NOAH: A Childhood Nemesis Sweet Romantic Comedy (Waco Wranglers Reid Brothers Book 2)

by Heather Horrocks

  The sun made a spectacular departure from the sky, and lights turned on up and down the beach.

  Preston said, “This ends our Q&A session. If you have any more questions, write them down, and we’ll have one last Q&A later this week.”

  Noah lifted his mic. “Tomorrow morning, be sure to meet at nine for the workshop on movie makeup, where you can either zombie up or choose to run as a human. Either way works, but humans get a five-minute head start.”

  “Which are you going to be, Noah?” a woman yelled, and the crowd laughed.

  “Better come tomorrow and find out.”

  A man yelled, “Better be a human and take the head start. There are a lot of women here who’d love to catch you.”

  That may be true, but there was only one woman he planned to let catch him.

  A beautiful redhead with pale, freckled skin and a haunting smile.

  11

  Must. Have. Brains

  Conference Day 4

  Movie Makeup & Zombie Run

  “I need a volunteer,” Lucien Franks announced from the stage. “As I work on this person to create a zombie, you will all be using the same ingredients on the tables before you.”

  Volunteer hands rose throughout, but Preston raised a hand. “I think I’d like to see what my sister would look like as a zombie.”

  Emma groaned. “I don’t wanna be a zombie.” She was wearing a pretty yellow-and-white-striped sundress.

  Preston motioned to her, and Noah made his way to her table, holding out a hand. “Thanks for being a good sport.”

  If he’d said anything else, she’d have refused, but she could hardly say no now. With a sigh, she placed her hand in his and stood. He raised her hand in triumph. “Behold your new zombie queen!”

  The crowd roared its approval.

  He led her all the way to the stage. With a feeling of dread in her stomach, she climbed the steps and sat on the stool before the Hollywood makeup artist. Lucien Franks had apparently been the makeup genius behind several horror movies — and some of the zombie faces he’d done flashed on the screen behind them. She turned to look and shuddered. She was going to look hideous.

  Noah smirked.

  She glared at him. “Are you going to be a human in the race?”

  “I am.”

  “When I catch you, I’ll going to exact revenge for this.”

  He smiled sweetly. “When you catch me, you’re going to kiss me.”

  The audience laughed.

  Lucien held up his hands and the crowd hushed. “All of the items I’ll be using on …”

  He turned to Emma, and she said, “Emma Archer.”

  “On Emma Archer can be purchased at regular stores. There are several on each table. Take turns applying them. I’ve printed up instructions, in order, and the sheets are taped to each table, so if you get behind us, you can still follow along.”

  Lucien smiled at Emma. “You’re going to be a challenge to make look hideous, my dear.”

  “I can hardly wait.”

  Preston joined Noah, and they both stood on the other side of Emma from Lucien. Preston handed her a big gray T-shirt with the conference’s logo on it to put over her sundress. She slipped into the baggy shirt and resumed her seat.

  Lucien lifted a shampoo-sized bottle. “First we need to zombify the hair. You may have noticed that zombies are never in shampoo commercials because of their lustrous, shiny hair. Instead, their hair is greasy, lifeless, and something you wouldn’t want to touch. The solution? Conditioner.” He put a huge amount of conditioner in his hands. “Use a ton more than you would use at home. We’re not conditioning, we’re making the hair as lifeless as the hair of the undead would be.”

  Noah and Preston watched intently, as did the people in the audience, who were also applying way too much conditioner to each other’s hair.

  “Perfect.” Lucien picked up a small bottle. “Next we want to create a rough skin look to the forehead. We call this stretch and stipple. Take the liquid latex and apply it to the forehead while you push the skin up on the forehead to stretch it. Keep it held during this entire step.”

  She closed her eyes as he applied the liquid to her forehead, his hand on her hair pushing up.

  “Next you’ll use the hair dryer to dry it. Then powder it. Only after that will you let go and let the forehead go back down. And then it will look like this.”

