Chapter 6
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“No, Rubik’s Cube,” Shayne used the nickname that she’d had for Ruby since their days waiting tables as she stood, feet wide apart, blocking the door of their rented cabin. “You are not going to lunch.”
“Yes, I a—,” a yawn claimed Ruby before she could even finish her insistence.
“You can’t finish a sentence. You need to take a nap.”
Determination flared in her friend’s eyes. “I’m fine.”
“No you’re not. You’re exhausted and it’s not just you anymore. Think of the baby.” Shayne used the one thing that she knew would make her friend concede.
Ruby’s shoulders dropped. “This last trimester is kicking my ass. I thought this was when I was supposed to have all this energy! But I feel worse than ever. This whole pregnancy has been so much worse than people said it would be,” she complained as she dragged herself to the large couch and flopped down. Her eyes were closed as she continued, “I was sick as a dog my first trimester. My second trimester I had nose bleeds, my teeth got lose, and I got cankles. My third trimester I was supposed to have energy and great skin. I can barely keep my eyes open, and I woke up this morning with two new zits.”
Shayne covered her friend up with a throw blanket, making sure to pull it all the way to Ruby’s chin. “You are beautiful and just think, it’s all going to be worth it because you’re gonna have a little baby when this is done.”
“You’re the best substitute baby daddy a girl could ask for,” Ruby sing-songed as she snuggled into the couch under the blanket.
The real baby daddy, Ty, was in Australia working on a film as a first AD. The parents-to-be had met when he was working as a PA on Mindy Reader. He’d be back home around the time that Red Card Warning wrapped and the two of them would probably stick close to home until the baby arrived. Shayne was happy that she’d be able to keep an eye on Ruby while her other half was halfway around the world.
“I’ll bring you home some soup.” Soup was the only thing that her friend had wanted to eat for the past few months. It didn’t matter what kind. Chicken, Tomato, Minestrone, or Pea. If it was soup, Ruby devoured it.
At the suggestion, Ruby scrunched her face. It was the look that she gave when food did not sound good to her. “Fries. I need salty, greasy french fries. And a brownie. I want chocolate.”
Shayne couldn’t help but grin at her friend’s request.
When the pregnancy had started, Ruby had had grandiose visions of eating only vegetables, fruits, nuts, and beans. Shayne had tried to warn her friend that she shouldn’t put those kinds of expectations on herself. She’d told her it was great to try to eat as healthy as possible but that she should listen to her body. Ruby had dismissed her warning and declared that she would tell her body what it wanted.
“Okay, I’ll bring you salty, greasy french fries and a chocolate brownie.”
Eyelids still closed, Ruby lifted her hands and gave her two thumbs up.
A warmth filled Shayne’s chest. If only everyone were that easy to please.
She’d almost made it to the front door when she heard Ruby’s sleepy voice. “Make sure to ask Deanna if her cousin is single.”
Shayne froze at the mention of the tall, dark, and sexy one. Ruby had already been asleep when Shayne got back to the cabin last night after meeting with Kyle to discuss the movie, so they hadn’t done their ritual rundown of first impressions that was tradition whenever they arrived on location. She had no idea what her friend thought of Evan or their interaction with him.
“You planning on one last hoorah before JP puts a ring on it?” Shayne teased as she turned around and saw that her friend’s eyes were still shut tight.
“Yep.” Ruby yawned once more. “And after I’m done with him, he’s all yours.”
“Mine?” Just the thought of that caused Shayne’s heart to skip a beat.
“Pffft!” Ruby let out a huff of breath. “There were so many sparks flying between you and the Brawny man, I was shocked you two didn’t set off the sprinkler system.”
So, it hadn’t been in her head. That was good to know. Since Shayne hadn’t been able to read Evan, she’d wondered if she’d been projecting. But if Ruby saw something between them, then…
“The Brawny man?” Shayne smirked.
Shayne vaguely remembered those ads. Mostly she just had a hazy impression of a rugged, mountain man in a red plaid shirt. Although Evan hadn’t been wearing plaid, he did fit the rest of the description. He was rugged. He lived in the mountains. And he was all man.
“Yeah, remember those paper towel commercials?” Ruby sighed dreamily. “I had the biggest crush on the Brawny man. He was just so manly and capable. That’s what Evan reminds me of. Like he could handle anything, and he’s way hotter than the guy in the commercials,” her friend’s voice was starting to wane as she began to drift off to sleep.
“Get some rest, little mama,” Shayne instructed quietly as she slipped out the door.
When she clicked the lock in place with her key and pulled it out as softly as she could, she turned on the porch and inhaled the crisp, fresh air. She and Ruby had planned on walking to the café and even though she was now flying solo, she didn’t see any reason to change plans.
