by Nicole Helm
Nate slid his hand across the engine, studying a part and then retrieving a tool. Ryan took some long drill-looking thing Nate handed him.
Vivvy held up her phone, moved around to get some decent light. “Explain what you’re doing,” she said, her heartbeat already picking up. She was on to something.
Nate took the lead explaining, unfazed by filming. Ryan needed some more coaxing, but eventually he relaxed and joined in with the explanation as organically as if the whole thing had been scripted.
They were gorgeous, but she found herself forgetting Ryan was there. Nate would be the star of this show. He had that special indefinable something that could make someone a star. She’d been around enough actors—successful and failed—to know it when she saw it.
But while that something was what she needed professionally, personally it was a threat to her confidence, to her impartiality, to everything. Because if she was already having little pricks of feeling after only a handful of days, how might she feel after a week?
If she was already worried about the connection she tried so hard to avoid, what would she be tempted to do if she convinced him to do the show? If they were connected, through Tyson?
Vivvy looked down at her phone, worked on pushing all nonbusiness thoughts out of her head. This whole emotion stuff was new unchartered territory. Dealing with it would be dangerous. So, she wouldn’t.
Vivvy watched the playback of the few clips she’d taken. Deleted the first one where Ryan looked like a rusty tin man with all his awkward, stiff movements.
When she looked back up, Nate was studying her. She felt awkward, which was yet another new feeling for her.
“You know, we may be on to something here,” she offered, meeting Nate’s shrewd gaze.
“Something?”
“More possibilities, different angles. You and Ryan make a good team, on camera and off.”
The brothers stared at each other for a moment. “You don’t know us very well,” they responded in unison, frowning when they realized she was laughing at their simultaneous answer.
“Ry’s not part of this, Vivvy.”
“He could be.”
Ryan looked stricken. “I—I don’t even live here.”
She shrugged, undeterred. “If my bosses liked the idea enough, they could work around your schedule. You can take vacation time at work, can’t you?”
“Of course, but I go on vacation. I don’t come to Demo.”
“You enjoy working on these engines, with Nate. It’s obvious. I’d think that would be a kind of vacation.”
“Ms. Marsh—”
She held up a hand and grinned at Nate, who was still gaping at her. “It’s just an idea, fellas. Think about it. Now, I want to do some work on my computer with these. Send some clips to my bosses. You mind if I go use your office for a bit, Nate?”
“Go for it.”
Vivvy sauntered back toward the office, knowing both sets of green eyes watched her retreat. She wasn’t going to think about how she only cared for one pair of those green eyes.
She had work to do.
Chapter Six
Nate watched Vivvy disappear around the corner of the office. The woman sure knew how to calmly drop a bomb and leave.
“That chick is nuts.”
Nate ground his teeth together. The only thing that kept his temper in check was the fact that Ryan looked rattled, and Nate didn’t think he would unless he was kind of interested in the whole crazy idea.
It would be nice to get Ryan back where he belonged. Nate could use the break. Someone else could check up on Grandpa, deal with Dad’s disappearing and reappearing act, and field Mom’s constant complaints. And no matter what Ryan said, he was happier here at Harrington.
But that would mean Nate changing his stance on the whole TV endeavor, and as long as the rest of his family was in the picture, that wasn’t an option.
“Is that how you got a beautiful woman interested in you? She’s crazy and it impedes her judgment? Christ, she doesn’t react to anything.”
“Yeah, maybe we need a little bit of that around here. Besides, she’s higher-class than any of the women who put up with you for brief periods of time.”
Ry snorted. “KC has plenty of high-class women interested in me. Women who aren’t looking to slum it with the likes of you.”
The slum comment hit a little close to home, but what did he expect from Ryan? Not much. To Ryan, Nate’s life was a slum. “Maybe, but none like Vivvy.”
Ryan shook his head and slapped Nate on the back. “You got it bad.”
Yeah, he did. Three days with this woman and he was all kinds of wrapped up in her. What kind of moron did that make him?
The biggest.
“What are you going to do when she goes back to LA? I hope you don’t have any idiotic ideas about that woman staying. Cool as a cucumber—she does not belong here.”
“I’m not an idiot. Of course she doesn’t belong here.” She was all flash and smartphones and clacking around broken concrete and grass on high heels. Nothing about her image jibed with Harrington. Or even him.
Except somehow she worked with him. Something about the calm and cool way she didn’t react to all the drama. Nate puffed out an irritated breath. He was an idiot.
“You’re not going to agree to this insanity no matter how stupid you get over her. I won’t let you.”
“Screw off, Ry.” Nate focused on the plane, and for the next two hours he and Ryan didn’t talk. They worked side by side. As always, the years slipped away, the arguments faded. When they worked together on a plane, they were brothers. More than that, they were two of the same mold.
The hours together had Nate’s uneasiness lifting, and by the time he noticed his stomach growling for lunch, he was all but smiling to himself. “I’m going to go find Vivvy and get some lunch.”
Ryan screwed up his face. “Please don’t say anything about afternoon delight. I’ll puke right here in your plane.”
