“So you don’t drink?” Gretchen asked. “Is that a health thing or a moralistic thing?”
“Health. Too many empty calories. One too many beers and all my dietary rules will go out the window. You don’t want to find me passed out in a half-eaten pizza, I assure you.”
“Scandalous!” she mocked.
“I know, right?” He looked around and spied Murray and Kelly out on the patio. “Have you met Kelly?”
“The bride? Yes. She’s been to the facility several times going over details.”
“Okay, good. Let’s go say hi to the happy couple, then we can find a comfortable place to hang out and hide from most everyone.”
“You don’t have friends here?”
Julian shook his head. “Not really. Murray and I were roommates in college. When I dropped out and moved to LA, we kept in touch, but I don’t really know any of his Nashville friends. I’m mostly here for moral support.”
They stepped out onto the deck and greeted the engaged couple.
“So, this is the new lady Murray has told me so much about,” Kelly said with a wide smile and a twinkle in her green eyes. “It’s good to see you outside of work, Gretchen. I have gotten so many compliments on the invitations. I can’t wait to see what you’ve got in store for the wedding. I think the programs are going to be fabulous.”
“Thank you,” Gretchen said with a smile.
Julian watched the two women as they chatted about wedding details. From that night at the restaurant, Julian had noticed that Gretchen’s reluctance faded away when she talked about her work. She was like a totally different person. She nearly radiated with a confidence that vanished the moment the attention shifted from her art back to her. He understood that. He’d much rather talk about his films, such as they were, than talk about his family or his upbringing. Those were tales better left untold.
“Do you mind if I steal her away?” Kelly asked. “I want to introduce her to my bridesmaids.”
“Sure.” Julian bent down and planted a kiss in the hollow just below her ear. She shivered but didn’t pull away or tense up. Bravo. “Hurry back.”
Gretchen gave him a wave and disappeared into the house with Kelly.
“How’s that going?” Murray asked.
“Better than expected. I’ve got her loosened up, so that’s helped.”
“You’re doing a good job, whatever it is. When you came out on the patio together, there wasn’t a question in my mind that you two were a couple.”
“Really?” Julian smiled. He was pleased they’d come so far, so quickly. Perhaps he wouldn’t have to deal with Ross’s sour disposition later in the week if this worked out. “I am an award-winning actor, you know.”
“The golden popcorn statuette from MTV for Best Fight Scene doesn’t really stack up to a Screen Actors Guild Award.”
“Don’t I know it,” Julian grumbled. One day, he wanted a real award for a movie with substance. Once he’d told Ross he wanted to do a movie with depth and the next thing he knew, he was in a movie about terrorists who take over a submarine. Just another flick where he lost his shirt eventually.
“It didn’t look like acting to me,” Murray said. “You two really look like you’ve got some chemistry between you. Real chemistry. I’m surprised. She didn’t strike me as your type, but stranger things have happened. I, for one, never thought I’d end up with my opening act.”
Julian listened to his friend and thoughtfully sipped his drink. He was right. There was something building between them. He didn’t know what it was—novelty perhaps. Gretchen was nothing like any of the women he’d ever dated before, and it wasn’t just physical differences.
For one thing, she wasn’t a vain peacock of a woman. Julian spent his fair share of time in the hair and makeup trailer during films and for official appearances, but it was always a fraction of the time his female costars put in. He got the feeling that Gretchen’s day at the spa was a rarity for her. She took care of herself, but her whole self-worth was not wrapped up in her appearance. She was a skilled artist, a savvy businesswoman, and that was more important to her than clothing designers and a close, personal relationship with her colorist.
She also didn’t seem that impressed by him. Gretchen was nervous, to be sure, but he got the feeling she was that way around most men. She was aware of his celebrity status, but he couldn’t tell if it just didn’t impress her, or she didn’t care for his body of work. He’d been greeted by plenty of screaming, crying women on the verge of passing out when he touched them. If Gretchen passed out at his touch, it was probably because she’d tensed up and locked her knees.
It had been a long time since he’d been around a woman who didn’t care about his money or what he could do for her. She didn’t secretly want to act. He wasn’t aware of her carrying around a screenplay in her purse for him to read and pass on to a producer. Gretchen was real. She was the first authentic woman he’d spent time with in a really long while. He’d been in California so long, he’d forgotten what it was like to be with a woman instead of a character.
He turned and glanced through the wall of French doors into the house. He spied Gretchen and Kelly standing by the buffet chatting with another woman. Gretchen was smiling awkwardly, carrying on the conversation as best she could. He knew the exact moment the discussion shifted to her work, because she lit up like the sun. She might not think she was a beautiful woman, but he’d never seen anyone more radiant in that moment.
Gretchen was slowly drawing him in. He never intended to let himself get that close to his fake date, but he couldn’t help it. He fought the urge to text his brother and tell him about her. James always loved it when his aide would relay stories about Julian’s escapades, and he thought his brother would take to Gretchen. She was a talented artist with a quick wit and coy smile. She seemed to enjoy the pleasures in life, drinking her margarita and nibbling on goodies without remorse. She knew who she was, and she lived the life she wanted to.
