B.C. watched this blonde, tall, mythical woman in the black dress who could dance like a Greek muse, stride away from the bar and he was sad to let her go.

“No!" Kevin ran after her.

B.C. once again couldn’t stop himself from watching them.

He saw her rip her hand away from Kevin as he reached for her arm.

Then, just like a movie playing before his eyes, he watched her fall apart and burst into sobs.

He thought of their grandmother they’d just buried and he thought of the passion in this woman. He even thought he shouldn’t be doing this as he tapped the security guy close to him and said, “Follow me, we’re going to make sure someone gets home okay.”

His security guys’ jobs were to stay sober. To take care of him. No wonder they looked a little puzzled. “You sure?”

“Yes.” He got to Kevin and the girl. “Hey, can I give her a ride?”

She was clutching at Kevin’s chest, her face buried into it.

Kevin hesitated.

“Let me help you.” B.C. said softly.

Kevin frowned, patting her back. “That’s a good idea.” Kevin looked at the security guy. “He’s driving, right?”

B.C. nodded.

Kevin nodded, too and turned to Kira. “Why don’t you go back to the ranch and settle in for the night. I’ll be done in about two hours."

Angrily, she pulled back from him, and B.C. was reminded the woman was clearly unstable at the moment. She was suddenly triumphant and a piece of clear physical beauty began to appear, rising up with her as she held her head high with fire in her eyes. "You’re sending me home with the Movie Star?” She glared at him. “No.” Then she turned to stalk off, but Kevin was on her heels.

It was funny she was mad about this. Did she not get the memo—he was a famous movie star?

Now the crowd was noticing him more and his other security guy closed in to provide protection. B.C. found himself following Kevin and this woman out the front door of the club.

Kevin was next to her, only a few steps from the street. "Please, Kira, please. Just get a ride home."

She stuck her chin in the air. “I’ll get an Uber.” She was typing on her phone.

B.C. felt a bit disappointed. For a second he thought of how his own grandmother always used to say when you swap another problem for your own it helps you feel better. Dang, he hadn’t thought about that for a long, long, time.

The dance club door opened and a guy yelled, “Kevin!”

Kevin held her wrist and she glared at him. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Yanking her hand free, she rushed away from him. “Oh, get lost, Kevin.”

B.C. could see the struggle on the guy’s face. He didn’t want to let his cousin go, but he had commitments.

So B.C. did the only thing he could think to do. “I’ll take care of it.”

Kevin turned to him, hesitating for a moment. “I don’t understand why you care so much.”

B.C. was put on the spot, so he told the truth. “Death sucks.” He threw his hands up. “I have a mother who needs help sometimes, I know how to deal with this. Believe me, this will be nothing.” Plus, it gave him purpose. He always liked the movies where he played a hero.

For a second B.C. didn’t know if Kevin would take the olive branch, but then he gave a firm nod. He looked at his hands. "Can I get your number?”

They exchanged information as a car with an Uber plaque drove up. B.C. saw her about to get into it. He took off. “I’ll text you.”

His security was on him, but he brushed them aside, even though he was pretty loaded, he was used to being loaded. Sticking out his foot just as she pulled the door shut. He felt a bit of pain go through him. “Guys, I’ll be back at the hotel by midnight."

There were protests from his guys, but he slipped in the car and waved them off.

The car took off and he heard her breathing hard. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

It was funny to him that here was this girl, in a clearly bad state of mind, putting out all the vibes to stay away. Yet, he was chasing her. How long had it been since he had chased a woman down?

He was used to being the one getting chased.

“Get out,” she said quietly.

His heart raced and he didn’t know what to do with the intensity of this woman.

“Look, it’s fine.”

“No, you look," she turned to him.

Their eyes met and he saw tears on her face.

She poked his chest hard. “I have no idea why you are in this car, but I really know I must be losing it if my cousin sent you here to take me home!” She blinked and more tears ran down her defiant face.

