by Elena Aitken
Yoga?
His question was answered a moment later when Milena bent both her legs in to her chest, wrapped her arms around them and did a half roll to a sitting position before she crossed her legs, putting her hands in a prayer position, and bent her head. “Namaste,” she whispered to the air.
Definitely yoga.
Not that Cal had a ton of experience with yoga. Or any at all, really. He’d always kind of thought it was a hippie New Age thing to do, but watching the few moves Milena did was incredibly peaceful and not hippie at all. But the serenity only lasted a moment because then Milena opened her eyes.
“What the hell?” She sat up so fast her head spun. It took a few seconds before her brain registered that it was Cal McCormick who’d scared the hell out of her.
He held his hands up in front of him. “It’s just me,” he said, trying not to smile. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Were you watching me?” When she realized she wasn’t in any danger, her posture softened a little, but she didn’t relax entirely. “What the hell, Cal?”
“I was just…I was running…you were…” He took a breath, ran a hand through his overgrown wet hair and tried again. Women didn’t fluster him. No woman flustered him. This woman did. “I was out for a run and I saw someone lying down. I thought…well, maybe they were hurt. Anyway, it was you and—”
“So you thought you’d stop and take a look?”
“No,” Cal answered quickly. Too quickly. “I mean, well…yes, I guess.”
She crossed her arms over her ample bosom, which had a very desirable effect, and Cal could see she was trying not to smile when she said, “And?”
“And what?”
Was she flirting with him?
“And, what did you think?”
It was a loaded question, and Milena knew it. She couldn’t even believe she’d asked him that. If he said that he did in fact like what he saw, she’d know he was interested. But what if he didn’t say that? What if he didn’t say anything?
Oh God. She could just die.
She never flirted. She never put herself out there. Especially with someone like Cal McCormick. What was she thinking? He was amazingly gorgeous, way out of her league and a model, for bloody sake. There was no way he’d ever be interested in her. She was setting herself up for rejection, that’s what she was doing.
She took a deep breath and tried to casually adjust her tank top so it didn’t cling so much to her stomach. As a general rule, she didn’t wear her workout clothes in public, but she hadn’t expected to run into anyone.
“I think that it looked very…interesting.”
Interesting?
She tried not to react negatively. There could have been worse things he’d said. He could have said that it was ridiculous. That she looked ridiculous in that…No. Stop it, Milena. She chastised herself.
She forced herself to stop the negative thinking and instead pasted a smile on her face. “Interesting?” She repeated the word in a way she hoped sounded light and flirty. “Interesting like you would like to try it, interesting? Or interesting as in, what was the crazy woman doing, kind of interesting?”
She might as well make fun of herself a little. She was nothing, if not good at self-deprecation.
Cal leaned up against the wall of the gazebo. Damn, he looked so casual, so relaxed. And so damn hot with his tight t-shirt that stuck to his skin from the rain and his shorts that exposed his long, muscular…no. She could not let herself start thinking of Cal McCormick that way. Milena forced herself to look into his eyes, but that was just as dangerous. His green eyes sparkled with mischief, and when he finally responded, she just about melted down into a shavasana pose.
“Interesting in the way that I enjoyed watching you do it, but I don’t think it’s really my thing.”
He enjoyed watching?
Milena’s heart raced and she was thankful she was already sitting down, because if not, there was no doubt she would have collapsed right there and then. He’d said he’d enjoyed watching her.
Oh. My. Freakin’. God.
With more composure than she ever thought she’d be able to muster, Milena nodded and asked him, “Why don’t you think you’d like to try? Have you ever done yoga?”
“Yoga!” It was almost comical the way he spat out the word. “No.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Yoga isn’t my thing. I run.”
“You run?”
“And I lift weights.”
“Of course you do.”
“What does that mean?”
“I mean, it’s a really guy thing to do.”
He dropped his arms and took a step toward her. “It’s an everyone thing to do,” he said. “Lots of women lift weights, too. In fact, in my gym in Australia, it was almost fifty percent women.”
Australia. Right. It was a sharp reminder of just how out of her league this guy was. He’d just come from Australia, where he was a famous model. And the only reason he was in Cedar Springs was to star in a new television show. Yup. It didn’t get more out of her league than that.
“Well, we don’t have a gym here,” she said somewhat defensively.
“You don’t really need a gym, you know?” Before she realized what he was doing, he’d jumped up and grabbed onto one of the beams stretched across the rafters.
“What are you—”
“One…” With what looked like remarkable ease, Cal pulled himself up so his chin touched the top of the beam before he lowered himself. “Two…” He repeated the action. “See? You don’t need a gym.”
Milena tried her best not to stare at his biceps. It was a losing battle. It wasn’t that he was bulky in a muscle man-bodybuilder type of way, but damn, the man was built pretty perfectly. And she was fairly sure that if he took his shirt off, there would be at least a six-pack underneath. At least.
“I see that.” Starting to feel the chill in the air now that her workout was done, Milena pushed up from the mat and went digging through her bag to find a sweater. She pulled it quickly over her head, grateful for the layer. “But you can get just as good of a workout doing yoga.”
