Ernest held up his top-of-the-line cell phone, a product of his newly exorbitant salary. “A limo is waiting. It has wi-fi. If you leave cell range, text whatever you need.”
His new executive intelligently realized Josh had no intention of returning to Willa’s mansion—ever. “More like, you’ll hound me all the way up the mountain. I’ll buy the mountain so they can’t put up cell towers,” Josh said without resentment.
He knew he was in no shape to drive himself. Loss of blood, lack of sleep, and stress had him woozy and weary. He nearly fell into the back of the waiting limo. Giving the driver instructions, he sprawled on the seat and worked his way through his call list.
His new personal secretary assured him she’d spoken with Sarah’s family and arranged her funeral. Josh hadn’t really known Sarah, and her parents didn’t know him. He owed them nothing after he’d learned the contents of Willa’s phone, but the parents were innocent, and their grief needed to be recognized. And he thought maybe Sarah had cared enough about Willa to immediately notify the police of the tracker app—before realizing the danger the phone represented to herself and Tessa.
The secret files Willa had kept on her phone—and thumb drive—did not reflect well on Willa or anyone with whom she worked. Willa had learned, not only that Tessa and Brad were spying on her, but that Tessa was embezzling from the firm, and that Sarah was implicated. Presumably, Sarah had hoped to delete anything incriminating before turning it over to the sheriff—but Brad had preferred to take no chances that she’d protect him. He’d been the one to plant the phone and photos.
The police had searched Sarah’s computers and traced the tracker signal app back to Ivan, who admitted installing the spyware in his daughter’s phone.
All the irony would make a terrible spy novel. Remembering some of Willa’s tactics, Josh suspected she used information to blackmail her employees into doing anything she wanted. And in the end, it was her father’s spying that had broken the case.
Plus Amber’s immense and scary talent. She’d forced Willa’s ghost to reveal the contents of his suitcase lining!
After all the backstabbing and poisonous behavior of Willa’s world, Josh felt nothing but relief for the escape his personal goddess offered. He prayed Amber would forgive him for being so crass as to settle for Willa’s wealth and fame.
The police had the thumb drive and the file Willa had left in Josh’s suitcase. That must have happened before she’d left the lodge that day, because it was Tessa who had driven up to pack Willa’s things and drive her car to the parking lot. Willa had apparently wanted her friend out of the way while she fired Brad.
Brad had confessed to heaving Willa’s suitcases in a dumpster down the mountain before turning her sporty red car over to a chop shop for fast cash. Tessa having the keys had made his task easier. He’d simply driven Willa’s car to the vortex, loaded her body in it after he killed her, and driven off, leaving everyone to think it had been Willa leaving town.
Brad had also destroyed Willa’s camera with her photo journal of everyone she’d spoken to that day, including him and Tessa, but she’d apparently uploaded the images to her cloud account when she’d gone to the antique store and used Aaron’s wi-fi. Along with the fake blackmail photos that Brad had planted on Sarah—ones of Willa’s body that he’d taken himself—the cops had enough evidence to lock him away forever.
Josh’s head hurt. He didn’t even want to begin unraveling the nasty nest of lies and deceit. His imagination simply didn’t work with that level of paranoia, and fraud was beyond his capacity.
He had a film to direct. . . and a woman he wanted more than all the wealth in the world. Focusing on the positive was what he needed, if he could just figure out why in hell Amber might want a mess like him—or if she would be better off without him.
She’d been living in peace and harmony for years. He’d showed up and shattered her life.
She talked to dead people and read minds. His Amber was one hell of a scary woman. But she’d offered him the only peace he’d ever known.
He had a few hours to figure this out, right?
He fell asleep before they escaped LA traffic.
By the time the limo rolled up her lane, Amber had sorted her options. No one was offering her voice-overs yet. Connections were her goal, not publicity, so she’d sorted accordingly. Her performance the other night was already all over YouTube. Who needed more publicity than that? If there was laughter, it wasn’t at her specifically, so she could bear it. No one was comparing her to her old shots of Ginger when they had ghostly emanations to cackle over. And there was still lots of meaty scandal to chew through, none of it on her. She could live with that.
