"Your director's going to be very annoyed with me for sending a puddle back to the set," Jordan said without a hint of repentance. The ice cream shop employee, a kid in his late teens, came over with a notepad and an enquiring expression. Jordan said, "Coffee?" to Kayla, and at her nod, said, "Coffee," to the kid, too. "Two black coffees, please. Unless you do something fancier."
"Not for coffee. We have great hot chocolate, though."
Jordan's brown eyes went round with interest. "Marshmallows and whipped cream?"
"And sprinkles," the kid said solemnly.
"Then I'll have a hot chocolate with marshmallows, whipped cream, and sprinkles," Jordan said decisively. "Kayla?"
Kayla, with what she felt certain was a dippy smile, said, "That sounds great," and when the kid left, said, "I'm not sure I've ever seen an adult man order a hot chocolate before."
"Man, you are not hanging out with the right adult men. My team…" Jordan paused thoughtfully, then nodded firmly. "Absolutely don't order hot chocolates either."
Startled, Kayla laughed out loud. "I guess we're both hanging out with the wrong guys. Your team? Do you manage an office team?"
"Ah. No. I. Um. Hm."
"Oh, man." Kayla's eyebrows shot up. "Sorry, I don't mean to pry! You don't have to tell me, obviously. I'm just some weirdo from high school you barely remember."
We are not!her owl said indignantly.
"You are not." Jordan echoed the owl's tone so perfectly that Kayla giggled. "But you're not!" Jordan protested. "I remember you! We did a couple of shows together in drama club. You did, um, we didChess, do you remember? You sangNobody's Sideand it was incredible. Your voice, I mean, wow. I'll never forget your voice. That's what I recognized, honestly, before I recognized, like,you. I mean, you still look like yourself, but—" He clamped his mouth shut, then, through his lips, said, "M'm gming hm hmmp haalking hmm."
Kayla giggled. "You don't need to stop talking now. My voice has changed less than the rest of me has. But I can't believe you remember that."
"Oh my God," Jordan said, shaking his head. "How could I forget? You were terrific. I've seen a bunch of your movies. You're really good, Kyl—Kayla."
"It's so weird hearing someone call me Kylie," Kayla said, amused, but then her eyebrows rose. "Really, you've seen my movies? I mean, that's flattering, but guys usually haven't."
Jordan screwed up his face. "Would you think less of me if I said I went home and watched five of them last night?"
"You're kidding. You must have been up all night!"
"Until about three," Jordan confessed, squirming with embarrassment. "You were great in all of them, but you blew me away withStopover Dream."
He liiiiiikes you,Kayla's owl caroled, and on one hand,well, Kayla thought,he should. They were fated mates, even if Jordan didn't know it yet. But on the other…
Wow,she thought.What a guy!
Chapter 6
For a moment, Jordan really thought he'd blown it. Staying up all night watching Kayla's movies was kind of weird.Sayinghe'd done that was probably super weird. And Kayla's expression had frozen when he admitted it, which couldn't be good.
Except then her expression softened into the sweetest smile Jordan had ever seen, and a faint blush climbed up her pale cheeks. "Thank you. I'm proud of that one. It was a little more heartbreaky than most."
"But it ended happily ever after." Jordan smiled back. "What's it like, playing so many characters whose big story is falling in love?"
Kayla laughed. "It sets me up badly for real life romance, let's put it that way. Scripted guys always say the right thing, except for that one 'dark moment' scene where they have the big misunderstanding and it looks like the relationship is all over. It's a pretty great way to make a living, though, especially when my costars are nice. What about you?"
"I say the wrong thing all the time," Jordan said mournfully.
The gorgeous woman across the table blinked her huge beautiful eyes once, then laughed again, a bright cheerful soundthat showed off a mouthful of implausibly white teeth. "I bet you don't. No, I meant, what are you doing with yourself now that we're all grown up? Dog-sitting, I know, but unless you're the luckiest guy in the world, that's probably not your full-time gig."
"I'm having coffee with Kayla Walsh," Jordan said. "Iamthe luckiest guy in the world."
"Oh, very nice." Kayla's eyes sparkled. "Do you have a script writer around here somewhere?"
"Sadly, no, so I'll probably mess up before we get to the 'black moment,'" Jordan said. "And no, the dog-sitting isn't a full-time gig. Turns out there aren't that many dogs that need sitting on in Virtue. No, I, um, man, I gotta roll the clock back, don't I? I got a baseball scholarship for college?—"
