Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57350 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57350 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“Not a problem.” She gestured to the beds around the porch. “I have flowers to fix.” She looked up at him again, her happiness obvious. “Thank you so much for letting me go to town like this.”
“You can plant flowers around my place anytime.”
She’d even done a good job with the bar in town. For the movie, she had the crew change the front, so much he barely recognized it. “Of course.”
He bent down and kissed her.
She jolted in surprise and then kissed him back.
Every night she stayed at his place, he fell harder. The realization sat heavy in his chest, and he hadn’t figured out what to do about it yet. He’d been trying to think of a way they could stay together, but nothing had come to mind. “You sure you don’t want to buy into a flower shop?” he asked against her mouth.
Her eyes sparkled as she drew back. “Not in a million years. I do like planting though.” She chewed her lip thoughtfully.
He pressed the point. “I bet a lot of people around here need flowers. We have so many ranches.”
A playful light filled her eyes. “Can we make movies at all of them?”
“I don’t think so.” His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen, reading Hawk’s text saying he’d just arrived, and the fences were a disaster. “All right, I have to head out. You stay safe.”
“Okay.” She rose onto her toes and kissed him this time. “It’s your turn to make dinner.”
He liked her mouth against his. “I made it last night.”
“You did not. You brought in extras from the catering crew.”
“Well, they were good,” he noted.
She laughed, the sound light and easy in the middle of all the noise around them. Crew members hurried past carrying equipment while someone shouted for quiet near the barn. The whole place hummed with activity. “All right,” she said. “I’ll see if I can do the same thing tonight.”
“Sounds good.”
He stepped back and shoved his phone into his pocket, remembering he still needed to stop by and pick up the tulips from the spring bouquet he’d asked Ellen to put together. He wanted her to have a pretty present. “Clancy,” he called. Clancy turned from where he’d been watching the director pace near the camera crew. “Keep an eye on her while I’m away.”
“Most definitely,” Clancy said.
His attention shifted back to the set where Liam stood talking to two assistants. Liam was short and stocky and seemed to yell a lot, his voice carrying across the yard almost constantly. Still, everyone seemed to like the guy. Adam shook his head. If he yelled at everybody all the time, nobody would like him. The thought made him snort under his breath as he walked toward his truck parked near the edge of the yard. The noise from the set faded the farther he moved away, and out here the air smelled like damp soil and spring grass.
“Hey, Adam,” Liam called out.
Adam turned halfway back. “Yeah?”
“Is there any chance we can get you to play a bartender tomorrow?”
“Not in a million years,” Adam said.
Liam sighed loud enough for half the crew to hear.
Adam laughed and kept walking toward his truck. The familiar sight of it sitting there eased the tension in his chest. Beyond it the ranch stretched wide and quiet, fences cutting across the land and the barn standing steady against the gray sky. He’d meet Hawk, fix the fences that needed fixing, and then come back later. Maybe he’d see if he could score a dinner again from the catering truck. These Hollywood people really knew how to eat.
He reached for the truck door and paused for a second, glancing back toward the house where Bianca stood near the porch, animatedly talking to Liam. Her hands moved while she spoke, pointing toward the flowerbeds she’d planted earlier in the week. Bright colors framed the house around her, and she brought the place to life. He lingered a second longer than he meant to, watching her laugh at something Liam said, the sound carrying faintly across the yard.
He really didn’t want her to leave.
CHAPTER 20
Bianca finished spraying the roses over the railings and backed out of the shot, moving over to Liam and Clancy. The porch smelled faintly of water and fresh petals, and the flowers she’d arranged along the railing caught the light in soft bursts of color. A camera operator shifted position nearby while someone adjusted a reflector that flashed bright white for a moment before settling.
“This is going great. We’re way ahead of schedule.” Ewan hurried up to them. “Seriously, we’re going to save tons of money, but we need to get those shots by the mountain and the river. Do you have that location?”
“I was going to go look at it tomorrow,” Bianca said. “I’ve been busy.”