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Once she felt a little more grounded, Audrie began walking toward the main house. As she moved, she scanned the lawn—a flat, slightly bumpy patch of grass that Christian carefully tended. The grass was bright green, despite the drought they’d had over the summer.
“Hello?” she called out, feeling silly. Nobody was going to answer. That was obvious. If she couldn’t see anyone, how would they hear her? Maybe she should go back to the trailer and open each door to see if anyone was inside the other rooms.
Then she heard something—a male voice. The sound seemed to float through the air toward her ears.
They were behind the house on the pond. That made perfect sense. It would be the ideal setting for a scene in a romantic movie. She headed around the opposite side of the house from the bank. Either they were on the bank or the deck behind the house. Whichever it was, she didn’t want to walk right into their scene.
She wasn’t looking for the cast, anyway. She was looking for a certain six-foot-something retired cowboy. A guy whose sun-kissed skin showed a faint sign of wrinkles by his eyes when he smiled.
Audrie felt a little lightheaded just thinking about those eyes and that smile as she rounded the side of the house. As she did so, she heard the unmistakable lilt of Jessica’s voice. Strange how sweet she seemed when a camera was pointed at her face. Maybe they should have the cameras in the dressing room and the makeup trailer. Then she might be just a little less snarky.
To be truthful, Jessica had spent most of their time together in complete silence as the actress looked at social media posts about her. That silence had been a blessing. But when Audrie had dared to ask her questions, Jessica’s responses had been clipped and even slightly condescending.
It was clear fame had gone to the former child actress’s head. She’d never quite been a household name, but she was on the more famous end of the actresses who starred in cable movies these days.
Audrie saw Landon before she even reached the back corner of the house. Actually, she saw the cornflower blue shirt he was wearing. It was a distinctive color. Plus, he filled out that shirt like no one else would.
At the sight of him, she absently reached for her hair, patting it to make sure the humidity hadn’t gotten to it in the few minutes she’d been away from a mirror. Never mind that she’d told herself she wouldn’t get all swoony over a guy right now. What harm would a little crush do?
She didn’t want to sneak up on him, but she couldn’t make a peep when the cameras were rolling, no matter where they were. As quiet as she was being, though, her canvas sneakers still somehow found a twig, which snapped in half with a crack that seemed to reverberate through the air.
It was a small noise really, but when everyone was barely daring to breathe, it may as well have been a firecracker. At the very least, Landon heard it. He turned to look at her, his eyes wide. She could easily decipher the expression. Alarm.
Audrie grimaced and looked down, mindful of every step as she closed the remainder of the distance between them. There was a very narrow opening to peer through in the group of people gathered in front of Landon. That meant Audrie had to step close to him just to see.
She clasped her hands in front of her, trying to make herself as small as possible as she squeezed into the space. She didn’t want him to think she was deliberately sidling up to him.
Once her nerves had settled down, she got a look at the scene in front of her, and her jaw dropped. The back area of the main house was covered in Christmas. Every tree was lit up—barely visible, thanks to the sun blasting down on all of them. There was a Christmas tree on the deck above her, and it was fully decorated. She’d spent time here every Christmas from birth to age twenty-five or so, and she’d never, ever, seen it look like this.
“Cut!” a man standing near Jessica and her male star, Peter, yelled.
That man started barking orders, and the two main actors stepped back from each other, seeming to relax. At least that was how it looked from this distance.
Audrie narrowed her eyes, trying to make out just how well Jessica’s hair was faring. “Do they need my help?” she asked Landon when everyone around them started dispersing.
She stepped away slightly to look at him, also putting distance between the two of them. That was when it hit her just how nice it had felt to be standing this close. His strength seemed to fill the surrounding air. It surprisingly made her feel safe and secure.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the director over there. His name is Michael.”
Following his gaze, Audrie saw the man who’d called “cut” standing away from the scene slightly, talking to a man holding a microphone on a pole. There was something about his posture that intimidated her. She didn’t really want to go talk to him. She’d rather stay here with Landon.
“Did you work things out at the salon?” Landon asked.
Although Audrie was more than happy to have an excuse to return her attention to him, that wasn’t an easy question to answer. “My sister’s taking over what she can,” she said. “But there are appointments at one o’clock and three-thirty that are unmovable. Did you talk to your brother about having customers here?”
Landon glanced over toward the crew. She wondered if his brother was part of that group. Michael seemed to be the senior person around here, though, and she was guessing that wouldn’t be the case if Rourke Dixon was around.
“Your friend Christian said no,” Landon said. “You should probably talk to him. We’re fine with it if you can work it out.”
That surprised her at first, but then she thought about it. Christian probably wouldn’t like townspeople traipsing through his property. The nosiness alone would poke at him. He was a private person in a town where nothing was private. Everyone knew your business from the time you walked out of the house in the morning to the time you closed that door behind you at night.
“I’ll deal with Christian.” Audrie flashed Landon her biggest smile. Wait—was that flirting? “Does that mean your brother’s okay with it?”
She was surprised to find how happy that thought made her. As she’d sat in the trailer, talking to her sister and reviewing her appointment scheduler on her phone, she’d had this underlying feeling that this was all for nothing. That Rourke Dixon would say “absolutely not” to the whole idea.
After a quick conversation with Christian, she’d get it all cleared up. But the look on Landon’s face at her question put a slight ding in her happiness.
“What?” she asked.
