by Meg Ripley
But Jeannie wasn’t finished. “Your earrings aren’t quite right. Let me just fix those.”
“I said get back!” Elizabeth insisted, her carefully sculpted eyebrows scrunching to the middle of her forehead. Blane had heard that she had the temper of a dragon, even when she wasn’t in the form of one, and so far, that seemed to be true. “It’s too early in the day for this bullshit!”
The assistant gave up and retreated behind the cameras, anxiously awaiting her boss to call for her again.
Blane watched her go, wondering if he treated Courtney the same way. She kept his schedule organized, made sure all the bills were taken care of, and was available no matter what time of the day or night he called her. All of this seemed normal, but she also came with him to any parties he had to attend, diving in to rescue him from some longwinded producer who wanted to drone on and on about the one time he went to India. And she took it upon herself to make sure all of his parties went off without a hitch.
And then, of course, there was the fact that she was willing to drag his drunk ass home from the boat, get him into bed, and still be there to get him up the next morning. She had practically dressed him, and even though he could tell she was pissed about it, it was clear to Blane that she wanted to protect him and his career. Maybe I need to do a little more for her than just double her salary. But what?
“Blane!” Elizabeth’s angry eyebrows were now focused on him, and she snapped her perfectly manicured nails in his face. “It’s your line, you know.”
“Hmm? Oh, sorry. I’m not awake yet.” Blane stumbled through his lines. His character was supposed to be interested in the woman across the table from him, talking smoothly and trying to get her to agree to another date before the first one was even over yet. But he wasn’t feeling it.
“Cut! Take five!” Cameron called. He set down his clipboard and stepped up onto the set, waiting until Elizabeth has stalked off to her dressing room before he spoke. “Blane, are you all right today?”
“Sure, I’m fine. Why?”
Cameron was a talented producer. He had been friends with Blane for quite some time, even before either of them had started making it big. There were many nights that the two of them had gone out to Jackson’s clubs to watch Damien’s bands, and the four men were building quite the reputation in Hollywood. “You just don’t really seem yourself this morning. You always show up ready to work, but I don’t think your head is in it.”
“I’ve got some stuff going on at home,” Blane admitted. “But it’s not a big deal. I just need a little more coffee, and I’ll be fine.”
“If you say so. I’d get right on it if I were you, because I’m pretty sure Tiffany Reed has had her eyes on you all morning. Maybe you should go talk to her for a few minutes. That’ll perk you up.” He grinned at Blane and moved off to talk to the camera men.
Blane scratched his chin. Maybe Cameron was right. A little coffee and a little flirtation would put him back to rights. He headed over to where the actress was perusing the breakfast bar. He didn’t need to sit there and dwell on Courtney and the baby. “Hey.”
“Hi there.” Tiffany’s smile was dazzlingly white, and she looked hot in the teal satin dress she was wearing. Her character was supposed to come interrupt the romantic dinner and ruin everything, but in reality, the roles should have been switched. Tiffany was much nicer than Elizabeth could ever imagine being. “I’m glad we’re finally getting to work together.”
“Yeah, me, too. You were great in that film you did with Mel Gibson.” He smiled back, but his mind was already beginning to wander again.
“Thanks. I was really hoping to get a role in Aliens, though. I wanted to do something a little more serious than just romantic comedies, you know?”
“Sure. I get it.” Courtney had instinctively scooped the baby off the porch without hesitation. Why hadn’t he done the same thing? It was supposedly his child, after all. And even though she seemed angry and a little scared, she looked almost natural with Amanda in her arms. What was she doing at his house right now? He imagined her holding Amanda in one arm and answering the phone with the other, looking like a working mom.
“Blane?”
“Oh, sorry.” He shook his head, embarrassed. This had to stop.
He was saved from having to explain himself by a sudden shout from the other side of the set. “Hey, you can’t be here!”
A heavyset security guard was chasing down a young woman. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead as he did his best to keep up with her.
The woman didn’t seem to care that she was being pursued. Her bright red hair was stiff and frizzy, and her clothes were too big for her, making her truly stand out in the crowd of professionals. A few of the sound guys stepped in front of her to stop her, but she dodged around them easily. She held up her camera, screaming, “Blane! Blane! It’s really you!”
“Excuse me for a minute,” Blane said to Tiffany. He straightened his shirt and put on his best smile, preparing for a picture and autograph session. Sure, the girl wasn’t supposed to be there, but if someone was going to be that determined to get to him, the least he could do was spend a minute with her before the security guards dragged her off the studio lot. Besides, he was used to the paparazzi, and just because she wasn’t a professional photographer didn’t mean she wouldn’t continue to further his career. He could easily see her pics showing up in one of the entertainment magazines, detailing what a nice guy he was. Then he would have no problem landing the male lead for Mannequin, which he would be auditioning for in a few months, thanks to Courtney.
Cameron ran up toward the fray, barking at the security guards. “Get her out of here! This is a closed set.”
“It’s all right,” Blane tried to assure him. He knew his friend wanted to keep this movie under wraps until it was ready to be released, but it would be good publicity.
