78 of Moonlight Over Seattle

Had that been in a dream? She was pretty sure she hadn’t actually touched his hair since they were teens.

* * *

JORDAN WAS GLAD Nicole had finished her last site check. It was clear she was intentionally showing him the less-than-glamorous side of the business. Wearing coats on hot sets, trying to look presentable and sexy while running on a treadmill…getting rolled out of a carpet over and over again. None of those were jobs he’d relish.

He didn’t blame Nicole. He’d taken the assignment with a number of biases, and he had been unable to conceal them from her. So she’d flung the truth in his face. Modeling could be difficult—why had he assumed anything different?

And in Nicole he was observing an intelligent, deliberate woman at work. That was another blow to his underlying assumption that she’d probably skated by on her looks. What had it been like to spend years being told to smile for the camera as if her beauty was the only thing she had to offer?

He tried to imagine how it would feel if people constantly praised his height or his hair, his eyes, or something else over which he felt little sense of achievement, and never mentioned his actual accomplishments or abilities. True, a model had to know how to enhance his or her appearance, keep in shape and follow instructions. And unless they left everything to their agent, they had to have business sense and be savvy about the public. They also had to know how to protect themselves against anyone who might be less than scrupulous. It must be hard to have those abilities and so many others ignored.

Or was he getting taken in again?

Abruptly Jordan recalled what Nicole had claimed the night before—that he believed in nothing and no one. That he only wanted an illusion. It had almost seemed as if she felt sorry for him. No need, he was fine. The assurance had a hollow sound, but he was used to that since he regarded himself with the same skepticism as he viewed everything else.

He looked at his watch. It was after one.

“Do you have time to talk?” he asked. “Or would you rather wait for another day?”

“Now is fine, or rather when we get back to the office.”

“It’s a nice afternoon, and I’d hate spending it indoors. I have a boat moored at a dock that isn’t too far away. How about sitting on the deck and enjoying the lake and sunshine while we talk? We’re actually closer to my boat than your office. We could even take her for a sail afterward, or do you have plans for tonight?”

“No, nothing. But maybe we shouldn’t…” Her voice trailed off as she looked toward Lake Washington. “Okay. People keep telling me this is an unusual spring for the Northwest and to enjoy the warm weather while it lasts.”

“The weather is changeable up here,” Jordan acknowledged. “One year we had a string of hot days in May, then it turned cold and didn’t get above fifty degrees until late June.”

He parked at the dock, and as they were climbing aboard The Spirit, Nicole appeared surprised. “I thought it would be smaller.”

“Originally I got her for ocean sailing, and even lived aboard for a few months. When I have time, I still take her out through the various canals and locks to face the waves.”

Nicole settled into one of the low-slung deck chairs with her usual grace. Perhaps he was being fanciful, but it seemed as if she couldn’t get into an awkward position.

“Excuse me?” she said.

“Uh, what?”

“You said something about awkward positions.”

“It’s nothing,” he answered, amazed that he’d spoken the words aloud. Talking to himself wasn’t unusual, but he generally didn’t do it in anyone else’s company.

“Okay.”

The breeze off the lake cooled the air and he wondered why he hadn’t thought of coming here the last few nights. He might have gotten a decent night’s rest.

Now that they were settled, he felt disinclined to leap into official interview mode. Yet that was the reason for spending time with Nicole in the first place.

“You’re obviously educating me on the challenges of modeling,” he said. “What if I hadn’t shown up to see Cleopatra being rolled out of her carpet over and over again?”

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