Calling All the Shots (10 page)

* * *

Willow had caught a cab home after the autograph-seekers
had left and he hadn’t blamed her. They’d kind of put a damper on the mood plus
a part of him knew she needed to go home and process everything from the
past.

He didn’t know what to expect when he showed up to work at
Sexy & Single
the next day. Peter was
standing off to one side talking with the crewman who was putting on his
microphone and once they were done Jack went over to him.

“How’s it going?”

“Good. I still can’t believe I’m on a reality dating show,”
Peter said.

“I guess it’s a lot different than the life you’re used to,”
Jack said.

“Hell, yeah. Normally I travel each week to another city, get
my car set up, drive as fast as I can and then do it all over again. This isn’t
like giving press interviews.”

“You’re doing good at it,” Jack said.

“Well, I know how to play it for the cameras but I’m not so
sure that I’m doing good with Deidre,” Peter said. “She wants to take everything
so slowly. It’s just not in my nature to take my time, you know?”

Jack shrugged. “It’s not my way to try to bond with
anyone.”

“Truly? Don’t you get lonely?” Peter asked. “I signed up with
Matchmakers, Inc. because I just don’t have time in my schedule to meet someone,
and I want a family.”

Jack had never thought about a family. He’d been too busy
working like a madman to make sure his future was secure. And now he didn’t know
how to do anything else. Sure, he had fun and took vacations but he was always
thinking about getting back to work. “I don’t have time for a family.”

“Dude, I’m racing almost every week and traveling all year long
except for a break from November to the beginning of January. If I have time
then you certainly do,” Peter said. “Maybe you just don’t want to make time or
you haven’t met the right woman.”

“Perhaps. I do know that finding the right mate is harder than
it looks,” Jack said.

“So I’m not the only one to have problems with their mate?”
Peter asked. “I mean, she’s perfect for me, but convincing her of that is
hard.”

Jack laughed and clapped Peter on the shoulder. “Women are like
that. And I haven’t seen one couple on this show who didn’t have to deal with
something.”

“Good to know,” Peter said.

“Okay, guys,” Willow said, walking over to them. “Let’s get
ready to shoot. Jack, I need you to ask Peter about the date planned for today
and then when you lead him over to Deidre get them both talking before you move
out of frame.”

“No problem, boss lady,” he said. He couldn’t believe how she
was acting this morning. Like they’d never slept together. Like he’d never seen
her naked or felt her intimately pressed against him. He knew she was trying to
force them back to where they had been before but he wasn’t about to let
her.

He snagged her hand when she started to turn away and she
glared down at his hand before jerking hers free. “We are on a tight schedule.
There’s a storm heading toward us. We need to get the outdoor shots before you
move inside for the wine tasting.”

Jack had no choice but to watch her walk away. He knew she was
going to keep trying to boss him around in every aspect of their lives together.
He would find an opportunity to deal with her later.

It was time Ms. Willow Stead realized who she was messing
with.

“Okay, Jack, go.”

Jack and Peter started walking toward the terrace where Deidre
waited. “Peter, what are you looking forward to on this date today?”

“I’m hoping to show Deidre that I’m more than just a Southern
boy who only knows how to drive fast.”

“And how do you plan to do that?” Jack asked, knowing that it
involved the wine tasting.

“I’m one of the owners of the vineyard and I think having her
see me in this element will help her impression of me,” Peter said.

“What do you think, Deidre? Is this what you need to see a
different side of Peter?” Jack asked.

“I think so, Jack. He’s certainly surprised me more than
once.”

“What has been the most surprising thing?” Jack asked.

“The fact that he is completely fearless when he sees something
he wants. I always have to make a plan and a backup plan, but not Peter. He just
goes for it.”

“That’s right. I can clean up the mess I make later but if I
wait too long I might miss my opportunity.”

“I’ll get out of the way so you two can enjoy your date,” Jack
said, moving out of frame. The cameraman, Willow and the rest of the crew
followed them into the restaurant where the tasting was set up. Jack stood
outside watching everything that was going on and letting Peter’s advice settle
into his head. Maybe he was going to miss something important if he didn’t go
after Willow now. If he’d learned anything from PJ’s accident it was that life
was short.