Typically, she didn’t go out alone. Some of that was due to the crowds she could attract. But mostly it was because she’d spent so much of her childhood alone that now she just liked being around people. At least certain people. Well, mainly just Nolan and Ruby.
But, sometimes it was good to mix things up.
During her short walk to the restaurant, she allowed herself to stop and smell the…well, not roses, but fresh, pine-scented air. So much of her life was go, go, go that it was rare to have moments of free time.
So she cherished moments like these. Quiet moments of reflection. She used them to clear her brain and reset herself. Kind of like a mental reboot. Sometimes she would even envision her thoughts as writings on a whiteboard, and she’d wipe them off with a dry board eraser. Today, however, she didn’t want to erase her thoughts. Because instead of them being about her crazy schedule, or lines she needed to memorize, or a pesky five pounds she couldn’t get rid of, or an unflattering story that was circulating the internet, all of her thoughts were focused on one thing. Or should she say, one person.
The Brawny man.
She’d gladly daydream about his milk chocolate stare, thick lashes, strong jaw, broad shoulders, and large hands anytime. The hands really got her. The massive size of his fingers as they wrapped around her made her feel safe and protected. The heat that radiated from his palms as he cradled her hand in his warmed her from the inside out. The feeling of the roughened pads at the base of his fingers as her hand slid out of his caused a shock of bliss to erupt in her core.
She fisted her own hands now as she remembered the sensation of his rough skin rubbing against hers. A light tingle skittered across her palms at the memory. The brain was such a mysterious thing to her. Evan hadn’t touched her in over twelve hours, but her brain tricked her body into believing it was seconds ago.
All night, every time she’d closed her eyes, visions of him would populate her head. She’d hear the low rumble of his voice. She’d see the depth of his soul in his whiskey-colored gaze. She’d tremble beneath the power of his arousing touch.
Shaking her head, she turned the corner onto Main Street and wondered, if this was what being attracted to someone was like, then what would having sex with him be?
Every guy that she’d been with, she’d felt like she was playing a role. She’d faked her way through things. Acted like she enjoyed it because…well, mainly because she hadn’t wanted to be different.
When she was younger, she’d never wanted anyone to know how ambivalent she felt toward intimacy. She’d spent most of her life not belonging. Not fitting in. She just wanted to be normal. Or what she thought was normal, anyway. So she’d pretended that she was into it. And she was a good actress. But, the truth was, she never felt anything.
It’s not that sex was horrible. It was that she’d just never felt anything. Not good or bad. They were neutral. She’d once joked to Nolan that she’d gotten more satisfaction from pressing the skip ad button on YouTube videos than she’d ever experienced during sex. She was kidding. Sort of.
She’d convinced herself that that part of her, her passion, her sensuality, her sex drive just didn’t exist. Never in her life had she wondered what someone’s lips touching hers would feel like. She’d never fantasized about what someone’s hands running down her body would feel like. She’d never spent a minute, much less hours, envisioning what someone would look like naked and what it would feel like to be naked in front of someone.
But after meeting Evan, all she was doing was wondering, fantasizing, and obsessing about those very things.
She was so wrapped up in her adult daydreams that she didn’t even notice as she almost plowed into an older woman as she exited a shop.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Shayne apologized. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
The woman looked up, and the interest that bloomed in her dark brown eyes caused Shayne to think that she must’ve recognized her.
The woman’s brow creased, and she spoke with genuine concern. “Are you okay, sweetie? Your cheeks are flushed.”
“Yes, I’m just…” Aroused, I think… “I think it’s just the altitude.”
“That’ll do it if you’re not used to it. Make sure to drink plenty of water while you’re here. Don’t want to get dehydrated.”
“I will. Thank you…”
“Rosalie,” the woman offered.
“Thank you, Rosalie. I’m Shayne. Nice to meet you.”
“You too, hon.”
An obnoxiously loud sound came from the woman’s purse, and she mumbled something about hating her ringtone as she scuttled off to her car, but not before patting Shayne’s cheeks and telling her that she was a “nice girl.”
As Shayne continued down the street she felt the same sense of comfort that Evan’s strong hands had provided. Safety. Protection. Those were not things that she’d ever felt with strangers and certainly not in public. After spending less than twenty-four hours in Hope Falls, she’d experienced them twice. Both with strangers and both in public.
And she had a feeling that the longer she was here, the more that would happen. Everyone she’d met last night was friendly and inclusive. And she could tell that it had nothing to do with the fact that she was an actress. It had been refreshing, and she knew already that she’d miss this place when she returned to Los Angeles.
The bright yellow and white striped awning of Sue Ann’s Café caught Shayne’s eye. It was at the end of the block on the corner. She passed several adorable mom and pop shops on her way, including an old-fashioned ice cream parlor named Two Scoops.
