Acting Lessons (Off Guard)

by Katie Allen

  He snorted. “When I die, Danny’s not getting my money. Most of it’s going to charity, and Julia gets the house.”

  “Huh.” She chewed this information over for a moment. “Does Tiny know this?”

  “Yes,” he said, sending her a sideways smirk. “I made a point to mention it to him.”

  “Jamie-Bear, you’re ruining my assassin-for-Tiny theory,” she huffed.

  “Sorry.”

  “That’s okay.” Topher was just glad he wasn’t nagging her about her body temperature anymore. “I’ll just think up a new one. Could Charlie be your long-lost half-brother who hates you because your father loved you more than him?”

  Jamie stared at her, looking both amused and horrified. “No.”

  “Sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Huh.”

  They spent the rest of the ride thinking up possible motives for Charlie—actually, Topher came up with the motives, and Jamie, like the buzzkill he was, shot them all down. As they dismounted in front of the barn, a police car pulled up to the house. Jamie handed Endeavor’s reins to a waiting Laurie, and Topher held out Popcorn’s, as well.

  “I’m so sorry,” she told Laurie. “But can you untack Popcorn for me? I promise I’ll do some barn chores later to make up for it. This is full drama, and I don’t want to miss any of it.”

  “Come down later and let me know what’s going on,” Laurie said, eyeing the two cops getting out of the squad car.

  “Deal!” Topher hurried after Jamie, latching on to his arm as she caught up with him. “I know this would’ve been horrible if anyone or any pony had been hurt by that wire, but this is so interesting! Will the police tell us why Charlie did it if he makes a full confession? Do you think they’ll do the good-cop/bad-cop routine?” The only response she got from him was a sideways glance and a skeptical hum. She stopped talking as they got closer to the waiting police officers.

  Jamie introduced himself and Topher to the cops before ushering everyone into the house. As they stepped through the door, a high-pitched shriek made all of them flinch. One of the cops put a hand on the top of his holster.

  Topher, recognizing the sound, gave the officers an apologetic smile. “It’s just my mom. Nothing’s actually wrong.”

  “Nothing’s wrong!” her mom repeated, although on a much shriller note, as she rushed down the stairs. “How can you say that when you almost died?”

  “I didn’t almost die.” Topher sighed, taking off her borrowed helmet and unwinding her scarf.

  “That’s not the story I heard.” Glaring accusingly at Jamie, her mom hissed, “It’s all this man’s fault. We’re leaving this second.”

  “Really? You’re leaving?” Topher feigned disappointment as she hung up her coat. “It’ll be hard to spend Christmas without you, but it’s probably for the best. All the excitement around here probably isn’t good for your nerves.”

  Her mom’s narrow-eyed stare turned to Topher. “You are coming with us, Coco. I’m not leaving you alone here. You might not survive next time.”

  “There won’t be a next time,” Jamie said, putting his arm around Topher. “And she’s not going anywhere until after New Year’s.”

  “Okay,” one of the cops said, stepping forward. “Let’s put the family dispute on hold and talk about the incident with the wire, shall we?”

  Topher’s mother turned toward the police officer, her brows as high as they could go in her Botoxed state. “How dare you—”

  “Charlie’s in the security room, right?” Topher interrupted loudly. As insanity-inducing as her mother could be, Topher still didn’t want her locked up for assaulting an officer or impeding an investigation or whatever else her mom could manage to do in her inimitable way.

  “Charlie?” Barb screeched as she ran down the stairs. “What happened to Charlie?”

  Topher eyed Barb’s worried eyes and pale face as a new theory started to take shape in her brain.

  “This way,” Jamie said to the cops, leading them toward the security room. “Tophie, you, too.”

  Pulling her gaze off of Barb, Topher hurried after the trio.

  “Wait!” Barb grabbed her arm, stopping her. “Tell me what’s going on. What’s wrong with Charlie?”

