Calling All the Shots (4 page)

“I am thinking about that, Wills, but I know that you’re not
going to fall for a man you can’t trust. And so far all I’ve done to impress you
is not kiss gross.”

“The not being gross thing counts for a lot more than you think
it does,” she said, trying to move the conversation back into safer waters
without letting him see how desperately she wanted to stop talking about
this.

“Trust me, I’m flattered. But one of the things I’m seeing
about you is that it takes more than a kiss to woo you.”

“Why woo me? Can’t you just do whatever it is you usually do?”
she asked.

“No way. That’s the surefire way to have you for just one
night,” he said.

That had to be a line.

“You want more than that?” she asked. “You don’t even know
me.”

“Agreed. But I want to know you. Every time I’m with you I want
to stay in your presence as long as I can. I know it’s not cool to admit but I’m
obsessed with you.”

“Obsessed with me? As soon as you figure out why you’ll move
on,” she said.

He shrugged. “I don’t think so. That’s why I need to know more
about you.”

She doubted that knowledge would help. But the fact that he
admitted to being enamored with her was a mark in her favor. She wanted revenge
and she saw that it could be very easily had if she played her cards right.
Except that she was conflicted. She liked Jack.

He had a self-effacing side—something that she’d take over ego
and arrogance any day. He was funny and charming and then there were his kisses,
which had almost made her want to drag him to the floor and have her way with
him.

“I guess next Saturday will be a big date for us, then,” she
said.

“Unless you want to stay here now and talk all night,” he said.
“I’m flying to L.A. in the morning so I don’t mind.”

“Really? Don’t you need sleep like the rest of us?”

“I do,” he said, “but for you, I’d give it up.”

She had to work tomorrow but she was honest enough to admit to
herself that she probably wouldn’t get much sleep tonight for thinking about
him. But staying here had mistake written all over it and she was done making
mistakes with Jack Crown…really, she was.

“I can’t. I’m not ready to be that intense with you, Jack. I’m
still not sure you aren’t playing some kind of game with me.”

He looked hurt for a nanosecond and then covered it with a
shrug. “I’m not really a player.”

“Maybe not, but I don’t know you well enough yet. Thanks again
for helping out with Deidre, though.”

“No problem. I like being able to help.”

“I can see that,” she said.

She reached for the doorknob and then glanced back over her
shoulder to say goodbye. There was a wistful look on Jack’s face. She realized
then that Nichole might have known that Jack seemed to genuinely care about her.
Willow didn’t understand him herself. How could someone who’d treated her so
callously in high school have grown into this man?

“Night,” he said, lifting one hand to wave goodbye to her.

“Night,” she said, walking out into the hallway and closing the
door. She leaned back against it and took a deep breath. She really didn’t know
what had happened but her heart was racing and she regretted leaving him.

She wasn’t being careful with her own emotions. Why was it that
Jack Crown seemed to know the things to do and say to make her feel this way?
Why couldn’t she meet another man who had this kind of power over her?

Why him?

She pushed away from the door and walked down the hallway
before realizing she’d forgotten her coat. Dammit, if it weren’t so cold she’d
just leave it. But it had been snowing when she’d arrived. She turned back and
knocked on his door.

He opened it and held out her coat. She saw that he’d put his
own on and had his keys in his hands. He had a scarf draped around his neck.

“I was coming after you,” he said. The light from the hallway
shone down on his hair and brought out the angles of his face. He was truly a
very beautiful man and a part of her was angry at him just for being so damned
attractive to her. Life would be much easier if he weren’t. “You’re going to
need this.”

She nodded and reached out for her coat but he held it up for
her.

“Turn around,” he said. “I’ll help you.”

She did as he asked, sliding her arms into her coat. It had
been a long time since anyone had helped her with her coat and the little
gesture touched her. Made her remember the other caring things he’d done
tonight.

If he was playing her… He had to be playing her, didn’t he?

He lifted her hair from the back of her neck where it had
gotten trapped between her body and her coat.

“Damn,” he said under his breath.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just that I had a bet with myself that your hair
wouldn’t be as soft as it looks.”