Unfortunately, the fan made it clear that this wasn’t going to be easy. She launched herself at him, clutching at his shirt. “Did you get my letters?” she screeched. “I’ve been writing to you every day!”
Blane took a step back. “I, uh, I get a lot of letters. But thank you.”
The camera flashed in his face, and she was holding onto him so tightly, her fingers were starting to rip through the material of his shirt. “But you had to have gotten mine!” she insisted. “I mark each one with three little hearts, because I know we’re meant to be together!”
Several more guards, alerted to the situation, had arrived on the set. One of them grabbed the woman around the waist and tried to drag her away from Blane, but she wrapped her arms around his waist and refused to let go. The jostling made her red hair fall off, crashing to the floor and revealing the brunette locks underneath it. She had been wearing a wig, and now Blane understood why.
“Kim, you’re not supposed to be here,” he said firmly. “Let go. Now.”
“But I can’t!” she protested. “I’ve got to be close to you.”
“And it’s this sort of behavior that got you booted from the fan club,” he reminded her. Kimberly Dunn had been his biggest fan and the president of the Official Blane Vinson Fan Club back when he was only doing small roles. She had been a part of what had made him famous, and he knew that. But once he started getting big enough that every young woman in America knew his name, Kim had started acting out. She showed up at every red carpet event, screaming his name and waving large signs. When that wasn’t enough, she started showing up on sets and following his limo. The incidents got a lot of media coverage, but it didn’t sit well with the other members of the club. They had kicked her out, and rightfully so. Things had been quiet for the last several months, but apparently, that was only because she had been building up to something bigger.
“That never should have happened!” Kim screamed. “You can’t let these people keep us apart! It’s our destiny, Blane; we’re fated!”
He rolled his eyes. It was flattering that people wanted to meet him or even date him, bu
t this was too much. Blane tried to pull her arms off of him. “Let go.”
“I can’t! Just give me a chance!”
The guards yanked again, stumbling backwards as they finally pried her off of him with a loud rip of his shirt, and dragged her off the set.
“Son of a bitch!” Cameron exclaimed. “That’s the only shirt we have like that. We’re going to have to reshoot everything with a different one. Wardrobe!”
Blane didn’t give a crap about the shirt or reshooting. It made no difference to him, and he knew the footage they already had of the restaurant was probably no good anyway. But as he watched his biggest fan get dragged kicking and screaming from the set, he knew he couldn’t risk letting this happen again. Most people only gave him good exposure, but this woman wasn’t one of them. He turned around, ready to tell Courtney to get a restraining order filed against Kim right away.
But of course, she wasn’t there. Had this been any other normal day, she would have been right behind him, anticipating his every need. Hell, she probably would have already been getting the paperwork started. As a matter of fact, she would have recognized Kim right away and stopped her from getting to Blane in the first place. That was just how she was.
Chapter Five
Courtney’s stomach growled as she sat down heavily on the couch. It had been an exhausting day. Even with Cathy’s help, she had barely been able to keep up with her new duties as nanny, and she knew that her other tasks were suffering for it. There was a list of phone calls she had yet to return, and Courtney knew it was only going to grow. She could only hope none of it was too terribly important, yet she knew almost everything in the entertainment industry carried a sense of urgency with it.
Flicking on the radio and allowing herself a few minutes to relax before she got up and found herself something to eat in the kitchen, Courtney tipped her head back and closed her eyes. “I Can’t Tell You Why” by the Eagles was playing, and she silently mouthed the words, trying to lose herself in the music. It was something she had often done when she needed to get away from the real world, but it didn’t seem to be working. The lyrics spoke to her of obligations, and that was an idea that had been heavy on her mind all day.
At one point, Courtney had left the baby at the house with Cathy while she ran to her apartment to pack up a few things; she hadn’t been sure when she would get the chance otherwise. It had felt freeing to be alone for a few minutes, even if she had still been juggling her mobile phone and a few suitcases. And she hadn’t allowed herself to spend any extra time, feeling guilty already for having left Cathy with a responsibility like that.
Amanda had been calm and happy by the time she returned. A large delivery had come, and the baby finally had a full stomach and a fresh diaper. Cathy had made it look easy, but she had started crying again as soon as Courtney took her.
“It’ll be all right,” Cathy assured her when she finally left a few hours later. “You two will get the hang of each other, and then you’ll wonder why it ever seemed hard.”
But now, sitting on the couch and feeling the ache in every muscle, Courtney wasn’t convinced. She could have left a hundred times. She could have told Blane to deal with it himself, or at the very least, to hire an actual nanny. But there was that sense of commitment that kept her there. She just didn’t know exactly who it was she was so committed to.
Just as she was about to drift off to sleep, the front door opened. Blane stumbled in, looking just as tired as she did. His eyelids drooped, his clothing was disheveled, and even his hair was disarrayed. Blane loved the media and any attention he got when he was out and about, and he never left the house if he looked even a fraction short of perfect.
Courtney instantly shot up off the couch. “What happened? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” He waved her off, but the slump of his shoulders told her he definitely wasn’t. “It was just a really rough day.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
Blane gave a short laugh. “You’re something else, you know that?”
