Calling All the Shots (6 page)

PJ was finally settling down to live the good life. He’d just
gotten married to a television actress and Jack wanted to believe his friend
could have it all. He wanted to believe that he could have it all, too, but this
incident made him realize that no one was guaranteed anything.

There could be no more slow and gentle wooing of Willow. Time
might not be on his side. An accident could end things at any moment and every
opportunity that he’d missed would turn to regret.

* * *

Willow tried not to think about her latest conversation
with Jack and did a pretty good job of ignoring it until she got home and
climbed into bed just before midnight. She knew it was her own fault for putting
that stupid frog prince on her nightstand. And then, because she knew no one
else would ever know, she’d kissed it.

She’d closed her eyes and imagined the frog turning into
Jack—and she’d wanted that so much that she knew she’d crossed a line. It was
one thing to let this new thing with Jack “heal” the wounded part of her soul;
it was something else entirely to fall for him.

That wasn’t part of the plan. Not now, not ever. Jack wasn’t
the man for her and she didn’t want him to be. She needed a guy who stayed at
home and worked a normal job so she could be the star in their relationship. But
she wasn’t looking for that with Jack. She was looking for revenge. Why, oh, why
couldn’t she remember that?

She turned on her side and then realized she wasn’t going to be
able to sleep. Not right now. So she got up and went to her big iMac computer
and opened the file the editor from
Sexy &
Single
had sent her. Work had been the one thing that had saved her
from being lonely and scared. And there had been plenty of times when it would
have been too easy to be overwhelmed by those emotions.

Even though Gail and Nichole had always lived nearby, the three
of them were all very busy with their careers. And Willow had kept a part of
herself locked away. She knew that Jack had wounded something inside of her all
those years ago but it was a part of herself that she didn’t like to admit she
had.

Deidre and Peter made good television, Willow thought as she
watched the rough edit. Both were used to being in charge and both wanted
something from the other. And despite the fear that Deidre had admitted to
Willow when they were alone, she was flirty with Peter and kept him on his
toes.

What Willow saw on the screen was the kind of honest emotion
that viewers latched onto. It was the kind of thing that Willow herself liked to
see because when she watched Deidre taking a risk with her heart, Willow could
live vicariously through her.

Disgusted with herself and her thoughts she pushed away from
her desk and went to the kitchen to make herself a cup of Sleepytime Tea. Maybe
that would help her calm down enough to get some rest.

But she doubted it. She could say it was work or whatever other
excuse she wanted to make but the truth was she wanted Jack to be back on the
East Coast so she could see him. She wanted to go to him and confront him about
the past so she’d know easily if she could trust him now.

The teakettle whistled and she poured the water over her tea
letting the scent of it fill the air in her kitchen. She took her cup to the
couch and sat down in her favorite corner and turned on the TV. She pulled the
afghan her grandmother had knitted for her when she was born around her
shoulders and turned on
Hollywood Today,
instantly
noticing the flashing breaking news graphic.

She turned up the volume and leaned forward.
Accident on the beach set of
Extreme Careers
today. We only know that Jack Crown and PJ Montaine were
surfing and one of them didn’t make it back to shore. We are going to be
live from Cedars-Sinai with the latest.

Willow stood up so quickly that she burned herself with the tea
as it sloshed over the edge of her cup. Cursing, she ran to her bedroom to grab
her phone from her beside table. She was cold with fear as she called Jack’s
number.

Had he been hurt? Was he even now being rushed to the emergency
room? His phone rang and rang as she went back to the living room to watch as
Hollywood Today
cut to the outside of the
hospital.

The call went to Jack’s voice mail and Willow didn’t know what
else to do. She was scared that Jack might be hurt. Why did it matter? Just a
second ago she was debating—stop it, she thought. She’d been lying to herself
from the beginning. She liked Jack and she wanted him to be that prince in
frog’s clothing for her.

She dialed Nichole’s number but hung up before it could ring.
Was she really going to get her pregnant friend out of bed in the middle of the
night to check the AP wire? She could do that herself. Willow got on her
computer and was typing Jack’s name into the search engine when her phone
rang.

She glanced at the ID just in time to see it was him.

“Jack? Oh. My. God. Are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine. PJ is in a coma, though,” Jack said.