It was something she believed wholeheartedly. Milena had lost her weight and changed her life by practicing yoga five days a week and walking every day. Of course, she made a point to put healthy foods in her body, but she didn’t go crazy and she hadn’t used any fancy workout programs or expensive gym memberships or anything else. Yoga and walking. That was it.
“Maybe so.” Cal jumped down and landed in front of her. “But lifting weights is a different type of workout. You should try it.”
“I should?” She bent down and rolled up her mat. She couldn’t put a finger on it, but something about talking with Cal in such close proximity made her nervous. Okay, she could put a finger on it. That was exactly why she was nervous. She was talking to Cal in close proximity and he was wearing nothing but a tight and very damp t-shirt.
She looked away, found her water bottle and took a long sip, pretending to be incredibly thirsty.
“You should,” he said again. She probably shouldn’t have, but she looked back at him just in time to see his devilish smile. “I think you might like it. I’d be happy to show you sometime.”
Had he seriously just said that? Was that like a date? There was no way it was a date. Get a hold of yourself, Milena. Cal McCormick was not asking you on a date.
“That could be fun.”
What? She could not even begin to understand why she’d just said that. There was no way she was going to go on a date with Cal McCormick. Especially not one that involved lifting weights, of all things.
“I think it could be very fun.” He winked and she tried not to react although her insides had somehow just liquefied.
“And then you can try yoga?” That had come out of nowhere, but once the words were out, she decided to go with it. “I’d be happy to show you a few moves.”
Milena fully expected him to say no. After all, Cal had already told her
he wasn’t the yoga type. So when he responded with a yes, she couldn’t have been more surprised.
“I’m up to try new things,” he said. “Let’s do it. I should let you go now before you catch a cold out here, but I look forward to trying new things with you, Milena. I’ll call you.”
And then he was gone as fast as he’d appeared, leaving Milena to hyper analyze everything about the conversation that had just taken place. She finished packing her things up and pulled her rain jacket on over her sweater for the short walk to the car. But even as she was driving away, she couldn’t make sense of what had just happened because for the life of her it seemed as if Cal was flirting with her, and that could never happen because he was a famous model and an almost famous television star. There was no way he’d be interested in a slightly overweight, newly licensed real estate agent from Cedar Springs. Not when he could have his pick from the red-carpet beauties.
There was no way.
And there was no way he was ever going to call, so it didn’t matter anyway.
Chapter Two
He’d walked runways, stood half naked in front of dozens of people who judged and critiqued every part of his body, posed for some of the biggest brands in Australia with his face plastered all over every major billboard across the country, but never before had Cal been so intimidated as he was at that moment, sitting around a table with the producers and other key actors for Mr. Summer, the show that was set to start filming in only a few weeks.
Cal had always wanted it, but he’d never before had an actual acting gig. Not unless you counted the few commercials he had done. But they were connected with products he was already modeling with, and not one of them had a speaking line, so they didn’t count. Not like this show counted. Mr. Summer was everything. It was the chance he’d been waiting for, that he been looking for, that he’d dreamed about. Even so, he never in a million years thought that his big break would come because his older brother had a show written about him.
Not that it was really written about Ian. It was actually Gwen, Ian’s fiancée, who was the star of the show. But the whole premise was based on their actual love story where Gwen, after losing one hundred pounds, tricked Ian into thinking that they’d never met, when in reality she still held a grudge from ten years earlier when she thought Ian had scorned her. It all really did sound like something out of a soap opera, but unlike fiction, their story actually had a happy ending. And lucky for Cal, it had been turned into a TV show and he’d been cast to play his brother.
Not only was the whole thing as strange as it was incredible, it was also an amazing opportunity. A very intimidating amazing opportunity.
Cal did his best to stay composed, but he’d drank at least four glasses of water since he sat down at the table, and he hadn’t even started reading a script yet. Across from him, Gwen smiled encouragingly. She must know how nervous he was. Hopefully he wasn’t showing it. It was fake it till you make it. A mantra he had used more than once when he started out as a model, it seemed more than fitting right now.
“Cal, I’d like you to meet Byron Smith,” Jade Johnson said. She was one of the producers and also his brother Mitch’s new wife. The show was really starting to become a family business. “Byron is going to be playing the role of Mitch.” Jade managed the introduction with a straight face but Cal didn’t miss the little smile she tried to hide. Everyone tried to pretend it wasn’t weird that they were about to film a version of their life for a television screen, but it was weird.
At least when Gwen had written the script, she’d done her best to fictionalize a little bit so it wasn’t too close to home. All of the major stuff had gone down before Cal had returned to town. So it wasn’t his story at all. Which only made it slightly less weird to be playing his brother.
“So I guess we’re kind of like brothers?” Byron said to Cal.
“I guess so.” Cal stuck out his hand. “I’m Cal McCormick. Nice to meet you.”
“As in, the Cal McCormick?”
Taken aback, Cal crossed his arms. “What do you mean?”