The limo pulling up in the lane, however. . . brought mixed joy and terror. Zeke had run down to help the grocer with some shelf rearranging. With any luck, he hadn’t seen the car. So if that was Josh out there. . .
They might have all of ten minutes privacy, tops.
The uniformed chauffeur opened the rear door and a dress-suited Josh stepped out. She suspected this was as formal as it got for him. He looked as if he’d slept in the suit for a week. He had bed hair standing up on one end and falling in his eyes. His coat was unbuttoned to reveal his half unknotted tie and a wrinkled shirt falling out of his equally wrinkled trousers. He didn’t appear to have shaved in a week.
He looked gorgeous. His cobalt eyes crinkled at the corners when she stepped out on the porch. His lips crooked in his lopsided grin. And he just stood there, beaming stupidly, as if all he wanted to do was look at her.
Which warmed her inside and out and made her flush. If she recalled the mental image he’d projected when he’d been shot—she’d die of embarrassment knowing he was stripping her naked like that. “Do you intend to come in? I think your driver will have to park in town. My driveway isn’t that big.”
He signaled his driver, who touched his cap and returned to the car. Then Josh ambled up the walk, not showing any sign that he could have died two nights ago.
“You didn’t go,” he said, holding the cocky grin.
“Of course I didn’t go. This is where I want to be.” She led him inside, where the phone was ringing, again. She was tempted to ignore it, but caller ID showed Mariah, so she answered.
“We’ll take care of Zeke,” Mariah said without preamble. “Make the rich bastard take you to a nice dinner at Delphine’s. Take the night off. We’ve got your back.” She hung up without Amber having to say a word.
She stared stupidly at the receiver a second longer before putting it down.
Josh wasn’t smiling anymore. “Something wrong? Where’s Zeke?”
“For a change, everything is fine,” she said in wonder. “Zeke has been adopted by the town. You don’t look as if you’ve come from Willa’s funeral. Come in and tell me what’s happening.”
He captured her waist and kissed her.
She hadn’t realized how much she’d feared he was here to tell her good-bye until she collapsed against him and sucked up every ounce of passion he offered and returned as good as she got.
He steered her toward the bedroom. She didn’t resist.
They had so much to talk about. . . but they needed clear heads for that.
Amber winced when Josh did as she tugged off his shirt, revealing a proper bandage strapped around his ribs. He didn’t let a little pain stop him from yanking off her blouse.
“You’ll go to dinner with me tonight and wear that teal dress, won’t you?” he asked as he tumbled her into the bed. “I’ll take pictures so Teddy can make a necklace to go with it.”
She laughed and kissed his stubbled jaw and neck. “I’ll wear the dress. I don’t need a necklace. I have tons.” Her bedroom wall was layered with them.
“Pearls and diamonds,” he insisted, “Not beads. I don’t want you selling your rings. Those rings are important.”
She gasped as he kissed her in all those places he’d learned these past weeks. She’d like to tell him she would never sell
anything he gave her, but her mind had quit working. She no longer cared that she was naked in broad daylight as long as he kept on doing what he was doing.
Hours later, while Amber showered, Josh called Delphines to be certain they could get a table. Whoever answered assured him he could have a table anytime he liked, as long as he was bringing Amber. He chuckled and gave them their ETA, then turned to admire Amber as she strolled out drying herself without a speck of self-consciousness.
She was a lush Venus, and he had to force his prick to behave. Loss of blood and the last hours made that easier.
“Can Dinah fit us in, or do I need to see what I can rummage up?”
“You’re Hillvale’s superstar. As long as I bring you, they said they’d fit us in anytime. I like this town. Unlike in Hollywood, it doesn’t matter if my latest flick bombed. We’re celebrities as long as we do our part, right?” He dragged on the trousers Amber had pressed for him while he was showering.
