Just a Summer Fling (24 page)

“Yeah. You’re Don?”

“I am.” He stuck out his arm and they shook hands. Then Don said, “We’ll see to the horses in just a minute. But first, you need to talk to the boss.”

“The boss? I thought you were the boss.”

“Don’t be fooled, son,” Don said with a smile. Then he stepped aside and Josh looked past him into the room.

She was wearing jeans and a tank top. Her hair was in a ponytail, and if she was wearing makeup he couldn’t see it. She looked . . . she looked just like she had at the lake. Perfect.

Josh just stared, and Ashley laughed, then charged forward. She threw her arms around him in something that was closer to a tackle than a hug, her lips finding his in a kiss that was more celebration than passion. Josh was vaguely aware that Don was easing his way out of the office and shutting the door behind him, but he didn’t pay much attention to that. The only important person in the room, the barn, the whole damn
country
was standing in front of him, her arms around his neck and her body pressed tight to his.

“It’s okay that I’m here?” he whispered when she’d pulled away far enough for him to find words.

Her face got a bit more serious. “For me? It’s perfect that you’re here. For you? We’re going to need to talk about that.” Then she stretched up and kissed him again, a little slower this time, her tongue tangling with his until she pulled away and said, “But we can have that conversation a little later.”

“After I see to the horses,” he managed to say. It wasn’t what he wanted to do right then, but he had a responsibility to his animals.

“I can help,” she said. “I was so excited when I heard you were bringing my boy down!”

“That’s what you were excited about?” he prompted. “You’re glad I’m here because I brought your horse?”

“Yeah,” she said with an exaggerated eye roll. “What’d you think I was so happy about?” She followed up with a smile and a kiss, then pulled away a little and frowned. “You’re only hugging me with one arm. Are you wearing a sling? Josh, what the hell happened to you?”

“I fell,” he said. And because he was supposed to be fighting, supposed to be brave, he made himself add, “Fell for you, fell off a roof. They both knocked the wind out of me. Both left a mark. But I think the collarbone’s going to heal a hell of a lot faster than the other.”

She frowned. “I’m going to make sure the falling for me doesn’t hurt you. Okay?”

He knew she was going to try, so he smiled at her and didn’t call her a liar. “We should get the horses unloaded,” he said, lacing the fingers of his good hand through hers. “They’ll need some walking. You want to do that with me?”

“I do,” she said, and they left the office together.

Don saw them coming and raised an eyebrow. “Heading out already?” he asked, and for the first time Josh noticed the keen light in the man’s eyes, the way he was watching and thinking.

“Not out,” Josh said carefully. He’d never really had a boss before and he had no idea how he was supposed to treat one; he decided to just do what he thought was right and let Don worry about what he was doing wrong. “I wanted to get the horses unloaded. Walk them a little, if that’s okay? Doesn’t look like you guys have a lot of grass, but there’s that little patch around the side, if we could hand-graze them a little? Let them get used to the place?”

Don nodded slowly and Josh got the feeling he’d passed whatever test the older man had set for him. “Sounds good. Pull the truck into the side yard and unload there.”

Josh did as he was told, Ashley tagging along and joyfully
greeting the animals. They all walked over to the little patch of grass and Josh saw the irrigation heads that kept this area green while the rest of the yard looked like a dustbowl. “Not quite like home,” he said apologetically to the horses, but they were too busy sampling the exotic California produce to notice his words.

Ashley did, though. She looked around the farm and Josh followed her gaze. They were on the outskirts of the city, close enough that land was probably still pretty pricey. As far as Josh could see, there was the barn, a few fenced dirt yards, and not much else to the farm. No pasture, no hay fields, certainly no forest to ride in. But at least it wasn’t wall-to-wall people.

“You hate this,” Ashley said. He whirled toward her because she sounded like she was about to cry, but she just smiled sadly at him. “And you hate the city. Rich people, celebrities, everything that isn’t real—you hate all that.”

He shrugged. “Maybe I just need to get used to it.”

