They’d left the hot wires in place yesterday so there wouldn’t be much work to do before they could get going—which meant they’d get a good, early start on the shooting.
And Kyle and Brock should be feeling back to normal, in which case Jay wouldn’t nail him to the wall for letting them ride the ponies. All in all, by the time they reached the set, Nick had decided this might be a pretty good morning. And later…
He glanced at Carly, not at all certain what would happen later. But it could hardly be any worse than what had happened last night, when he’d gone to bed aching with wanting her.
The buzz on the set died as people noticed Attila had arrived. He was obviously still making them nervous.
Then Jay looked over and called, “Oh, good. Perfect timing. We’re just ready for you.”
Nick nodded, telling himself that positive thinking worked. He only wished he could positively think his headache away. It was hanging on with annoying tenacity.
“Barb’s not finished repairing the rock,” Jay added. It had been moved to the “safe” side of the hot wires, and he gestured to where she was working. “So we’re going to begin with Attila’s running scene.”
Nick nodded again, and he and Carly walked Attila around to the far side of the wires. He put the cooler down behind a real rock, where it would be out of sight from the cameras, then they led Attila to the end of the clearing and into the surrounding woods. The scene required him to charge out of it and across the clearing.
When they reached the markers that indicated his starting point, Carly removed his collar and chain, then gave him a hug. “You work nicely for Nick and there’ll be serious treats,” she murmured.
Nick could have done with a hug himself, but all he rated was a quick “Good luck.”
“Okay,” Jay said. “Everyone remember the rules. Quiet as you can be, and nobody off the set moves while we’re shooting. Cue the bear, Nick.”
“Let’s do it, fellow,” he said to Attila, backing away into the clearing. He checked where the cameras were and kept moving until he figured he had to be out of even a wide shot.
“Okay,” Jay said again. “Bells! Clear the eyeline… Dammit, Carly, move farther away from the bear! Right…and roll it.”
There was a few moments’ hush, then the soundman quietly called, “Speed.”
The production assistant said, “Scene 121—Take one.” She clicked the hinged stick onto the slate with barely any noise.
“Action!” Jay said.
Nick stared through the trees to where he could make out Attila’s big shape and called, “Attila, run." He made the hand signal even broader than usual because of the distance, but the bear didn’t move.
He tried again—with the same nonresult.
“Cut!” Jay said, giving him an evil look. “You want to go have a talk with him?”
Nick unhappily headed back across the clearing and into the woods. “Can’t you prod him or something?” he asked Carly.
“Not without being in the frame.”
“Then what do we do?”
“You’ll have to entice him.”
“And how do I do that?”
“Get some of the raw chicken out of the cooler, then come back and show him you’ve got it.”
With his hangover, the thought of handling raw chicken was enough to start Nick’s stomach churning. “Can’t I use something else?”
“There’s a bag of marshmallows. You could try them if you’d rather.”
While he walked all the way to the cooler, then back to the woods again, he could feel Jay fuming.
Stopping a few yards from Attila, he dangled the bag as temptingly as he could and said, “Look what I’ve got, boy.”
The bear gave an interested growl.
“They’d really hit the spot, eh? So you just come running when I call, and they’re all yours.”
“Well?” Jay said as Nick headed back out into the clearing once more. “Is he going to cooperate?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
This time, when they got to the part where the P.A. said, “Scene 121—Take two,” Nick was praying.
It didn’t help. Attila stayed right where he was.
“Cut!” Jay snapped.
Before he could say anything else, Carly appeared at the edge of the clearing and called, “Jay?”
“What?”
“If Nick ran ahead of Attila with some treats, kind of made a game of getting Attila to chase him, how close could he be to the bear without getting in the frame?”
Nick froze on the spot. Get Attila to chase him? Did Carly figure he’d developed a death wish?
“Royce? How far?” Jay asked.
“Oh, as long as he gave us a good ten feet of separation, we could probably handle it.”
Nick looked from Royce to Jay, then at Carly. They were all serious about this. But there was no way, not in a million years, that they were going to convince him to do it.
CHAPTER TEN
Birds Do It, Bees Do It
NICK STOOD WITH Carly on the edge of the clearing, pretending not to notice that she was glaring at him. But it was tough to ignore a woman shooting daggers with her eyes.
“Well?” she finally demanded. “You’re sure you won’t change your mind.”
“No. I am not having a bear chase me.”
“Fine. Then I’ll do it, even if Jay is going to think it’s strange that we’re trading places. Give me the marshmallows.”
When she reached for the bag, he tucked it behind his back. He suspected he’d feel even more frightened watching her do it than doing it himself—which was saying an awful lot.
“Give them to me.”
“No. Attila’s not listening to you any better than he was when I first got here.”
“Well, maybe he’ll surprise us.”
“Or maybe he won’t, and Jay will have a fit.”
“Nick, what would make Jay have a fit would be not getting his scene, so give me the damn marshmallows.”
“No. I can run faster than you.” He wasn’t sure that was true, but he probably could.
The issue, though, was whether or not he could outrun Attila, and that was a very different kettle of fish. Or bag of marshmallows, as the case may be.
