by Debbie Mason
“No, I can’t, but your boyfriend can.” He waved Jill over.
Chloe rolled her eyes, said good-bye, then walked to where Jill stood waiting for her in the middle of the auditorium. “Why do you keep staring at Brandi? Do you think she’s going to try something?” Chloe asked again, concerned Gage didn’t want to worry her by telling the truth.
Jill drew her gaze from the couple. “I’m not staring at them.”
She caught the them and murmured, “Oh, I see.” And she did. Jill Flaherty had had a crush on her brother’s best friend, Sawyer Anderson, since high school.
“What do you see? They’re not dating, you know,” Jill said, glancing back at the couple as she and Chloe walked toward the exit doors. “They’re just…Do they look more than friendly to you?”
Chloe glanced over her shoulder. “Well, no, but—”
“Yeah, they’re just friends. And Nell’s setting up Brandi and Easton to be the couple in her…” She trailed off, her cheeks flushing a dull red.
Ten days ago, that might have bothered Chloe, but it didn’t now. She trusted Easton. He’d explained his non-date with Brandi. “You know, Jill, if you’re interested, you should just ask Sawyer out.”
“Why would I do that? The guy’s a total player. Besides, I’m not interested in him.”
“Of course you’re not.” As someone who’d pretended not to be interested in Easton, Jill couldn’t fool Chloe.
“It’s not dark enough that I can’t see your smirk, you know.” They’d just walked outside. It was after eight, and the sun had set, leaving a nip in the air. Jill gave her head a slight, disgusted shake. “I don’t know what’s gotten into everyone. It’s like they have spring fever.”
“Well, if you change your mind, let me know. It’d be fun to make you over. Ty would help—”
Jill’s hand went to her dark hair, an affronted look on her face. “You think I need a makeover?”
Of course she needed a makeover. Jill was as bad as Cat. She didn’t put any effort into her appearance. And while Jill wasn’t a typical beauty, she had the most fabulous skin Chloe had ever seen. She also had amazing blue eyes and bone structure. With a little effort, she’d turn heads. Possibly Sawyer’s. “Of course you don’t. I just thought it would be fun. But if you don’t mind me saying, you should change hairdressers. Your cut is uneven.”
“I don’t have time to go to a hairdresser. I cut it myself.”
Chloe stopped walking and stared at her. “Are you serious?” She didn’t bother waiting for an answer because obviously she was. Chloe pulled out her phone. “When’s your next day off?”
“Friday, but I’m not…” She sighed when Chloe pressed her lips together and arched an eyebrow.
Chloe texted Ty as they continued across the parking lot. They’d reached her Mustang when he responded. She glanced at Jill. “Ty scheduled you at two. If you’re not there, I’m coming to get—” Chloe’s gaze swung to the left as something hurtled through the air. She jumped back and a football landed at her feet.
Jill laughed. “I think someone wants to play.”
Chloe picked up the football and turned. In the fading light, she made out Easton standing on the edge of the football field. He had on jeans and one of his old yellow-and-white Cougar football jerseys. “Come on, Scarlett. Show me what you got,” he called to her.
“Have fun,” Jill said.
Chloe was so happy to see Easton that she wasn’t sure if she returned Jill’s good-bye. Taking off across the parking lot, Chloe weaved to avoid the cars pulling out. For maybe two seconds, she wished she’d traded her four-inch wedge sandals for tennies. But she forgot her discomfort as she ran across the dew-dampened grass, tossed the football, and jumped into Easton’s arms. And her thought about playing it cool—she didn’t exactly forget that—but as his strong arms went around her, she no longer cared who knew he was her one.
Chapter Twenty-One
Missed me?” Easton asked with an amused smile on his gorgeous face.
She didn’t hesitate or hold back. She wrapped her arms around his neck, tightened her legs around his waist, and returned his smile. “Yes, it felt like you were gone forever.”
“Guess we better start making up for lost time then,” he said, and lowered his head.
