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“Apple pie is always better the next day,” he agrees.
Dammit. All this, and he brought me pie, too?
I kiss him again, heat flaring all over again. I’m briefly tempted to take it all back. Tell him to blow off the movie star, and get back inside, and spend the next few hours ravishing me senseless—
But Reeve respectfully pulls away. “Sleep tight,” he says with a crooked grin, and then strolls away, disappearing into the trees and leaving me alone. Just the way I wanted.
Bastard.
I close the door, and then sink back against it, sliding until I’m on the floor: my heart still racing, and my mind tied up in knots.
What am I doing?
I let out a strangled laugh, reflecting on the crazy of the past few days. Chasing treasure, making out with handsome strangers … my quiet, ordinary life has been well and truly shaken up.
Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
14
REEVE
My manager,Dickson, calls first thing in the morning, while I’m still doing battle with the Kellerman’s mystifying coffee maker.
“Isn’t it kind of early for you?” I ask, yawning in the sleek rental kitchen. The Kellerman house is all modern rustic, with chrome gadgets everywhere, but right now, I’d kill for a simple French press.
“I’m in New York for some meetings, East Coast time,” he replies. “I hear your chat with Margarita went well.”
“It was good, I think,” I add. “I mean, she sounded enthusiastic about working together, but she’s an actress, it’s her job to seem excited.”
I’ve learned by now not to believe anything until the ink on the contract is dry.
“I’m not sensing you’re wild about the idea,” Dickson comments, and I pause.
“I’m notnotinterested,” I reply. “To tell the truth, I was kind of … distracted for the call.” Understatement of the year, thanks to Ivy and her fuzzy sweater collection. “And I’m not sure I sparked to the book the way I would need. It’s an interesting project, but do I want to devote the next two years of my life to it?”
“If you have to ask, the answer is ‘no’,” Dickson says immediately. “I’ll let her people know you have other commitments.”
“That’s it?” I ask, still not used to his chill approach to my career. “Whoever does this movie with her will probably wind up with an Oscar nomination, and lord knows it’s hard enough to get financing on anything these days. Margarita starring will be an automatic green-light.”
“All true,” Dickson gives a dry laugh. “Yet still, you don’t sound like you’re chomping at the bit to dive in. That tells us something, don’t you think? I’ve told you, don’t rush your next project. When you know, you know.”
I finish the call and hang up, his words echoing.
When you know, you know …
It’s always been true with my filmmaking. Directing is such an all-encompassing job, I’m pretty much working on a project 24/7 from when I start a fresh script document until the final movie edit is done, so I have to be totally obsessed to take a project on. I’ve had plenty of offers rolling in over the past couple of years since I my break, so I’ve had to learn to trust my instincts and hang back until I find a story I justhaveto tell.
Now, every instinct I have is screaming at me:
Ivy Fortune is the woman for me.
Which is crazy, and fast, and if she knew what I was thinking, she’d turn and flee in the opposite direction – at the speed limit, of course.
But fuck, the way that woman smiles at me…
I could barely focus on a single word Margarita was saying on our call, I was still too brainless from our make out, rolling my instant action replay of the feel of Ivy’s lush curves pressed up against me, and the sexy way she whimpers when I kiss that hollow in her neck…
Before she unceremoniously cut the evening short and kicked me out.
