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He bobbed his head and blowing out a restless sigh, reached for the fried chicken and held it out to Kate. “More food?”
“No, thank you. Though…” Grinning again, she reached across him and retrieved a few chips. “We really do need to find out what it is that Hazel puts on these besides cinnamon.”
And just like that, everything was back to normal. “I have an update on the other bat situation.”
To his surprise, Kate pressed her lips together tightly, closed her eyes and shook her head. “They told you?”
“Who told me what?”
She shrugged. “Any one of the nine million people I called today. I’m sorry. I tried. I really did. And I didn’t want anyone to bother you with it. Did someone complain about how pushy I was?” Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “Oh, no. Did one of the agencies complain to your brother? I didn’t want to get anyone in any trouble. I just wanted to help.”
None of what she’d just said made any sense until his mind wrapped itself around her last words– she just wanted to help. Help how? “Would I totally ruin the evening if I admitted I have no idea what you’re talking about?”
“You don’t?” The look of abject panic was replaced with a good dose of confusion.
He shook his head. “Sorry, no.”
“Maybe you should just tell me what your updates are.”
If he’d learned anything from having three younger sisters, it was that the safest strategy a man could take—in any situation—was to follow the woman’s lead. “A team of grad students will be scouring the property for hibernating bats starting tomorrow.”
“They will?” Her eyes opened wide again and her voice rose an octave in surprise. “Really?”
“Yeah. I felt the same way when I got the call from Professor Stanwyck.”
A deep-set frown settled over narrowed eyes. “That’s so odd. When I called around today, if I heard ‘Lady, that’s not how it works’ once, I heard it a hundred times. How did you get them to put a team together so fast?”
“Not me.” He shrugged. “My grandfather.”
“It’s not what you know but who you know.” Her head bobbed up and down. “Of course.” He wished those last two words didn’t sound so condemning.
“I’m sorry if pulling strings is upsetting to you, but his heart was in the right place.” It always was.
Again, she shook her head. “For once I’m glad power and connections worked. I tried to do the same thing. I just don’t have the clout of a former governor.”
“But you’re better looking if that helps.” His brows rose high on his forehead and his smile pleaded with her to not be upset.
She really wasn’t at all. Yes, there were plenty of times when she would be furious at the privilege that came with money and power and a dirty fight, but in this case, she was just plain happy that someone had managed to speed things up for him. “So, what’s the plan now?”
“Unfortunately, I have to fly out to tomorrow afternoon. Some complications on a set in LA. I had to sell my first born to get them to let us film on Malibu beach.”
“You don’t have children.” Or had she missed something about him?
A deep chuckle erupted. “Sorry, that was just an expression. My mother says my occasional flair for overdramatic is what makes me a good producer.”
“I haven’t noticed you being overly dramatic.”
“Thank you. I don’t think I am, but there are problems on the set. I had to swear up and down that there would be no parking on the street. That meant we had to figure out how to configure gear, the grip truck—”
“Grip truck?”
“Sorry, a grip truck is a six ton vehicle like a big moving truck that transports all equipment other than cameras, like film, etc. Then we needed to work out where to put the makeup and hair trailer, the star trailer.”
“All the things you need space for on the lot here in Texas.”
A broad smile cut across his face. “You remembered. Yes. All those things and more. We need to keep it all behind a gate and we only have access to one little driveway. Of course it would have been much easier if the A-list star across the street—who happens to be out of town filming a movie in Paris—had not been such a twit and allowed us to park in his empty driveway.”
“That doesn’t seem very neighborly. Are all A-list stars that mean?”