“And?”

“It’s softer,” he said.

He dropped her hair and then turned and went back into his
apartment. All she could do was stand there feeling more confused and alone than
she had in a long, long time.

Four

P
eter Mullen was whipcord lean and had a
grin that made you want to smile back at him. He wasn’t overly tall but then he
was a race car driver. And the cockpits of those things weren’t made for
giants.

“Do you know what Deirdre just said to me?” Kat said, coming up
next to Willow where they’d set up their shot for the day. They were indoors at
a charity event for the Children’s Diabetes Foundation. Peter was a major
sponsor.

“What?”

“She said, ‘I still don’t get racing. I mean, they just drive
around the track. What’s the point?’”

“What did you say to her?”

“That I grew up in the South. You know all we have down there
is racing…go-carts, dirt bikes, you name it, guys race it,” she said with a
grin.

Willow had to laugh at Kat. The woman was five years younger
than her but they had the same sensibility. It was one of the reasons why Willow
had hired her. She’d been grooming Kat—well, mentoring her would be a better way
of putting it.

“You’re kidding me,” Willow said. It seemed as though Deidre
was determined to not make the match with Peter work. A part of Willow wondered
why she’d even gone to a matchmaker but she knew the other woman must have had a
good reason.

“Do you think I should go and explain it to her?” Willow asked.
She wasn’t too sure she could explain racing, having not really watched it
herself.

“No. I already gave her an iPad loaded with the information.
Told her if Peter could read all her columns the least she could do was
understand what he did for a living,” Kat said.

Uh-oh.
Kat had a way of shooting
from the hip sometimes. “Did you say it like that?”

“What, am I stupid?” Kat said. “Of course not. But I wanted to.
Why did she even go to a matchmaker?”

“I don’t know. I’ll go talk to her,” Willow said. She
understood being reluctant—after all, everybody had their share of battle scars
when it came to relationships and love. But Deidre had sought this out.

“Fine by me. I’ll go talk to Peter,” Kat said.

Willow had the feeling that Kat liked Peter more than just as a
friend. Every time they were together on set Kat was over there batting her
eyelashes and flirting with him. “He’s spoken for.”

“I know that,” the other woman said.

“Just make sure you remember it,” Willow said before walking
away. She had a radio on her belt and an earpiece in her ear so she could hear
whatever a craft or services person needed from her as they prepared to shoot
the episode.

Peter and Deidre were the last couple featured in this first
season of
Sexy & Single.
Willow just wanted them
to make a spectacular ending to her show so that advertisers would come back and
viewers would keep tuning in.

She walked into the large bathroom that they had commandeered
as a dressing room/greenroom for the day. Deidre was sitting in front of a bank
of mirrors alone. She seemed small and like someone who didn’t know everything
in that moment. Willow cleared her throat and as instantaneously as a switch
being thrown, Deidre changed.

Suddenly she looked like Ms. D, the advice columnist famous for
her tough love approach to problems. But Willow had seen the woman behind the
curtain and for the first time since Deidre had come on the show, Willow felt a
bit of sympathy toward her.

“Hello,” Willow said. “How’s it going?”

Deidre turned to face her, that clear gray gaze of hers cutting
past the niceties that Willow’s Texas mom had drilled into her. “I’m not going
to be difficult. I’ve spoken to Mona and to Jack. I know what you need from
me.”

Willow shook her head. “There is no one here but you and me,
Deidre. No audience listening in, no one who is going to judge you. Just another
woman who has had her own dating problems and I’m asking you woman-to-woman if
you’re okay.”

Deidre stared at her for a long minute and then she shook her
head. “I’m not sure what I expected from matchmaking…but I don’t like
Peter.”

“What don’t you like?” Willow said.

“He’s too…” She looked down at her lap where her hands were
clenched together.

“Too?”

“Too much. He makes me face things that I don’t want to. I
wanted a man who’d just be a companion, but he wants more.”

In that moment Willow totally understood Deidre. “I get it. Are
you attracted to him?”

“Yes. But I can’t figure out why. He’s so not the man I would
have picked for myself,” Deidre said.