She smiled again. “I don’t think so. I think you’ll still hate it.”

No point in denying it. “Yeah. I think I probably still will.” He took a deep breath. He’d come this far; he needed to go all the way. “I’ll hate all this, but it’s okay. Because I love you. That makes up for it.”

And now she actually was crying, which was absolutely not what he’d intended when he pushed it all further. “Maybe not,” he said quickly.

Her watery eyes flashed to his. “Maybe you don’t love me?” she demanded.

“No. Maybe I won’t hate it.” He shrugged. “The loving you thing? That’s . . . It’s for sure. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.”

“Let’s focus on that part for a little bit,” she said, leaning up to kiss him. “But the rest of it? I’m going to make the rest of it okay, I promise.”

“Kiss me again,” he suggested. “When you’re kissing me, there
is
no rest of it.”

“Well, that is not a long-term solution,” she scolded, but she kissed him anyway. He wrapped his arms around her, both of them barely holding onto the horses’ lead ropes, and they stood there on their little patch of greenery with their horses munching happily away, and everything else faded away. At least for a while.

Twenty-five

ASHLEY REARRANGED THE
flowers on the kitchen table and thought briefly of throwing them in the trash. At the store they’d seemed beautiful, simple and fresh. But she was pretty sure Josh would find them a bit fancy, and that really wasn’t the impression she wanted to make. She wanted him to feel at home. Literally. She had no idea whether the apartment over the barn was livable, but she knew it was over an hour’s drive from the studio, and even farther than that from her place. Once filming started she’d be working long, irregular hours, and everything would be easier if she could come home and see Josh, rather than having to drive out to the barn. She’d make the drive if she had to. If Josh couldn’t be comfortable here, she’d drive. But if he
could
be comfortable . . .

She grabbed the bouquet out of the vase and whacked it on the side of the table. A couple stems broke, a few petals fell off, but it still looked pretty good. She whacked it again. And then once more. She stuffed it back in the vase just as
the buzzer sounded to announce someone at the gate. She checked the camera and saw the familiar face in the familiar pickup truck. It was a bit strange to see Josh in the driveway of her Hollywood home, but it was strange in a good way. Strange the way it might be to find a unicorn roaming in a suburban backyard.

He looked like he was going through his own adjustment process as he parked the truck in front of the house and climbed the wide front steps. “Is it okay there?” he asked, gesturing almost nervously at the truck.

“If you leave your keys in it, I’ll have the valet pull it around,” she said, then grinned. “I’m joking, Josh. It’s fine there. You drove down from Vermont for me; you can park it in the swimming pool if you want.”

He nodded. “Okay. Yeah. But, you know, I drove down from Vermont for you; if you want me to drive ten feet farther and park the truck somewhere better, it’s not a big deal.”

“I want us to stop talking about the truck,” she said, and when he smiled his agreement, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Welcome to L.A., Josh,” she whispered, and she kissed him. He kissed back, but not with quite the level of enthusiasm she’d been hoping for. That was okay; he was still adjusting. She eased away and wrapped her fingers around his. “I thought we could just order in for dinner, is that okay with you?”

“Yeah. That’s fine.” He followed her inside and she could feel him trying not to stare.

“It’s a Greene and Greene house—they were the architects. But it’s not as heavy as some Craftsman homes are, you know? Less stone, more wood, and all these gorgeous windows.” She led the way into the kitchen and tried to make herself stop talking about architecture. It was strange how that was the main feature of the place she called home. The design, the materials. She still loved the house, but her appreciation felt a bit more distant than it used to, before
she got used to the humbler and cozier life in Vermont. But she tried to recapture her enthusiasm. “I really like having breakfast in here, looking out over the city—”

“What happened to your flowers?” Josh asked, staring at the battered bouquet.

“Oh. Those. I dropped them.”

“And then ran them over?”

“Well, if you must know, they parked in the wrong place so I had to beat them up to teach them a lesson.”

Josh nodded slowly. “Bet they don’t do that again.”