Grief.

He remembered being four and his mother taking him to the zoo and giving him an ice cream cone to explain to him that his father wasn’t coming back. Ever. It was funny that he would remember that at this moment. The way the strawberry ice cream ran down his hand, getting sticky, the way his mother’s tears ran down her face and she pulled him to her side, getting the ice cream in her hair and telling him they would be okay, somehow, they would make it.

He snapped back to the present. He looked around the town and saw the word Dixie illuminated up on the mountain.

He leaned forward, close to the driver and pointed toward the Dixie on the mountain . “Go there, please.”

“No, wait.” She turned to him looking confused.

The driver pulled over. “What are we doing?”

B.C. turned to her. The point was that she wasn’t in her own head at the moment, right? She still needed a distraction. Maybe he did, too. “I’ve never taken the tour of St. George. Is the Dixie sign like the Hollywood sign?”

A sardonic laugh came out of her. “Yeah, just like LA, I’m sure.”

“Can we go up there? Will you go with me?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

He shrugged. “Why not? Do you really want to go back already?”

She sighed, then waved a hand through the air. “Fine, driver, please take us up there.”

It took a few minutes for the driver to wind through the streets and B.C. found himself smelling her. He’d smelled traces during the dancing but now he thought she smelled like lavender or….

“Lilac.” She offered, still not looking at him.

“What?” Had she taken that thought out of his head?

They got to the top of the street, to a path. She turned to him. “Are we doing this?”

The intense way she asked him, like he would back out, made him even surer that they would do this. “We’re doing this.”

He got out and so did she. She thanked the Uber driver and he took off.

They both stood by a very unimpressive path that led to some switchback turns up to the illuminated rocks. For a second he looked at the heels she wore and wondered if she would bag it, but she started hiking up the rocks. “You coming, Movie Star?”

It was funny to him that this woman treated him nothing like any other woman ever had. “Yep.” He went after her. It wasn’t easy going. She picked her way across the boulder-like rocks and he found himself having to use his skills to keep pace.

They hiked up for a few moments. He thought of how bright the stars were here. In L.A. they always felt so far away. Tonight, he felt like he could reach up and touch them. He asked, “How did you know I was thinking about what you smelled like?”

She let out a light laugh and he looked up at her, standing on top of one of the rocks. The way the moonlight fell on her made her seem fragile and beautiful. Once again he marveled at her blonde hair, light and curled, her perfect makeup even though she’d been crying, the way she held herself like a royal queen. Her lean dancer body was graceful. She smirked at him. “Because you were mouth breathing and leaning close with your eyes closed so it’s that or you’re even weirder than I thought.”

He laughed, this time laughing like he really meant it. Actually, since he’d seen her face and the smile in that dance club, he’d felt freer than he’d felt in a long, long time. Was this the pill talking or was it real?

Their eyes held for a brief moment and she bent down and took her heels off, leaving them. She turned and pointed to the DIXIE rocks. “Let’s get up there.”

She went to one of the boulder rocks and picked her way to the top of the first “I” in Dixie.

He waited at the bottom for her to get to the top.

“You comin' or not?” She turned back, flashing that wicked smile at him.

He bounded to the top and both of them sat.

For a second, he could imagine they were in some kind of movie.

The town was brilliantly lit and he could see all the people on main street, like they were little toy people.

She pointed. “There’s the freeway that you take south to Moab.” She moved her hand. “There’s the Mormon Temple.”

It was all lit up and breath taking.

He hadn’t really noticed it before.

She pointed to the north. “There’s Snow Canyon. It’s a good hike during the day.”

He agreed with a quick flick of his head and wondered at this woman beside him. At the moment she was calm, almost tour guide-ish. He wondered what she would be like if he’d met her before her Nana had passed.

She pulled out her phone and clicked on a picture of a woman in a black and white photo, wearing some kind of prom dress, on the arm of a man.