“I’m sorry, Jack. I…” She couldn’t think of anything else to
say except, “I’m so glad you are okay.
Hollywood
Today
didn’t say who was hurt. I was so afraid it was you.”

“It wasn’t,” he said.

“Thank God,” she said. “Do they think PJ will pull
through?”

“They’re not sure,” Jack said, his voice breaking. “I’ve known
PJ forever. He’s a friend, Willow.”

She should have realized that—most of the people that Jack had
on his show were his friends. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m shook up, but fine. He was attacked by a shark. I’ve never
seen anything like it,” Jack said.

“What can I do?” Willow asked. Jack sounded not scared exactly
but definitely shaky, and she wanted to help him if she could.

“Just hearing your voice is helping. Why did you call? I
thought after our earlier conversation, well, that maybe things were going to be
different between us.”

“You thought wrong,” she said. She wasn’t going to deny there
was still a lot about Jack she didn’t trust but she could no longer pretend that
he didn’t matter to her.

Six

J
ack got off the plane at JFK Airport,
donned his dark sunglasses and walked quickly through the throngs of people with
his head down. He was tired, worried about PJ and wanted to see Willow. But
after their last conversation he hadn’t wanted to ask her for anything.

He already felt too vulnerable where she was concerned. And
with everything that was going through his mind right now, he knew better than
to reach out to her. He’d do something stupid that he’d regret later.

Though Willow had made jokes about his fans, he did have them,
and there were times like today when he was exhausted from traveling and
worrying about one of his friends, that he didn’t want to be “seen.” He made it
out of the airport and was looking for the car he’d hired when he heard someone
calling his name.

He bit back a curse and then recognized the voice. He wouldn’t
have thought it possible but there was Willow Stead, standing a few feet from
him wearing jeans and a leather jacket and looking like the total badass she
could be when she put her mind to it.

“Well, hello, gorgeous,” he said in his best sexy voice. She’d
surprised him and he couldn’t remember the last time anyone had done that. He
was so damned happy to see her it was all he could do not to reach out and lift
her off her feet while he hugged her.

“Hello yourself. I figured you might appreciate a friendly face
when you landed,” she said. “I called your agent and got your flight
number.”

“I do,” he said, shifting his overnight bag from one shoulder
to the other.

“Great,” she said. “You look tired.”

“I am. I just want to get someplace where I can crash,” he
said.

“Then follow me.”

He did, pulling out his cell phone to text the car company he’d
arranged to meet him and tell them he didn’t need a ride. He followed Willow to
the parking garage and a restored 1979 MGB with a ragtop. It wasn’t the car he
expected her to drive. He hadn’t even expected her to have a car because she
lived in New York.

The November air was chilly after the warmer Los Angeles
weather, but he welcomed it because the cold air meant he was back on the same
coast as Willow and he’d missed her. She opened the trunk and he tossed his
carry-on bag inside, then closed the hood and turned toward her.

“Don’t take this as anything more than comfort,” she said,
wrapping her arms around him and hugging him. “I’m sorry about what happened to
your friend.”

He held her close and lowered his head to breath in the fresh
scent of her hair. Since PJ’s accident something had changed between them.

“Thank you,” he said.

“How’s he doing?” she asked, tipping her head up and looking at
him.

“Still in a coma,” Jack said, stepping back away from her. He
didn’t want to talk about PJ. Right now he was putting that entire situation in
the darkest recesses of his mind. He didn’t want to let Willow know that he’d
been plagued with what-ifs, second-guessing himself and his response time to his
friend.

She let her arms fall to her sides. “Good flight?”

He nodded as she walked around her car and opened the
driver’s-side door. She leaned over to unlock his door and he got in the
car.

It was small and a tight fit. She glanced at him and he tried
not to look scrunched up. But he had to crouch a little to keep his head from
hitting the roof. He messed around with the seat until he got the back adjusted
and he could sit up straight.

“I didn’t think about how big you are,” she said.

“Didn’t you?” he asked with a wicked grin. Because he was
tired, she’d hugged him and he wanted her. Finally something to distract him
from the shark attack and PJ’s coma.

She blushed and shook her head at him. “I knew it was all about
sex with you.”

“Not all,” he reminded her. “Maybe you should give me another
kiss and see if I turn into a prince.”