“Jack Crown?”

He turned to see a couple of kids standing to his left.

“Hey there,” he said.

They came over and he signed autographs and chatted with them.
But he kept his eye on Willow and he saw her watching him, too. No matter how
immune she pretended to be he knew that she wasn’t. She was as confused by him
as he was by her.

And while he knew that one of them was going to have to give
ground to move forward he didn’t think it was going to be him.

Ten

W
illow had another restless night sleeping
in a bed that still smelled of Jack. She sort of regretted giving him the cold
shoulder at work, but not really. She was tempted to pretend she hadn’t slept
with him.

He made it difficult for her to remember that she wasn’t
looking for forever with him. Hell, he’d as much as said more than once that
forever wasn’t in the cards for him and still she was mooning over him and
having hot dreams about him. So she was cranky when she arrived at the helipad
and saw Kat and Peter laughing together.

She was annoyed by it. Probably because she was in an ornery
mood from yesterday’s shoot and the fact that things seemed to be going great in
everyone else’s life. Plus, she’d warned Kat that Peter was spoken for but every
time she saw her assistant she was flirting with the man. Maybe it was the lack
of sleep or maybe it was her own insecurities about Jack and every other man on
the planet but she just snapped.

“Kat, get over here.”

Kat glanced at her with a shocked look then said something to
Peter before joining Willow. Deidre hadn’t arrived yet so as far as Willow was
concerned this didn’t have to be an issue for the couple.

“What are you doing?” Willow asked.

“Talking to the cast. Do you need me to get you some coffee?”
Kat asked. “You seem out of sorts this morning.”

“I’m fine. It looked like you were flirting with him. I thought
I told you not to do that.”

“Hey, the guy came over to me,” Kat said. “It’s just harmless
teasing. I think he really is falling for Deidre.”

Willow took a deep breath. “All the more reason for you to stay
away from him. Deidre has vulnerabilities like every other woman.”

“Some women like a challenge to keep their man. It makes them
step up their game and go after a guy,” Kat said. “You know she’s been dragging
her feet where he’s concerned.”

“So you thought you’d stoke the fire and see what comes out of
it?” Willow asked. She had known Kat for a long time and knew her to be as
dedicated to her career as Willow was. But then again, Willow had been spending
a lot of time lately thinking about Jack when she should be focused on work. So
was it fair that she was being hard on Kat?

“Sort of. He is fun and I do like him,” Kat said.

Willow was about to let Kat have it when she turned to her with
a sad look in her gray eyes. “What’s wrong with me, Willow?”

“What do you mean?”

“The only guys I feel safe flirting with are taken. It’s not
like Peter’s the first one I’ve been attracted to.”

Willow put her arm around her assistant. Sometimes it was nice
to know she wasn’t the only one with screwed up relationship skills. “It
probably feels safe to you because you know it can’t go beyond flirting.”

Kat pursed her lips as she considered that fact and then she
nodded. “You’re right. A part of me doesn’t want a man messing with my life
plans.”

“I know the feeling,” Willow said. She was never going to
adjust to Jack and his presence in her life.

“Do you still feel like that?” Kat asked. “With your friends
getting married and settling down, don’t you want what they have?”

“No,” Willow said. She almost believed her own lie but she knew
that the more couple things that her friends did the more she started craving a
little of what they had. But then she remembered Nichole hitting rock bottom and
crying her eyes out in her apartment because Conner couldn’t commit to her.
Despite the fact that Conner and Nichole had worked out their issues, Willow
decided maybe she was fine where she was. “I’ve got the good life.”

“Yes, you do,” Kat said. “I’ll stay away from Peter from now
on. I don’t want to mess things up for him or for Deidre.”

“Thanks,” Willow said. “I don’t want to have to warn you
again.”

“You won’t have to. I like this job too much to screw up over a
flirt,” Kat said. She gave Willow a mock salute as she turned away.

