AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She groaned and stared out the window. “How is it that the only hotel in this town looks like it rents by the hour?”
“Because it does.”
“Yeah, well, I guess you’d know.”
“I’m sure Hollywood doesn’t have such sordid goings-on.”
She couldn’t hide a smile. “Okay, you got me on that one.”
The tension seemed to ease somewhat, probably because she’d finally lightened up. Mick had always been able to lighten her mood. Heck, Mick had always been able to make anybody feel better. It was impossible to be down with someone who was alwaysup.
“Tell me about this TV show,” he said, obviously trying to keep the conversation friendly and impersonal. They both seemed to have reached the same silent conclusion that the past was better left undiscussed, at least for now. “Why’d you decide to film it here? Why the Little Bohemie Inn?”
Safe ground. They could talk business without Caro feeling the urge to reach over and play with his earlobe. Either that or give his hair a good yank because he’d made her so angry every time she’d thought about him over the years. “We’re always on the lookout for new shows.”
“I thought reality TV was deader as month-old funeral bouquets.”
“And yet it keeps rising from the dead,” she said with a shrug. “Mostly with talent type shows, but there’s a rumor that the original types are coming back.”
He sighed. “I always wondered when they’d start the live execution show. Or ‘Who Wants to Let Their Dog Marry a Millionaire’s Dog?’.”
She laughed, unable to help it. Because what he described wasn’t so far off the mark. She felt pretty sure that, somewhere, a desperate Hollywood down-and-outer had thought of just such an idea as a way to try to get back in. “This isn’t going to be anything quite as gratuitous. Actually, the owner of the inn gave us the idea for the show, herself. Gwen…um….”
“Winchester.” He didn’t so much as crack a smile, but she heard the amusement in his voice.
She sighed heavily. “Don’t tell me…”
“She married my cousin last spring.”
Another Winchester. Oh, joy. Another wonderful day-to-day reminder of the only guy she’d ever loved. Her trip to Derryville should be renamed a visit to purgatory.
“So, how’d Gwen give you the show idea?”
“A review of the inn in a Chicago paper mentioned they were doing in-character murder mystery weekends. Someone at the network saw it, thought it would be an interesting concept and came up withKilling Time in a Small Town.”
Mick nodded. “Those in-character weekends at the Little Bohemie Inn are something else. And you should probably thank my cousin, Jared, for inspiring the idea.” He wore a secretive look, as though he had a story to tell, but instead kept the conversation away from personal matters. “I’d heard it was a murder mystery show. I don’t suppose society has fallen quite so low as to have real murders for our viewing pleasure?”
“Only on cable. Not on one of the big three networks.”
He gave her a sideways glance, nodding his appreciation of her humor. Where that humor had come from, she couldn’t say. Her mind told her she was still mad at him, still hurt by him, still insane to spend even one minute alone with him.
But her body, her spirit, her long-dormant sunny, open, good nature, reminded her that she’d always liked being around this guy. He’d always been able to make her laugh, make her give in to crazy impulses and live for the moment.
Thatthought doused the good humor. She’d stopped living for the moment a long time ago. Judging by the fact that some local woman had thought she needed to “save” Mick from himself, he hadn’t.
He hadn’t stopped being the kind of impulsive person who did what he wanted, when he wanted, with whom he wanted. He was still self-indulgent, still a creature of his senses, still a walking testament to living life for fun and pleasure. Exactly the kind of man she’d predicted he’d be. Exactly the kind of man she’d decided to exclude from her life. No matter how much it hurt.
“How does the show work?”
She cleared her throat, trying to regain her better mood. “It’s supposed to walk the line between reality TV shows and the scripted variety. It’s like that old party game, where one person is a killer and nobody knows who it is until they get ‘winked’ at. Then they are murdered and out of the game.”
He nodded absently. “So, the contestants aren’t taking part in challenges to see who wins. They could actually get outwitted and killed?”
“They take part in challenges to try to figure out who, among them, is the killer. And also to earn exemptions on murder nights.”
“Are they actors, playing roles?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Real people, not actors. Playing themselves, but always ‘in character’.”