She smiled over at him and he knew that she wanted him,
too.

“What if it makes you more froggy?”

“That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

“Of course you are,” she said with a wink. “I’m the one who’s
kissing a frog.”

He laughed at that. “Damn, I missed you.”

“Me, too,” she said. “I tried not to but on the set it wasn’t
the same without your big ego there to demand attention from everyone.”

“Glad I’m unforgettable,” he said.

“You can be,” she admitted. “Now tell me more about everything
with PJ. What happened? On the TV they just said shark attack.”

He didn’t really know where to begin. “Um…we were surfing and a
shark attacked PJ. I was close to him, close enough to be the first responder. I
hit the shark in the eyes and somehow we got PJ free.”

“Are you okay?”

“You know I am. I just did what I needed to and tried to save
PJ. I wonder if I could have done something better.”

“No. I’m sure you did everything you could,” she said.

He shrugged and looked out the window. He had no idea if there
was more he could have done. He just didn’t know.

“So you said he’s in a coma?”

“Yes, he lost a lot of blood and they had to amputate his leg,”
Jack said. “But he’s getting better. He responded to Rhia’s voice as soon as she
got to the hospital and went in to talk to him.”

“That’s good. So you know PJ well.” she said.

“Yes. He was one of the first guys I met on the West Coast. We
had the same sports agent.”

“I’m sorry this happened,” she said.

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” he said.

“Okay. Will you have to go back to shoot another episode?”

“No. I told the producers to find me someone on the East Coast.
I’m doing a Thanksgiving Day special for one of the networks and since there are
only two more weeks until then, I want to stay put,” he said. He looked over at
her as she drove out of the airport and negotiated the traffic toward the city.
“Plus there is someone I’d like to spend a little more time with.”

“I’m glad,” she said. “Do you have anywhere you need to
be?”

“Not right away,” he said. “Why?”

“Want to have brunch with me?”

“I’d love to,” he said. He knew that all this agreeableness
couldn’t last—it just wasn’t in Willow’s nature—but he was enjoying it for right
now. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but why are you being so nice to me?”

She stopped for traffic and glanced over at him, raising one
eyebrow. “Am I usually not nice?”

“Ah, of course you are. Just not to me.”

She shrugged as the cars started moving again and turned her
attention to driving. “When I didn’t know if you were okay I had an epiphany of
sorts.”

“And that was?” he asked after he realized she wasn’t going to
say anything else.

“It was just this feeling in my gut that I might have really
missed out on something special by not getting to know you,” she said.

He reached over and squeezed her shoulder, but didn’t say
anything. What could he really say? He felt the same way but he had no idea
where this was going. And seeing how quickly fate could change a man’s
life…well, being reminded of how easily the plans he made could be altered by
one event had brought home to him that he might have no more time with Willow
than these remaining weeks on
Sexy & Single.

And he really didn’t want to waste a single one of them. He
still planned to woo her and win her, but now the timetable felt even more
compacted because he had been reminded that life wasn’t guaranteed to be long.
It could all end tomorrow and he didn’t want his last thoughts to be regrets of
what could have been with Willow.

He didn’t pay much attention to their route, just watched
Willow as she drove in the dappled morning November sun. It was clear today and
seemed even colder when she pulled to a stop in front of a brownstone in
Brooklyn.

“Where are we?”

“My place,” she said. “I’m returning the favor and cooking you
a meal.”

He followed her inside and took her up on the offer of a shower
while she cooked. He looked around her place as he walked through it to the
guest room. He didn’t want to assign too much significance to her bringing him
here but a part of him felt like it meant a lot.

* * *

Willow had done a lot of soul searching the past week
while Jack had been away and admitted to herself that revenge was no longer the
only reason she wanted to spend time with Jack. She’d also been forced to
acknowledge that for some reason Jack was important and that was it. Until she
figured out what it was she had to learn from him she’d keep him close.

She glanced at the picture of her mama on the side of the
fridge. It was her favorite picture of her mother, taken just minutes after
Willow had been born. It was the happiest expression that Willow had ever seen
on her mom’s face.