It was an attractive quality that made him both extremely jealous of her and desperate to have her all at once.
Four
Gretchen crept quietly into the office Thursday morning. She didn’t have any wedding-related activities with Julian today, so she wanted to get some things set up for the weekend. Despite the assurances from her coworkers that she didn’t have much to do the day of the event, there was plenty that needed to be organized beforehand. And the more she could get done without her coworkers knowing she was there, the better. She wasn’t ready for the inquisition.
“Look at you,” a woman’s voice called down the hallway just before Gretchen reached her office. “Creeping around in the hopes we wouldn’t see you. Your hair might be different, but we can still recognize you, you know.”
Turning around, Gretchen saw Bree standing outside her office. There was a knowing smirk on her face, and her arms were crossed over her chest.
“Morning, Bree,” Gretchen tried to say brightly.
“Don’t ‘morning’ me. You go ahead and get settled, but you’d better know we want to hear all about it.”
With a sigh, Gretchen nodded and continued into her office. She hoped it would be quick. They did have a huge, expensive wedding this weekend. Amelia, especially, didn’t have time to waste with all those people to feed.
Setting down her things, Gretchen didn’t even bother getting on her computer. Instead, she went to the door that led to her storage area. She scanned the various box labels on the shelves, finally identifying the box with the Murray wedding paper goods.
She put it on her desk and lifted the lid. Inside were the wedding programs she’d had printed weeks ago. Beside them were the name cards, table markers and menus. Gretchen had thoroughly gone over everything when they arrived, so she knew they were good to go. She carried the programs into the chapel and left them
on the small table just inside. The name cards were left on the round table outside the reception hall. Once the table linens were put out and the centerpieces placed, the cards would be laid out alphabetically for attendees to find their table assignment.
Gretchen continued on through the glass double doors into the reception hall. The large, open room was just a shell of what it would be. The bones were there—sparkling chandeliers and long draped panels of white fabric were hanging overhead, the stage and the dance floor cleared and ready to be occupied by tipsy revelers. The cleaning crew had already been through the day before to vacuum and arrange the tables and chairs.
It would take hours of work to decorate the room. She hoped to get a head start on some of it today, although a lot of things were last-minute, such as the dishes and the floral arrangements. The wedding was black and white, following along the musical note theme, so the dry cleaning company would deliver their cleaned, pressed white and black table linens sometime this morning. Some custom hand-beaded sheer overlays were ordered to be put over them, making the white tables look like sheet music. The napkins needed to be folded. Several hundred white pillar candles had to be put out.
Gretchen nervously eyed the bare ballroom. The list of things she had to do was staggering. How had she allowed herself to get roped into this romance charade? Just because things were handled the day of the wedding didn’t mean she wasn’t running around like a chicken with its head cut off the days leading up to it.
“Gretchen, the dry cleaning delivery is here.” Natalie stuck her head into the ballroom. She was wearing her headset, as usual, as she was constantly on the phone. She was the command center of the entire operation, coordinating vendors, talking to clients, booking future events and managing the bookkeeping.
“Awesome, thank you.”
She helped unload all their clean linens into the ballroom and decided she wanted to start laying them out. She didn’t have time to waste.
“I’m ready to hear about yesterday.” Amelia walked into the ballroom with Bree on her heels. “My cakes are cooling and I’ve got some downtime.”
Downtime? Gretchen tried not to snort. “Well, I don’t have downtime, so if you want to hear about yesterday, you can listen while you help me drape all the tables.”
“Fair enough.” Bree shrugged. She reached for a tablecloth and flung it over the nearest table.
“We’re alternating black and white,” Gretchen explained, and they all started at it. They got through about a third of the tables before Bree gently reminded her that they weren’t helping out of the goodness of their hearts.
“So, spill it. Did you kiss him?”
Gretchen felt her cheeks turn crimson again. “Yes. I kissed him a lot. He insisted we kiss until I could relax while I was doing it.”
“That is just crazy,” Bree said. “You’re getting paid to make out with Julian Cooper. How did this even happen?”
Shaking her head, Gretchen covered another table in black linen. “I recall you all twisting my arm until I agreed to it.”
“Are you getting more comfortable?” Amelia asked, ignoring Gretchen’s pointed accusation.
“Yes. I think we’re finally to the point where people might actually believe we know each other.”
“Biblically?”
“Ugh,” Gretchen groaned. “I haven’t known anyone biblically, so I can’t really say.”
“Say what?” Bree stared her down, the linen in her hands pooling on the table. “Did you just say what I thought you said?”
Amelia narrowed her gaze at Gretchen, too. She should’ve kept her mouth shut about the whole thing. She’d gotten good at it after all these years, even keeping the truth from her best friends. Now the cat was out of the bag.
Gretchen straightened the cloth on the table and admitted the truth, reluctantly. “Yep.”
“You’re a virgin?” Bree nearly shouted. “How could we not know that you’re a virgin?”
“Hush!” Gretchen hissed. “Don’t shout it across the ballroom like that.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, her blue eyes as big as saucers. “It just never occurred to me that my twenty-nine-year-old friend was keeping a secret that big. Did you know?” Bree turned to Amelia.
