What it Takes (5 page)

She leaned back to look at him. “What?”

“How’re you feeling?”

“I’m fine, why?”

“Patrick said you were upset. He asked me to look after you,” he replied.

Kelsey shook her head. “Thanks, but I don’t need a sitter.”

“No, but he seemed concerned.”

“So concerned he went back to dancing with those girls,” she argued.

“It was just a dance. You could be a little nicer to him,” Grayson scolded.

Kelsey pressed her lips together, still not in the mood to discuss this with him. “Maybe,” she replied softly.

“So, what’s up? This isn’t like you.” He raised an eyebrow and she sighed, knowing he was right. He continued, “Red, he’s just trying to be a friend.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll try to be nicer,” she said.

He looked away. “I’m not the one you need to apologize to,” he whispered in her ear.

They danced for another song and a half before walking back to their table. Veronica was already seated there, talking to some of the bodyguards. She grinned as they joined her. After Kelsey sat down, Grayson went back to the bar and returned with three more beers.

Kelsey tilted her head in confusion. “Where’s Patrick?”

“He left,” Grayson stated. “It’s his sister’s birthday and he needed to call her.”

Kelsey looked over the crowd and couldn’t locate the women Patrick had been dancing with. Grayson, who had been watching her, started to smirk.

Kelsey narrowed her eyes at him. “And his dance partners?”

Grayson chuckled before taking a sip of his beer. “Don’t know where they went.”

“Yeah, right,” she mumbled, mistrusting every word he said. Deciding to change the subject, she turned to Veronica. “You looked like you were having fun.”

“I was,” she replied. “He wasn’t a bad dancer, but I think he got a little bored.”

“I think you got a little bored,” Grayson said.

Veronica nodded and shrugged her thin shoulder. “What about you, Grayson? Did you have fun with your group?” she teased him.

He shook his head vigorously. “No,” he grumbled. “They argued constantly. Over
everything
! First it was who got to dance where, then one of them stood closer than the others and that wasn’t okay . . .” He gestured wildly as he continued to recount his evening, “. . . and they couldn’t agree on what movies I’d been in. And heaven forbid someone else want to dance with me. Some poor, brave soul looked at me for a second, and they wanted to take her out back and knock her into next week.” Veronica and Kelsey stared wide-eyed at him, laughing at his animation. He looked up thoughtfully. “Maybe we should hire them as bodyguards.” When he turned his attention back to Veronica and Kelsey, his face was a mask of seriousness. “I thought they might hurt me,” he whispered. “I had to waltz away from them and hope they didn’t notice.”

Kelsey wiped tears of mirth from her cheeks.

When they’d stopped laughing, they went back to the dance floor for a little while before calling it a night. Kelsey tried not to think of Patrick and what he was doing at that moment. She was trying not to feel angry at him for leaving.

She was also trying to quash the jealousy she was feeling.

Two

G
rayson and Kelsey sat at the small dining table in her trailer, playing cards. They had filmed scenes together earlier; Patrick and Veronica were currently doing the same. So far, they hadn’t discussed the previous night, meaning Grayson hadn’t yet brought it up. Kelsey was beginning to wonder how long her luck would last.

Grayson played his card and looked at Kelsey with a smirk. She flipped her card and took them both. With a raised eyebrow, she waited patiently.

“So, when do you film the kisses and love scenes?” he asked, his eyebrows bouncing up and down.

She narrowed her eyes. “It’s only one love scene,” she corrected. She and Patrick were playing former lovers who reconnect at a class reunion. The love scene already had her stomach in knots. “Two weeks, I think.” She turned over a card and looked at him expectantly.

“Nervous?” He flipped a card and she took them both again.

She shrugged. “A little, I guess. I’ve never done a love scene before.” She laid down another card in an effort to keep the game going.

He did the same and took them. “You gonna practice?”

“Practice what?” Kelsey played her card, avoiding eye contact.

“Duh, Kelsey.” Grayson put his cards down and she looked up. “What do you think I’m talking about?”

“No, we won’t be practicing.” She ignored his last question.

“You’re sure?”

She slapped her card on the table. “Positive.”

“But he’s a pro. He could help you—”

She scowled at Grayson and he stopped talking. With a furrow in his brow, he picked his cards up.

They played four more cards before he asked, “What bothers you so much about him?” The seriousness in his tone had Kelsey studying his face.

“You mean aside from the number of women he’s slept with and the stories that follow him everywhere he goes?” She put her cards down. “Or how about the fact that he picked up a group of almost-underage fans last night and did who knows what with them in his hotel room?”

“Oh my god, are you serious?” he scoffed. “You don’t know if he took them back to his room last night—”

“And you do?” she interrupted sharply.

Grayson dropped his cards on the table as a brief flash of irritation crossed his face. He wiped it away with his hand. “Regardless of what you
think
he did last night, why is it such a big deal to
you
?”

Kelsey shook her head dumbly and glared at him.

“Don’t give me that condescending look,” Grayson snapped. “You’ve done everything in your power to avoid Patrick and now you have the gall to act offended by his actions?”

Her jaw dropped.

“It’s not just Patrick either. You make all of us come to you.” He motioned to his surroundings, her trailer. “You don’t put forth any effort to interact with us off set. You’ve been acting like a snobby bitch ever since we started filming, and it’s getting old.”