Kat went to talk to the sound and camera guys who’d be taking a
second chopper out to the Hamptons. Willow wanted to believe she was happy but a
big part of her knew that she’d just gotten into the habit of coasting through
life. She was content most days or she had been before Jack had shown back
up.

She couldn’t really blame him because he hadn’t done anything
to make her reevaluate where she was. But last night when they’d talked about
the past she had come to understand she had always been ready to see the worst
in her small town and the people in it. It in no way excused Jack for standing
her up. She doubted she’d ever really be able to forget it, but she did know
that her mom had acted to protect her. Willow was the only one who knew how
deeply her father had hurt her mom when he’d left them.

Jack had scared her back then and no matter how much she
thought she’d changed he still scared her. She caught a glimpse of him as he
walked onto the roof with Deidre and she realized that that was still true.

That was why she was in such a bad mood this morning. She was
attracted to a man who made her feel things she didn’t want to. And the worst
part was that no matter what common sense told her she wanted to run to him and
wrap her arms around him. She wanted to hold on to him and make him hers. Which
was stupid because Jack Crown wasn’t a forever kind of guy.

Her bet with Nichole was to ensure that she could move on to
someone else. Jack smiled over at her and it was all she could do to keep from
frowning at him. She realized that she had to keep their relationship secret
from the crew because when this ended—and she knew now that it would—she didn’t
want everyone to know they’d ever been together.

With that in mind she called Kat over and told her to get the
talent into their chopper and have them start heading out to the Hamptons.

“Aren’t you riding with them?” Kat said.

“No. I want to talk to the crew. Send hair and makeup with
them,” Willow said.

“Okay. I wasn’t going to volunteer,” Kat said a bit
defensively.

“I know. I am cranky today, Kat. Sorry if I came down too hard
on you,” Willow said. They were cramming in as many dates as they could so they
could wrap this session up before Christmas. She really couldn’t have picked a
worse time to get involved with Jack.

“You didn’t. I needed to hear that,” Kat said. “What do you
need to hear?”

“That love makes women stupid,” Willow said, and realized she
should remember that. Was there a single woman in the world who hadn’t
second-guessed herself when she started a relationship with a man? She doubted
it.

“Whoa, boss, when did you fall in love?” Kat asked.

Willow blanched. Had she really said that? She wasn’t in love
with Jack. Hell, no, she thought. Jack Crown was her ticket to the future, not a
guy she was planning to be with for any length of time. “I haven’t.”

But she walked away from Kat feeling like those words were a
lie. Had she fallen in love with Jack? No. She wouldn’t let herself be that
vulnerable.

* * *

Jack saw that Willow had reinforced her defenses during
the night and was back to giving him the cold shoulder. He almost let her get
away with it but then decided he’d had enough of waiting for Willow. It wasn’t
in his nature to be as tentative as he’d been with her.

And he wasn’t going to be that way any longer. He signaled to
Kat and told her to ride with the talent; he was riding with Willow. Willow
definitely didn’t look pleased when he sat down next to her and put on his
headphones, but he didn’t mind. He’d had the entire night to think about her and
what he wanted.

“I needed Kat to ride in here so I could give her some
direction before we landed.”

“What could you possibly need to tell her that couldn’t wait
until we were on the ground? It’s not exactly like this shoot will be any
different than the other ones,” Jack said.

“Stuff, Jack. I needed to tell her stuff and since I’m her
boss—”

“You’re acting like a brat,” he said.

“I know. I didn’t sleep well last night and have been stomping
around like Godzilla all morning.”

He chuckled at the way she said it. “You should have—”

She reached up and covered his mouth, giving him a warning look
from her eyes. “I should have slept better, I know.”

“Um…okay. Why are you acting so—” he paused, trying to find the
right words “—weird?”

“I don’t want to have this conversation on the chopper,” she
said.

“Then text me,” he said.

She pulled out her cell phone and started typing a message. She
handed the phone to him a second later.

I
don’t want anyone to know you and I are dating,
she’d written.