  She opened her eyes. “Am I on the big screen?”

  Preston smirked. “You are.”

  “Thanks, bro. I wonder if they have fire ants here on Mango Island.”

  “No. They definitely do not.” Noah laughed. “Absolutely not.”

  Preston touched her forehead, and Emma knocked his hand away.

  Lucien picked up a small bowl. “Now we want to create a wound. For this, we’ll mix the latex with some instant oatmeal to get the right rotten-skin texture.”

  Lucien mixed and then started placing it on her cheek. She pulled a face as he worked it around in a large patch. As he worked, he said, “As it begins to dry, you can pull it up a little to create the edges of the wound, like this.”

  Noah waved to an assistant and whispered. A moment later, the man carried out a laptop and set it down where she could see what was on the screen behind her.

  Yikes. It looked like she had huge pustules on her cheek.

  Lucien said, “We’ve already prepared the gelatin for you. At home, you’ll use a pack of gelatin to about one-third cup of water. After it sets, you’ll cut it into cubes. When you’re ready to use, melt in the microwave but very carefully. Do it in ten-second sprints so it doesn’t boil because then you’ll have to start over. You can put it on as-is or add makeup or food coloring into it. We want it to act as a darkening agent.”

  He turned to Emma. “Use part of the cosmetic sponge for this. We’re going to apply it to the bony areas on a skull. Around the eyes. On the sides of the temples.”

  She closed her eyes again while he did what he’d instructed the crowd to do. When he stopped, she opened them again. Her face on the monitor was looking less and less like her own and more and more like the walking dead.

  “We want to crinkle up the skin on the nose, so tear off a little piece of tissue and smoosh it around on the nose. Then add a layer of latex over it, and dry it again.”

  She studied herself in the monitor. Her nose now looked as gross as her wound.

  “Now put a layer of latex everywhere except not on the gelatin wound, and powder it really well. We don’t want it to be sticky.”

  She looked up at the guys. Preston snickered. Noah did, too. She rolled her eyes. “You guys really are Stinky Butts.”

  Lucien mixed a pale base makeup color with a little bit of mineral oil and covered her entire face, then added black makeup for shadows and to emphasize bony structures on the skull around the eyes and temples.

  He added green to the wound area, which made it look disgusting.

  “Now you’ll use some of the blood that we already mixed for you. At home, you can make it with some corn syrup and food coloring. Dab some onto the wound, and then we want to splatter some around to hint at the violent death that created this zombie.”

  “And, voilà!” Lucien said with a dramatic flourish. “A zombie has come to unlife.”

  She stared at the monitor. “I look horrible!”

  “Thank you,” Lucien said. “That is high praise indeed.”

  Noah said, “Amazing job, Lucien. I would never even recognize her as the snot-nosed brat who lived next door when I was growing up.”

  She reached out her hands, zombie style, to grab his shirt but he moved out of reach.

  The grin he shot her way shouldn’t have made her zombie heart flutter — but it did.

  She had it bad.

  After the workshop had ended and everyone who wanted to become a zombie had been helped by Lucien and assistants, the grisly crew gathered outside under the pavilions, along with the human runners.

  Again,
the view was a postcard-perfect ocean with palm trees, wispy white clouds against a brilliant blue sky — and Noah Sullivan, wearing long swim trunks and a loose, short-sleeved button shirt unbuttoned enough to show the top of his chest. He did wear tennis shoes due to the 5K run ahead. He looked yummy.

  The only thing marring this beautiful scene were the women surrounding him, posing with him in selfies. He smiled at them and laughed and they flirted outrageously with him.

  But then he looked over and caught Emma’s eye and winked, with a smile that felt like it was meant just for her, and her heart fluttered.

  He’d said he was going to claim a kiss from her if she caught him. That immediately tipped the scales in that direction. But there were at least fifty women running today and she suspected they all wanted to catch Noah Sullivan, human extraordinaire.

