It was nearly two o’clock when Riley pulled up to the mansion.
Auntie had given her a code last night, and when she plugged it in the callbox’s keypad, the gate started to roll away.
But the place didn’t have many signs of life, beyond Briggs painting. He was on the other side of the front door today, and he’d made a lot of progress since last night.
Right now, he was using a spray gun, which explained how he was able to cover so much area so quickly.
“Hey!” she called as she approached on the walkway that split the front yard.
But he didn’t seem to hear her over the sprayer’s loud motor.
Not wanting to startle him—and not wanting to get paint in her hair or on her jeans and v-neck t-shirt—Riley hung back and waited, looking around at the grounds.
The pink, yellow, and white flowers planted on either side of the walkway were beautiful, and their scent was refreshing. A big palm tree to her right in the yard offered a little bit of shade around its immediate vicinity, but it didn’t come close to reaching her. So the sun continued to beat down. She knew the sun was the sun, no matter where you were. But it sure seemed a lot brighter in California than it ever had in Arkansas.
She was thinking about home, not even noticing the loud hum of the motor had stopped, when she heard Briggs say, “Hey, you.”
Riley turned around, unable to suppress her giant grin as she drank in the sight of the tall, strong man.
His skin was sun-kissed. Even though he wore long sleeves to no doubt protect him from the harsh rays, his muscles were obvious beneath the fabric.
There was a little bit of paint in his dark hair, but not too much.
Damn. Even sweaty and in the middle of working, he was sexy.
Or maybe because of all that.
“Hi,” Riley managed to say, after a moment of forgetting to speak.
Did he notice? A faint smile was touching his lips. But that could have been about anything.
“I’m afraid Athena, Trevon, and the Littles are all gone. She took them on a field trip to some big indoor playground for cuties like you.”
Does he seriously think I’m cute? Riley wondered. Or is he just being polite?
“Figured I might be too late,” she admitted. “But I thought it was worth a shot. Things took a little longer on set than I expected.”
What she didn’t admit, however, was that she could have called Auntie Athena directly to see where she was. It would have been easy to get the location of the playground and just drive over there herself.
But this gave her a nice excuse to see Briggs again.
“I’m sorry you missed them. Do you want me to find out where they went?” Briggs asked.
No!Riley almost blurted out. But she managed to act a bit more discreet than that, instead shrugging and saying, “How long have they been gone?”
Briggs fished his phone out of his jeans and looked at the clock on the screen. “Almost three hours now.”
“Oh man. It’s okay. By the time I got there they’d probably be finishing up.”
The two stood there looking at one another for a few moments.
“Hey, I’m just stopping for lunch. It’ll take me a minute to wash up, but I was going to hit the closest In & Out and pick up a burger. Have you eaten?”
Riley tried hard not to blush.
You’re a grown woman! And a famous actress! Get ahold of yourself.
“No. I didn’t even get breakfast,” she responded, remembering how busy she’d gotten on set. She’d never visited craft services.
