Page 103 of Not Exactly a Small-Town Romance

I’m doing my job.

My job was not what I did a few nights ago. Absolutely not.

But that’s the vision that comes back to me.

Her dress, falling to the floor.

Her body, trembling in my arms.

My hands, covering every inch of her.

I shouldn’t have done it. I’ll never get the thought of her out of my head.

I try to switch to some other woman, anyone. Claudia Bonatello, for example. She’s an A-list actress now. I see videos of her all the time.

But I can’t. I can picture scenes from her last movie, just nothing from real life. My memories are fuzzy on the edges, like a pixelated image from an old video game.

And I can’t conjure any emotion for her. Probably because there never was any.

I don’t seduce these women with any agenda, despite what Desdemona thinks. If there’s no chemistry when I take them out for a premiere or a festival, then I leave them be. But often, it’s nice, feeling like I’m a real part of the Hollywood game. The woman in my bed is the bonus, even better if she didn’t really need me in the first place.

Hands on my shoulders startle me hard enough that I jump out of my chair. I yank my earbuds out. Dust rises up as the truck drives away.

“You were lost in thought!” Kelsey says.

“I was.” I tuck my earbuds in my pocket. “How did it go?”

She sits in a rocking chair next to me, her toe setting the chair in motion. “It got better.”

It got more than better. That’s plain. “Did you make the wreaths?”

“Yes, and thank you for the videos. They saved my bacon.”

“Did they turn out well?”

“Everyone thought they were lovely. Randy helped. Then we had lunch, then we set up the tents for the hayride on Wednesday. Then we had dinner, too.”

“That’s an auspicious beginning.”

“There were rough patches. But in the end, I think he has an idea for his future that sounds pretty nice.”

I shift on the chair, suddenly feeling the uncomfortable hardness of the seat. “And what’s that?”

“This house.” She gestures to the wall behind us. “His brother, Jack, took a different property, and his sister prefers living in town, so this will be his when he’s ready to take it over.”

“Isn’t it generating income as a rental?”

She draws a knee up to her chin and wraps her arms around her shin. “He’s hoping to marry and run it as a bed-and-breakfast. He has plans to turn the library downstairs into a children’s room, and block off it and the master downstairs so that the upstairs is devoted to holding guests.”

That sounds like a nightmare. “So, you would always have strangers tromping through your house?”

“That’s what all bed-and-breakfasts do. And even though you live in a small town, you’re always meeting new people. It wouldn’t get boring.”

She’s bought into the idea. That’s clear. “So that’s what you’d do? Marry the local lumberjack and host a B and B?”

She frowns. “Does that sound so terrible?”

“What about your talent, Kelsey? You make movie magic.”

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