At the touch of his warm mouth on hers, a small sigh of contentment escaped from her, and she closed her eyes. He smiled against her lips. She would have done the same, but at that moment, he deepened the kiss. And the slow dance of his mouth on hers transported her to another place. A place where hopes and dreams came true, and the man she’d been in love with since she was fifteen loved her, too.
Because if a kiss spoke, that’s what his would say. And as he brought his hand up and under her hair, his fingers caressing the side of her neck, there was a promise, too. A promise that this night would not end with just a kiss. And no matter how perfect his kiss was—how he made her stomach clench and her toes curl with the teasing strokes of the tip of his tongue—she wanted more. She wanted him to keep that promise.
He gently pulled away and slid his lips across her cheek to her ear. “In case you can’t tell, I missed you, too, Scarlett.”
She opened her eyes and smiled. “I can’t. I think you need to show me some more.”
He laughed, then gave her one last deep, passion-filled kiss before lowering her to her feet. “Plan to,” he said, and scooped the football off the grass. “But I thought we’d eat first and catch up.”
“You want to go out for dinner?” She worked to keep the disappointment from her voice. She wanted to be alone with him.
“Not exactly,” he said, taking her by the hand. Instead of walking toward the parking lot, he turned in the opposite direction.
“Where are we…” She trailed off at the sight of a glowing lantern under the goalposts. As they drew closer, she made out a yellow-and-white team blanket, a picnic hamper, and a bouquet of yellow tulips. “Is that for us?”
“For you mostly.” He scratched his chin. “I grabbed a couple of burgers on the road. But if you’d rather go out for dinner—”
“No, this is perfect.” It was better than perfect, if such a thing were possible. Easton had gone out of his way, and out of his comfort zone, to do something romantic for her. She wondered if he’d picked the location because of the meeting or if he remembered the night they’d made love. It had been the first time for both of them. And while, given the circumstances, it hadn’t been perfect, she remembered every moment of that night. Sadly, she remembered the fallout afterward just as clearly.
“You wanna play catch first?” He tossed the ball above his head, catching it easily with one hand.
Obviously she’d misjudged his reason for choosing the location. He wanted to relive his youth. She arched an eyebrow at him, raising her foot to show him her shoe. “I’m not exactly dressed to play football.”
“You sure about that?” he said with a wicked gleam in his eyes. And before she knew what he was up to, he tackled her to the ground. Breaking her fall with a hand at the back of her head and an arm around her waist, they tumbled onto the blanket.
He smiled down at her. “Bring back any memories?”
So maybe he hadn’t forgotten. But she had. She hadn’t remembered that their first time together had begun playfully. They’d met here on the pretext of studying for exams, then Easton had goaded her into playing catch with him. Afraid he’d figure out she wasn’t Cat if she didn’t agree, Chloe had gone along with him. Flirting to distract him. Even back then, she’d been a good actress. She traced the dent in his chin. “Yes, but I thought you’d forgotten or maybe you’d want to.”
He searched her face, then rolled off her to sit up, helping her to do the same. She pulled her knees to her chest and glanced at him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to spoil the mood.”
“You didn’t. Okay, so you kinda did,” he said when she raised her eyebrows. “I’m just surprised that after these last few weeks, you’d think I hav
en’t forgiven you. We talked about this, Chloe. I wouldn’t be with you if I hadn’t. We were kids, and kids do stupid things.”
“You think us making love was stupid?”
He looked out over the field, then turned his head to look at her. “I think we’re real lucky you didn’t get pregnant. And you were young, Chloe.”
“So were you.”
He shrugged. “Not that young for a guy. But for a girl…And your first time shouldn’t have been on a football field with a guy who thought you were your sister. It should have been with someone who loved you.”
It was her turn to look away. He was right, but it didn’t take the sting from his words. She should have let it go. If she had, she wouldn’t be remembering what he’d said the night he’d found out he’d made love to her instead of Cat. She’d never seen him so angry, or heard such spiteful words out of his mouth. “Not with someone who thought you were a slut.”
