by Lee Kilraine
“Yes! Wrap it with a bow and send it with my regards to Hollywood and my fans.” Dirk stood up from where he was watching. “Can you imagine how wild everyone is going to go over this? Avery, we’ll have directors, actors, fans, and paparazzi panting after us. Good-bye, obscurity. Hello, superstardom. You’ll be able to name your next movie and your own salary. You’ll never have to make another chicken commercial again.”
Every muscle in Avery’s body tensed up as if she were preparing for a fall. She’d been so focused on getting through the acting and filming, she hadn’t seriously considered the fallout. Or, more likely, she’d been avoiding that reality, a habit she really needed to break.
But, for once in his life, Dirk was right, and suddenly she had the lungs of an asthmatic. Hopefully someone would catch her if she passed out from lack of oxygen.
“We’re done, Avery.” Sijan reached out and rubbed his warm hands up and down on her upper arms. “The worst is over.”
“No.” Avery shook her head. “The worst isn’t over. Dirk’s right. Once the movie is released, there will be no privacy. I like making chicken commercials.” Avery grabbed the brown bag Pia handed her over Sijan’s shoulder and started breathing into it. She put it down long enough to say, “I love making chicken commercials.
“I love the . . . private, normal little . . . life we’ve . . .” Breathing into the brown bag didn’t seem to be working. Where were the cupcakes and Twinkies when she needed them? Avery wheezed into the paper bag again, barely able to fill her lungs with enough air to fill the bag. “. . . created. Don’t you, Pia?”
Just when she saw black spots in her peripheral vision, Sijan kissed her. A slow-motion, welcome-back-to-reality, take-your-time-and-breathe kiss. His hands stroked her back; their warmth seeped into her body, letting the tension flow out.
He pulled his lips a whisper away from hers, just long enough to look into her eyes and say, “Breathe, Avery.” When she had pulled in a slow lungful of air, he slid his hands from her back to her shoulders and up to frame and caress her neck and jaw. He leaned down and kissed her again. Slow, warm, and sexy.
Avery forgot she was in a room full of people as her reality narrowed to the two of them. Only them. He moved his lips from hers and up along her jawline to whisper in her ear, “I promise we’ll fix this, Avery. Trust me.”
His deep voice wrapped around her heart. Trust me. She pulled back to stare up into his eyes, which were full of understanding, and calmly exhaled and inhaled. “Okay.”
***
Sijan exhaled the breath he’d been holding. Based on what little he did know, he figured her trust must be a fragile thing, and damn if he hadn’t already stomped all over it. “Good. I called Jerry two days ago and asked him to clarify some questions on fulfilling the contracts. As soon as he responds, we’ll be able to come up with a plan.” Sijan pointed at her. “No worrying for two days.”
Pia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.”
Sijan raised his eyebrows at Avery, who shook her head and said, “Yeah, probably not. I’m a world-class worrier.”
“Then how about this . . .” Sijan wracked his brain to come up with something fast. “I’ve got something you can help me with that might keep you busy for two days. I want to get a puppy for Ma for her birthday.”
Tynan frowned from his seat. “It’s not—ow, Pia, why’d you do that?”
“Why did I elbow you? For fun, dummy, what else?” Pia sat next to Tynan frowning at him.
Sijan sent Tynan a warning glance, then turned his back on him to focus on Avery again. “Will you help me pick a puppy out tomorrow?”
Avery’s face brightened immediately and she stopped worrying her lip. “A puppy? I’d love to help, Sijan.”
“Great. There’s a pet store over in Liberty, I think.”
“A pet store?” Avery frowned. “Oh, no, Sijan. You can get a great puppy at the animal shelter.”
Jeff and Kent coughed. Loudly. Sijan turned, glancing in their direction to see them shaking their heads emphatically. Pia wasn’t so circumspect. When she was done coughing, she came right out and said, “That is a very bad idea.”
“Don’t listen to them, Sijan. It’s a great idea.” Avery’s smile was sweet and carefree for the first time in two days. “I’ll go look up the address for the shelter and find out what time they open in the morning. We’ll find a great puppy for your mother.”
