Wild Action
Page 24
“Oh, Nick, it’s so much more than just okay. But you’re sure you’d be happy here? Working with the animals?”
“I’d be happy doing just about anything with you. And I’ve gotten pretty fond of the animals.”
The last whisper of anxiety faded from her heart “But if you’re staying,” she murmured, “why do you think there’ll be so much work for Dylan?”
Nick smiled again. “Because I figure you and I will be spending a lot of time doing other things.”
“Oh? What other things?” she teased.
“Well, just for starters…” He cradled the sides of her face in his hands and proceeded to demonstrate.
“You know what?” she whispered when their kiss ended.
“What?”
“I think we’ll be keeping Jonathan employed, too.”
EPILOGUE
WHILE NICK FIDDLED with his tie, Carly absently eyed the embossed invitation that was tucked into the corner of the bedroom mirror.
You are cordially invited
to attend the Canadian premiere
of Two for Trouble.
Saturday, May 21st, at the home of
Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Montgomery.
Drinks: 6:30 -7:30
Showing: 7:30
Champagne reception to follow
Dress: Black tie optional
“That’s as good as it’s going to get,” Nick said into the mirror.
Carly smiled at him. “Did I ever tell you how gorgeous you look in a tuxedo?”
“Oh, I seem to recall you mentioning it on our wedding day.” He captured her hands and drew her to him. “Happy?”
“How could I not be? I love my husband to bits, we’ve got almost too much work to handle and this morning’s reviews of the LA. premiere were great All I need to be positively ecstatic is for Siskel and Ebert to give us two thumbs up.”
“That’s what it would take, is it?” Nick drew her closer yet and kissed her—his kiss so long and hot that it left her breathless.
“Actually,” she whispered, “I think another of those is all it would take.”
Before he could follow through on the suggestion, Lisa stuck her head into the doorway. “Hey, you two lovebirds had better move it. The first of your guests are coming up the drive.”
They hurried downstairs just in time to greet Royce Chalmers and his fiancee.
“Go on into the solarium and get yourselves drinks,” Nick told them. “We set up the bar in there so Crackers wouldn’t feel left out.”
As the rest of the guests began arriving, the Marx brothers got more and more excited—until Carly finally put them outside. “But don’t run off or you’ll miss the movie,” she warned them.
A little before seven-thirty, she and Nick shepherded everyone out to where chairs were set up on the lawn facing the porch, where the VCR and the big-screen TV they’d rented were stationed.
Right on time, Dylan brought Attila up from his field. Once he was settled in at the back, between Nick and Carly, Lisa turned on the TV.
“First,” she told everyone, “we have a short tape of last night’s premiere in L.A. Goodie had it flown up for us this morning.”
When she pressed Play the screen came alive with a Hollywood moment. First, Brock and Kyle arrived at the theater—both boys a couple of inches taller than they’d been last summer. Then Sarina and Garth emerged from their limo, waving like royalty.
Jay had one of Tinseltown’s hottest starlets on his arm, while Goodie was accompanied by Barb Hunt’s successor, the fifth or sixth Mrs. Brian Goodfellow.
Once the celebrities had filed into the theater and the doors closed behind them, the tape faded to black.
“And now our feature,” Lisa announced, changing tapes.
Excitement bubbled inside Carly as the credits rolled. Then the action began. First the city scenes, followed by the ones shot at camp Run-a-Muck, and finally the part they’d all been waiting for.
Nick reached around Attila and took her hand as the bear made his first appearance. When he saw himself on the big screen he sat up straighter—wriggling his nose and trying to smell the movie bear’s scent.
“No, that’s you,” Carly told him.
Then it was the Marx brothers’ turn in the spotlight, and everyone broke up when they wolf-howled right along with their on-screen howling.
“What do you think?” Nick whispered. “Is it a two thumbs up?”
When he leaned behind Attila and kissed her, happy tears filled her eyes.
“Oh, Nick,” she murmured as he leaned back. “My entire life is a two thumbs up.”
EVER HAD ONE OF THOSE DAYS?
TO DO:
late for a super-important meeting, you discover the cat has eaten your panty hose
while you work through lunch, the rest of the gang goes out and finds a one-hour, once-in-a-lifetime 90% off sale at the most exclusive store in town (Oh, and they also get to meet Brad Pitt who’s filming a movie across the street.)
you discover that your intimate phone call with your boyfriend was on company wide intercom
finally at the end of a long and exasperating day, you escape from it all with an entertaining, humorous and always romantic Love & Laughter book!
ENJOY LOVE & LAUGHTER EVERY DAY!
For a preview, turn the page…
Here’s a sneak peek at
Colleen CoUins’s RIGHT CHEST, WRONG NAME
Available August 1997…
“DARLING, YOU SOUND like a broken cappuccino machine,” murmured Charlotte, her voice oozing disapproval.
Russell juggled the receiver while attempting to sit up in bed, but couldn’t. If he sounded like a wreck over the phone, he could only imagine what he looked like.
“What mischief did you and your friends get into at your bachelor’s party last night?” she continued.
She always had a way of saying “your friends” as though they were a pack of degenerate water buffalo. Professors deserved to be several notches higher up on the food chain, he thought Which he would have said if his tongue wasn’t swollen to twice its size.
“You didn’t do anything…bad…did you, Russell?”
“Bad.” His laugh came out like a bark.
“Bad as in naughty.”
He heard her piqued tone but knew she’d never admit to such a base emotion as jealousy. Charlotte Maday, the woman he was to wed in a week, came from a family who bled blue. Exhibiting raw emotion was akin to burping in public.
After agreeing to be at her parents’ pool party by noon, he untangled himself from the bed sheets and stumbled to the bathroom.
“Pool party,” he reminded himself. He’d put on his best front and accommodate Char’s request. Make the family rounds, exchange a few pleasantries, play the role she liked best: the erudite, cultured English literature professor. After fulfilling his duties, he’d slink into some lawn chair, preferably one in the shade, and nurse his hangover.
He tossed back a few aspirin and splashed cold water on his face. Grappling for a towel, he squinted into the mirror.
Then he jerked upright and stared at his reflection, blinking back drops of water. “Good Lord. They stuck me in a wind tunnel.”
His hair, usually neatly parted and combed, sprang from his head as though he’d been struck by lightning. “Can too many Wild Turkeys do that?” he asked himself as he stared with horror at his reflection.
Something caught his eye in the mirror. Russell’s gaze dropped.
“What in the—”
Over his pectoral muscle was a small patch of white. A bandage. Gingerly, he pulled it off.
Underneath, on his skin, was not a wound but a small, neat drawing.
“A red heart?” His voice cracked on the word heart Something—a word?—was scrawled across it.
“Good Lord,” he croaked. “I got a tattoo. A heart tattoo with the name Liz on it.”
Not Charlotte. Liz!
ISBN: 978 1 472 06336 6
WILD AC
TION
© 1997 Dawn Stewardson
First Published in Great Britain in 1997
Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
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