She kept that picture where she could see it while she was
cooking to remind herself of her mother’s path. The one she didn’t want to walk
down. Her mother had been morbidly obese, and there were times when Willow had
felt like drowning herself in food the way her mother had. She knew that it was
the loneliness and doubt left behind when her father had abandoned them.

She heard the water of the shower stop and tried unsuccessfully
not to imagine Jack naked. It wasn’t too difficult to picture the rock-hard
muscles that she’d felt when she’d hugged him, naked with water sliding down
over his skin. She shuddered as a bolt of pure desire shot through her.

She reached for the eggs to crack them into the bowl so she
could start making a frittata but really she was focused on a naked Jack in her
guest room. She wanted him. That had always been a big part of why she’d liked
him even back in high school.

She’d seldom met any other man who affected her the way he did.
Even watching him on TV had turned her on. She used to pretend that the feelings
coursing through her body were anger, but the truth was there was nothing wrong
with her that a few hours in the sack couldn’t cure.

“What’s for breakfast?” Jack asked.

She turned around and saw he’d put on a pair of faded jeans,
and a long-sleeved black T-shirt that fit him just right. His hair was still
damp and tousled, stubble still covered his lower jaw and his feet were bare. He
looked comfortable and sexy.

“Frittata,” she said. “It’s easier than an omelet for me. Is
that okay?”

“Of course it is. My mom used to say beggars can’t be
choosers,” he said, coming closer and leaning back against the countertop right
next to her.

She could smell the fresh scent of her own soap on his skin and
it smelled…delicious, she thought. She closed her eyes for a second and just
breathed deeper.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Of course, when aren’t I?”

“The other night…you sounded like you almost cared,” he said.
“I’m trying to be careful and not let it go to my head.”

“I bet. You can’t afford for your ego to get much bigger.”

“Ah, there it is, the Willow I know,” he said, and she could
see the tiniest bit of disappointment in his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I don’t like it when I’m forced to admit I
care.”

“Wow, that’s honest. No one likes it because it leaves us
vulnerable. But we all feel it.”

“Do we?” she asked. “That ego is pretty big if you feel like
you can speak for… Who are you speaking for? Just you and me or the entire
world?”

He laughed. “God, woman, you definitely keep me humble.”

She gave him a mock salute. “I try.”

“Seriously, what changed?”

She concentrated on getting everything into the frying pan and
ignored his question but Jack stood there like he had eternity and he’d happily
wait forever for her answer.

“I…I need some closure with you,” she said at last.

“You mentioned something I’d done in high school,” he said.

“Yes,” she said. All the ingredients were together cooking.
There was nothing for her to do but wait for it to set. She started cleaning up
the kitchen.

Jack came up behind her and put his hands over hers, taking the
dishes from her and placing them in the sink. He held her hands loosely in his
as he turned her to face him. “Tell me. I’m sorry I don’t remember anything bad
happening between us. Just you helping me with English so I’d pass.”

She took a deep breath. What was she going to say? How could
she word this so that she didn’t reveal too much? It was like he’d said a few
moments ago—she didn’t want to be vulnerable. Not to him.

“I have to watch the frittata or it will burn. Let’s talk over
breakfast, okay?” she asked.

He nodded. “I noticed the wine charms unopened on the counter.
Didn’t you like them?”

“Yes,” she said. “But work has been keeping me pretty busy.
Just haven’t had time to use them yet, but I will on Monday.”

“What happens on Monday?” he asked, crossing his arms over his
chest.

“Girls’ night,” she said. The frittata had set so she shifted
to the broiler to finish cooking.

“Nichole and Gail are your girls, right?”

“Yes. Do you remember them from high school?” she asked.

“No. We ran in different circles,” he said. “Was that part of
the problem between us?”

“Sort of. Let me set the table and we can eat.”

“I’ll help,” he said. “What can I do?”

“Want to make the coffee?” she suggested, pointing to her
Keurig machine and the mugs sitting next to it.

“Certainly.”

Within a few minutes she had their food on the table and was
sitting right across from him but she didn’t feel like eating and it didn’t take
a rocket scientist to realize that Jack didn’t, either. He took a sip of his
coffee and put his elbows on the table, leaning forward to take one of her
hands.

“What’d I do back then?” he asked. “We can’t move forward until
we take care of that.”

“Do you really want to move forward with me?” she asked.