“I did not.”
“You didn’t tell any of us?”
“She told me,” Natalie said, coming into the room. “It’s been a long time, but I haven’t gotten any updates that would lead me to believe things had changed.”
That was true. Natalie was the only one she’d told, and that had been on a long-ago college night where they’d stayed up late studying, ended up getting into a cheap bottle of wine and spilled their secrets to each other. Natalie was the right person to tell. She wasn’t a hopeless romantic like Amelia or pushy like Bree. She took the knowledge at face value and didn’t press Gretchen about it.
Bree dropped the tablecloth and sat down in the chair. “Stop, everyone, stop. You all sit down right now and tell me what the heck is going on. How could you keep that from us? And why would you tell Natalie, of all people?”
“Hey!” Natalie complained.
Gretchen frowned at Bree and dropped into a nearby chair. “Bree, how could you not tell us that Ian was your ex before you went up into the mountains to take his engagement photos?”
Bree’s nose wrinkled, and she bit at her bottom lip. “It wasn’t relevant at the time.”
“And neither is my sexual inexperience.”
“It might not be relevant to running the business, but as your friend, it seems like something we should’ve known.”
“Known what? That I’m so incredibly awkward with men that I’ve driven them away since I was fourteen? That my self-esteem is so low that I can’t believe a guy could really be interested in me and I look suspiciously at their motives?”
“You’re a beautiful, talented woman, Gretchen,” Natalie said. “You may not have felt that way when you were a teenager or just in college, but you’re on the verge of being in your thirties. Don’t you feel differently about yourself after your successes in life?”
“I did. I thought I was doing better and I was even considering putting up an online dating profile, but I have to tell you there’s nothing quite like a movie star to bring out your insecurities.”
“May I ask how you’ve gotten this far in life without losing your virginity?” Amelia looked at her with concern in her eyes. It was the same look guys tended to give her when she told them the truth. Like she was damaged somehow.
Gretchen shrugged. “I didn’t date in high school. College was hit-or-miss, but nothing ever got serious enough. As I got older, it got harder. It felt more like a burden, which made it even harder to admit to it. With the few guys I’ve dated in the last couple of years, they push for sex until they find out I haven’t done it before, then they back off. They don’t want the responsibility for being my first, or they think I’m going to get clingy because of it... I don’t know. It just seems like the longer I wait, the harder it is.”
“We can fix this,” Bree said brightly. “With your new makeover and your new attitude, we can get you a hot guy, pronto.”
“I don’t want a—” Gretchen tried to argue, but was drowned out.
“We don’t just want to get her laid, Bree,” Amelia argued. “We want her to find real happiness in a healthy relationship that includes sexual intimacy.”
“I’m not sure I’m—”
“She’s waited this long, it should be special.”
“Just stop!” Gretchen shouted. The others were working hard at fixing all her problems, but that wasn’t what she wanted. “See, this is what I wanted to avoid. I don’t need to be fixed up or pimped out. It just is what it is.”
“Are you happy with the status quo?” Amelia pressed.
“Some days
yes, some days no. But the point of this whole thing is that it makes it harder for me to pretend with Julian. I am awkward enough without being around someone that is completely unattainable in real life.”
“I don’t know,” Bree said thoughtfully. “I think you could have him. You’re looking mighty fine today.”
“You’ve lost your mind,” Gretchen muttered. If there was one thing she hated, it was being the center of attention. It made her extremely uncomfortable. She was desperate to shift this conversation in another direction. “Now you all know my deep dark secrets, so either help me put out tablecloths or return to your battle stations. There’s nothing more to see here.”
Bree finished laying out one more tablecloth, then she joined the other two as they slipped out to their offices and kitchen to return to work. Gretchen was relieved to be in the ballroom by herself again.
That was uncomfortable, but it was over, thankfully. She’d never have to confess it to her friends and coworkers again. But she was sure she hadn’t heard the end of it. Once this nonsense with Julian wasn’t taking up her time, she had no doubt one of them would try to fix her up. They’d tried before, just attempting to help her find a guy, but now it would be a mission.
Laying out the last tablecloth, she looked across the room, which was like a checkerboard stretching out in front of her. In two days, she would be in this room as a guest instead of an employee. It was an odd thought, especially considering she’d be on Julian Cooper’s arm.
She couldn’t believe Bree actually thought that Julian could be the one to relieve her of the burden of her virginity. That was ridiculous, even with her secret knowledge that he was aroused by kissing her. There was a far leap between those two things. She was paid to be his date in public, not in private. If he actually slept with her, it would be because he wanted her.
There was no way in hell he wanted her. Or did he?
* * *
Julian pulled his nondescript black rental SUV into the parking lot at From This Moment. He really didn’t need to come here today. Today was a day of relaxation, small errands and final preparation for the big event. At least for the men. The women had gathered for a spa day in the morning, and this afternoon, they were having a bridal tea downtown. That left their male counterparts a day to themselves.
One Week with the Best Man: Reclaimed by the Rancher Page 5