When she pushed open the glass door to the café, a bell rang above her head. The interior of the restaurant was just as quaint as the town itself. The walls were decorated with black and white pictures of the town and boasted at least a dozen round, wooden tables surrounded by bistro style chairs.
Shayne heard her name, and she turned and saw a woman waving her over.
As she approached the table, she was blown away by how incredibly beautiful the woman was. “Deanna?”
“That’s me!” The gorgeous brunette confirmed as she extended her hand.
Shayne shook her hand. “Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me.”
“Are you kidding me? Of course.”
Deanna sat back down, and Shayne’s rear had barely touched the seat before a rosy-cheeked woman wearing a long, floral skirt and a comfy-looking cardigan appeared beside them. “Hello, you must be the Shayne Fox that everyone is twittering about.”
“Twittering?” Shayne’s eyes bounced between the woman and Deanna.
“There were some people live tweeting from the Town Hall meeting last night,” Deanna explained.
“Oh no, I wasn’t talking about that nonsense. I was talking about all the chirping that’s been going around about you coming to town,” the woman clarified cheerily.
“Oh.” Both Deanna and Shayne smiled. “Well, yes it’s me either way. Hi, I’m Shayne.”
“Sue Ann Perkins, nice to meet you.”
“Oh, Sue Ann, it’s so nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about your amazing pot roast.”
Pride radiated from Sue Ann at the compliment. “It does have quite the reputation. Is that what you’d like?”
“It’s tempting, but I think I’ll save that for when I come back for dinner. Do you have any lunch specials?”
Sue Ann listed the specials and they all made Shayne’s mouth water.
“Let me have the chicken avocado sandwich on rye bread. An iced tea. And I need to place a to-go order for a side of fries, a brownie, and your soup of the day.” Soup may not have sounded good to Ruby when Shayne suggested it, but she thought having some on hand, just in case, would be a good idea.
Sue Ann nodded. “Okay, I’ll be right back with your tea.”
When she walked away, Deanna and Shayne fell into a comfortable conversation, as if they’d been friends for years instead of minutes. Sue Ann returned with their lunches and the conversation turned toward firefighting. As they ate Shayne took mental notes as Deanna detailed what her day to day life was as a firefighter. She talked about some of the discrimination she’d faced and what it was like to work and succeed in such a male-dominated field.
“I think it helped that I grew up with four male cousins. I even lived with them three months out of every year. I stayed at my aunt and uncle’s house every summer.”
Shayne’s brain was stuck on the first tidbit Deanna had disclosed. There were four of them?!
“And my cousins never treated me differently. If I wanted to go bike riding or skateboarding, I had to keep up, or I got left in the dust. Whether I was playing basketball or video games with them, I had to compete at their level. They didn’t give me a handicap for being a girl. The only reason I got left out of was because of my age, not gender.
“I think that’s why I’m closest to my two youngest cousins. We were lumped together because of our ages. It’s kind of funny that all three of us ended up being firefighters and settling down in Hope Falls.”
Anticipation tingled through her. This was the perfect opening to ask about Evan, but she wasn’t sure how to smoothly do so. It was so strange for her to feel out of her depth while talking to someone. She’d never been at a loss for how to steer a conversation.
“I met one of your cousins last night.”
“You did?” Deanna swirled her straw in her tea. “Which one?”
“Evan.” Hearing herself say his name out loud sent a flutter of nerves scurrying through her.
This attraction thing was so much more powerful than she’d ever guessed it would be. It made more sense to her now that people did such crazy things in the name of “love.” If this was what lust was like, love must be devastating.
Deanna took a deep breath. “Okay, first off, Evan’s bark is much worse than his bite. And yesterday was not a great day for him so if he seemed—”
“He seemed amazing!” Shayne heard herself blurt out in his defense with way too much enthusiasm and instantly did a mental facepalm.
“Oh.” Chestnut hair fell over Deanna’s shoulders as she flinched back slightly in surprise. “Did he?”
“Yes.” Shayne’s mind was racing trying to come up with a reason to back up her complimentary outburst. “He agreed to work on the film with Kyle.”
Sure, that’s why he was amazing.
“I heard about that.” Deanna’s lips curled into a knowing smile. “And I was wondering what changed his mind, but after meeting you, I think I have a pretty good idea now.”
Shayne was going to ask what she meant when Sue Ann reappeared with the to-go order.
By the time she left the café,—fries, brownie, and soup in hand—she felt like she may have found a new friend in Deanna, but she still didn’t have the information that she’d wanted to get about Evan.
She did know that he’d had a bad day yesterday and that he had three brothers. And she had a suspicion that his cousin believed that Shayne might’ve been part of the reason that Evan changed his mind about working on the movie.
All in all, it was a very productive lunch.