God, this woman was going to be the death of him. Why couldn’t
he have become obsessed with someone who would just blindly go along with
whatever he suggested? He typed a note back to her.

Nichole knows.

She rolled her eyes, typing furiously on the touch screen.
I mean at work.
It will just make things complicated. So just act like we are still whatever
we were.

No,
he typed back.

No?
I’m not playing around about this, Jack.

Too
bad, Willow. I am not going to pretend that we are simply colleagues when I
know we are lovers.

See?
she typed.
Who uses the word lovers?

I
do. Is that what’s bothering you?
he asked.

I
don’t want them to talk about me when you go back to L.A. and your life and
it becomes clear I was your latest booty call,
she typed.

First of all booty calls aren’t as complicated as you are and I’m not
planning on going back to my old life.

What
are you planning?

I’m
not sure because as you pointed out we’ve only been dating for about a week.
But this is more than a fling.

Technically this is week two.

Yes
it is.

She put her phone away when he handed it back to her and he
realized how complex she was. She acted like the opinions of others didn’t
matter to her yet she was afraid for everyone involved with the show to know
they were a couple.

He was afraid of that, too. He didn’t want to be another man
that didn’t measure up in Willow’s eyes. He’d heard the talk on the set that she
was a man-eater but he’d seen behind that reputation to the girl—scratch that,
woman—who was just trying to protect herself.

They landed and Willow left his side immediately to start
directing people on where they needed to go and what they needed to do. Once
they were at the toy store he saw that a crowd had already arrived and he was
proud to be part of this event. It was nice to be part of a show that gave back,
especially at the holidays.

Peter immediately went to the people waiting who had race
memorabilia in their hands and started autographing and talking to the crowd.
Jack glanced over at Willow and she nodded that he should do the same. “Keep
them happy.”

“Will that make you happy?” he asked.

“Do you really care about that?” she asked.

“Willow, it’s all I think about. You are a difficult woman to
figure out.”

“I know. If it makes you feel any better you’re just as
confusing.”

“It doesn’t,” he said.

He walked over to talk to the crowd. There were kids with
footballs and people who asked him about PJ and he realized that this was what
Willow was hoping to avoid. He had gotten used to talking about his life in
platitudes and quips but she knew that one day she’d be answering questions
about him and Willow didn’t have any artifice.

She’d tell everyone exactly how she felt. That was why she’d
wanted revenge on him because she didn’t have layers to protect herself. She
just shot from the hip when she got backed into a corner.

Deidre came over to Peter, and Jack saw the other man stop
talking to his fans to put his arm around her. He started introducing her to the
crowd as they collected toys. It was then that Jack realized the cameras were
running.

Willow stood over behind the cameras and Jack knew he had to do
his part. He approached the couple.

“Deidre, did you imagine this Speed Racer would have a side
like this?” Jack asked.

“Not at first. But the man I’ve gotten to know really cares
about people,” she said, giving Peter an intimate smile.

“I certainly do and I’m not afraid to let the world know it,”
Peter said.

“I’m beginning to understand why,” Deidre said. “I guess when
you feel something that intensely you have to let it out.”

Jack didn’t know how to respond to that. It was the opposite of
what was going on between him and Willow. They were both trying to contain
whatever they felt and he thought maybe that was a mistake. But he wasn’t too
sure.

He only knew that in order for him to be happy with Willow he
was going to have to do something to shake things up. The way he had the other
night. He couldn’t let her keep him at arm’s length at work because she’d just
keep doing that in their real lives as well. And watching Deidre, who’d been so
afraid to be publicly hurt by Peter, hold his hand and let the world see she’d
fallen for him gave Jack the courage to do the same.

* * *

Willow was in a much better mood when she arrived at the
MacAfee family’s house in the Hamptons. Conner used it when he wanted to get
away from the city for the weekend. According to Nichole, this was where she’d
crashed a party on the Fourth of July and gotten her first audience with
Conner.

The house was decorated for fall with a large wreath on the
door and brown, orange and yellow flower arrangements scattered throughout. She
and Jack had come over together and he stood in the foyer with her.