chapter Ten
After our next scene, I came out by the ocean again, the sound of the waves filling my ears in a soothing rhythm. The wind picked up and rushed over my body, flattening the maid’s uniform against me, and ripping my hair out of the updo the hair stylist had pinned so neatly. The shoes were wet and sticky on my feet, but I was too busy thinking about Luke to care, and wishing for that kiss that had almost happened.
Feeling his mouth against mine would’ve been amazing. I just knew it.
The water came up the sand and receded, leaving behind a small treasure trove of pretty shells. I bent down and sorted through a few of them as I tried to get my thoughts together. My fingers slipped across the rough and smooth edges of the shells and I straightened up and stared back at the house where Luke was shooting a scene with Adele, and Travis, the other detective.
I wanted to go on that date, wanted to badly, but with every moment it was getting clearer that doing so would be foolish. I liked Luke too much already. And I didn’t have the best judgment when it came to men. I mean, I’d thought Rex was a good man and look how that had turned out—with me broke, renting out my home to a soap opera cast, and still smarting from a betrayal even though I no longer loved him.
I turned around and hiked up the steps toward the house, still conflicted. When I arrived on the main floor, I found myself the target of a fierce glare from Bette, the wardrobe woman. I followed the direction of her gaze to those ugly shoes.
I gave her a sheepish grin. “Sorry, the tide caught me.”
“Let me have them.” Bette sniffed and looked down at my shoes. Was she serious? She wanted me to give her the shoes right there and then?
“Okay . . .” I took them off and held them out gingerly.
“I’ll see what I can
do.” She sighed and then whisked them away.
Since I was now standing in my bare feet, I headed toward the back stairs, so I could go to my bedroom and get new—and dry— shoes. But before I could reach the stairs, Anna, the young starlet, came out, and spotted me.
“Charlie! They want you on set.”
I cast a quick look around for a stray pair of slippers or boots. No such luck. I swallowed, gesturing toward the stairs. “I’ll be right back.”
“Now!” She waved her arms madly. “I think it’s really important. You’d better hurry.”
“I need to run down and get some shoes. The wardrobe lady took the ones I had on.”
Anna shrugged. “You aren’t the first person Bette has taken shoes from. Just be glad she didn’t decide she wanted the outfit, too.”
I gnashed my teeth together. The last thing I wanted was for anyone to see me looking like what I must’ve looked like right then. My hair stuck to my cheeks in stiff hair-sprayed locks. I was barefooted and there was a suspiciously damp blotch on my skirt’s hem.
“I’m just going to run and grab . . .”
“There you are!” Adele called, then leaned against the doorway. Her gaze trailed over me in a dismissive but thoroughly assessing way. “Wow, you’re a mess.”
Adele looked fresh and perfect, of course. I opened my mouth to say I’d be back in a minute—
“Found Charlie!” Adele called over her shoulder, then gave me a catty smile.
Roger stepped into the hallway, took one look at me, and said, “Oh, that’s perfect. You must be a mind reader. That look was just what I was thinking for the next scene.”
I blinked a few times. “Huh?”
“We’re improvising a scene and we need you.”
Improvising a scene? What the . . .? Roger grabbed my arm and hauled me into the living room. My face heated as every eye in the room turned to look at me.
“We don’t always shoot scenes in a linear way,” Roger explained, lopping his arm over my shoulder. “The writers just came up with an incredible story arc, and they’re working on it right now. That means we are going to have to catch up to the former script.”
“Okay . . .” I had no idea what he was talking about. I looked around for Luke and found him over at a table with a bunch of other people, all of them armed with laptops and tablets and all of them typing furiously.
“So, here’s the deal,” Roger said. “You and Luke are great together. The chemistry is explosive. We’re testing this scene to see if it would make the story arc the writers have in mind work well. Basically, Detective Bishop will have just discovered you were involved in some rather sketchy-looking activity out on the beach. He suspects you were hiding evidence. Got it?”
I pointed across the room. “Um, the wardrobe lady took my shoes.”
Roger looked down at my bare feet, and then looked back up smiling. “Your feet are fine, thank goodness. Can’t say the same for the entire cast. Anna has the feet of a rabid badger. Putting her in anything open-toed is a no-go. Drives Bette bonkers. Don’t tell her I said that, though. She bites.”
Roger whirled away, leaving me stunned and blinking. The cast was lounging around but the production team wasn’t and I had to scurry from one side of the room to the other as they set up cameras and taped fresh marks to the floor. I barely escaped a concussion when one overzealous boom operator didn’t see me and nearly dropped the microphone.
The makeup people grabbed me and hauled me into a corner. One of them said, “Oh, the horror. She’s got salt all over her face.”
“Leave it,” the woman in charge said. “She’s supposed to look like she came from the beach.”
“I was just at the beach. Ow!” I glared at the man holding a brush near my head.
He shrugged. “Salty water and strong styling spray don’t mix, honey. Let that be a lesson to you.” He tapped the brush into his palm for a moment then lifted a hand to his own perfectly coiffed locks in an unmistakably sly gesture that said it all.