“Then you will do it?”
“Dammit, Carly, neither of us should be doing it.”
“But it’s the only solution. You run, Attila chases you, Jay gets the footage he wants and everybody’s happy.”
“Not this everybody. You think I’ve forgotten what you told me way back? How I shouldn’t run when I’m around Attila? How it would excite his predatory instinct?”
“That was before he got to know you. He’d never hurt you now that you’re his buddy.”
“You’re damn right he won’t, because I’m not going to tempt him.”
“You wouldn’t be tempting him. You’d only be playing a game with him. Come on, Nick. He’s never so much as scratched you.”
“No, but I’ve never acted like prey around him, have I?”
“Oh…dammit, we can’t stand here arguing all day. Give me the freaking marshmallows.”
“Hey!” Jay called impatiently. “Can we get a move on here?”
When Nick still didn’t give her the bag, Carly said, “Look, Attila really wouldn’t hurt you. I promise. And remember what’s at stake, what’s going to happen if Jay doesn’t get what he wants.”
Reluctantly, Nick looked into the woods to where Attila was waiting. He really was a gentle bear. And they had become buddies—of sorts. And if it was the only way to make him run…
Telling himself he must be out of his mind, he said, “All right. But if he kills me, I hope your conscience bothers you for the rest of your life.”
“Oh, Nick, I love you for this!”
He exhaled slowly, imagining how he’d feel if she actually did love him, while she looked in Jay’s direction and called, “It would help if I gave Attila a little prod. I kno
w that would make you lose the first few seconds of filming, but I’d get out of the frame as fast as I could.”
Jay gave a weary shrug. “Just get the damn bear running. Whatever you have to do.”
Carly turned back to Nick. “Okay. We’ll show him the marshmallows again. Then, once you’ve backed out into the clearing and Jay calls ‘Action,’ give Attila the ‘run’ command and start running yourself. As soon as you make it across the clearing, you can stop behind one of the trees on the other side and give him his treats.”
Sweating far more than the temperature called for, Nick followed Carly through the trees toward Attila. “Okay, boy,” he said, dangling the bag of marshmallows once more, “we’re going to try this another way. This time, I’m going to run, too.”
“Woof.” The bear eyed the bag and twitched his nose.
“I’m just going to take a bit of a head start.” Nick slowly backed away, waving the bag in front of him.
Attila didn’t take his eyes off it
“I think this is going to work,” Carly whispered.
“Okay,” Jay said as Nick emerged from the woods. “Clear the eyeline…and roll it.”
The soundman got up to speed. The P.A. said, “Scene 121—Take three.” Jay said, “Action!”
“Attila, run,” Nick called, giving the signal with one hand and waving the marshmallows with the other.
A second later, Attila was crashing through the trees.
Nick wheeled around and began to run—more out of sheer terror than because it was the plan. He hadn’t realized quite how petrifying it would be to have six hundred pounds of bear charging after him, even if it was his buddy.
“Faster, Nick,” Jay shouted. “Faster! He’s gaining on you! Hurry or you’ll be in the frame!”
Attila was gaining on him? If he had afterburners, he’d turn them on, but he was already running flatout.
He could hear people laughing, so he must look damn funny. But if they were being chased by a bear, they sure as hell wouldn’t be laughing. They’d be as petrified as he was.
The far end of the clearing was getting closer, but so was Attila. The pounding of his feet was growing louder by the second, and Nick could practically feel bear breath on the back of his neck.
He raced on and was just about to the trees when disaster struck. He tripped and went sprawling onto the ground, the bag of marshmallows flying through the air. An instant later every ounce of breath suddenly whooshed out of him and the world went black.
For a horrified moment, Carly stood rooted to the spot. Then Jay yelled, “Cut! And print! Thank heavens, that was a terrific take!”
His voice set her in motion, and she yelled, “Attila! Off! Stand!” She raced across the clearing, frantically telling herself that he’d actually fallen over Nick more than he’d landed on top of him.
Attila obediently stood up and hurried to get the marshmallows.
“Oh, Nick,” Carly murmured, dropping to her knees beside him. “Oh, Nick, please don’t be badly hurt.”
She felt for his pulse and found it, so at least he was alive. But he wasn’t conscious, which filled her throat with tears and her heart with dread.
“Is he okay?” Jay called.
“Don’t try to move him!” Goodie said. “I’ll call for an ambulance on my cellular.”
She was vaguely aware of a chorus of other anxious voices, but nobody ventured to Attila’s side of the hot wires. It didn’t matter, though, because there was nothing any of them could do. And nothing she could do, no matter how desperately she wanted to.
Her tears began to spill over, but just as they did, Nick moaned.
“Oh, Nick, are you all right?”
When he grunted in reply, it sounded enough like a “yes” that her heart soared.
“Ambulance is on its way,” Goodie called. “Someone better go meet them at the house and bring them out here.”
“Damn good thing that was the only bear scene we had scheduled for today,” Jay muttered to someone loudly enough for Carly to overhear.
