Page 33 of Her Movie Star's Secret Plan

Chapter 8

Alexis stood in front of her closet, her heart pounding. Owen had tried to kiss her last night, and were it not for the waitress interrupting him, she would have let him.

She was nervous, and she wasn’t sure what to wear to their barbecue today. What if he tried to kiss her again? Just thinking about it made goosebumps rise on her skin, just like every time he’d touched her at dinner.

She felt like she was playing with fire. She’d daydreamed of Owen touching her in exactly that way dozens of times. Now that it had happened, she was terrified. Her heart was begging her to let him in, but she knew it was a dangerous idea. He lived on the other side of the country. What if he was after a fling? She didn’t think she could deal with that. She cared too deeply for him. And if he kissed her for real, she wasn’t sure her heart could handle it. She would overflow with love for him, and once that happened, there was no going back for her.

Alexis wasn’t the kind of girl who kissed a guy and then happily moved on to the next. Her lips were connected to her heart. Once she kissed a man, she wanted something lasting and beautiful with him. She knew better than to let herself think she could have that with Owen. He was so far out of her league it was laughable. Even in high school, he was out of her league, but now, he was miles away. He needed to be with one of those perfectly polished Hollywood ladies she saw posing with him in the tabloids.

Alexis was far from polished. Most of the time, she didn’t even wear makeup because she knew her face was only going to get covered with flour, so why bother?

Alexis pulled out a black tank top and denim shorts. She put on her favorite purple polka-dot bikini and wore the shorts and tank top over it. She inspected her reflection in the floor-length mirror she kept in her room. She desperately needed a pedicure. Her toenail polish was chipped. She had no time to stop by her favorite nail salon, so she grabbed her nail polish remover and repainted her toes a hot pink.

She blew on her wet toenails. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do. She felt so plain next to all the women in California Owen must be used to. She couldn’t understand why he wanted to spend so much time with her, but she would not turn him down if he wanted to hang out.

He was always a perfect gentleman around her, but she felt like so much was on the surface when she talked to Owen. She wasn’t sure how to get him to dig deeper and open up to her. She sensed that he was hiding a deeper hurt, and she wanted to make it better. She was naturally a nurturing person, always putting others before herself. But she knew she couldn’t fix whatever Owen was dealing with. He had to fix his own stuff.

She glanced at the clock. She needed to head over to Owen’s rental house. She slipped on a pair of sandals and stocked a bag with a towel, a water bottle, and sunscreen. She perched her sunglasses on her head. Finally deciding she was ready, she headed out the door. She drove the few blocks to Owen’s house. When she got there, she rubbed her damp palms on her shorts. Why was she so nervous? She was here to have a fun time and eat some excellent food. That was all.

She rang the doorbell, and she immediately heard a shrill bark. She smiled. Katie was making herself known already. Owen opened the door. Katie ran out, wagging her tail frantically and sniffing all around Alexis’s sandaled feet.

“Hey there,” he said.

“Hey.” Suddenly she felt shy. Owen looked fantastic in a white button-down, short-sleeved cotton shirt and tan linen shorts. She bit her lip to keep her mouth from hanging open. She had the urge to wrap her arms around his neck and pull her body close to his.

She needed to get a grip on her impulses, or she was going to find herself in deep trouble.

“Come on in,” Owen said, stepping back and opening the door wide. She felt his eyes on her as she walked inside and felt self-conscious. Did he notice the stretch marks on the backs of her legs? Although she was thin now, she hadn’t always been. She’d gotten stretch marks on her legs when she’d put on the weight back in high school.

Maybe it was a bad idea to wear these tiny shorts. Should she have worn a one-piece? Although she had a flat, toned belly, she still had stretch marks on her hips too. If she’d worn a one-piece, Owen wouldn’t be able to see those imperfections. She didn’t have the money to get them lasered off like people in Hollywood probably did. Who knew how many plastic surgeries the people Owen brushed shoulders with had gotten? It was like they were permanently airbrushed.

Owen led her through the house to the kitchen. He had a couple of steaks laid out on the white countertops. “I thought we could eat first and then swim.”

“Sounds good to me.” She bent down to scratch behind Katie’s ears. The little dog’s tail wagged happily.

She felt Owen’s eyes on her again, and she looked up at him.

“You look nice,” he said.

“Thanks, so do you.” She could feel her cheeks heating up. She wasn’t used to this kind of praise from men. It wasn’t that she didn’t get hit on—she still got a random guy off the street catcalling at her on occasion. It was that she’d been in Maple Creek for so long that all the single men in town knew that she didn’t normally date. She’d been too busy building her business to have a relationship, and she wasn’t interested in casually dating. The problem with Owen was that she wasn’t sure how casual he was being.

Owen had a laptop open on the countertop. “I’ve been reading articles on how to grill a steak. I hope you don’t mind being my guinea pig today.”

Alexis grinned. “Weren’t you the guy who said you burned everything?”

Owen laughed. “It doesn’t mean I can’t learn.”

“If I can train my teenaged employees to bake, then you can learn to cook steaks.”

“Exactly. I figure I just need to do a little research. My mom and I used to cook together when I was little. I’ve just spent a lot of years having other people cook for me. I’ve gotten out of practice.”

“What do you mean when you say you have other people cooking for you?”

“I keep a cook at the house.”

Alexis shook her head. “I can’t even imagine what that would be like. I don’t know how I’d feel about it.”

“It’s great if you’re a bachelor who can’t cook. I get to come home to gourmet meals.”

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