Nate ignored the comment. Afternoon delight wasn’t a half-bad idea. When he found Vivvy, she was sitting at his desk, her laptop playing back the clips she’d taken earlier on her phone.
She was making notes as she watched, her legs curled under her. She shouldn’t look comfortable all dolled up in her LA chic, but she seemed perfectly fine in his concrete box of an office.
Yeah, right. His mind was screwing with him. Ryan was right. She did not belong here. And he couldn’t let himself get it into his head that she might or that this show might not be the worst thing in his world.
He needed to focus on one thing and one thing only. Having fun with Vivvy until it was time to leave. Fun did not include discussing TV shows, reputations, or fitting and belonging.
“Want to go get some lunch?”
She turned to face him. “Oh, sure. In town?”
“I’ve got sandwich stuff back at the house.”
“Okay. Mind if I bring work?”
Nate grinned. “I was hoping maybe I could distract you from work a bit.”
Vivvy closed the laptop and slipped it into her bag. “Hmmm. It’d have to be a pretty big distraction. I have to convince this really stubborn man he’s wrong. Hard work.” She grinned.
Though the comment dimmed his mood, he didn’t rise to the bait of talking about the show. “I think I can manage.”
She laughed that low, throaty laugh. “All right, but I’ll want some more video of you and Ryan this afternoon.”
Nate ignored the uncomfortable itch between his shoulder blades as they began to head toward his truck. “How many more times you going to do that?” He’d expected her to be bored already. Maybe hoped was a better word.
Vivvy shrugged. “Until I get the footage I want. You’re a natural on camera, but your brother takes some warming up.”
“I’m a natural, huh?”
“Star material.” Vivvy grinned.
“I don’t have much interest in being a star, Viv.”
“But y
ou want Harrington to be a star, and you’re the face of Harrington.”
She had him there, but it didn’t mean he had to like it or be swayed by it. When they reached Nate’s truck, she started to open the passenger door. “It’s kinda high up and dirty and—”
“I don’t mind.” With an ease she shouldn’t be able to muster in a skirt and heels, Vivvy launched herself up into the passenger seat.
Some woman. When Nate joined her, she was typing away on her phone. “Don’t you ever get tired of that thing?”
“This is my only connection to the outside world right now.” She didn’t even look up. “I tried to check my email on that thing you call a computer and I think I aged ten years in the time it took.”
Nate rolled his eyes. His cell phone was as ancient as the desktop in his office. It wasn’t cheapness or an inability to upgrade; he just didn’t see much point. Being connected to the outside world held very little appeal to him. Especially today when he’d much rather exchange the outside world for the little fantasy world he and Vivvy had created.
Which was all it was. Some weird weeklong fantasy. He had no business imagining it becoming permanent. Not when he wasn’t going to change his mind about this show, no matter how many good points she brought up.
As they reached his house and walked inside to make their lunch, permanency was exactly what he was imagining. Because it was strange to stand in his kitchen with a woman and make sandwiches together. Stranger still that he’d only known this woman for three days, and it felt easy, comfortable. Normal.
Nate mentally shrugged it off and they took their sandwiches to the porch to enjoy the early fall afternoon. The trees across the way were just beginning to show their color and Vivvy put her phone away and took in the view.
“This is nice,” she said. “But you haven’t tried to distract me yet.”
Nate chuckled. “I need some sustenance first. I didn’t get much of a breakfast this morning.”
“You two seem to have made up very quickly.”
He looked down at his sandwich. “Yeah, well. Put a plane between us, we get along. Take it away and there’s nothing left in common.”
“That’s a shame. I’m afraid I made things worse.”
“No way. We’re always like that.” Nate squeezed her knee. “Don’t worry about Ryan. He’s a dedicated asshole ninety-nine percent of the time.”
She frowned a little. “I thought you said he belonged here. That you wanted to work with him.”
“It’s complicated,” Nate replied. He took a bite of his sandwich. “We’re complicated.”
“Complicated?”
“We both have different ideas of what makes us happy. To me, it doesn’t matter that Harrington is in the middle of nowhere with no five-star dining or movie theaters or gyms or whatever it is he wastes his free time with. I think he’d be happy here if he forgot about all that other crap.”
Her frown deepened. “You know, to some people, that isn’t crap. Some people find five-star dining and the newest movies and working out in a gym pretty enjoyable.”
“And by some people you mean you?”
She shifted a little, clammed up. Vivvy’s poker face would fool a pro. “I certainly don’t mind them.”
Nate leaned back in his chair. It wasn’t shocking she’d feel the same as Ryan, but it was a reminder he was being an idiot if he got mixed up with her. Aside from sexual chemistry, what did they have? A show she wanted and he didn’t. A place he loved that she couldn’t possibly.
Only masochists thought about what they’d never have, and he’d never had time to be a masochist.
…
Vivvy folded her arms behind her head and looked up at the stars. Nate had laid out a blanket in his backyard and they’d roasted marshmallows over a small fire he’d built. Something so unlike anything she’d ever done back home, and she couldn’t stop smiling.
In LA, there weren’t nights filled with stars, and she’d never dream of sitting around with a man talking, no matter how concentrated an effort there was to keep things light and fun. It was nice restaurants, loud clubs, the most expensive liquor, and luxury cars.
