Chapter Four
Apparently, when the building exploded, the perimeter barriers meant nothing to news reporters and photographers.
After one wide-eyed glance into flashing light bulbs, Sophie turned her face into the pretty cowboy’s neck. Only then did she realizes she had wrapped her arms around him at some point and was clinging to him as if for life.
“Get me out of here,” she muttered into his shoulder. “Please.”
The photographers had gotten too close because the security guards took the disruption in the restaurant as an opportunity to abandon their posts. Sophie was going to have to have a talk with the security company.
She felt rather than saw the cowboy—she really was going to have to learn his name after this—glance around, as if getting his bearings. Then he struck out straight through the crowd of photographers, elbowing them out of his way.
They crowded around him, pressing against Sophie and yelling questions at her.
Rather than taking the standard Hollywood tack of covering his face and ducking through the crowd, this cowboy stopped dead in his tracks.
“Every last one of you needs to take three giant goddamned steps back.” His voice boomed from his chest, startling Sophie so badly she jumped and was afraid he might drop her, but his arm stayed steady and he held her as gently as if she were something delicate. Breakable. Precious.
Apparently, his bellow startled the reporters, too, because although they did not take three giant steps backward, they did freeze just long enough for him to break free of their little cluster.
Without hesitating, he strode away from them.
“Anyone comes up alongside us on the left, you just go ahead and kick the shit out of them,” he suggested, surprising a laugh out of her. She raised her head long enough to glance up at him and discovered he was grinning a lopsided smile.
Seconds later, he slid up beside a slightly battered pickup truck. He opened the door without having to stop and unlock it—one of the benefits of a small town, maybe?—allowing him to slide Sophie in past the steering wheel and into the passenger side of the long bench seat. Swinging in beside her, he started the truck, put it into gear, and swung out onto the street.
Sophie glanced into the side view mirror just long enough to get a glimpse of the reporters running after the truck and snapping photos.
“Some of them are bound to follow us,” she said.
The slight grin that had been covering his face for a while now broke into open laughter. “Sweetheart, there ain’t a soul alive knows the back roads around Necessity better than I do. If anyone tries to follow us, we’ll lose them.”
Sophie hesitated but finally spoke. “You know, they could probably track down who you are from your license plate registration if they really want to.”
He nodded. “Doesn’t matter. They won’t be able to get onto the ranch.”
A ranch. She glanced down at the old-fashioned dress she’d been wearing to film.
At least I’m dressed for it.
They drove in silence for the few minutes required to drive all the way out of town—less than a mile. Before they got to the interstate, several miles out of town, Sophie asked, “What’s your name? I don’t want to have to call you hey you! for the rest of the week.”
He perked up at that, and she wondered why.
But he didn’t answer immediately, either.
“Unless, of course, you don’t want me to call you your name at any point.”
A deep red blush flashed across his face, and Sophie fought down a grin.
He’s shy.
Although she sometimes had fans get tongue-tied around her, she found it especially charming in this gorgeous cowboy who’d jumped in to save her.
Oh, he’s absolutely precious.
“Zeke,” he finally managed to force out. “Zeke MacAllan.”
“Nice to meet you, Zeke.” She stuck out her hand to shake his and laughed merrily when his attempt to reciprocate caused the truck to swerve.
“So, Zeke,” she said, watching the way her use of his name made that blush surge forward before receding again, “where are you taking me?”
He actually almost stuttered for a moment before he managed to say, “I have a cabin out on a ranch. Everyone in town knows where I live, but it’s on private land—reporters shouldn’t be able to bother you there.”
The longer he talked, the less anxious he seemed. Sophie was glad—she wanted to be able to actually speak to him, especially if she was going to be hiding out in his cabin for some unspecified amount of time.
And yet, she couldn’t seem to stop teasing him, either.
“You’re whisking me away to an undisclosed location? The reporters should love that.”
He whipped around to look at her, his eyes huge, then dragged his attention back to the road. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. Maybe we should go somewhere else. Is there someone you want to call? Where would you like to go?”
She almost felt bad about worrying him. He was clearly a sweet guy, and everything he had done so far had been kind. “No,” she assured him. “I think the idea of some time completely free of reporters sounds lovely. Even if it’s only for an afternoon.”
Zeke breathed a sigh of relief, and Sophie promised herself to quit teasing the poor man.
Truthfully, a respite from all the media attention she had been getting seemed like an excellent plan. Filming would almost certainly be put on hold while they scouted a new location—or at the very least, they would need to move on to different scenes. She hadn’t even looked at the schedule lately. She knew that they had plans to spend several weeks in this town—what was it called? Something about … wants? desires? needs?
Necessity. That was it.
They were supposed to be in Necessity for at least two weeks, and with Milo, that meant more like a month. The place had no decent hotels, and the cast and crew had taken over some chain motel near the freeway. The staff had signed nondisclosure agreements, but she didn’t think they would hold up.
Maybe something like this would be a better idea. Hide out somewhere really secluded. Somewhere no one could actually get to.
Within moments, they turned onto an unpaved road, jouncing along for a mile or so before pulling up in front of a gate. Zeke hopped out of the truck, leaving it running, and got out to unlock the gate and swing it open.
By the time the truck had bounced across the cattle guard and Zeke had gotten out again to close the gate behind them, Sophie had come up with a plan.
If she had her way, Zeke MacAllan was about to go on a date.
A very public date.