“You sure? Because it looks like you’re doing a movie.” His tone is playful.
“I am not in the movie,” I say crisply.
Sam looks at Cyrus with surprised curiosity. “How did you know it was her and not Haven?”
Cyrus frowns at the AD likeare you really asking the question. “Dude.”
“I mean it, mate,” says Sam. “You can’t see her tats from where you are.”
Cyrus chuckles. “I mean, it’s not hard. She looks like the one in awkward family photos who doesn’t know how to pose.”
I seethe at my employee. “Cyrus, you want to keep your job, I presume?”
He laughs harder. “You like me too much to fire me, Rips. I make you laugh,” he says, but then turns serious. “Also, idea. It just came to me. I’m going to need your autograph now, ’kay? Damien can make a screen print of it and put it on a T-shirt. He’s gonna start making a new line of tees.Darling Springs—the Canada of Californiashirts.”
I blink. “Really?”
“No lie. Because a lot of films are shot in Canada,” he says helpfully, but I knew that.
“Right. That’s just very,verymeta.”
Cyrus shrugs, smiling. “That’s us. My dude and I are very meta. Anyway, you game for it?”
“Maybe.” I can’t focus on potential T-shirt fame while I’m sweating. Is it the lights making me hot? The sun? The attention? How does Haven handle this? The spotlight is too much. I want to hide in the lavender maze.
I stand like a newborn foal for another few minutes as theycheck settings on meters and cameras and Banks watches from a distance. When Tabitha heads down the pathway to the cluster of crew members, I jump on the chance of freedom. “Is Haven’s stand-in coming back tomorrow?”
“Let’s hope it’s only a twenty-four-hour stomach bug,” she says.
Uh-oh. That’s not good. I steal a glance at the edge of the Hidcote where Banks is watching the scene with some amusement.
But mostly intensity. He keeps turning his focus back to the gates of the farm. Several of his security guys are working. A couple of trailers are set up by the white picket fence—including Chris’s, though he’s in makeup too. The street is closed today for the shoot, so there aren’t any photographers here. At least, none I can see.
This also means my shop is closed to the public for the next little while when they shoot scenes at the farm, but I’ve still got deliveries going out, and Cyrus and Ramona have plenty to do around the farm. I just have to hope that online interest continues to grow thanks to the buzz from the film.
My gaze lands on Banks again. His arms are crossed. He’s wearing aviator shades. His black polo is nice and snug against his chest and abs. Bodyguard couture is seriously hot. Good thing he’s twenty feet away. This way, I can ogle him, but the distance makes keeping this secret thing between us pretty easy.
“Almost done,” Sam says reassuringly as he adjusts another setting on a camera.
“Happy to help,” I say, though what I mean isthank god.
“You’re a trouper,” he says, laid-back and chill until Vega, the director, strides over a few seconds later, her phone pressed to her ear.
“Tell me something. Why on god’s great green earth would Carlisle’s stand-in have the stomach bug too?” A pause as she holds up a stop-sign hand. “Wait. I don’t even want to know. We’ll find someone else.”
Vega ends the call and scans the group, presumably hunting for a suitable stand-in. She moves past Sam, then Arjun, the guy from New Jersey with the undercut, then a gaffer who’s on the short side. She spins in slo-mo, finally finding Banks at the outskirts of the fields.
She cups her hands around her mouth. “You. You’re tall,” she says. “You’re big. You look like you work out too. Can you be our stand-in for five minutes?”
He clears his throat. “I’m security, ma’am.”
She gestures wildly to the gates. “And your team is doing a great job, including Wanda,” she says, since Haven’s bodyguard is patrolling the grounds today as well.
With a reluctant sigh, Banks walks over to me.
So much for keeping our distance in public. My too-sexy bodyguard is standing inches from me. Close enough that the aftershave he wears, soapy and woodsy, is going to my head.
“Next to her. Put an arm around her,” Vega says, taking my focus from the scent.
