Page 22 of How to Kiss a Movie Star
I turn on my famous smile—the same one she completely ignored when we first talked in the feed store parking lot. “I’m just having a conversation, Audrey.”
I can’t explain why this is so fun for me. Except, maybe it’s not all that complicated. I haven’t had toworkto get a compliment out of a woman in years. And this one seems utterly and completely unimpressed. Well, by everything except my abs. “Now, do you agree to my terms or not?” I say.
She purses her lips. “Right. Your terms. So I’ll come to the main driveway, check in with your scary hulkish bodyguard, and then I can go wherever I please?”
“As long as you tell us where you’re planning to be. And Nate’s harmless. I promise he’ll be nice.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” she says dryly. “He wasso nicewhen he was flashing his gun at me and threatening to take away my camera.”
“He thought you were taking pictures ofme,” I say, enjoying the way she’s bantering with me. “And considering the fact that I was mere moments away from stripping down to nothing and diving in my pool when he picked you up on our security cameras, I’m glad he reacted the way he did.”
Her gaze drops to my torso, sliding up to my chest and shoulders before she lifts it back to my face. “You swim naked?” she asks, her voice small.
I smile playfully, lifting my shoulder in an easy shrug. “There are some perks to living alone.”
She shakes her head, like she’s breaking out of some sort of trance, then clears her throat. “Fine,” she says haughtily. “For the squirrels,I agree to your terms.”
I don’t miss her emphasis on squirrels. She really wants me to know she isn’t here for me, which somehow feels like both a good thinganda bad thing. “What’s your number? I’ll have my manager text you, then you can work out the details with her.”
Audrey holds out her hand. “Here. I can just plug my number in and send myself a text.”
I pull my phone back, away from her reach. “Nope. Then you’d havemynumber.”
“So?”
“So…you might feel tempted to share it or sell it or who knows what else with it.” Sadly, I’m only half-joking. I’ve been burned before, and changing my number is too tedious for me to want to do it again. Also, Joni would kill me if I gave my number to someone I’ve only known as long as I’ve known Audrey.
Audrey blinks in surprise. “You really think I’d do something like that?”
Her question is serious, so I give her a serious answer. “I don’t. Mostly, I’m just trying to avoid getting in trouble with my manager. She’s as much of a guard dog as Nate and takes protecting my privacy very seriously.”
Audrey shakes her head. “People bother you that much?”
I shrug. “You’d be surprised how far some people will go.”
She nods. “Right. That makes sense. Youshouldbe cautious. You don’t really know anything about me.”
I playfully tap my phone against my palm. “I don’t know if I’d saythat.”
She tilts her head to the side. “What would you say?”
“I’d say I know you’re serious enough about your work to trespass not once, but twice. Also, you have an uncanny ability to blend into the wilderness, and you know more about squirrels than any person should. Also, I’m pretty sure you have a thing for rock-hard—”
She cuts me off. “If you say one thing about your abdominal muscles, I swear, Flint Hawthorne, I will…” She hesitates, her eyes darting around like she’s trying to find an appropriate threat.
I lift an eyebrow. “You’ll what?”
“I don’t know what I’ll do,” she says, her tone snobbish, which is hilarious, considering she’s currently dressed like a bush. “But it won’t be good.”
“Well, now you’ve got me worried.”
She holds my gaze, and for a second, and I think she might smile. I’m filled with a sudden craving for the sight of it, and that same certainty I felt the first time I saw her settles into my soul.
If this woman smiles at me—because of me—I think I’ll be done for.
Audrey rattles off her phone number, then glances up at the quickly darkening sky. “When can I start?” she asks as she rearranges the strap on her camera bag. “Is tomorrow too soon?”
I almost say yes, but I don’t want to sound too eager. This woman has already made her lack of interest perfectly clear. I don’t want to scare her off. “Just work it out with Joni,” I finally say. “She knows my schedule better than I do. I’ll make sure she reaches out tonight.”