  “Do not touch her.” Jamie was next to them in a flash, his expression as cold and furious as Topher had ever seen. Even in her semi-hysterical state, Barb must’ve noticed his don’t-fuck-with-me tone, because she dropped Topher’s arm as if it were on fire. “Let’s go, Toph.”

  “Don’t listen to him, Coco,” her mother snapped, and Topher grimaced. Just as Jamie managed to get Barb to shut up, her mom had to start rolling again. “Go pack. We’re leaving tonight.”

  Jamie stood right next to Topher. Although he wasn’t touching her, his presence made her brave. “No, Mom. I’m not leaving tonight. You should, though.”

  “What?” Her mother’s voice went up a few octaves.

  “You’ve said some really unforgiveable things about Jamie. He’s been more than tolerant—a saint, really—because you’re my mom. This is his house, and he shouldn’t have to listen to you slam him, and I shouldn’t have to listen to that, either. I love you, but you have to leave.”

  Turning back around, she walked away from her speechless—for once—mother, Jamie next to her. Although her insides felt shaky, and there was a small thread of guilt she couldn’t quash, Topher was glad she’d finally stood up to her mom. The cops fell in behind them, and Topher imagined they were either hugely uncomfortable or hugely entertained by the drama.

  Jamie put his arm around her and gave her a side hug. When she leaned against him, he kissed the top of her head. “You didn’t have to do that,” he said quietly against her hair.

  “Yes, I did.” Snaking an arm around his waist, she squeezed him back. “I’m sorry I didn’t do it sooner.”

  He shrugged. “They’re your parents.”

  “Yeah,” she admitted in a voice of doom. “They are.”

  Jamie chuckled. Stopping outside the closed door of the security room, he gave the cops a concise summary of what had happened, impressing Topher with how much information he managed to cram into so few words. When the cops asked for her statement, it took many more words.

  Once the officers had asked their questions, Jamie reached with the hand not holding Topher against him to punch in a code on the keypad next to the security-room door. He ushered her into the room and held the door for the two officers. There were even more security guards packed into the room than there’d been the day before.

  “You have a lot of security people,” she said quietly to Jamie. “What do they do when it’s just you and Jules?”

  “Most work at my other properties,” he said close to her ear, his voice low. “I flew them here when the Golfinis arrived. I had a feeling there might be trouble.”

  She patted his face. “It’s like you’re psychic, Jamie-Bear.” Turning to where Charlie was slumped in a chair, she raised her voice and called, “Hey, Charlie! So, you and Barb, huh?”

  He instantly sat up straight. “She told you?”

  “She’s really worried about you.”

  Charlie started to stand, but one of the security guards behind him put her hands on his shoulder and firmly sat him back into the chair. “Is she okay? What did Tiny do when he found out? Barb!” He yelled, trying to stand again, only to be reseated by the same guard. “Barb! I love you, Barb!”

  “OMG, Jamie-Bear,” she muttered for his ears only. “It’s like we’re in a really bad community production of A Streetcar Named Desire.”

  Although he attempted to keep a straight face, Topher saw the telltale dents next to his mouth that he got every time he tried to suppress a smile.

  One of the cops stepped closer to Charlie. “Why did you string
the wire on the trail?”

  Slumping again, Charlie closed his eyes. “I was desperate. Tiny owes money to a lot of really bad guys. He started pressuring Barb again to get James on the hook. I love her. She said we were just messing around, but that’s not true. If she didn’t have to marry into money to save her family, she’d be mine—I just know it. I should be the one marrying her. When I found out that just James and Topher were going riding this morning, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

  “So you rigged up a trip wire on the trail,” the cop said, his voice conversational, “hoping that his horse would go down.” If it wasn’t for the quick look he shot his partner, Topher would think he was a little bored with this attempted-murder confession.

  “Yeah,” Charlie admitted. “I thought that, if I could get James out of the picture, then Barb would be free to be with me. Once he fell, I planned to take down the wire, so everyone thought it’d just been a riding accident.”