“Your matinee star status does not guarantee you a preferred seat, right. I think in Dinah’s case, she just needs to like you more than whatever poor tourist is waiting for an opening.” She shimmied into what she called her fat crusher.
“You know you don’t have to wear that elastic for me, don’t you?” He couldn’t get enough of watching her, so he unabashedly studied her gyrations as he buttoned his newly pressed shirt.
“I wear them for me, so don’t let your head swell. Start telling me everything. Is your film on track again? When do you have to go back?”
He watched as she tucked her perfect, non-plastic breasts into armor. “You ask me that after what we just did? Why would I ever leave? Are you planning on throwing me out? You realize I haven’t had sex that spectacular since we were kids?”
She studied him with a puzzled frown. “I haven’t had sex at all since we were kids, but I live in Hillvale where available men are scarce. What in heck have you been doing?”
“Dating the wrong women, apparently. That’s not the discussion here, although I’m getting pretty chuffed thinking you’re all mine, so let’s quell that egotistical rot and move on. Did you just want me for your boy toy?”
She blushed and reached for her wrap-around dress, avoiding his question. “Chuffed? What Brit have you been hanging out with?”
“Amber Abercrombie, if you won’t have this discussion, we’re going to end up back in that bed until you make up your mind,” he threatened. “Don’t make me starve while you argue every side of this case. I want you. I think you want me. Tell me you won’t mind if I move to Hillvale—unless, for some warped reason, you want to return to LA.” He made a show of unbuttoning buttons he’d just fastened.
She sighed and sat down on the messy bed. “Of course I don’t mind if you move to Hillvale. I’d love it. And arrogant asshole that you are, you know I want you. I just have no idea what you’d do here. I have to leave for a place that has a school. I was thinking of renting an apartment in Baskerville, down the mountain. I need to learn to drive so I can drive back up here on weekends. I’d have to hire someone to work the shop during the week.”
Josh mentally cheered as she called him an asshole and said she wanted him—that was his blunt Amber, the strong one he remembered. But he frowned at the thought of her leaving the cozy nest she’d created. Amber could feather any nest she landed in, that wasn’t the problem. “You belong here.”
“Zeke belongs in school. I’ll still be able to come back on weekends and in summer.” She stood again and finished fastening her silk dress. “You’ll be in LA or wherever, directing your films. It’s not as if you’ll have much time here.”
Josh gnashed his teeth in frustration as he knotted his tie. “LA isn’t in another country. It’s not even in a different state. I have one film to direct and enough money to subsidize small countries after I’m done. I hate the city. I want a ranch or a winery. I want a studio like Cass’s where I can write. It doesn’t matter anymore if I don’t make any money at it, I want to write. And after I have written, I want you to tell me where I got it wrong.”
She flung a pillow at him, then studied her wall of beads. “Aries, leaves petty details to others. You’re supposed to be the romantic between the two of us.”
Wham, that’s what he was doing wrong! He was flinging around money and wants and needs as if providing security would make them both happy. Amber had thrown away security for the insane risk of surviving on her psychic talent. She didn’t care about riches the way he had.
He’d spent these last years slowly building his reputation and his career on the off chance that someday his success might be enough to chuck Hollywood and let him write and sell books and scripts. He’d been suckered into thinking that money would buy him happiness, stupid fool. He had more money now than he knew what to do with, and he’d be miserable if he didn’t have Amber.
“Light bulb moment,” he declared, wrapping his arms around Amber’s waist and tugging her away from the beads. “Let’s start over.” He swung her around to face him and just looking at her beautiful turquoise eyes and slight frown cheered him immensely.