“How dare you!”

“Oh please,” he groaned. “Don’t act all righteous. You know it’s true.”

“Maybe so, but I have my reasons.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

“You’re right. I don’t.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I never took you for a prude.”

“I’m not!” she exclaimed defensively and quickly shut her mouth. “I just don’t want to get involved with someone like Patrick Lyons. I hear what the crew says about him. I know he’s slept with all of his leading ladies, and then some.”

Grayson raised his eyebrow and shrugged. “Again, why should you care? You’ve made it obvious to everyone, including Patrick, that you want nothing to do with him.”

Kelsey closed her eyes to keep from rolling them. Arguing with Grayson always made her feel like she was talking to a child.

Grayson stood, walked to the refrigerator, and retrieved two bottles of water. He returned to the table and placed one in front of her. “Half of what the crew says is just stories. I know for a fact they aren’t all true. I’ve worked with him on at least two movies in the last three years.
And
he’s worked with Veronica before and they haven’t slept together.”

She watched him sit down again.

He put the bottle to his lips and held her gaze. “No one likes to be hated because of rumors.” He took a sip of water.

“I don’t hate him,” she argued. “I just don’t want people thinking I’m next.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” he said and laughed once. “With the way you’ve been acting, no one would think that.”

She grabbed her water bottle and wished it were Grayson’s neck. “What does that mean?”

“Exactly what you want it to.”

She growled, stood, and walked to the counter. “Look, I’m just not interested in dating anyone, let alone him.” After what had happened with Tim, she’d had very little interest in dating, and had only tried it for a little while after moving to Los Angeles, but nothing long term. If she dated, she ran the risk of exposing herself, both personally and publicly. “I just want to keep a low profile.”

“What fun is that?” Grayson scoffed.

“For goodness sakes, I just met him,” Kelsey nearly screeched.

“Five months ago.”

“I don’t really know him that well,” she grasped at straws.

“That’s your fault,” he replied. “Even if you don’t hook up in some way . . .”

She narrowed her eyes.

He grinned and ignored her. “He’s a well-respected actor and it’d be good for you to have a connection like him. It could help your career.”

“Forgive me if I don’t want to help my career that way,” she snapped.

He stood and stalked toward her. “You need to forget the way you were taught to view certain things.” As he got closer, she stood taller. “You’re not in the Bible Belt anymore, my dear. Things are different here.” He folded his arms across his chest. “It could be fun and beneficial at the same time,” he murmured.

She looked him in the eyes. “Beneficial? How?”

He placed a hand on the counter beside her. “You might learn a thing or two.”

“I don’t need to learn anything from him.”

Grayson leaned closer. “Then just do it for the fun.”

“I think you worry too much about fun,” Kelsey grumbled.

He shrugged. “Everyone needs to have a little fun.” Grayson smiled with an impish twinkle in his bright green eyes. She scowled and put a hand on his chest to push him away as the trailer door opened.

Patrick climbed the stairs, staring at them. He had a feeling that he was interrupting something. Grayson winked at Kelsey and walked back to the table. Kelsey went over to the couch and sat on the end farthest away from the smirking Grayson.

Patrick watched the interactions between Kelsey and Grayson as he paused on the top step. “Everything okay?”

Kelsey nodded and Patrick was happy to not be on the receiving end of the sharp look she was currently giving Grayson.

“What’s going on?” Veronica had followed him in and plopped into the chair beside the door.

“We were just talking,” Grayson answered. “I’m not sure Kelsey was enjoying our conversation as much as I was.”

“What were you talking about?” Patrick asked.

“He was just trying to give me career advice,” Kelsey said stiffly. “And he’s right. I wasn’t enjoying it as much as he was.” Grayson snorted a laugh as Kelsey kept her head down and her cheeks turned slightly pink. Patrick’s curiosity grew, but when she looked up again, her color had returned to normal. “So, are you both done filming?”

Patrick nodded. “For now.”

Veronica sighed deeply.

Kelsey’s expression softened as she turned to Veronica. “You look tired,” she said as she pulled her knees up to rest them against the back of the couch.

Veronica nodded and closed her eyes. “I think I’m going to spend the night in my room, doing as little as possible.”

“I thought we were going out,” Grayson grumbled.

“Ugh, not again,” Kelsey groaned without looking at him.

“Why not?” Grayson whined. “Last night was fun.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Kelsey mumbled.

Patrick silently agreed. The dancing had started out promising, but by the end of the night, he’d been miserable. He had hoped that Kelsey would dance with him and her stubborn refusal had bewildered him so much, he’d left earlier than he’d intended. To make matters worse, Grayson had come to his hotel room later to inform Patrick that he’d gotten Kelsey to dance with him. Again. Then Grayson had tried to laugh with him over Kelsey’s idea that Patrick had actually taken those immature brats back to his room.

Patrick hadn’t found that the least bit funny.

“It was fun for everyone but you, Red, and that was your fault,” Grayson chided.

Patrick felt the heat from Kelsey’s fiery look from where he stood. “We can find another way to entertain ourselves without going out tonight,” he suggested, trying to placate them both.

“We could watch movies,” Veronica proposed through a yawn.

“Grayson, it’s Friday night,” Kelsey stated, ignoring the other comments.

“Your point?” Grayson’s grin was false innocence; mischief danced in his eyes.