“I’m really glad you’re here, Josh.” It was true. She just needed to fight through the awkwardness. “I like my house, but I love you. If you don’t like it here, we can go somewhere else. To your apartment or to a hotel or something—whatever you want.”

He stared at her. “This house is incredible, Ash. I mean, I’m glad I’ve got the apartment as a backup, like if you’re busy or something, but overall, why the hell wouldn’t we stay here?”

She froze, then smiled awkwardly. Possibly she’d been building this up a little more than she needed to. “I beat up the flowers so you wouldn’t think I was trying to be fancy,” she blurted out.

He nodded slowly, then grinned. “So, you’re insane, is what you’re telling me.”

“Crazy in love,” she amended. “Hey, want to see the master suite? There’s a soaker tub . . .”

“Yeah,” he said, and his gaze roamed over her body as he said, “I want to see everything.”

*   *   *

JOSH
lay back on the padded deck chair and looked out over the city as the sun set. He had a cold beer in his hand, the breeze was gentle and just a little salty as it blew in from the ocean, and Ashley was cradled between his legs, leaning
back against his bare chest as he reclined. “Maybe I just haven’t been doing cities right,” he mused. “Maybe I like cities just fine, if I do them this way.”

“That would make life a lot easier,” Ashley replied, and she ran her hand down his thigh encouragingly.

“Probably at some point I’d need to leave the house, though.” He needed to think about that. “I was wishing for a gun when I was driving over here tonight, that’s for sure. I hate traffic.”

“I could get you a driver,” she said, rolling over and leaning her chin on his chest, carefully keeping her distance from his collarbone. “Or maybe a helicopter.”

“It’d be a bit weird to pull up at the barn in a limo,” he said. And now that he was on the topic, he supposed he should ask the question that had been bothering him. “Don said he was glad I didn’t turn out to be useless.”

“Well, yeah, I guess he would be glad. You were okay doing work with your arm in a sling?”

“I took it out when I had to.” It had hurt like hell, but he’d survived. “But I don’t think that was the part he was worried about. I’d told him about that on the phone before I came down.”

“Oh,” she said.

Just one syllable, but it was all he needed. “There’s a lot of people who want a job like this, right? A chance to work in showbiz? And I don’t really have any experience with the movie side of things. And he’d never even met me or seen me work with a horse before today. And I know Rocky has the right look for the movie or whatever, but it’s not really that hard to find a scruffy brown horse with donkey ears.” Yeah, that was all the evidence Josh had gathered through the day, combined with Don’s close scrutiny as he’d worked. “It seemed like maybe Don wouldn’t have hired me, if he’d had the choice.”

Ashley sighed. “Okay. Look, I’ll tell you everything I
know. I promise. But will you promise to remember the part where he’s glad he hired you, now that he’s seen you work? Because that part’s important, Josh.”

“What’s the other part? Did you get me the job, Ashley?”

“No!” She made a face before adding, “Not directly. I was just . . . I had a bad week, last week. I was missing you, and wondering if I’d made the right decision, and I was kind of going through the motions at work. I didn’t have the same intensity I’d had before.” She sighed and kissed his chest, just over his heart. It was pretty hard to be mad at a beautiful woman who was kissing him like that. “I didn’t know you were coming. I actually—you haven’t talked to Kevin lately?”

He frowned. “No. I sent him an e-mail, told him we got in okay. But I haven’t talked to him.”

She sighed. “I went up there Sunday. Flew back to L.A. the same day, just about went crazy waiting for you to show up yesterday and most of today. I was going to quit and come live with you, and I was sad about the movie but it was going to be a hell of a lot better to be with you and without a job than without you, with a job. So that’s what I was going to do. I didn’t know you’d called down and asked about the job and I sure as hell didn’t know you’d got it, or I never would have wasted a day flying up to Vermont and then turning around and flying back.”

“You were going to—” he started, but she put a finger over his lips.

“Wait. I want to talk about that in a minute. I want to clear this up first.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, his lips moving around her fingers.

