Could This Be Love? (18 page)

Sijan had the nerve to look amused.

“It’s not like I want to hitch my wagon to your star either. I don’t even know if you can act.” Sijan crossed his arms over his chest. “While you were taking Hollywood by storm, I was finishing my BFA and performing Shakespeare. It’s possible you made it in Hollywood on your looks alone and can’t act your way out of a paper bag.”

“Holy crap, you’ve never seen one of Ariel’s movies?” Dirk asked before directing the conversation back to where he wanted it. “Sijan, I heard you’ve got two of Hollywood’s biggest directors on the line with two separate scripts. Why don’t we pick one of them and invite them in on the project?”

Avery shook her head. “No.” Her breath hitched and, oh, lord, was she wheezing again?

“Yeah, not going to happen,” Sijan said. “I got a few more details from Jerry. This will be an ultra-low budget Indie project, and I’ll be the director and producer.”

Dirk deflated on the spot. “No Spielberg? No hot script?”

“Nope. I’ve got a box of half-decent scripts in my study. Avery, since you seem to have invested so much effort into getting us all here, why don’t you read through them? Take your time. You pick.”

Avery would have snorted, but why waste precious oxygen? If he believed she would try to trick him into a pregnancy, then he’d certainly believe she was scheming enough to use him to jump-start her career.

“What? Hey—I’ve got as much at stake—”

“No, Ferris, you don’t.” Sijan’s gaze locked onto Dirk’s. “What you’ve got is a large female fan club because you look great on a thirty-by-seventy-foot screen. Your acting is shallow, and you’re a liability to other actors because you don’t give us enough to work off.”

“Fine. Lead me to them, please.” No way was Avery going to let Dirk pick the film project.

Sijan led Avery to his office in the front corner of the house. The masculine decor of dark wood and oversized leather furniture was offset by a large bay window that looked out over rolling pastures and farmland.

“It’s beautiful,” Avery said. “It looks like it goes on forever.”

Sijan reached into the corner closet and hefted a box off a shelf. “It’s about a hundred and fifty acres.” He placed the box on the floor next to the couch and stood back up to look out the window also. “There’s a livestock barn and a riding ring, a couple of buildings for equipment and storage. Maybe even a chicken coop or two. I’ll take you on a tour tomorrow if you’re actually interested and not just trying to change the subject.”

“It looks like an active farm.” Avery glanced at him, noticing the genuine smile on his face when he looked out at the land. She refused to let his good looks affect her. “Crops. I saw crops and I thought I heard a goat or two on the way in. How do you run it from Hollywood?”

“I don’t right now. I co-op it out to locals. A few of the nearby colleges have experiments going with minimal water crops, organic farming, and free-range chickens.” He shook his head, then turned back to the room. “Okay, here’s the box of screenplays. Have at ’em. Dirk and I are going to the gym at the back of the house, then the theater, which is above the gym. All set?”

“Yes. Thank you.” Avery watched him leave, then plopped down on the couch with a groan. How in the world was she going to live through working up close with this man and not have her heart broken? Her head kept reminding her how quick he had been to accuse her, but her body just wanted to wrap itself around Sijan Cates like plastic wrap on a side of beef.

She had to stop. She’d been through worse, right?
Focus on getting through this as fast as possible. Pick the shortest screenplay in the box with the shallowest script, and film it at light speed.
In fact, she could probably even find a short script with superfluous scenes just begging to be cut out. And with that goal in mind, she dug into the box, looking for the script that would produce the shortest, most boring film in the history of cinema.

Chapter Seventeen

S
ijan Cates was frustrated, and it had nothing to do with being forced into an acting project he knew he was going to hate. It had everything to do with the blonde living under his roof just a few rooms away. Her perfume lingered in every room she’d been in. A whisper-light scent of vanilla and roses, just enough to tease a man and leave him wanting more. No woman had ever affected him this way, and it was pissing him off that Avery was the very thing he was trying to get away from in Hollywood. The fact that he had fallen hard for her when she was scheming and using him from every angle she could think of stuck in his craw. And his gut and chest and . . . yeah, he felt it everywhere, damn her.

