Chapter Six
“You did what?” Sophie’s publicist, Eileen, practically barked at her over the phone line.
“I asked him to join me at that benefit ball in Dallas tonight.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Sure I can,” Sophie said, working to sound reasonable. “You’re the one who said I needed something to take the attention of my breakup with Niall. This will be perfect.”
“Sophie. Honey. Sweetheart. Darling. You cannot take some hick off a farm and toss him into the spotlight. He will end up doing something horrendous, and it will all be worse than it was before. Trust me.”
“It’s not like that.” She glanced around to make sure Zeke was still out on the front porch, talking to someone else on his cell phone. “He is not a hick. Or any other terrible thing you want to call him.”
Eileen’s hoarse laughter grated in Sophie’s ear. “Have you seen the pictures yet? They are all over the Internet, and he looks like the terrified newbie he is.”
Dammit. Sophie had half expected the pictures to go out immediately, but she had hoped for a little more time to prep Zeke for what to expect. Well, they had the rest of the afternoon—assuming she didn’t have to go back in and try to film after that on-set debacle this morning.
“I’m taking him with me tonight, and that’s final.”
Eileen sighed. “Fine. It’s your funeral. You remember how dating someone outside the industry turned out for Julia Ro—”
“I’m not her,” and Sophie interrupted. “And it’s not even a real date. I explained that. He’s clear on it.”
“Are you clear about it?”
“Yes.” Her response was brusque—she didn’t want to examine her answer to that question too closely. “I’ll check in with you tonight. Send me anything important in the meantime.”
“You’re the boss,” Eileen said as she hung up.
But they both knew she didn’t mean it.
* * *
“So we’re definitely not filming again today?” she asked Milo’s assistant, Penny.
“Nope. We have to move up our timeline on some of the paperwork for the new filming site, but we should be able to do the rest of the downtown scenes tomorrow,” Penny replied. “You’re free until tomorrow morning.”
Perfect.
As she waited for Zeke to finish his conversation outside, Sophie finally took a sip of the sweet tea that Zeke had brought her. Making a face, she stared down into it. How could anyone drink anything with that much sugar in it? It was terrible.
Setting the glass on the end table, she gazed around the small living room, continuing the examination she’d begun earlier—though this time without quite so much touching. She hadn’t been able to verbalize it earlier, but something about this Texas cabin made her think of her grandmother’s home in Oregon.
On the surface, the two homes had very little in common. Different materials, different types of wood had been used in their construction and their flooring. The decorations were very different. Her grandmother had been prone to doilies and delicate antiques. Although there were clearly some antiques in here, as well, they were heavy, built to withstand a tougher life and the rougher touch of a cowboy.
Something about that thought made her shiver as she glanced back out the door, taking in everything she could about Zeke. She already knew that he was much stronger than even his tall, broad-shouldered physique would suggest. He had picked her up and carried her at a full clip out of that restaurant without getting even the slightest bit winded. Sophie knew some so-called action stars who would’ve been able to manage it.
“No,” she suddenly heard him say. “It’s not a date. I’m only going so I can help her out of a … situation.”
She forced her attention back onto the house, worried that he might find her staring at him.
No, the house reminded her of her grandmother’s home because of how it felt.
Peaceful.
Like the sort of place you might come home to when it was time to rest.
Even the view out the large glass window, so very different from the forests of the northwest she’d grown up with, reminded her somehow of her childhood. Standing, she moved across the room and rested the tips of her fingernails lightly against the glass. She stared out across the view. It seemed to go on forever—open fields of grass just beginning to turn golden in the early September afternoon. Giant, round bales of hay dotted those fields.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Zeke said from behind her, startling Sophie so that she jumped and squeaked.
Zeke reached out to steady her, his hand brushing against her arm a tiny bit. A flash of electricity shot up through her shoulder and into the back of her neck sending chills all over her body. Sophie had to fight to keep from showing her reaction.
“It’s stunning,” she admitted, talking almost as much about her reaction to him as the view, though she would never tell him as much.
“That view is why I chose this house.” He glanced around the small living room. “Tor offered me one of the newer houses. Or I could’ve lived in the main bunkhouse—there won’t be anyone living in it over the winter, once he lets the seasonal help go. I wouldn’t have minded staying up there with the rest of the guys, but this view? It called to me.”
Sophie fixated on one word in that sentence. “Tor? Tor Edwards? The billionaire who tried to block us from filming in Necessity?”
Zeke laughed. “Yeah, but we voted him down. Tor’s a good guy—he really was trying to do what he thought was best for Necessity. Talked a lot about the kind of damage that a film crew could do to a town.” He looked thoughtful. “Of course, given what happened at The Chargrill today, I guess he wasn’t wrong.”
As Sophie narrowed her eyes at him, he spoke over any objection she might have. “Anyway, he’s who I called for help. I don’t have anything that might come close to being formalwear, so Tor is going to let me borrow something of his. We’ re supposed to go up to the big house. He’s going to have one of the guys drive you back to your hotel, too, if that’s okay with you. I could meet you there.”
She nodded distractedly. Other than a few actors, none of the billionaires Sophie had met in her time in Hollywood would be able to trade clothes with someone who had a physique like Zeke’s.
This I have to see.