Beau signed with a flourish. This film was a good move. His phone lit up with Mark’s ringtone. “I need to take this.” He excused himself and moved out into the hallway. Stepping out of a business meeting to take a personal phone call wasn’t professional, but Mark had hauled his butt out of jail just a few hours ago.
“What’s going on?”
“Hey, I reserved a lake house for us for a couple of days. We can invite Anthony, do some fishing—”
—and you can get your head on straight.
Beau grinned. For the first time in a long time, he felt like he had a direction. This movie had blockbuster potential, and then there was the woman … “I appreciate that, but I just signed on with Knight for a new action film.”
“Yeah? I thought they weren’t doing those since Robert died.”
“Well, they’ve got something good here. I’m excited about it.”
“Good.” Mark’s voice had that relieved tone. The one that comes when you think your friend has fallen off the deep end, and you find out he’s not an idiot.
“I’ll let you know when we have a break in filming. We’ll hit the cabin then.”
“Sounds good.”
They said goodbye and hung up. Beau glanced up to see the woman who had captured his thoughts duck into a room at the end of the hall. He broke into a run, hoping to keep her from slipping away again. Bursting into an employee break room, he found her standing in front of an open fridge with an insane amount of yogurt cups lined up inside. He pulled himself together. “Hi.”
“Hi.” The fridge door floated shut.
They stared at one another, a need to be closer tugging at his shoes. “Thanks for bringing the script over.”
Her eyes widened slightly, and she glanced over his shoulder at the open door. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He looked her up and down. Same beautiful body, although he’d seen a lot more of her curves last night than he did this morning in her blousy skirt and top. Same posture. Same crystal-blue eyes. He grinned. “I never forget a beautiful face.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. It wasn’t me. You were drinking—could have been any blonde.”
“How do you know I was drinking if you weren’t there?”
She twisted her lips as she tapped at her phone. When she flipped it, his mug shot stared back at him.
He pushed it down, keeping hold of her hand. The contact only whetted his appetite, and he had to hold back the desire to take that kiss he’d been denied last night. “First of all, I don’t drink. Secondly, I didn’t invite minors to my party, they crashed it. Something you would know all about.”
She pressed her lips together, refusing to deny the claim, but there was a hint of mischief sparkling in her eye. He was all over that. Leaning closer, he lowered his voice. “I hoped I’d see you here today.”
“Why?” She shifted her weight, reducing the distance between them. He liked less space. He wanted a lot less space.
“Because I like you.”
“Why, because I didn’t fall on your lips?” Her gaze dropped to his mouth and back up again.
He chuckled. “I’m not even sure what that means, but I like the sound of it. Maybe we could give it a try tonight—after dinner at my place?”
“I ca—”
“Whatis going on here?”
Cindy snapped to attention. Beau twisted his neck to see a woman, barely five-foot-five in her leopard print heels, cross the small room. Her short blonde hair was streaked with gray, and her skirt only allowed minimal movement. She wasn’t young enough to cling to her twenties, but she was making a mighty effort at those thirties.
Cindy jerked her hand out of his. “Mr. Mckay was asking for directions.”
Mrs. Knight twittered. “That’s a relief. For a moment there I thought I heard you ask our dear, simple Cindy to dinner.” Her hand flapped against her breastbone.
Beau stared. Cindy was anything but simple. Cindy was the most wonderfully complicated woman he had ever met. He opened his mouth to explain that to this person who obviously hadn’t spent much time with Cindy, but Cindy caught his eye. She gave her head a small shake, warning him off. He caught on quickly and amended his statement. “I was asking her about a good place to go to dinner.”
