Page 48 of Behind the Scenes

He didn’t say a word to her silly mention of the bed, which only added to her awkwardness, so she mumbled, “These are nice sheets. Very masculine. Grey and black. Lauren has great taste. I think she said they’re five hundred thread count.”

“I wouldn’t know. I don’t know about those things,” he said in a low voice.

She ran her fingers over the flat sheet next to her. “Yeah. I think these are five hundred.”

Even Alexis didn’t think he should respond to her idiotic yammering on about thread count, so she wasn’t surprised when he didn’t. It only made it crystal clear that she shouldn’t have knocked on his door in the first place.

As she pondered the idea of leaving, he said, “Carla made a great pot roast dinner. Did you have any?”

She turned to face him, happy for a topic about something other than the thread count of sheets. “I did. It’s my favorite. I love when she makes it for me.”

Unfortunately, the conversation fell silent again, and she knew it was time for her to leave. Standing up, she said, “I guess I’ll go. Have a good night.”

As she walked toward the door, he asked, “Did you want to talk about anything in particular?”

Turning back, she looked at him. “No, I just…”

She didn’t know how to say she didn’t want to be alone without sounding pathetic. No matter how she tried to phrase it in her head, it still came out the same.

Pathetic.

Hunter swung his legs off the bed and stood up. “What do you say we go out for a little while? Maybe just go for a walk, or if we find a quiet bar, we could have a drink?”

The idea of getting out sounded wonderful, even as that tiny voice in the back of her mind warned her that she might run into a guy like the one at the gym earlier today. But she didn’t want to be afraid of everyone in the world anymore. She just didn’t know how not to be.

She wanted to try, though.

“Okay. I’ll grab a sweater and be right back.”

“Good. Meet you in the hallway in a couple minutes.”

As she steppedout onto the sidewalk, the chill of the night air surprised her. Wrapping her sweater around her, she tried not to look as cold as she felt.

But Hunter noticed immediately. “Do you want to go back in? You look cold.”

Alexis shook her head, eager to be out of the house for even a short time. “No, I’m fine. My blood just hasn’t gotten used to New York weather yet. My body still thinks it’s in LA.”

Satisfied by her lie, he pointed up the block. “Looks like your adoring fans with the cameras went home to bed. Let’s walk up there. We went south this afternoon, so what do you say about trying north?”

“Sure! North it is.”

Hoping once she got moving she’d warm up, she happily kept up with Hunter, who walked much faster than she usually did. Probably another throwback to her time in LA where no one seemed to ever be in a huge hurry.

Outside the apartment, he seemed far more talkative and asked her about her films and her favorite parts. She could tell instantly that he’d never seen any of her movies, but his effort flattered her.

After that conversation died down, though, they didn’t seem to be able to restart another one, so Alexis took the chance that maybe he’d like to talk about himself for a little while. He hadn’t given her any indication of his life at all before moving in to work on her case, so she couldn’t help but be curious.

“You mentioned, or maybe it was Paul who told me, but someone said you used to work for the LAPD. You look too young to be a retired cop. What made you leave LA and that job to work for this Project Artemis group?”

“They recruited me. I wanted to do something new with my life, so I said yes. But even before that, I wanted something new, so I turned in my badge and moved east to Virginia since I knew a few people in the DC area. I’ve been there ever since.”

She listened as he talked about what he did for Project Artemis, and she couldn’t help but notice he never mentioned a girlfriend or wife. But she never asked, and he never offered any information other than about his work.

He sounded noble when he talked about helping people, and as they walked the streets of the Upper West Side, she had to admit that as attractive as the outside was with Hunter, the inside was appealing too.

Curious how many women like her he’d helped, she asked, “So how many of me have there been?”

He turned to look at her and smiled, making her stomach do that flipping thing. “What do you mean?”

---