“We need Charlie!” Roger called out, gesturing toward a spot right behind the front door.
My head spun. Somehow I went to where he’d pointed.
“You’re going to come in when we signal you, Charlie. Then Luke will pounce on you.”
“Pounce on me?” My whole body went up in flames as I pictured Luke’s body covering my own. I couldn’t possibly be interpreting that correctly. I stammered out, “Uh, okay.”
“Just go with it.” Roger fisted both of his hands in a fierce gesture. “Do and say whatever comes naturally to you. Okay, folks! Action!”
Luke stood in the room, his back to me as he peered out the long windows. He turned away from them and one of the crew gave me a frantic signal. I stepped into the room and Luke walked toward me. His expression was both angry and grave and he said, “What were you just doing out there on the beach, Piper? And don’t think of lying to me.”
I blushed and shot a look around the room. Did he want me to say what had happened out there? How he’d almost kissed me? No, I couldn’t say that with the cameras on us. “Nothing, Detective. Walking and looking at the waves. I found a few shells.”
Luke stared at me, through me. “You were hiding something, Piper. What was it?”
“I wasn’t hiding anything, I swear.” I stood still, wanting him to believe me.
“Yes, you were. I saw you. Tell me what it was.”
He stepped toward me. He was so close now. That almost-kiss lingered in the air between us. My gaze took in his full, perfect mouth. I imagined what it would feel like against mine, I couldn’t wait any longer. I grabbed Luke by his shirt collar with both of my hands and did exactly what I had wanted to do to him out there on the beach.
I kissed him.
Luke responded immediately, his mouth moving with mine in perfect unison. Every cell in my body came alive, like I was always meant to be in this moment with this man. I inhaled the scent of his cologne as my body pressed against his and my knees went weak. Oh, wow.
My hands tightened on his collar and the kiss drew deeper until I forgot about everything else. I forgot about the camera crew and the cast, about Rex and the mountain of mistrust he’d left behind, and I forgot about my worries over my date with Luke.
All that existed was the warm feel of his lips on mine, the way his body held me against him, and the feel of his hands on my shoulders and then my face. Then our mouths parted, his tongue connected with mine, and I was lost. Lost in a world of hopes and dreams, lost in Luke.
I was breathless and dizzy when he suddenly pulled away, and the world came crashing back in. The kiss broke off and we backed away, staring at each other.
His gaze bored into mine. “You did that to distract me from the truth. Didn’t you? I saw you out there, Piper. I know you’re keeping something from me.”
“I don’t know what you think you saw but I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I’m innocent. You have to believe me, Detective.”
“I’ll discover the truth eventually. I’m not going anywhere until I do.”
“What if I don’t want you to know the truth? What if it’s too dark and painful . . .?” My voice trailed off, and I stopped right there. There was a long pause as we stared at each other, and thick tension clung in the air between us.
“Cut!” Roger yelled.
The crew broke into applause around us. I gaped at them and then it hit me. Detective Bishop was supposed to have been the one to pounce on Piper. But, instead, I had kissed Luke. In front of everyone. And wow what a kiss. . . .
Roger clapped his hands. “Charlie, you’re finished for the day. I will have my assistant deliver your next scenes to you tonight. Luke, you and Adele get ready for the scenes we had on deck today. Everyone, places!”
As I took a step to leave the room, Luke leaned toward me, his mouth resting by my ear. “You could have kissed me out on the beach, you know.”
My belly fluttered. I was too stunned to respond, so I watched him wink at me,
and then he headed toward his mark. I took that moment and fled.
****
After a shower and a change of clothes, I headed for Claire’s place. She had just texted me a rather weird message that she was off work this afternoon and needed some big sister time. I was eager to get out of the house and away from the cast and crew, including Luke.
Every time I thought about our kiss, my belly warmed. But I still couldn’t believe I’d kissed him like that on camera in front of everyone—and on television!—when the director had instructed me that Luke’s character was supposed to make the first move.
My crush was so not a secret anymore. How embarrassing.
Claire lived in a small neat house near downtown Blue Moon Bay and when I got there she flung the door open. “What happened to your hair?”
I grimaced and lifted a hand to it. “I had to wash it three times to get the styling spray out of it and then I had to condition it twice. It’s torn between being greasy and dry. I don’t know. Maybe it’ll all even out eventually.”
“Let’s hope.” She fingered her own dark hair. “I’m out of chocolate and I totally need something sweet. Do you feel like walking down to Bay Side Coffee for a cookie and a mocha, or something?”
“Sure.” I stepped out onto her porch and she shut the door behind me, and then we set off. The wind had picked up again and the awnings above the stores flapped briskly. Claire was a fast walker and I didn’t even bother trying to talk to her as we made our way down the winding streets toward the coffee shop.
We went inside and gave the barista our orders then took our drinks and cookies to a small table near the back. Once we’d sat down, Claire took a bite of her cookie, and swallowed. “I’m glad you’ve stopped wearing those stupid disguises. I swear that one dress you wore—it was either a tent or a runway project gone horribly awry.”