“I love you,” he said with all the fervency welling up in him, finally understanding and accepting his need to be here with this woman. “I’ve loved you since you kicked my shin and made me behave. I love you for believing in me even when I gave you no reason to do so. I love you for your ability to handle any crisis and mediate any argument, even ones between the two sides of that brilliant brain of yours. I’m not entirely certain I love the spooky side of you that raises ghosts, but I definitely respect it, and I know that part of you belongs here in Hillvale. Is there any chance that you will ever find it in your heart to love someone as slow to catch on as I am?”
She pulled his head down to kiss him, and he accepted any encouragement she offered. He kissed her back, knowing Amber needed time to think before she could answer, praying she wouldn’t tell him to take a flying leap off the nearest cliff.
The rush of Josh’s emotions almost overwhelmed Amber with the images they conjured—hers as well as his. She remembered that first kiss when she’d kicked his shin because that’s what she’d been told to do, not because she wanted him to stop. She remembered the time he’d sneaked her the tangerine she’d been told she couldn’t have and how delicious the stolen fruit tasted when they’d licked each other’s fingers.
But these moments like this, when he kissed her as if she were the only woman in the universe. . . She felt his desire and his crying need for what she offered. Not just physical desire, but the desire of two souls who belonged together.
She placed her hands on his chest, feeling the bandaged result of his protecting her from a crazed killer almost twice his size. This was one argument they didn’t need to have. “I’ve always loved you, numbskull. How could I not? You just look at me with those big blue eyes and crook that smile and I’m at your feet. And that was not good for my mental or emotional health when we were young. It wouldn’t have been good for either of us. We both had to learn to stand on our own.”
Josh wouldn’t let her push away but held her close, kissing her hair. “You took the risk I wouldn’t take. You got out of there. Your courage makes me love you even more. If I take more risks now, will you be okay with that? I haven’t had much time to think, but I don’t want Willa’s millions. I don’t want any more stress in my life and all that money comes with way too many ties attached.”
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “You can set it on fire for all I care. But I am Zeke’s guardian now. I need to plan for his future as well as mine. Unless you’re planning on building a school to get rid of that money, I have. . .”
Forgetting his stitched side, he lifted her up and down in excitement. “I can do that! Maybe not a whole school, but a small one, for the local kids, until we have enough for the state to fund a public one?”
She stepped back and gaped in amazement, as much at his ability to lift her up and down as his declaration. And then the poss
ibilities slowly dawned on her. . . “You’ll stay here, with us? Write your books in Cass’s studio, until she throws you out? We’ll be—”
Josh swung her around. “A family,” he crowed. “We’ll be a family. We’ll raise our own Jack and Ginger. I can have friends like your weird friends and not Tinsel Town sycophants after whatever they think I can give them. It will be really weird, but I’m ready.”
“You do not even begin to know how weird it will be,” she said breathlessly, breaking away from his exuberant dance. But Josh was smiling so hugely, she thought maybe with his creative mind, he did understand, just a little bit. And that’s when the magnitude of all he offered hit her.
“Me, you really love me, not Ginger or the psycho psychic, but the fat woman who goes swimming in her underwear!” She couldn’t contain her astonishment.
“I particularly love the psychic psycho in her underwear,” he whispered, advancing on her. “And I hope you’re not too hungry because I want to see how hard it is to pry off that underwear.”
Shrieking, Amber raced for the front room. “Food first, and then you can cut my underwear off me!”
Thirty-five
Amber watched in admiration as Josh, dressed in a black suit and wearing a cobalt blue tie, shook hands and accepted the condolences of well-wishers attending Willa’s funeral.
Wearing a boring navy suit out of respect for the occasion, she lingered in the back of the room, in the company of people she knew. Ernest was particularly good at steering the curious away. He’d even toned down his usual color-blind outfit to a reasonably somber gray tuxedo coat with a pink cummerbund.
“Miss Abercrombie is only here to pay her respects,” he told a TV anchor sidling in their direction. “Contact Gabriel Productions if you need an interview.”
“I suppose I should hire a secretary of some sort,” Amber fretted. “You’re too important to play the assistant any longer.”
Amber Affairs Page 30