  When a young blonde in a bikini laid a hand on his chest, Emma wanted to march over there and push her away.

  She took a good look at Noah. Whoever married him would have to have a huge level of self-confidence and confidence in Noah’s love for them.

  Preston’s voice came over the loudspeaker. “Ladies and gentlemen, or should I say humans and zombies, it is time for the race to begin. We have turned over the starting whistle-blowing activity to our resident lady about to give birth because we are not about to let her run in this race.”

  He motioned toward Ashley, who stood in her loose caftan-type beach cover-up that couldn’t cover up the huge belly. She turned from side to side as if modeling her belly, and people laughed. She raised a whistle and blew it. The piercing sound quieted people.

  “Thank you, Madame Whistleblower,” Preston said as Ashley carefully lowered her uncomfortable-looking bulk to the comfy chair Gary had carried out for her. He stood by her side, a zombie as hideous as Emma.

  Preston said, “All right. The first whistle will signal the humans to start running for their lives. A whistle five minutes later will unleash the zombie horde. Remember to grab the flag to capture the person — we don’t want actual zombie activity. Now Noah is going to explain the rules.”

  Noah disentangled himself from the bevy of bikini-clad beauties to join Preston’s side. Again he caught Emma’s eye and smiled at her. She smiled back. She couldn’t help herself. He was totally yummy. Twenty million women couldn’t be wrong.

  Noah took the mic. “Okay, here’s the deal,” he said, quoting Max Booker’s signature line. The crowd reacted appropriately with some laughter and a few cheers. “The idea is to have fun today. We learned some cool stuff about movie makeup, and those of you who want to become makeup artists have made a valuable contact in Lucien, who has graciously agreed to start a Facebook group with you so you can continue to ask makeup-related questions.”

  Clapping broke out.

  “Now we’re about to separate the living from the dead. All humans are to gather to my right and all brain-seeking zombies to my left.”

  He waited while everyone shifted places. Emma shambled toward the zombie horde.

  Noah continued. “All humans are wearing a sash with a flag, similar to those used in flag football. There will be no actual eating of brains or physical taking down of humans. Humans can’t go after zombies. Zombies can’t catch other zombies. And humans can’t go after other humans.”

  “Aww,” said a woman of the human sort. “That doesn’t seem fair. I want to be a zombie so I can catch you!”

  Noah laughed. “It’s too late to change your mind. Sorry.”

  He motioned to the humans. “Now I’m going to join the humans, and in about one minute, Ashley is going to blow the whistle and we’ll take off running.” He smiled at the woman who’d wanted to catch him. “You can run beside me.”

  “Yay!”

  “And when we get back, we’re going to have a huge bonfire party to celebrate. All surviving humans and zombies are welcome.”

  Emma watched him interacting with people and was amazed. He’d always been friendly — except to his buddy’s younger sister — and she wasn’t the only one drawn toward his natural warmth.

  His brother had been Noah’s best friend growing up, but Noah had always had a crowd of guys wanting to hang out with him. She smiled and shook her zombie head.

  The whistle blew and two-thirds of the crowd took off. The zombie horde was a smaller group, but more intimidating.

  She looked around her at the other undead and shivered. They were all hideous.

  Emma warmed up her muscles, shifting from one foot to another, getting ready to run.

  She carried Xena over to Ashley. There were far too many people around to take her running, not to mention all the dogs she’d barked at this morning. There were at least three other people who’d brought pets with them. Setting the dog down beside the chair, Emma put the end of the leash into her friend’s hand. Xena decided that wasn’t where she wanted to be and she jumped up on what she must have thought would be Ashley’s lap. If only Ashley still had a lap.

  Xena made a course correction and settled in along Ashley’s side.

  Emma patted Xena’s head. “You be a good girl.”

  Holding the whistle and leash in one hand and petting Xena with the other, Ashley told her and Gary, “Good luck to both of you. And you,” she pointed to Emma, “I expect you to catch Noah. I have five bucks riding on it happening.”

