Walker Spirit

by Bernadette Marie

“It’s normal to me. Pull up over there,” she said pointing.

  Gregory parked where she’d noted and they both climbed out. Audrey shut the door and headed straight for the barn as he opened the back door and reined Black Sabbath into his side.

  Eric stepped out from inside, a cloth held between his hands. “Hey, thought you’d be earlier,” he said as he moved in so that Audrey could kiss his cheek.

  “I told you. I didn’t know the plans.”

  Eric looked up at Gregory with a nod. “I’d shake your hand, but I have oil all over my hands. Tack needs cleaning.” He shrugged.

  “Understood.”

  “How’s the truck holding up.”

  Gregory laughed. “Hasn’t given me any problems in hours.”

  “It won’t ever give you any.” He shifted his attention back to Audrey. “You’re all set up.”

  She turned to Gregory. “How big is that cooler you packed lunch in?”

  “Not too big. Why?”

  The smile that turned up the corners of her mouth lit a fire in his gut. “Eric saddled up a few horses for us. We can either eat later or take it with us.”

  “It’ll travel. I’ll go get it,” he offered as he and Black Sabbath headed back to the truck.

  Well, wasn’t she full of surprises? He hadn’t saddled up a horse in about a year. And as soon as the movie wrapped up, and before he headed to Hawaii, he’d make his way back to Nebraska and help his father as he did every year.

  As he lowered the tailgate and pulled out the cooler, he wondered if perhaps this ride was a test. Did she not believe he was a farm boy? He chuckled to himself as he shut the tailgate and carried the cooler back to her. Why would she question that at all, he thought. Then again, he was used to people questioning his motives and picking apart everything he said. It was part of the makeup that was the business he was in. Everyone mixed up the truth and lies after a while. It was easy to do.

  But as he looked at her walking toward him now with the reins to the two beautiful horses which followed behind her, he knew the feelings surging through him when he looked at her were the most truthful feelings he’d had in years. No one believed in love at first sight anymore. If you brought it up, you were crazy, but there was something here with her, he thought. What would it take for her to understand it too?

  “Okay, farm boy. Show me what you got,” she said, handing him the reins. “This is Fairy Godmother,” she offered.

  “Fairy Godmother?”

  “She will give Black Sabbath a run for the best name in town.”

  He deserved that. “And who are you riding?”

  “Mr. Melancholy.”

  He snorted out a laugh. “They’re not race horses.”

  “Brothers find it humorous to one-up each other in any game.”

  “I suppose.” He looked up at Fairy Godmother. “Will she be okay with me and the cooler?”

  “She’s a hefty horse, and it looks like Black Sabbath likes her.”

  Black Sabbath paced in front of her, and she lifted her nose in what Gregory would consider a laugh if he could read a horse’s mind.

  A few minutes later, he’d managed to secure the cooler to the back of the saddle and they’d each mounted. Audrey rode ahead of him, and he appreciated the view. She might have grown up in town, but she knew her horses.

  Once they made their way off the road and into a pasture, she took Mr. Melancholy into a trot. Gregory hoped that Fairy Godmother could keep up, and equally hoped that Audrey wasn’t going to go out into a full gallop. He did have to think about his safety when filming a movie. Nothing pissed off a Hollywood producer more than losing the head talent in a film during production. Even a trip to Vegas was forgivable.

  She rode until they’d come to a fence line, then she kept with it for another ten minutes before she slowed and turned her horse toward him in front of a small grove of overgrown trees.

  “An oasis in the middle of the field, huh?” he asked as the dog ran between them.

  “An escape of sorts.” She turned her head and looked at the trees. “Can you see the treehouse?”

  Gregory looked, searching the branches. He was about to declare defeat when he noticed what might have been a sad plank in the limbs. He pointed. “That?”

  She laughed, and it melted his heart. “Todd and Ben built it when they were about ten or so. I climbed up there once and fell out of the trees.”

  “What did you break?”