He leaned over to get a better look, guessing it was her grandmother.

She sighed. “That’s Nana’s prom picture.” Her voice quieted and she zoomed the photo in, inspecting it. “She was so beautiful.” Her voice was melancholy.

He turned to her and studied her face, noticing the shimmer in her eyes.

“Are those butterflies on the dress?”

She let out a light laugh “Nana loved them. She’d loved them her whole life. Her logo for the ranch has butterflies on it.”

“She was beautiful like you.”

She glared at him and put the picture away. “Look, I’m not one of your Hollywood types, you don’t have to say things like that.”

He hesitated, clearly the manic girl was back.

“I mean it,” she said angrily.

“Oh, you mean the truth?” He said back a bit testily. He knew he was flirting and he liked it.

She waved him off. “Whatever.”

The view was breath taking. He liked sitting up here and he liked the fact he could see practically the whole valley. The warm, desert air felt absolutely amazing. When he’d gotten to this town this morning, it’d been sweltering heat. Currently, it had cooled off to a perfect temperature. “Dang, it’s nice up here,” he said.

“Even impressive enough for you?” she questioned.

He turned to see her shimmering eyes.

For a moment, neither of them spoke because he didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what this woman needed. Didn’t know if he could help her at all. She had him completely off balance. Beauty, brashness, she had a wildness about her. Sure, grief did those things to people, but there was more to her. He could feel it. “It’s impressive,” he said, not really meaning the view.

She grinned at him. “As good as Paris?”

Sucking in a breath, he looked out, thinking of standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower. “Different, but good.” He took a chance. “Do you really want to go to Paris?”

She grinned and it was brilliant. “Of course, I want to do Paris. Only I want to do the cliché Paris, in Springtime. That’s what I’ll do one day."

Unexpectedly, an image of both of them in Paris appeared in his mind, with her doing one of those cheesy selfie poses next to the Seine River. “After you finish Julliard?”

She glowered at him. “Do you really want to get in a fight?”

He put up his hands, not realizing it was a hot point. “Why is it a fight?”

She exhaled. “Because Nana was paying for Julliard.”

He got it. “And Nana’s gone now.”

She nodded. “It sounds so messy when it’s just about money, because with Nana, it wasn’t about money.”

Once again he wondered if she would cry. “School might not be an option now.”

For a moment, he didn’t know what to do, but he wanted to connect with her. Wanted to show her he understood what it was like to lose someone. "I may not understand your pain, but I lost my best friend on my second tour in Afghanistan.”

Jerking to look at him, she asked. “You served?”

He nodded.

She shook her head slowly. "I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Truthfully, I don’t know much about you.”

He didn’t know whether to be flattered or concerned. “I guess that’s ok.”

She let out a light laugh. “Oh, it’s okay you’re not the center of my universe? Well, that’s good.”

Once again, this woman was keeping him off kilter. He let out a joyless laugh. He guessed he did sound annoying.

She sighed. “Well, finish telling me. You can’t just start something like that and not tell me.”

Of course she would want to know. Why was he talking about something he hadn’t told anyone? He continued. “Troy and I were clearing a building together and he got hit. I dragged him back to base, but he died in my arms.” He shivered, thinking about it. Truthfully, he’d had nightmares about it way too much.

She turned to him. “You tried to save him.”

It unsettled him, the raw way she said it.

He shrugged. “I didn’t.”

She put her hand on his. “I’m sorry.”

This connection was the last thing he’d expected. This actually felt real. He thought of all the conversations he’d had with women lately that had felt more like a movie script than real life.

She pulled her hand back. “Tell me what you’re thinking right now.”

“What?” he asked.

She pointed at him. "There was a look on your face. A look like it wasn’t a cover up.”

“Cover up?”

She let out a breath. “You’re an actor. I am a dancer. I had a teacher who told us to put on a ‘jacket’ of the best dancer we could when we performed. So I guess I found it helpful to go into a character. To put on the best dancer I could think of. It made me think, how easy it would be for actors to always ‘wear a jacket.’”