Sijan watched her walk out of the room, unable to wipe the sloppy grin off his face. He finally had a chance to play a hero in real life, lifting the weight of Avery’s worry off her shoulders. He liked when he made her smile. Hell, he had a reputation for being good with women. Maybe not as smooth as Clooney, but he was a gentleman, faithful in relationships, and he managed to remain friends with his ex-girlfriends. It was just that now that he’d met the woman he’d been waiting for, when it finally counted, it seemed like he’d done everything wrong. But right now, he’d righted the ship, corrected course for the path he was trying to navigate. Yeah, things were possibly looking up.
He turned back to the room to find Pia, Jeff, and Kent lined up in front of him. “What is this, an intervention?”
“Our advice is whatever you do, do not take Avery to the animal shelter.” Kent looked completely serious.
“What do you have against animal shelters?”
Jeff shook his head. “Not a thing. They provide a great service. You just can’t take Avery there.”
“Of course I can take Avery there.” This was the first time Avery actually wanted to spend time with him in weeks. No way was he letting these naysayers mess this up. Plus, he was helping her stop worrying.
“You’ve been warned,” Pia said.
“Practice saying no now,” Jeff said.
“Firmly,” Kent said, “because you’re going to need it when she pulls out her pitiful ‘you kicked a kitten’ look.”
They left shaking their heads to help in the kitchen with dinner.
Only Kaz and Tynan were left in the room and they sat grinning at him.
“It’ll be fine.” Sijan shrugged. “We’ll pick out a cute little puppy. Piece of cake.”
Kaz cleared his throat. “To summarize . . . Sijan is taking Avery to shop for a puppy for Ma’s birthday, which was three months ago. And Avery, a girl who loves animals, yet has never had a pet in all her twenty-six years, is going to help you pick a single puppy from the many, many sad, pitiful pairs of eyes begging her from behind the cold bars and stark cages.”
Sijan scowled. “I was only trying to get her to stop worrying and breathe again.”
“I think I’ve seen this movie before. Your friend Clooney was in it.” Tynan leaned back in his seat, enjoying the moment. “It was called The Perfect Storm.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Sijan’s truck left the farm early the next morning. Though the driver’s face was obscured by a pair of dark sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled low on his brow, it wasn’t enough to fool the waiting paparazzi, who would know that famous Cates jaw and nose anywhere. The passenger was a little more reticent, hiding behind oversized sunglasses, a billowy scarf, and a newspaper. But the strand of white-blond hair peeking out was enough for the crowd to get excited.
Cameras flashed as the truck paused for a quick wave and smile. When the truck pulled out onto Garber Dairy Road, everyone scrambled to jump in their vehicles and follow. It was quite a caravan into town that morning. It was almost all the Grapevine could talk about.
When the dust finally settled, Sijan drove through the gates of the farm and turned the borrowed Volvo station wagon in the opposite direction. He grinned at Avery. “Okay, with that dark wig on, now you look like Ariel. You might be better off with just the floppy hat.”
“Good, because it’s itchy.” Avery reached up and pulled the wig off her head. “It was nice of Tynan and Pia to agree to be the decoys. I guess you’ve done this sort of thing before?”
“Sometimes you just have to car
ve yourself some private time.” Sijan glanced at her, realizing that she of all people knew about that. Hell, she’d carved out a whole new life, far away from Hollywood. “My brothers think it’s fun. Especially Tynan, since it reminds him of his Special Ops days.”
“The county animal shelter isn’t that far from here. We’ll be there right when they open. What kind of dog do you think your mom would like?” Avery’s eyes sparkled in the early morning sunshine.
Sijan had no idea. He honestly didn’t even know if his mom wanted a dog, but it was the first thing that had come to mind when he’d needed something to distract Avery. He knew his mom liked dogs. They’d always had a dog in the house growing up. “We usually had goldens or Labs growing up.”
“Those are great dogs, but what do you think of something smaller so it’s easier for her to get it to the vet for check-ups?”