“I’m just screwing with ya.” Byron punched his arm good-naturedly. “Seriously, though. It’s nice to meet you. I did hear that the brother of the actual Ian McCormick got the role.”
“It’s not like—”
“Don’t worry about it, man. I think it’s cool.”
Byron had a friendly smile and an easy way about him. Cal was pretty sure they were going to get along just fine.
Around the table, more introductions were being made. Mostly Cal nodded and smiled and tried to make mental notes so he might have a hope in remembering who everyone was, but finally he gave up and opened the script that had been put in front of him.
He flipped through a few pages before he closed it again.
“It’s pretty good,” Byron said next to him. “Don’t you think? I mean…don’t get me wrong, I think the character of Mitch should be bigger.” He laughed and then added, “Is that weird for you? That it’s your brother I’m talking about?”
“No weirder than the fact that I’m playing my brother.” He chuckled. “What will be weird is when I come into the show.”
“No shit, hey?” Byron shook his head. “What will that be like?”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it, why don’t we?” Jade, who must have overheard their conversation, chimed in. “First we’ll have to get through the first season. I think Cal might be more of a second season thing.” She winked and sat on Cal’s other side.
“Hey.” Cal turned to his new sister-in-law. “What’s the word on who’s playing Gwen? I haven’t heard anything and I’m surprised because I thought there might be a whole chemistry thing and you’d want me to meet her and maybe go hang out.”
Byron wiggled his eyebrows. “Are you looking at hooking up with the lead, McCormick? That makes for good publicity.”
Cal had no interest in hooking up with a television star at all. In fact, the only girl he had eyes for at the moment was as far from a starlet as one could possibly be. Milena was down-to-earth and normal, not to mention super cute. He was looking forward to seeing her again. “No way,” Cal said in response. “I’m not interested in the celebrity type at all.”
“That’s not what I heard,” Byron said. “Word on the street is that you were dating Bridget Murphy, the hottie from Down Under.”
Cal gritted his teeth. “That’s over.”
Byron whistled low. “That’s too bad because she is gorgeous. I mean, I’m not sure about her acting skills or anything, but damn. There was definitely a reason she got cast in Beach Bodies, if you know what I mean?”
“Oh, I know.” Cal didn’t want to talk about Bridget at all. It was true she was a striking woman with a body that was absolutely made to wear a bikini on the beach, but that’s as far as her beauty went. Skin deep, that was it. It may have taken him a little while, but he’d found out once and for all that Bridget Murphy was anything but beautiful on the inside. And as far as he was concerned, that’s where it counted the most. “But that’s all in the past, man.” He tried to deflect Byron from further conversation.
Just for good measure, he turned to Jade and asked again, “So, is there any word on who will be playing Gwen? I mean, we’re getting set to film soon, right?”
It may have been his imagination, but Cal was positive he saw Jade flinch a little bit.
“We’re working on a few details still,” she said. “Peter didn’t want to say anything until it was finalized, but I can tell you she’s…well, it’ll be great.” Peter Short was the executive producer of the show and although Cal had never met him, he did know that Peter had given Jade a lot of free rein when it came to working out the details of Mr. Summer, so it surprised him that she didn’t seem to have much say in what was happening with the lead actress. But, there was a lot Cal didn’t know about how the television industry worked, so he probably shouldn’t be surprised. But even so, he couldn’t help but think that Jade was keeping
something from him.
He didn’t have time to dwell on it, because next to him, Byron was showing him something in the script. He excused himself from his conversation with Jade, who seemed more than happy to be done with it, and turned his attention to Byron. Together they went through the first few pages of the script, and Cal had all but forgot about his nerves when it was time to start the read-through.
Of course he needn’t have been nervous. It all went well and soon enough, they were all dismissed for the day.
“Hey,” Byron said, before Cal could walk away. “Do you want to go grab a beer with some of the other cast members? I think everyone’s going out.”
He didn’t. He actually wanted to go back to the cabin and work on his lines. He wanted to read the script over and rehearse it until he had it down cold. Not that he’d be able to get much quiet at the cabin. When they were kids, their childhood home had seemed huge. But now that they were bigger and older, and it looked as if they might all be settling into Cedar Springs for a while, the house was way too small.
He folded the script and tucked it in his back pocket. “Sounds good,” he said. “Just one though.”
“You need to get your beauty rest?”
“Hey.” He waved a hand over his face. “This doesn’t just happen, you know?”
“Well whatever,” Byron said. “We can’t all be beautiful naturally.”
That earned him a punch in the arm, and Cal joined him as they headed out to the pub.
The two men earned more than a few stares and appreciative glances from women as they walked along Main Street. No doubt it was because word had gotten out a TV show would be filming in town, and despite the fact that Cal was certainly no star, at least not yet, it didn’t seem to matter to the general public.
Byron noticed as well.
“You know, I’m kind of glad you’re not dating Bridget Murphy.”
Cal prepared himself for a comment about how the other man would like to have his chance with her, or perhaps an even more crass comment. Cal was used to them. But instead, Byron surprised him by taking a different tack altogether.