  She only shrugged. “My pride. They laughed until they nearly fell out of the tree too.”

  “You seriously fell from that height and didn’t get hurt?”

  “Maybe I have superpowers.”

  He did not doubt that. She certainly had some power over him.

  She climbed down from her horse, and he followed. “Will this work for a picnic site?”

  “Better than any other I could imagine,” he agreed. He lifted the cooler off the horse, and she took the reins, letting them graze just beyond the trees. Gregory took the opportunity to set up his picnic.

  “You had all of this in that cooler?” she asked as she moved toward him.

  Uncorking a bottle of wine, he looked at the blanket. The fruit and cheese plate, wrapped sandwiches, and a container of vegetables with ranch looked mediocre to him. Was she teasing him? Or was she impressed?

  “I couldn’t fit the fine china though.”

  She laughed easily as she lowered to the blanket and took a carrot. “My dad’s idea of a picnic was buying a bucket of chicken and sitting on the tailgate of a truck.”

  “It has its merits.”

  “I like this. It suits me just fine.”

  He took a red plastic cup from the cooler and poured wine into it, and she laughed again. The shadows that fell across her from the tree and the hint of sunlight that played in her hair fascinated his senses. Perhaps a simple picnic did suit her just fine, but she wasn’t simple. That much he knew in a week.

  Audrey Walker was a force for the world to reckon with. She didn’t let people walk over her, and she forged her own path. There were grudges, that was crystal clear. And, he figured, thanks to her father, she didn’t trust men too well. Frankly, he was lucky she was with him in that pasture having lunch at all. Audrey Walker was fiercely loyal to her family too, and hadn’t he met her when he’d gone to apologize for having screwed one of her family members over?

  He handed her the wine, and she thanked him. He began to pour his own. Most days Gregory was happy with himself. Usually, he was a stand-up kind of guy, but now thinking about the few things Audrey had told him about her father, he wondered if he was a good fit for her at all.

  The trip to Vegas was supposed to have been fun. Blow off the world and do what you want to do, that had been his mindset. At the moment, it had been just that. Just as it had been crazy romantic and sexy when he’d shown up on his ex’s photo shoot and carried her away, right from under the photographer and took her to Belize, where they remained naked and intoxicated for a week. That stunt had cost him a million dollars, and until that minute, it had been worth it. It had cost his ex her job as the spokesmodel for that particular perfume company. Then what did he do? He went and stole the name of the dog from her.

  “Gregory?”

  Audrey’s voice broke the veil of shame he was hiding behind, and he realized he’d nearly filled his glass to the rim. There was no way he’d be drinking that much wine.

  She reached up for his hand. “Are you alright?”

  A bead of sweat rolled down his neck. “I’m fine. Got lost in thought for a moment.” Carefully, he sipped the wine so it wouldn’t spill out. Then he lowered himself to the blanket. Tucking the bottle into the cooler, he turned and gazed into the eyes of a woman he was only beginning to know. At that moment he realized too, he didn’t like who he was before he met her. The clarity in that was shocking, to say the least.

  Crazy ideas and mindless escapades seemed to be his norm, and gazing into her eyes, he’d nearly asked her to m
arry him—the thought had planted itself in his head and in his heart that quickly. But when she lowered her cup and set it on the ground so she could reach her hand to his face, he knew that would be the wrong move. That would have Audrey back up on that horse and heading out in a moment.

  “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re pale.”

  Pushing a smile to his lips, he let the actor come through, and he assured her with his eyes that he was just fine. When she retracted, he knew he’d done a good acting job, but inside his stomach twisted. Gregory Bishop didn’t want to be the selfish playboy anymore. She made him want to be better man. And hadn’t he started that journey when he’d gone to apologize to Kent for blowing off their first day?