“That’s probably precisely why. Mona has a way of seeing past
all the things that you think you want and finding someone who really can
complete you.”

“How do you know? Have you been to her?” Deidre asked, that
unflinching gray gaze of hers focused on Willow. It made her uncomfortable.

“No. But one of my best friends has. Gail Little was matched
with someone who she thought was her polar opposite but she was wrong. I’m not
saying it was easy for her, but you have to give Peter a chance. Give Mona a
chance.”

“I already said I would,” Deidre said. The fragility she’d been
exhibiting just a moment earlier was gone.

“You said it, but you are just going through the motions. You
have to really let Peter in or you won’t know if he’s right for you or not.”

“I know,” Deidre said. “You’re not saying anything to me that I
haven’t said to my own readers. But it’s easier to tell someone else to take a
chance than it is to take a chance myself. I just don’t know if I can do
it.”

“Nothing hurts worse than a broken heart,” Willow said,
speaking from that place herself. That was precisely why she was dithering when
it came to Jack. If she could believe he was a charming rogue she could do what
needed to be done—get her revenge and walk away. But he was so much more than
that.

“Exactly. And do you see the way he moves, the way he smiles…
I’m just so afraid that I’m going to fall for him as he speeds through my life
and on to the next adventure.”

Deidre had just summed up what Willow herself had felt the
other night at Jack’s. Of course, it was easier for Willow to encourage Deidre
to give Peter a chance to prove her wrong because as Deidre had said, giving
advice was so much easier than taking it.

“It’s just six dates,” Willow said. “Actually only five more
dates since you’ve already had your first one.”

Deidre gave her a smile that was so full of fear that Willow
wanted to give the other woman a hug. “Six dates is going to be just long enough
for me to fall in love with him.”

“You think so?”

She nodded. “That’s why I’m so afraid to keep doing this.”

“But you’re going to, right?”

“I have to. If I back out now I’m never going to take a chance
like this again,” she said, then gave a very wry laugh. “It’s Peter or no one
for me.”

“Why did you sign up for the matchmaking?” Willow asked. “Don’t
take this the wrong way but you don’t seem like you’re that open to sharing your
life.”

“That’s precisely why. Do you know how I spend most of my
days?”

“No.”

“Alone with my cats, doling out advice to people who…well,
people who are out there living their lives. I spent my summer vacation in an
old folks’ home with my great-aunt and took a look around me. That is the path I
am headed down if I don’t get out of this rut. No matter how much Peter scares
me I don’t want to be like Auntie Randi.”

Those words echoed in Willow’s head for the rest of the day.
She was hoping that she’d be able to tip the scales of heartbreak with Jack by
finding another man. But was she just fooling herself? Usually she didn’t think
about the future because she was grounded in the now and guided by the past. But
she had an image of herself in a home all alone and frankly that scared her even
more than risking herself with Jack.

* * *

“So am I getting an all-expenses-paid trip to the Red
Door Spa or what?” Nichole asked as she slid into the booth next to Willow. Gail
was already sliding in on the other side trapping her in the middle.

They were in a banquette booth at China Fun, a place that had
been recommended to Nichole by one of her coworkers at
America Today
.

“Not yet,” Willow said. “The food better be good here.”

“I know Chinese isn’t your favorite but I’ve been craving it
and Conner said he can’t do any more dim sum,” Nichole said, rubbing her
belly.

“You owe me,” Willow said.

“Me, too,” Gail said. “Russell wanted to tag along but since
Nichole had mentioned the bet, I made him stay home. I need details.”

The waiter saved Willow from having to spill just yet as he
came by to take their drink order. But as soon as he left, both women turned to
look at her, and she wanted to sink back into the cushions and disappear.

There was a reason why she produced and directed television
shows—she didn’t like having any attention directed at her. But these women were
her best buds. She needed to talk but just had no idea what to say.

“Jack isn’t a complete douche,” she said at last. She was a
little bit angry at herself for not being able to just hate him.

Gail, who had been taking a sip of water, laughed and almost
choked on it. “Oh, my God. Don’t do that when I’m drinking.”