“I think Don called Lauren, the director, to see just how bad she wanted Rocky. And I think maybe she wanted to help me out. She definitely seemed pretty pleased with herself when I showed up at rehearsals Monday, and I know she was happier with my work. So, it wasn’t me. But she knew I was missing you. I think she put in a good word.”

He nodded, and didn’t say anything. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it.

But apparently Ashley interpreted his silence as something a bit more decided. “It’s the way stuff is done down here, Josh! Probably up in Vermont, too, but definitely down here. You get chances based on who you know and who’ll speak up for you, but once you’ve got the chance, that’s when you have to earn your next chance. And if you don’t like that, maybe you need to ask yourself if you’d be just as upset if a guy helped you get a job. Because it’s just sexist if you’d take a favor from Kevin or somebody, and not from me!”

“Slow down,” Josh said. “Take it easy. I don’t think I’m too worried about it.”

She froze and looked up at him suspiciously. “Really? Because I might have another couple arguments lined up if you want them.”

“No. I don’t think I want them. I’m okay with it.”

“Really?” she asked again.

“You’re making me paranoid. Should I not be okay with it?”

“No, you should be! It’s a very good sign that you are! And I bet Don loves you. You’re so good with horses, and you’re strong, even with only one good arm, and—”

“Okay,” he interrupted. “I get it. I’ll be useful.” He would be, he decided. He’d make Don love him and be grateful for Lauren’s interference. He’d take this pity job and turn it into an opportunity. Ashley was right. This job was just his way to show that he deserved the
next
job. He wasn’t quite where he wanted to be, but he was with the person he wanted to be with. He’d have to make the rest of it work, somehow.

*   *   *

ASHLEY
watched the sun sinking and let herself think about keeping her mouth shut. Josh was willing to live in L.A., he had a job, and he wasn’t miserable at the house. Maybe
Ashley didn’t need to make the sacrifices she’d thought about.

But as she thought about it and realized she didn’t have to change, she didn’t feel relieved. She felt disappointed. She
wanted
to change, she realized.

“I’m going to tell Adam not to book me for anything after this project,” she said.

She felt Josh’s chest tense a little. “What does that mean?” he asked. “You won’t be working?”

“Not right away.”

“You don’t have to do that. I mean, not for me. If that’s why you’d do it, you don’t have to.”

“It’s not for you. Well, it’s related to you, but it’s for me. I want—” She paused and tried to make sure she had the right words. “I want to finish this project, and I want to act my ass off. But after that? I don’t want to go back to making whatever movie pays me the most and makes me look prettiest. You know what I realized? What I figured out I really like about acting?”

“The publicity and invasion of privacy?”

“Well, that’s lovely, too, of course. But no. What I really love is the chance to be someone else. I was on
Mayfair Drive
from the time I was seven until I was eighteen, and that whole time? I got to have two lives. Maybe even three, if you count the public ‘me’ as separate from the real me. But I got to
be
a whole other person. Amanda Anderson was fictional, sure, but when I was playing her, I believed in her. That’s what I love about acting; it lets me experience things I never would on my own.”

Josh nodded his understanding. “Okay. So . . . you still love that, right? Why are you talking about giving it up?”

“Oh, I’m not giving up acting!” She grinned at him. “But I don’t have to be in movies. I mean, if there’s a great role, fantastic, I want to do it. But I could get just as lost in a part in a community theater or at a drama school. And maybe I
don’t always want to get lost anymore. Maybe I want to stay in this life a little more often, now that I’m getting it set up just the way I like it.”

He was watching her closely, and she could see him trying to determine how sincere she was and how much she’d thought about what she was saying. She smiled at him. “I want to go back up to Vermont in the fall, and I want to see what it’s like there without summer people. I want to see the snow, and the way everything greens up in the spring.” As soon as she said it, she knew she was on the right track. “You remember when you said that English riding is all about forward movement, but a Western rider has to be prepared to go in any direction? I want to . . . I want my life to be Western. Not always charging forward, racing around and looking for the next jump. Sometimes I want to go sideways, or even backward. I want to spin around. You know?”