  The sounds around him enveloped him. The calm and the peaceful sway of the trees and the grass in the field. Each horse made a different sound, and it was music to his ears. This was where he’d come from—simplicity just like this. The man that raised him worked harder than any studio exec, and yet Gregory didn’t give him credit. Sure, he’d show up in his fancy boots and help each year, it was worth telling everyone that, too, but he didn’t appreciate the man and what he did.

  He sipped his wine and let it ease his mind.

  One step at a time, he thought to himself, as Audrey took a strawberry and bit down on it with her sexy mouth. Right now he wanted to appreciate the glory that was in front of him, and if he could keep himself in check, maybe she’d stay a part of his life, and he’d become a better man.

  18

  Aside from the numerous trucks and trailers parked outside the warehouse, Audrey thought it looked average and industrial. Perhaps that was normal. After all, sets were big, right? They’d need a lot of space to build and house such a thing. But when Gregory pulled into the parking lot of the very plain warehouse, snuggled in between a produce company and a paper company, Audrey was less than impressed.

  “So, this is where you go each day?” she asked as she looked around the truck trailers lined against one fence and the RVs and fifth wheels lined against the other.

  “This is it.”

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d assume you were all selling or building recreational vehicles.”

  He handed the man at the gate a badge, and the man looked at it, and then at him. Didn’t they know who he was?

  “Who do you have with you?” The man asked.

  “Audrey Walker. She’s a guest of mine.” He turned to her. “Do you have your ID?”

  Audrey nodded and produced it from her purse. Gregory took it and handed it to the man, who then proceeded to write her name in a log. “Thank you. Good to see you, Mr. Bishop.”

  “Thanks, Sam.”

  Gregory took her ID and handed it back to her as he drove through the gate which had opened for him.

  “He doesn’t just know who you are?”

  Gregory chuckled. “I’d be disappointed if he didn’t do his job thoroughly. I have found two very admiring fans and three paparazzi in my dressing room in the past. And it was all because the guy at the gate didn’t stop every car. I’m fine to hand over my ID if I have to.”

  “But he called you by name, and you called him by name.”

  “Sam does his job right, and well. My father would be disappointed if I didn’t take the time to learn his name.”

  Audrey sat back in her seat and thought on that for a moment. She wondered if her father knew the name of his banker, his coffee barista, or his dry cleaner? It intrigued her.

  Gregory drove the old pickup around to a parking lot where another man waved him through, and he parked in a designated space.

  “Once you're in they don’t check IDs anymore?”

  “Each day a new adventure. You never know.”

  Gregory parked the truck, and they both climbed out. He opened the back door, and Black Sabbath jumped down, but then stayed right at Gregory’s heel. This wasn’t out of the ordinary for him either.

  She noticed that as they walked toward the side of the lot with the trailers, he left some space between them. Understandable, she supposed. He didn’t need anyone talking about him hooking up with a local. It soured her mood a bit to think of it.

  “This is her,” he said as they came upon a fifth-wheel that towered next to them.

  Black Sabbath let out a yip as if he were backing up Gregory’s statement.

  “I have to assume that’s the size of my condo. Or maybe even bigger.”

  He flipped through the keys in his hand. “I’m happy with it. Customized inside, just the way I like it.”

  And didn’t that tell her she was in a whole different world at the moment?

  “C’mon, let me show you.”

  Gregory started for the door, Black Sabbath right in tow.

  When he unlocked and opened the door, the first thing she noticed was the scent. It smelled like him. She was truly in his space now, and it overwhelmed her.

  The dog moved by both of them and bounded up the steps.

  “He’s happy to be home I guess,” Gregory joked as he climbed the steps and then waited just inside the door for her to do the same.

  Audrey took a cleansing breath and stepped up into the trailer.

  She was right. It had to be bigger than her condo.

  Inside he had a dark leather couch and matching chairs. A small table with chairs, not the bench seat or booth she’d seen in other campers. There was a full-sized kitchen, complete with island.

  The dog ran past her as he scoped out the area. “He’s happy.”

  “He likes it better than hotel rooms. Honestly, so do I.”