“How much smaller? Because I’m pretty sure she would hate those itty-bitty ones that look like rats and women abuse by dressing them in doll clothes.” Sijan shook his head. “Someone should pass a law against that.”
Avery turned curious eyes his way. “You’ve mentioned that a few times now. You know that’s mostly a Hollywood thing, right? You need to get out into the real world more.”
“Sweetheart, I agree. I’m working on that. But on the size of the dog, I don’t know. Medium?”
“Okay, it’s not a big deal if you don’t know. We’ll just see which one speaks to you. I’m sure one of the dogs will say, ‘I’m the perfect dog for Mama C.’”
Sijan turned his head to see if Avery was kidding. Nope. She looked perfectly serious. “Do dogs talk to you often?”
“They do, yes,” Avery’s gaze flashed over at him, then down at her hands clenched in her lap. “That probably says more about how dysfunctional I am again, doesn’t it?”
“Hell, Avery. Everyone is dysfunctional in their own way. I’m just lucky I had great parents, so maybe I’m a little less than you. But I have issues.”
“Like what?”
“You have to promise not to tell anyone. Only Jerry and my stuntman know this. I mean, not even my brothers know this.” Sijan held out his pinky for a pinky swear. She hooked her pinky with his, and they shook. He glanced again at her with raised eyebrows, looking for extra assurance. Only after she made an X over her heart and raised her right hand did he confess, “I’m afraid of heights.”
“Is that all? Sijan, half of the population of North America is probably afraid of heights. That’s practically normal.”
“Not for an action hero.” He saw the doubtful expression still on her face. “Okay, fine. I dislike mice. A lot. Or anything in the rodent family that looks like it could be a mouse’s cousin.” Sijan tried but couldn’t withhold a shudder. “If I weren’t a macho action hero, I might even say I hate them. But I am, so I dislike them with an intensity only exceeded by the fires of hell. I have it written into all my contracts that I don’t have to perform a scene with any live rodent.”
“Seriously? Is that one of those quirky artist demands, like no green chocolate-coated candies in the dressing room?”
“Three years ago, I was filming a prison movie. I was in a box about the size of a coffin for a scene where my character was in solitary confinement. The director, the son of a bitch, wanted me to experience the confinement and talked me into letting him lock the box. He failed to mention the scene called for rats to be dropped into the box through a hole over my head. He also couldn’t decide how many he wanted in the scene, so he told the prop guy to drop them all in the box. Five fucking rats. When the scene was over? They couldn’t find the key to unlock the box for another three minutes. Longest damn three minutes of my life.”
Avery’s eyes filled with tears and she reached her hand out to rub his forearm in comfort. “Sijan, I’m so sorry. Oh, god, that’s horrible.”
“Well, don’t cry. I didn’t tell you that to make you sad.” Sijan lifted her hand from his forearm and lifted it to his lips.
“I hope you never have to work with that director again.” Her face firmed into fierce lines. “Some people should be shot for what they do to others.”
“Yeah, they should.” Seeing the animal shelter sign, Sijan slowed down and pulled the station wagon into the parking lot. He turned off the engine and they sat in the silence for a moment. “Avery? I watched all three of your movies back to back.”
“What? Why did you do that?” She shook her head. “I’m sorry to say you’ll never get those hours back.”
He knew what she was doing. Trying to change the subject. And he’d let her, after he let her know she didn’t need to keep any more secrets from him. “We had an Ariel Diamond movie fest three weeks ago. I’m not sure I would have noticed if we hadn’t watched them one right after the other. But we did. And the change . . . I wish like hell someone had been there to protect you.”
“So do I,” Avery whispered, her gaze locked on the rundown brick building outside her passenger window. “It took me a couple years, but I finally got the courage to write a letter to the producer. When that letter got no response, I almost gave up. Instead I got angry and sent another letter, only this time to his wife.”
Sijan’s gaze traced her clear profile, delicately illuminated by the soft October morning sun, as his hands clenched tight around the steering wheel. “That would explain the man’s sudden retirement from the business. Good for you, Avery. That took guts.”