This morning, after his dose of caffeine, thanks to not sleeping well on account of that vanilla-rose scent invading his thoughts, he was taking Avery and Pia on a tour of the farm while they waited for Paxton to contact them. Paxton had called him late last night and let him know the contracts looked solid, but he was waiting for one more return phone call. Sijan would wait for the final confirmation before telling Avery. Not that he expected her to be disappointed. Every sign seemed to point to this having been her ultimate goal from the beginning.

If he could just keep his hands off her, he could make it through the next few weeks, and then write off this chapter of his life as a big fat-ass learning experience. He followed the scent of vanilla, roses, and . . . maple syrup out to his kitchen. Pia stood at the stove flipping pancakes while Avery sat on a stool at the kitchen island, eating like she was in a competition.

“Wow. Nice to see a woman eat for a change.”

“Just grab some pancakes from the stack and eat. You promised us a tour of your farm,” Avery said between bites of pancake and sips of coffee.

Okaaaay.
Pia turned and gave him a warning glance. Warning against what? She motioned her head toward Avery, followed by a quick shake of her head. Oh, right. Like he spoke the secret language of crazy women. He decided to eat pancakes, keep his head down, and play it safe.

“Hey, Avery, maybe the movie star has horses. Then you can ride to get rid of your stress.” Pia glanced over from the sink, where she was washing her hands.

“The movie star does not have horses,” Sijan said, digging in to his pancakes.

Avery kept eating without saying a thing. When she reached her fork out for another pancake on the platter, Pia leaned over and smacked it with a spatula.

“Stop before you make yourself sick, Av.”

“Too late.” Avery covered her mouth as she slid off the stool and hustled out of the kitchen.

Sijan raised his eyebrows at Pia, adding two more pancakes to his own plate.

“She has issues.” Pia shrugged. “But who doesn’t, right?”

He poured a stream of syrup onto his pancakes and dug in with the side of his fork. He was halfway through his stack when Avery returned to the kitchen looking a little paler than before.

“I don’t know how bulimics do it,” she said.

Sijan looked down at his plate and pushed it away. “Yeah, I’m done.”

Avery grimaced. “Sorry. But it’s time for the tour of your farm anyway.” She held her hand out. “I’ll drive.”

Pia shook her head frantically behind Avery.

“I don’t think so. I’ll drive. That way, you can get a good look at everything.” He pulled his keys off a set of small hooks next to the wall phone and ushered them out to his pickup truck in the garage.

Sijan opened both the back and front passenger doors for the women to get in the truck. Avery slid into the back while Pia grabbed the front seat. It seemed like a good move, until he got behind the steering wheel and saw Avery’s beautiful face in his rearview mirror.

“So, no horses,” Avery said looking around the fields as the truck rolled down the dirt lane. “I know I heard goats yesterday. What else do you have?”

“Chickens.”

“Oh, great. I love chickens. They can be so beautiful with the most gorgeous plumage. What else?”

Sijan shook his head. “Nothing else.”

Avery’s smile slipped off her face in the rearview mirror. She seemed to wilt. “Nothing else? No cows? No pigs? No cattle dogs?”

He shook his head again. “Nope.”

Avery looked out her side window; then her eyes met Sijan’s in the mirror. “Not even a barn cat?” she asked hopefully.

“No, sorry. I’m not here enough.” She looked so disappointed, he almost wished he had a petting zoo on site.

Pia glanced back at Avery, then over at Sijan. “Avery loves animals, and animals love her.”

In the back seat, Avery seemed to recover quickly. She shrugged and said, “Well, I like goats and chickens.”

“We just built a couple of barns.” Sijan pointed out the left window. “This one is for horses. The fencing will go up next. The other one is farther out and bigger. That will be for the cows and have a milking facility.” He slowed the truck down to a crawl so they could look at the brand-new dark red barn set on the gentle crest of a hill.

“Why did you build them if you don’t have animals?” Avery leaned across the back seat to peer out the other back window at the barn.

“I’m not going to be in Hollywood making movies forever. So I’m planning for the future.” Sijan glanced in the mirror, but quickly glanced away from the view of her stretched across the seat. The last time he’d seen her stretched out like that, he’d been on top of her. He shook his head to clear the image. “Besides, I had free labor. The local community college has a construction program. They designed the structures and built them. All I had to do was provide the materials.”