She felt like killing him but didn’t even look his way. She simply asked Nick if he could move.
Groggily, he pushed himself into a sitting position. His T-shirt was ripped, and he was covered in dirt, but he didn’t wince as he felt along his arms and legs.
After he checked his ribs, he said, “Nothing seems to be broken. I guess he just knocked the wind out of me.
“Thank heavens,” she murmured, feeling weak with relief. “He did try to avoid you, but he was too close to miss you altogether.”
“Oh? You mean only three or four hundred pounds of him landed on me?”
She smiled. “It might even have been just one or two. But you do feel all right?”
He gave her a wry look. “Carly, I feel as if I just went ten rounds with Mike Tyson.”
CARLY WANTED NICK TO wait in the clearing until the ambulance arrived and the paramedics checked him over. But much to her dismay, he insisted on heading back to the house.
By the time she got Attila on his lead and the three of them started off—Nick limping badly—Jay was already setting up to shoot Kyle and Brock running.
“I’ll bet neither of them trips,” Nick muttered, glancing back.
“Nick, it doesn’t matter that you tripped. You did a terrific job. I mean, it’s awful that you got hurt, but you didn’t fall until after Jay had all the footage he needed. And you should have heard how happy he was that he got his take. He was downright ecstatic.”
“You mean I was lying there unconscious, under a bear, and all Jay was worrying about was his damn take?”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, all I was worrying about was you.”
“Yeah?” He flashed one of his turn-her-to-jelly smiles.
It made her recall how she’d come home from her art class last night wanting to make love with him. And if he hadn’t had too much to drink…
“Why were you worrying about me?”
“Oh, mostly because I didn’t know if you had any insurance.” She smiled to say she was teasing, then left it at that—even though she was tempted to tell him the truth. Tell him that when he’d been lying there motionless all she’d been able to think of was how much she loved him.
But this wouldn’t be a good time or place to instigate that discussion, so she said, “Getting back to Jay, the important thing is that you gave him what he wanted.”
“Yeah, but that was one scene.”
“I know, but it was Attila’s only real tough one. The rest are just the foreshadowing ones, and for most of them it’s simply a matter of posing him or getting him to walk a little.”
“Unless Jay comes up with more improvisations.”
Carly frowned, not wanting to think about that possibility. “I’m sure we’ll be fine from here on in,” she said at last. “The scenes with the rabbits and the. Marx brothers will be relatively easy. And Jay doesn’t need much from the owls.”
As they reached the edge of the woods, she added, “I’ll take Attila to his field while you go and wait for the paramedics. And make sure you let them check you over thoroughly.”
“Anyone ever tell you you’re bossy?”
“I’m not bossy. I just don’t want you keeling over dead on me.”
She and Attila only made it about halfway to their destination before an ambulance turned off the Sixth Line into the driveway. Hurrying the rest of the way, she hustled Attila into the field, barely saying two words to Jonathan, who was on watch duty.
Even so, by the time she got to the house, the paramedics were standing on the front porch with Nick, ready to leave.
“Is he all right?” she asked.
“He’s going to be pretty stiff and sore for a few days,” one of them said. “But he looks basically okay.”
“A long hot bath would be a good idea,” the other one suggested. “With Epsom salts if you’ve got any.”
She nodded. Gus had been a great believer in Epsom salts.
> Once the two men climbed back into their ambulance and started down the drive, she turned to Nick. “Come on. You’d better get into the tub.”
“No, I think I’ll pass on that idea. Who wants a long hot bath when it’s ninety degrees out? All I need is a quick shower to wash off the dirt.”
“Well, at the risk of seeming bossy, I’m going to get some Epsom salts and run the bath.”
WHILE NICK WAS IN the tub, Carly walked the Marx brothers, fed the animals, then made lunch for herself and Nick.
When there was no sign of him by that point, she began to worry. What if he’d been hurt worse than the paramedics had realized? What if he’d suffered a concussion? And what if it had made him pass out and he’d drowned in the bathtub?
That frightening possibility in mind, she raced up the stairs, breathing a sigh of relief when she reached the hallway and saw that the bathroom door was standing open and the room was empty.
“Nick?” she said.
There was a mumbled response from his room.
She walked a few steps along the hall and looked through his open doorway. He was lying on the bed with a towel wrapped around his waist.
Seeing him almost naked started a sweet ache inside her. Trying to ignore it, she said, “Lunch is ready.”
“Mmmm. Mind if I just lie here for another ten minutes? You ran that bath so hot, I think it took as much out of me as Attila did.”
“Sure. I stuck the sandwiches in the fridge, so they’re safe from the animals.”
Deciding that a shower would really hit the spot, she headed into her own room and grabbed an elastic to keep her hair dry.
The shower turned out to be a quick one, because there wasn’t much hot water left, but it made her feel far more alert.
After giving her neck a little spritz of perfume and freeing her hair from the elastic, she pulled on her robe, tied the sash, then started back to her room.
“Carly?” Nick called as she reached her doorway.
She crossed to his side of the hall. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, wearing jeans now but still bare-chested. And looking at his dark chest hair made her fingers itch.
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