“Hmmph.” He hadn’t thought of it like that, but she was right.

“So what were you thinking when your jacket slipped?"

He didn’t know how to explain, but he wanted to try. He actually liked sitting up here above St. George, in the middle of the night. Everything felt a bit fuzzy, yet perfectly clear. “I guess, I was thinking how I hadn’t had real conversations with women for a long time.”

She scoffed. “Not when you’re offering to buy them plane tickets.” She tsked her tongue. “Why would you do that?”

He felt like an idiot. Which was funny. Most of the time buying stuff for people worked like a charm. “I don’t know.”

“Because you’re typecast,” she offered.

“What?”

“In your role. As the bad boy that comes in and tears it up. The anti-hero. The jerk. You’ve taken it on.”

He blinked and tried to just live in the now. It was what his therapist said. “Okay, getting deep.”

“Or I guess you’re a typecast of just the hero too.”

He frowned.

“I’m not saying that I’m not typecast, too,” she said unexpectedly. "I think I’ve typecast myself with the bad boyfriend.” She let out a derisive laugh. “I’ve been with Spence a year. He came here and met Nana last Christmas and hated everything about Southern Utah. Hated everything about the ranch. Currently, he says he’s helping people in Africa build catfish ponds and he can’t come home….man, I’m rambling and pathetic,” she snapped. “I guess I’m that character in the movie. The pathetic one.”

This was interesting. Was she trying to be self-reflective? Because he sensed this wasn’t the time to press her about the bad boyfriend. Even though he wanted to. How he wanted to. “I’m sorry, again, about your Nana,” he said softly, not knowing what to say. “I don’t think you’re pathetic.”

For a moment, her face was completely still, then she turned back to him. “Thanks.”

Again, he liked that this whole thing felt real.

Letting out a long breath, Kira leaned back on her hands. “Nana, she was a dreamer. She…” Then her face turned into one big smile. So bright and brilliant and beautiful, he wished he could bottle it and keep it when he needed a shot of pure delight. “The past couple of years I’ve been a bit lost.” She let out a light laugh. “Nana thought Spence was part of that lost part of me.” She shrugged. “She didn’t like him.”

He found this even more interesting but he didn’t want to push it.

“Nana was always so grounded. She always told me to trust in God.”

His heart pounded inside his chest. Lately, when he was honest with himself he was looking for something to hold to. “Is that the answer?”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. My boyfriend doesn’t think it is.”

“Oh.” He’d been trying not to recall that small detail. “The boyfriend in Africa.”

She grunted and didn’t seem happy. She waved a hand into the air. “Nana believed in truth outside of anything. That’s how she proved the existence of God.” she said and waved another hand, “All of this, the Earth, the air, the stars, the sun exist outside of anyone’s belief.” Her voice sounded dreamy. “I guess I believe it, too.”

He turned to her and saw a tear running down her cheek.

Her simple faith touched him.

She turned to him. “Do you believe in God, after what you've seen in war?”

He hesitated. Wow, it had gone deep.

“You don’t have to answer.”

He found himself wanting to answer. “Sometimes I would tell myself there was a reason for it all, but if there was a reason, then why was there so much evil in the world?” It honestly just made me angry. Dang, he was telling this woman everything. He put a hand up. “Not to squelch what your Nana said.”

She shook her head. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Spence told me this morning, before the funeral when I was bawling my eyes out on the phone to him, that if we are really existentialists then there is no death, and nothing to be upset about.”

Instantly, B.C. wanted to sucker punch what he imagined would be the smug, fictional boyfriend. Well, fictional in his mind, boyfriend’s head off. “Spence’s an idiot.”

She let out a light laugh. “That’s what Kevin says.” She pointed toward the east. “Over there, that’s Zion National Park. She would take us to Zions hiking. I don’t know if you’ve been to Zions.”