  “Idiot.” Topher couldn’t keep her mouth shut any longer. It was a stupid plan that could’ve hurt her and the horses and Jamie, and the thought of Jamie being injured filled her with rage. She launched herself at Charlie, wanting to punch him in his idiotic, stupid-plan-making head, but a hard arm around her waist caught her and hauled her back before she could make contact. “You could’ve killed him,” she snarled at Charlie as Jamie held her back. “All for a really dumb plan that wouldn’t have even worked!”

  “Tophie.” Jamie pulled her back against him. “I’m fine.” The feel of him—unharmed and solid behind her—reassured her, and made her want to kiss him, even in front of Charlie and the cops and all the security guards watching the proceedings with undisguised fascination. She had to settle for reaching back and patting him on the leg in a silent, I’m-glad-you’re-not-dead-or-gravely-injured gesture. Leaning back against him, she waited for Jamie to relax so she could pounce on Charlie and smack him in his stupid face a few times before she was restrained again. Unfortunately, Jamie’s arm didn’t soften. She had a feeling he’d guessed her plan.

  Jamie held her against him as the cop arrested Charlie, exchanging the zip-tie with real handcuffs. Even as they followed the officers and Charlie out to the front of the house, Jamie still kept Topher’s hand in a firm grip.

  As they watched the cop put Charlie in the back seat of the squad car, Topher sent Jamie a sideways glance. “I can’t go after him now. His stupid head is safe from my lethal fists. You can let me go.”

  “No.” He kept looking straight ahead, and she saw the corner of his mouth turn up. “Never.”

  Although she pretended to huff, Topher found that she was smiling, too.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “It’s a dumb tradition,” Topher said, plopping down on the couch next to Jamie.

  “Was that a whine?” Jamie asked in a faux-casual tone that didn’t cover the warning in his question.

  “No,” Topher said quickly, wriggling as she thought of the wonderfully intense spanking she’d gotten two days ago. “Maybe.”

  He laughed, reaching over and hauling her onto his lap. Smiling, she relaxed against him. It was late on Christmas Eve, and the entire huge house was theirs. After Charlie’s arrest, the Golfinis and Topher’s parents had packed up and left within the hour. Pushing away any guilty thoughts of sending her parents away right before Christmas, Topher decided to just enjoy the absence of annoying people. She’d spent the past two days with Jamie, Jules and Danny—who was surprisingly fun to hang out with when Barb was no longer around and Topher was no longer pretending to date him.

  Tonight, though, they were really, truly alone. Jules and Danny had gone to Chicago to spend the night with Danny’s paternal grandparents, and all the staff had been given the week off. It was a treat to be able to sit in Jamie’s lap in the library, or kiss him in the kitchen, or give him his long-awaited rain-check blow job in his study, and not have to worry about people seeing or hearing or knocking on the door.

  “Just one?” Topher pressed. “Can we open just one each?”

  Jamie eyed her with amusement for a long moment before agreeing. “Fine. One. But the rest of the presents have to wait until tomorrow morning.”

  Topher barely heard the rest, since she was scrambling off his lap and rushing to grab the wrapped gift she’d put under the small tree that she and Jules had set up in the library. The towering, professionally decorated tree in the foyer was beautiful, but it lacked the warmth that this squatty pine had, covered in multi-colored lights and bulbs and a few homely ornaments that Danny had constructed when he was a kid.

  Rushing back over to Jamie, she straddled his lap and offered him the package. “Here. I’ve been dying to give this to you. Open it. Hurry! I can’t take waiting any longer!”

  Instead of tearing into the paper, he eyed her over the top of the gift. “It arrived this morning. You haven’t been waiting that long.”

  “Whatever.” She flapped her hands in a hurry-up motion. “It felt like forever. Come ooonnn, Jamie-Bear! Open it!”

  With an amused snort, he eased the paper off his gift. Of course, Jamie couldn’t rip the wrapping like any normal person. Instead, he carefully peeled the tape off of the paper.

  “OMG, Jamie.” She pressed her hands to her eyes as if in agony. “This is taking years. You are making me crazy. Rip it! Just tear into it!”