Courtney took a step back, unsure if she should be offended or not. “What does that mean?”
“I mean that I’m sure you’ve been busy here all day. I don’t know anything about kids, but I know you can’t just set them in the corner and expect them to stay there. No offense, but you look the way I feel. And yet you still want to do something for me.”
“Well, it’s my job, isn’t it?” Courtney really was tired, but it was aggravating to hear he thought she might not be capable of doing her job. If he needed something, then it was up to her to take care of it.
Blane sat down on the couch, pushing off one shoe with the toe of another. “Yeah, and I sure wish you had been there today to do it. Do you remember Kimberly Dunn?”
Now it was Courtney’s turn to laugh. “How could I forget her? She caused plenty of trouble.” She caught her breath as she began to understand. “Don’t tell me she had something to do with that ripped belt loop.”
“What?” Blane lifted his arm to look at the damage to his pants. “Shit, I didn’t even see that. Post-production is going to have a fit when they catch that. And so will Elizabeth when we have to shoot that scene for the third time.”
Courtney felt a familiar wave of impatience wash over her. “Can you please just tell me what’s going on?” She stood in front of him with her arms crossed in front of her chest, her jaw dropping a little more with each detail. The song on the radio shifted to “Maneater” by Hall and Oates, which seemed only too appropriate. “That’s crazy.”
“You’re telling me. She kept insisting that she’d sent me letters, too. I haven’t paid any attention to the fan mail I’ve been getting lately, so I couldn’t say if that part was true or not.”
“Probably so.” Courtney fetched the stack she had set aside earlier that day, which seemed like forever ago by that point. She flicked through a few of the envelopes, looking for the ones that met his description. It had always boggled her mind that complete strangers could insist they were in love with a celebrity, yet she knew that was what most of these mailings contained. Kim’s were just a little more obvious because of the way she decorated the envelopes. Courtney handed them to Blane.
He put his hands up and leaned away from the offering. “Hell, no! I’m not reading them or even touching them. That woman is nuts. You can burn them for all I care.”
The thought was an intriguing one. It would probably be very therapeutic for Courtney to slip out into the back yard and shift into her dragon form for a little while. When was the last time she had walked on four legs instead of two? She could let out a bit of fire, literally getting her load off her chest while she turned these letters into powdery ashes.
But she had other things to do, so she set them on the coffee table for the moment. “I just wish I’d been there. I probably could have stopped her.” It wouldn’t have been the first time she’d stepped between Blane and the public, serving as a small barrier between him and his adoring fans.
He gave her a look with those dark blue eyes, one that she had seen plenty of times before. “As I said yesterday, you’re not my bodyguard.”
“I’m already your nanny,” she parried. “What’s one more job?”
“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that.” Blane ran a hand through his hair, allowing it to stick up in a few places. “I don’t think that’s going to work out.”
Now Courtney was instantly offended. “Excuse me?”
“We’re going to have to find someone else to do that job. I’m sure you can find someone with a decent reference, or maybe just contact an agency.”
She took a few steps toward where he sat on the couch, feeling the need to defend her actions all day. “I’ll have you know that I’ve worked my ass off taking care of that child! I talked to the police, who want an interview with you at some point if you can fit it into your busy schedule, by the way. They want you to do a paternity test, just to be sure. I’ve washed and sanitized b
ottles, mixed formula, and changed more diapers than I had ever seen in my life. In between all that, I’ve set up a crib, found a good pediatrician, and made an appointment for her for Monday.”
“Whoa, hey. Relax.” Blane stood up and moved closer to her.
“I will not relax!” Courtney insisted. All the emotions she had felt all day were welling to the surface once again, and she wasn’t sure if she could keep herself together. But she had to, because she was a professional. Or at the very least, she had to try. “It’s not as though there has been a single moment for me to relax all day, considering I’ve also been juggling phone calls from your agent, your accountant, your dry cleaner, your food delivery service, and everyone else that tries to get a hold of you throughout the day. How dare you dismiss what I’ve been doing as something that can just be handed off to someone else?”
Deep down, she knew she should have been relieved at the idea of not having to play babysitter anymore. It was a lot of hard work, and it wasn’t something she was going to get used to any time soon. Even though Amanda was in bed, the chances were good that she would be up again in the middle of the night. It was beyond a full-time job, just like Blane was. But Courtney simply couldn’t fathom giving her care over to a stranger.
Blane’s face was soft as he looked down at her. They were standing face to face now, and for a moment, Courtney allowed herself to understand why all those women went nuts for him. He was giving her that tender look that he gave his co-stars onscreen, the one that made it look as though they were the only person on the planet. But that was just an act, something he could turn on whenever it was convenient for him. “I think I understand what’s going on here.”
“You do?” He couldn’t. There was no possible way. He had no idea that Amanda had sparked her own abandonment issues and made her once again think about all that she had been through as a child, even though she had done her best to push those thoughts out of her adult life and move on. Her lips parted as she studied his face, blown away for a moment at the possibility that he was more sensitive than she had imagined. A shiver ran down her spine, one that threatened to bring a few scales with it.