Pia leaned down to see out Sijan’s window. “It sounds like a good deal for the college and the students.”

Sijan shrugged. “Hell, the land was just sitting here. Someone may as well use it since I don’t have the time. A couple other schools have various experiments and projects going on. From farming and irrigation to solar energy and trials for new building materials.”

They passed a field of solar panels and a hydroponic greenhouse before arriving at the goats and chickens.

Avery laughed as she jumped down from the truck. “Can I go inside the fence?”

“Sure, but be careful. A few of the goats are known to take a nibble or two.”

“I’ll be careful,” Avery said over her shoulder, and let herself in the enclosure, making sure to close the gate behind her. She happily communed with the goats and chickens.

Pia and Sijan leaned their elbows against the outside of the fence and watched. “Huh, animals do like her. Did she grow up on a farm?”

“Not even close. She’s never had a pet.” Pia sighed. “It’s a little sad.”

“She’s an adult. Why can’t she get a pet now?” Sijan watched Avery let a goat nibble her nose while she cradled a chicken that actually looked happy cuddled up there. Had he ever noticed that chickens could look happy before?

“Her apartment doesn’t allow pets.” Pia backed up a step from the fence when one goat tried to investigate the two of them.

“You don’t share her affinity for animals?”

“I don’t mind them. The trouble is, they don’t share an affinity for me. I’ve been pecked, bitten, head-butted, snotted, spit, and peed on by more animals than I care to count.” Pia grimaced at the goat still trying to get to her through the fence.

Avery laughed and gently pushed away a goat trying to tear the pocket off her jeans. She looked so innocent and sweet. Sijan scowled watching her, knowing she was anything but innocent. The woman had reeled him in with her siren song while she’d lied and schemed like a pro. No, he wasn’t falling for this again. He walked to the gate and opened it a few feet. “Let’s go, Avery. Enough playing. The faster we start, the faster we finish. You’ll be as happy to get rid of me as I will you two.”

Avery’s face moved from happy sunshine to overcast sobriety in a blink. Sijan refused to feel guilty, like he’d just pulled the wings off a beautiful butterfly. It was a quiet ride back to the house.

***

Avery was antsy as they gathered in the study an hour later. She and Pia sat on the leather couch facing the bay window and rolling hills beyond. Dirk relaxed confidently in a wingback chair next to the unlit fireplace, and Sijan sat looking grim behind his large cherry-wood desk.

“Let’s hear it, Avery. What script did you pick? I hope you were thinking of me when you read through them and picked something with a juicy role I can bite into.” Dirk slapped the palms of his hands on the roll arms of the chair. “I am so psyched for this. This is going to be awesome for my career.”

Avery ignored Dirk, looking toward Sijan. “I would rather wait to hear from Paxton first. It’s a waste of our time—”

“He called a half hour ago. The contracts are legal, and while he thinks we could win if we contested to get out of them since none of us gave consent”—Sijan sat forward, leaning his elbows on the desk—“he doesn’t recommend it, as it could be tied up in court for years and cost more money than it’s worth.”

Avery shot a glance over at Pia, who shrugged and said, “Keep it short and sweet, Av. We’ll be back in Greensboro before you know it.”

“Yeah, there’s only one problem.” She’d been wrestling with this all night. This problem was partly to blame for her manic stress at breakfast this morning.

Dirk smirked. “You couldn’t find a role good enough to showcase my talent?”

“Do you have talent, Dirk? I confess I’ve never seen our film together. I never read any reviews after it came out.” Avery looked across at him.

“You never watched your own movie? Not even the dailies after each day of filming?” Sijan raised an eyebrow in her direction.

“Nope.”

“What?” Dirk looked outright stunned. “You never saw us act together?”

“Oh, I saw us act together, Dirk. Didn’t I, Pia?” Avery’s gaze pinned Dirk like an insect in a display case.

“You surely did. It was some acting job, ace.”

Sijan’s gaze glanced between Avery and Dirk. “Obviously, I’m missing something here, but let’s move on. What’s the problem, Avery?”

Avery reached over to the box of scripts and grabbed the one she had tucked on the side. She stood up and moved forward just enough to toss the script on Sijan’s desk. “This. This is the problem.”