  “Why not stay here then?”

  He shrugged. “Security. C’mon, I’ll show you the rest,” he said taking her hand and leading her to the back.

  The beating of her heart picked up when she realized the bedroom was only a few feet away. It shouldn’t have mattered. There had been absolutely no reason to assume this was why he’d taken her there. She’d found that since their kiss that morning, there had been little contact. Honestly, she wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. The whole thing mixed up her head.

  “Bathroom is full sized, and the bedroom has a king-sized bed,” he said as he walked her through.

  “And another huge TV. Why do you need so many of them? And if you don’t sleep here, why the bed?”

  “Some days I’m on set eighteen hours. You’d be surprised how little shooting gets done in that time. Sometimes it’s a full day of them rearranging the set. Especially when you’re working with special effects. They have to adjust a lot for that.”

  “And you work with that most the time?”

  He nodded. “Especially on a film like this. Kent doesn’t write things in modern day Georgia. His worlds have to be created.”

  “I’ve read the book.”

  “Then you know what I’m going through every day,” he said with a grin as he brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Let’s go on set.”

  Disappointment that he hadn’t even tried to kiss her in the solitude of the trailer stirred in her.

  She followed him back outside and waited while he locked the door. Taking the leash he had dangling from his back pocket, he clipped it on to Black Sabbath, who let out a small whine.

  “You’re taking him inside?” she asked.

  “He’ll be fine. The minute Sherri sees him he turns to mush and so does she.”

  Sherri Post was the woman he talked so nonchalantly about. But the raised hairs on Audrey’s arms said she was a bit star-struck by the name. In a few minutes, she was about to meet someone equally famous as Gregory, yet she didn’t seem to be as star-struck by him anymore. Maybe that’s what happened when a man kissed her like Gregory kissed her, or gently held her hand, just as he was doing now. It was a big step, she supposed. He was touching her in public around his people. Now the nerves were different, and her mind spun when she realized someone would see them together, someone other than the average person walking down the street.

  When th
e security guard at the door saw them walking toward him, he stood and opened the door.

  “Mr. Bishop,” he said.

  “Hey, John. How’s it going today?”

  “Doing well. Grandson lost that tooth.”

  “Dental floss and the doorknob?” Gregory asked with a smile.

  “Wouldn’t you know it, it fell out while he was talking. Tooth Fairy treated him good too.” He reached down and patted Black Sabbath, then looked up at Audrey. “Have a guest?”

  “Audrey Walker,” he told John, who jotted her name in a log and handed her a lanyard with a visitor pass on it.

  “I assume you’ll be sticking with him?” He looked at their linked hands, and Audrey nodded. “Then that’ll work. Have a good day.”

  Gregory flashed another brilliant smile at the guard and walked through the door with her.

  At first, the warehouse looked like any other warehouse she might have been in. There were pallets of things, forklifts, and people moving about. But the further in they walked, the more the atmosphere changed.

  Dark curtains hung from the rafters, keeping the light and the sound from entering where they were setting up a scene.

  As Gregory guided them through the maze of curtains and movable walls, she saw the huge green screen where the actors were working. She’d been so mesmerized that she hadn’t even seen Kent walk up to her until he nudged her.

  “I’m kinda surprised to see you here,” he whispered.

  Once she realized who it was that was talking to her, she enveloped him in a huge hug. “This is freaking exciting. This is your world being brought to life.”

  The smile that crossed his lips was infectious. “It never gets old,” he whispered back and then leaned in closer. “This is getting serious, huh?” He nodded slightly toward Gregory, who was still holding tightly to her hand and the leash for Black Sabbath.

  “I don’t know,” she said honestly.

  “Be careful,” was all he said before someone called him away.

  That was being said a bit too often for comfort, she thought. Part of her didn’t want to heed the warning. She simply couldn’t imagine that there was anything to be careful about. Gregory had been nothing but a gentleman. Maybe the warning was general. But it still tugged at her.