She didn’t want to think about LA or how much she was enjoying this more than a night on the town. She wanted to focus on the hot guy beside her and that light, fun evening they were going for.
“Most embarrassing moment with a girl?” Light, silly, and fun.
Nate groaned and rolled from his side to his back. “What if I told you I was born with the kind of charm women can’t resist, and have never been embarrassed in front of a woman?”
“I would call you a dirty rotten liar.”
“Damn.” He matched her pose, folding his arms behind his head and looking up at the sky. “Well, let’s see. You want the most embarrassing?”
“I do.” She rolled onto her side, letting her hand prop up her head so she could look at him in the moon and starlight.
“When I was sixteen. I’d finally talked Marie Bellows into going all the way.” He paused.
“And?” Vivvy demanded, poking his side.
“And, let’s just say I was a little too excited. Couldn’t even last long enough to get my pants off.”
She giggled and rolled onto her back. “That is really embarrassing.”
“Gee, thanks,” he muttered. “Your turn.”
“Most embarrassing moment with a girl? Well, when I was seven, Kelly Smith totally ruined my birthday party and—”
“Ha. Ha. Most embarrassing moment with a guy. Unless you’ve gotten frisky with another woman. That’s a story I would want to hear.”
She rolled her eyes. “Why are men so disgusting?”
“You’re changing the subject.” This time he poked her in the side. “Most embarrassing moment with a guy.”
She stared up at the sky, tried to pick out the Big Dipper even though she’d never seen it anywhere but a planetarium. “I guess telling a guy I loved him when I didn’t, and he didn’t love me, either.”
“So why’d you say it?”
She shrugged even though Nate probably wouldn’t be able to see it in the dark. “He said I was emotionally unavailable. So, it seemed like the thing to do at the time. Apparently I’m no good at faking the emotion stuff.”
“Why fake it?”
“Well, when it’s not there, what am I supposed to do?” Her stomach sank. This was not light and fun. This was hitting way too close to home.
“What you’re telling me is that LA guys are pricks?”
She didn’t know whether he sensed her discomfort or wanted to change the subject, and she didn’t want to know. So she chuckled and forced herself away from thinking too hard. “I don’t think one man should be the fair example of all LA guys.”
“You’re right. Besides, all guys are pricks.”
“Even you?”
“Even me. I am a Harrington. We’re all pricks. Except Grandpa. Maybe he was before he met my grandma, too. Who knows?”
“Tell me about your grandparents. You’re close with your grandpa.”
Nate moved to his side. Though it was dark, the light of the fire illuminated his face enough that she could see the skepticism in his expression, feel the suspicion as he watched her face.
“What?” she asked, confused why an innocent question would cause a negative reaction.
“What do you want to know for?”
“If you think I’m asking about him because of the show…” She moved up onto her elbows and tried to tamp down some of the hurt. That’s not what this conversation was supposed to be about. “I only asked because I was curious. The show and you are two separate things, Nate. I’m not…looking to screw you over or trick you into anything.”
“You’re trying to get me to do your show.”
“I can’t make you.” Of course, if she could, she would, but she couldn’t. She could only keep picking away until he agreed. Vivvy looked at the fire. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe she should go. Things were getti
ng muddled, complicated, and that’s not what she needed.
“Grandpa before his stroke was the kind of guy who was the life of the party, always making a joke.” He spoke softly, his voice full of love and admiration. So, maybe in some small way, she’d earned at least a modicum of trust.
“He loved life, loved people, loved planes. Grandma was quieter, but she was the stereotypical grandmother. Always cooking and ready with a hug. I don’t know how Ry and I would have turned out without them.”
She tried to picture Ryan and Nate as boys with a set of dysfunctional parents juxtaposed against warm, loving grandparents.
“And your grandpa is why you’re into planes?”
“Yeah. His passion is contagious, and when you grow up with it, it just becomes a part of you. Even Dad always comes back, if for nothing else but to get his hands on an airplane.”
That sounded nice. Some common bond, a common passion to bring a family together. She couldn’t think of a single thing that connected her to her parents beyond biology.
She thought of the conversation she and Nate had had the night before about her parents, and he’d asked if they liked each other. It made her wonder. “Did they like each other? Your grandparents, I mean.”
“Oh yeah. Honestly, if I hadn’t grown up seeing them together, I’m pretty sure I’d think every married person who says it isn’t hell is full of crap. They loved each other and liked each other. They showed it, too. Not in the warped way my parents did. If you love me, you’ll do this. If you want me to love you, you’ll do that. No, they just said I love you, like it was the easiest thing in the world.”
Somehow the conversation had taken a strange, uncomfortable turn. The last thing she wanted to be talking about with Nate was love. This was not light. This was not fun. This was real and deep and not at all safe.
Vivvy moved closer to him. “You know, we don’t have a lot of time left together.” They needed to focus on the real reason she was at his house tonight. Not business, not feeling. It was all about chemistry and release.
He reached out, pulled her toward him. “Then why are we wasting it talking?”
She laughed as his lips descended onto hers. “I have no idea.”