The moonlight painted the landscape in silvers and shadows that he’d never seen before, but all he could think about was how much he hated this girl’s boyfriend. “No, but it sounds nice.”

“When the people settled this part of Utah, the Native Americans were here and they had all these legends about Zion.” She smiled. “Nana would take us on these hikes and teach us about the flowers and the botany. I swear, my grandmother had an herb for everything. She wasn't into New Agey stuff, she was legit; love the land, love the flowers and herbs, they love you back.”

She shook her head and he saw a tear wash down her face. “My parents were.... Well, my dad passed away. My mother ran off to Hollywood and never came back. My Nana was everything.” She put her hand into a fist. “I’m rambling. Sorry.”

“No.” He didn’t think she was rambling. “I like talking with you.”

For a few moments both of them were quiet.

She was looking out at the city. “Nana loved it here, but she pushed me to use my talent to go to Julliard and perform.”

“She sounds pretty amazing.”

She shook her head. “She was. Now it’s too late. I have to get home.” She turned on her stomach and started sliding off the boulder.

He didn’t want this ride to be over yet. “Wait, don’t go.”

She was already well on her way down. “If you’re going to see me home, you better pick up the pace.”

So he did what she said. He got off the boulder and went after her. Dang, she was fast in those heels.

He caught up to her and found himself walking down the switchback path.

Now that she didn’t seem as out of her mind, she was more determined.

He had to walk faster to catch her. “Are you okay?”

She grunted. “I’m fine. Probably better than you.” She turned her searing attention on him but kept hiking. “Why are you in St. George again?"

It was funny to him how many answers his publicist had prepped for him. Looking at property, searching for a vacation home, here to take in the sights. Nothing but the truth would do. “Drug rehab,” he offered plainly.

She immediately stopped.

Ramming right into her, he tried to stop the force of the hit and switched in front of her, holding on to her, so she didn’t fall over.

They twisted down the path a ways, but it was like dancing again. He braced them before they stumbled, glad he was so athletic and she was so graceful.

She’d held his arms as he’d taken her by the waist and braced both of them. When they stopped, they were both breathing hard.

They both burst out laughing.

It felt amazing.

“You’re pretty good on your feet,” she admitted.

The words didn’t have the angst behind them any longer.

He knew that this would be a great scene in a movie. It was as if he couldn’t stop himself, he leaned down and gently brushed his lips to hers. It wasn’t a needy kiss, or a gentle kiss, but more like a kiss of truth. He felt something he’d never felt. It was over too quickly when she shoved him hard in the chest.

She put her hand to her mouth and blinked. “What was that?”

He was honestly flabbergasted. “I’m sorry.”

For a moment, she looked completely confused. “I don't even know you!”

How did he feel like he knew her? “I’m sorry,” he repeated.

She was already hiking down the mountain again. “I have a boyfriend.”

“Who’s a jerk,” he added.

She glared at him. “Shut up!”

All of these feelings were buzzing inside of him. “I’m sorry," he mumbled for the third time, even though he wasn’t.

She yanked out her phone as they got to the little dirt road and he saw her ping an Uber.

They waited.

Now, instead of feeling the peace he’d felt earlier as they stared down at the lit up city of St. George, he felt like he’d just blown what could have been the best thing in his life.

She turned and glared at him. “You don’t get to kiss people you don’t know. I don’t know who you are."

A black sedan pulled up. He reached out and opened the door for her.

She gave him another glare, then got in.

He rushed around, getting in the other side, thinking this night had taken a whole different path than he ever could have imagined.

She gave the guy directions to the dance club.

“No, I told your cousin I would see you home." He protested.

She ignored him and the sedan wound back through town.

When they arrived at the club, she shook her head and looked like the air had all been deflated out of her. “Please. Just get out. I…” she turned away. “On top of everything else in my life, now I have to explain to my boyfriend why I just kissed a movie star.”