“I don’t know about that. It took forever to dig out from under the pain, because under that were feelings of guilt and stupidity. And fear and anger. It wasn’t until I got down to the anger that I finally found the courage to act.”
Something in Sijan’s gut twisted and he wanted to smash his fist into something, like the producer’s face. Or go back in time and shake some sense into her foster parents.
“I still feel guilty about the years I did nothing. I wonder how many other young girls he hurt. If I had just—”
“No. No, Avery. Children can never be blamed for the actions of an adult. Never.” He reached over, turning her face toward him, touching the pad of his thumb to her bottom lip. His gaze locked on to the soft pink fullness as he grazed his thumb back and forth. He looked into her eyes. “Don’t take on his guilt. Sweetheart, you’ve had some crappy adults in your life. It wasn’t you, Avery. It was them. You amaze me. Now, how about we go get a puppy?”
***
He could hear the laughter now. It turned out Avery was right. They’d found the perfect puppy for his mom at the animal shelter. But Pia, Jeff, and Kent were right too. They’d also found three kittens, two rabbits, a ferret, and a hamster. And just when Sijan thought he finally had Avery out the door, she stopped in front of one cage and said, “Oh, Sijan.”
When she turned those damp lilac weapons up to him, he didn’t even have to look into the cage to know he would agree to adopt whatever was in it. A wildebeest, a tiger—hell, he’d probably say yes to a mouse, although the scratching in the cardboard box in his hand reminded him he already had. Hamster equaled mouse in his book.
Avery kneeled down in front of the cage, cooing to the sorriest-looking pair of dogs Sijan had ever seen. Having travelled the world, Sijan had seen stray and mangy dogs worldwide. These two took the prize. They should have gotten dog Oscars for looking so pitiful. Piled together in the back corner of the cage, shaking in fear, was one large, ancient hound dog and one of those itty-bitty, yappy dogs women put clothes on. They were both bald, like naked mole rats. “Whoa. Avery, I don’t think so.”
“But, Sijan, they’re scared. And they aren’t cute. No one will adopt them. People always want the cute ones.” Avery stuck her hand through the bars, encouraging them to come closer. The two shivered and shook their way over together, throwing in a pitiful whine every few seconds. “Sijan, do you know what happens to the dogs that don’t get adopted?”
“Why don’t they have any fur?” Sijan specifically avoided looking into their eyes to escape being sucked
in. A technique he should have tried with Avery about an hour ago.
The shelter aide cleared his throat. “Looks like someone shaved their fur off. Probably thought it would help with an allergy. It doesn’t. It should grow back. We think. The little guy there, Roscoe, might need a sweater until his grows back, but the hound, Peewee, she should be okay, being big and all.”
“Avery, did you hear that? That dog requires a sweater. No way am I adopting a dog that has to wear a sweater. No.”
By this time, the aide was addressing only Avery. He wasn’t stupid. “Of course, you’ll have to bring all of them back for spaying and neutering. That’s part of the deal.”
“Yeah, like we want to breed more of... that.”
“Sssh. You’ll hurt their feelings. It’s sad to not have a family.” Avery turned her face up to his. “Can we take them home, Sijan? Just until we can find homes for them?”
Roscoe sat in his lap shivering all the way home.
***
Avery couldn’t stop smiling as she got ready for bed that night. Sijan had held up well amidst the laughter and “I told you sos” he’d gotten from his brothers and her friends at dinner tonight. Every time she made a trip to an animal shelter, she only intended to bring home one animal. It just never worked out that way. She and Pia usually went a few times a year. They would pick an animal to place in a commercial and find a client willing to adopt it. Since all their clients were already animal lovers, having another animal that made you a little money and gave you unconditional love? It was hard to say no to that deal.
Mama C seemed surprised with the puppy for her birthday, especially because apparently Sijan had sent Mama and Pop Cates on a cruise three months ago. She had kissed him on both cheeks and said, “I’m going to expect this every year from now on, Sijan.” Sijan’s brothers laughed at that and slapped him on the back.