He took her chin between his fingers and forced her to look at him. “I thought you’d played me, Chloe. I didn’t know you had a crush on me. But even so, I never should have said that to you. I’m sorry.” He dropped his hand from her face. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. Why don’t we—”
He twisted to pick up the picnic basket, and she covered his hand with hers. “No, I want to stay.” She gave him a tentative smile. “Please, can we start over?”
“You sure?”
“Yes, absolutely.” She moved to kneel beside the picnic basket and picked up the bouquet of tulips. She buried her nose in the petals, lifting her gaze to his. “They’re beautiful.” She leaned over and kissed the cleft in his chin. “Thank you.”
He smiled, and the hard angles of his face relaxed. “You’re welcome. How did the meeting go?” he asked, as he pulled out a bottle of Chardonnay and uncorked it.
“It went really well, I think,” she said, and told him about the meeting. He asked questions as she laid out how she planned to move forward, more interested, it seemed, in the part Beau would be playing to win over the board than anything else. When he asked his fifth question about the handsome Southerner, Chloe tilted her head and arched an eyebrow. “He’s not my Ashley, you know.”
His lips flattened, and he handed her a glass of wine. “My brother has a big mouth.”
She took a sip. “A few days ago, I would have agreed with you. But Gage was very nice tonight. He apologized.”
“That’s something at least. You’re doing a great job, Chloe. Bet your mom and Cat were proud of you, Ethan too.”
She shrugged and carefully set down the glass of wine to pull out the food from the hamper. “They weren’t there. Ethan had a meeting, and my mom and Cat went over to help Skye. Her dad and Betty Jean are in Texas. Evie’s teething, and Skye has all-day sickness. She’s pregnant.”
Chloe kept her head down in case she didn’t do a good job hiding her disappointment over her family’s no-show. Easton seemed to have a talent for reading her when no one else could. She didn’t begrudge Skye their help. But it would have been nice if they’d been at the meeting. Her family didn’t think much of Chloe’s chosen profession. They were all about careers that made a difference in the world. Her dad had especially felt that way. So now that Chloe was actually doing something she thought they’d be proud of…
Easton tucked her hair behind her ear. “I should have been there. I’m sorry I wasn’t.”
“It’s all right. Gage said you were at Chance’s talking about the case,” she said as she placed the crackers, cheese, and grapes on a paper plate. She set it between them on the blanket.
While they ate, Easton filled her in on the Martinez case. She liked that he was comfortable confiding in her, even when he wasn’t supposed to. She laughed when he told her how Chance had unwittingly revealed their baby’s sex and promised to keep the secret.
“Well, no one can say the McBrides and O’Connors aren’t doing their part in contributing to the population of Christmas. You know, I should probably factor the baby boom into the forecast for the school board. Maybe I’ll do a survey of the thirty-somethings in town and see how many are planning to have children and raise them here.” She pulled out her iPhone and gave him a smile, feeling a little sneaky about how she was going to get the answer to a question she’d been thinking about. “You can be my first respondent. How many children are you hoping to have, and will you be raising them in town?”
He choked on a cracker. She offered him her wine, but he shook his head and pulled out a bottle of water from the hamper instead. “So I’m taking that to mean you don’t want to have any children.” She hoped he didn’t pick up on the disappointment in her voice.
“No, I inhaled some crumbs when I went to give you my answer.” He looked up at the stars like he had to think about it for a minute, then said, “Five, maybe six.”
She stared at him. “Five or six…children?” Her voice sounded like she’d been the one who’d choked.
He grinned. “Yep, and I’ll be raising them in town.”
“What if your wife doesn’t want that many children or to live in Christmas?”
“Then I’ll find one who does.”
“Oh, I guess…That doesn’t sound very romantic.”
“Scarlett, I’m teasing you. I’d be happy with two or three kids. What about you? You’re a thirty-something, too, you know.”