  That only made him go slower. By the teasing look in his eye, he was intentionally dragging things out to make her insane. Finally, though, he unfolded the paper and looked at the book he’d uncovered.

  “Carson Quest? He’s my favorite author.” His smile turned puzzled and then delighted as he turned over the book and looked at the front. “Ice Crusher? This isn’t supposed to be out until next April. How’d you get a copy?”

  “My friend, Amanda, is an editor for his publisher—in a different department—so I called her and begged and promised her my firstborn, and she managed to get an advance copy!” She bounced a little, so excited that she could finally tell him about it. “I saw all of his books over there on the first day I was here.” She gestured toward the bookshelf where everything Carson Quest had ever written was lined up, worn from frequent reading. “As soon as she had this copy in her hands, Amanda overnighted it to me, but I was still worried that it wouldn’t come before Christmas.”

  “Thank you.” He hugged her against him. The hug turned into a kiss, and the kiss turned into intense making-out, but Topher managed to pull away.

  “Wait,” she gasped, breathing hard. When she saw how Jamie’s face was tight with desire, she almost leaned in again, but she managed to stop herself. “My present.”

  With a groan, Jamie leaned back and shut his eyes for a long moment. “Your present. Okay.” He stood up suddenly, placing her on her feet as he did so. After carefully moving his new book from the couch where it had fallen during their make-out session to a low table nearby, Jamie took her hand and led her out of the library.

  “Where are we going?” Topher asked as she followed him. “If your answer is the bedroom, I have to warn you that sex is not considered a present. Okay, so maybe it is a present, but I’d also like another kind of present, since I can get the sex-gift pretty much anytime I ask for it, and not just at Christmas, so—”

  At the front door, he kissed her hard, cutting off the rest of her presents-versus-sex-presents speech. “It’s a non-sex present,” he assured her. “We need to go outside for it.”

  “Outside?” she repeated, renewed curiosity sparking again. “What is it?”

  “Put your boots and coat on and you’ll see.”

  She could tell he was trying to sound stern, but Topher was pretty sure Jamie was just as excited as she was. Hurrying to stuff her feet in her boots, she held her arms out so Jamie could slide her coat on. As Jamie put on his own outerwear, Topher grabbed a hat and mittens and hu
rried outside.

  It had gotten colder, and the porchlight reflected off a few swirling snowflakes. Distracted briefly by the chill and the beautiful winter night, Topher paused, looking up at the sky. Jamie stood behind her and wrapped her in his arms.

  “Merry Christmas, Jamie-Bear,” she said, still staring at the flakes dancing above her head.

  He gave her an upside-down kiss, blocking her view of the sky. Topher didn’t mind. She’d rather look at Jamie than anything else.

  “Merry Christmas, Tophie.”

  They smiled at each other until Jamie moved toward the barn, tugging her along with him. Instead of going inside, though, they detoured around the building and walked to the south pasture entrance. She was just a few feet away when she saw Popcorn was waiting for them right inside the gate. His black coat matched the night, and only his white blaze stood out in the darkness. He made a chuff sound in greeting.

  Puzzled, Topher gave Jamie a sideways glance. “Did you hide my present all the way out here? If so, you’re overestimating my gift-finding skills. I don’t have the attention span to be a good hide-and-seek player.”

  “Popcorn’s your present.” Jamie gestured toward the pony. It was the first time Topher had ever heard Jamie sound uncertain.

  “Popcorn? You’re giving me Popcorn?” She stared at the pony and then at Jamie and then at the pony again.

  “Yes. If you’d been patient and waited until tomorrow morning for your gift, then he would’ve had a red bow around his neck and everything.”

  “Really?” Tears crowded in her eyes. “He’s mine?”

  “He’s yours.”

  Disappointment dimmed her initial excitement. “I can’t afford to keep him. Horse board around LA is crazy expensive, and I can barely afford to keep myself fed, much less a small pig of a pony. No offense, Popcorn.”

  “I’ll be buying a horse property,” Jamie said. “He can stay there. It’ll give you extra incentive to visit me.”