“Sorry,” Willow said. And she was. Being a brat wasn’t her
usual mode of operation. It was just that after the long day on the set with
Deidre and Peter and the gloomy image she had of her future, she was unsure. And
she hated not knowing what to do.

“I just don’t know what to say,” she said at last.

“That was a great start,” Nichole said. “But we already knew
that—or at least I did. Have you talked to him much, Gail?”

“Not really—just when I was on the show. So you went to his
place, Will. What was it like?” Gail asked. Her friend wore her shoulder-length
hair down. She had on horn-rimmed glasses but her brilliant brown eyes were
still visible. Gail looked happy, which made Willow feel good because she’d had
a part in that by helping Gail get through a tough patch with Russell
Holloway.

“Comfortable. He had his housekeeper cook dinner for us,”
Willow said. She reran the night in her head. How was she going to explain that
kiss? If she wasn’t comfortable thinking about it how could she possibly talk
about it with her friends?

“Nice. What else?”

“He had a Beckendorf hanging on his wall…”

“Ah, see, it’s Fate. I’m glad I stopped you from chickening
out,” Nichole said, waving over the waiter. “Sorry, ladies, but I’m starving.
Can we order?”

Willow nodded. Anything that kept them from talking about her
date with Jack was preferable. How could it be Fate with Jack? Karma, she could
understand, but that was it. There was nothing truly remarkable about the fact
that they both supported a Texas artist.

Her iPhone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out to check
her messages. Usually it was a Twitter or Facebook alert but this time it was a
text message from Jack with a photo of himself under a billboard on the corner
of Sunset Boulevard. The ad was for
Sexy &
Single.
The message he’d typed said
Next stop: Emmy.

She laughed. He got it. Actually, he got her. He knew that for
her the show was the most important thing in her life.

“What is it?” Gail asked, leaning over her shoulder.

“That’s so cute,” Nichole said. “I’m going to the salon on your
dime.”

She shook her head. “You haven’t won yet. He’s charming and he
knows it.”

“Of course he does. My mom would have said God smiled on him
and she’d have been right. Are you going to text him back?” Gail said.

“Not while you two are staring over my shoulder,” Willow said.
She didn’t mind sharing things with her best friends but this thing with
Jack…well, she just really didn’t know how to handle it and she didn’t want
witnesses if she fell on her face.

“Fine. I have to go to the bathroom,” Nichole said. “Gail, come
with me so I don’t accidently fall.”

“This pregnancy thing is going to your head. You’re not a
princess, you know,” Gail said, grumbling as she slid out of the booth to follow
her friend.

“Yes, I am.”

The women kept up their friendly banter as they moved out of
earshot and Willow just stared down at her phone and that goofy picture of Jack.
He was smiling and making a thumbs-up sign. She’d never have the confidence to
send him a picture like that.

But then she shook her head. Why not? She had nothing to lose,
this was her chance to heal and move on. And Jack seemed to be open and honest
with her.

But that was the way he’d seemed all those years ago. Had she
really learned nothing from her heartbreak? Sure, he seemed fun and like a guy
she’d want to date, but that was his agenda. And hers was revenge. It didn’t
matter how “nice” he seemed, he hadn’t proven to her that he’d changed.

Even so, she picked up her wineglass and held out her cell
phone to snap a picture of herself. She typed in the message
Drinks are on me at the Emmy after
party if we make it.

She hit Send before she had second thoughts and then put her
phone back in her pocket. Jack was messing with her head and making her act
like…like she’d never had her heart broken. She supposed that was a good
thing.

She knew she’d let a lot of good men slip away over the years
because she’d been afraid to relax and be herself. With Jack…she should be
doubly wary, she thought.

“Did you send your message?” Gail asked as she sat back
down.

“Yes, where’s Nic?”

“Talking to Conner now. I needed… Don’t tell her but I’m having
a hard time with her being pregnant.”

Willow put her arm around Gail’s shoulders. Gail had wanted a
family of her own, which was the main reason why she’d gone to Matchmakers, Inc.
to find a husband. It had only been after she and Russell had started dating
that she’d learned he was sterile and couldn’t have kids.