“Thank you for pointing that out,” she said a tad grumpily, then took a sip of wine before answering. “I’d like two or three babies, too, but I don’t think I can use my response in the survey. I can’t see myself raising a family here.” But she couldn’t see herself raising her children in LA either. And the thing was, the only person she wanted a family with was Easton. She glanced at him from under her lashes. “If your wife didn’t want to live in Christmas, would you move?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Anything’s possible, I guess. But I’d prefer to live in town. Family’s here, and we’d have a good support system. Built-in babysitters. And I’m building my dream house, so that’d be kind of tough to leave behind.”
“I can understand that. My beach house was my dream home, too.” It was once, but not anymore. And Easton made a good point about a support system. What would Skye have done without Liz and Cat around? If Chloe ever had children, she’d want her family close by. Ty too. But living in Christmas? She didn’t think she could handle that. But could she handle losing Easton because she didn’t want to move home? She didn’t bother answering the question; she was putting the cart before the horse.
“You said was; are you having second thoughts about living in LA?”
She nodded. “It’s not the same without Ty, Cat, and Estelle around.” And now that Estelle had the part in the docudrama, the older woman wouldn’t be back anytime soon. She loved London, and surprisingly, she was enjoying spending time with her son. “And I don’t have many friends, and no job…” She gave a disheartened shrug at the reminder there still were no offers. She’d been too busy the past few days to think about it.
“I might have a job for you. Have you heard of the director Dallas Howard?” Easton asked, then went on to tell her about meeting the man who’d been trying to convince one of Easton’s big-name clients to come on board his new project. After overhearing the actress reject Dallas’s offer, Easton had mentioned Chloe to the director. Obviously the adage “no press is bad press” held some merit, because Dallas had heard of her. She’d heard of him, too. There’d been some Oscar buzz about his low-budget film last year. And although he didn’t receive a nomination, he was considered an up-and-coming filmmaker. Chloe would have been more excited if Easton didn’t also share the premise of the movie.
“Sounds great, doesn’t it? World’s ending and only one woman can save the day. You’d be a hero.” He grinned, and she had a feeling he was thinking of her and Ty singing “Heroes” by Alesso at the Penalty Box. “Nothing like a good action-drama to get the blood pumping.”
Her blood was pumping all rig
ht. And that was the problem. Chloe wasn’t a hero, nor did she want to play one. Heroes had to do crazy action stuff. And since money would be tight on a low-budget film, they’d cut costs where they could. No doubt she’d have a stunt double, but they’d expect her to do a lot of the action sequences herself. And while everyone told her her heart was fine, deep down inside she didn’t quite believe them. Even now her heart was thumping erratically in her chest.
But she couldn’t disappoint Easton. “It’s a fantastic opportunity. Thank you for putting a good word in for me. That was so thoughtful of you.” It was, and she’d have to find a way to get out of it without him knowing how she really felt.
“Always looking out for your best interests, Scarlett,” he said, digging his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans. He pulled out a card and handed it to her. “I told him you’d contact him.”
“I’ll get in touch with him first thing tomorrow,” she said brightly and tucked the card in her bag. Then she deftly changed the subject by asking him how his jobs in Aspen went.
Twenty minutes later, Chloe suggested they pack up. Listening to him talk about his job had gotten her worked up. Not only did he look good doing it, she loved his confidence and admired how technically savvy he was. There was nothing more attractive than a smart man, at least to her. And his voice…Yes, she was more than ready for him to fulfil the promise in his kiss.
Once they’d packed everything away, Easton moved the picnic basket to the edge of the blanket, then he leaned over and blew out the candle in the lantern. Stretching out on the blanket, he said, “It’s too nice a night to leave just yet.” And tugged her down beside him. He slid his arm around her shoulders, and they lay on their backs looking up at the stars. For several long moments, there was only the sound of their breathing, crickets chirping in the field, and a horn honking in the distance.