  Ashley checked her watch and grinned, raising the whistle to her lips.

  Emma readied herself, still bouncing lightly. So when the pierce sounded, she took off.

  She could see the humans running up the beach ahead.

  It was easy to spot Noah, as he was taller than nearly everyone and was wearing a black T-shirt, his dog by his side with a flag tied on to him, as well.

  She locked in on her target.

  Must. Have. Brains.

  12

  Kiss This Face — if You Dare

  Noah glanced behind him at the sound of the whistle. The zombies were off.

  Luckily Emma’s bright yellow-and-white sundress showed below the gray T-shirt. He wanted to keep an eye on where she was because he intended to claim a kiss from her today, and that meant she had to catch him.

  She’d been a track star in high school, but apparently so had other people because she was near the front of the pack, but not in the lead.

  That just meant he’d have to use some of that juice he’d been famous for on the football field — shifting out of the way of people wanting to tackle him.

  Chief ran beside him, his tail wagging. His dog loved to run and loved meeting new people so this was the perfect run for him.

  Preston was already huffing. “My wife is in a lot better shape than I am.” He pointed up to where Min raced ahead. “She wants to be the first person across the finish line.”

  “How’d you ever catch her, anyway?” Noah asked. “You can’t even run.”

  “Pure luck,” his friend wheezed.

  “The zombies are gonna eat you for dinner.”

  “I know.”

  The woman who’d wanted to catch him ran on his other side, but she was starting to huff a little, too.

  He glanced back again. Four zombies were beginning to catch up with the humans. A tall lanky guy in his twenties, a thirties guy who had a serious look in his eyes, another blonde, and Emma.

  Time for him to start dancing. He planned for Emma to catch him, but these other three were going to make a play for him. He was sure he was the prime target to take down for the day.

  He’d already slowed his pace. He could have given Min a run for her money if he’d wanted. He’d stayed in shape since he’d stopped playing football. He needed to stay buff for the movies and he liked moving his body.

  Growls and groans grew closer. The zombies were really getting into their roles, even as they ran far faster than any respectable undead ought to move.

  The guy with the serious look in his eyes reached Noah first. The guy signaled his move with his eyes and Noah hitched his hip and twirled as th
ough he carried a football. The sudden move took the guy by surprise, and he stutter-stepped, trying to circle around for another try at the flag hanging off of Noah’s left hip.

  The guy made a lunge — and again Noah just flicked his way to the side. He’d rarely been caught on the football field, and this guy wasn’t going to catch him today.

  After the third failed attempt, Noah shook his head. “Grab someone else, dude. I’m saving myself for a woman.”

  Chief barked at the guy, who grimaced in defeat, pulling back and heading for someone else.

  With the blonde and the tall guy bearing down on him, he ran sideways across the field, as it were. The tall guy kept going, but the blonde followed Noah. Chief raced toward her, wanting to make friends, but the blonde ignored him and kept coming.

  Emma was the next one on the field behind the blonde and he dashed back toward her.

  The blonde doubled down and put on a burst of speed, but he sidestepped her, and dashed for Emma, when her eyes widened — and she started running away from him.

  And the game was on.

  She called back over her shoulder, “Humans can’t catch zombies.”

  “I’m not catching you,” he called back, grinning. “You’re catching me.”

  He grabbed her around the waist and spun her around. She squealed. “You cheated, you dirty rotten human.”

  He laughed and looked down into her hideously made-up face, and batted his eyes. “You may claim your kiss now, zombie queen.”

  “Kiss this face — if you dare.”

  “Yeah,” he said, still holding her in his arms. “Give me a moment to prepare myself for this.”

  She laughed — and kissed him. She threw herself into it, rubbing her cheeks against him and rubbing her makeup on his face.

  “Stop,” he said, laughing.

  People raced toward them and he pulled out his flag and handed it to her. “You earned it.”

  “Whatever,” she said, but she was still laughing.