Could This Be Love? (2 page)

“Mr. Johnson, how old is”—she looked down at the top sheet of paper in the stack—“Stanley?”

“He’s six months old. He just looks young because he’s a teacup pig.”

“There is no such thing as a teacup pig.” Avery stood up and walked the ten feet toward them, scooping up the trembling pig and soothing him with a gentle rub of his soft pink skin. “Only abused and starved potbelly pigs. Stanley will probably end up around two hundred or three hundred pounds. Just as an FYI, advertising has shied away from using pigs once the abuse was uncovered.”

“What? I just shelled out over a thousand bucks for him yesterday.” He wasn’t nearly as good looking with his nostrils flaring and eyes bulging. “What the hell am I going to do with a two-hundred-pound pig?”

She turned an arched look at Pia, before narrowing her eyes, her target back in her sights.

“If you sign a waiver relinquishing all ownership and responsibility for Stanley, we’ll find a rescue home for him. This micro-pig scam is cruel and costly. You’ll also need to write a check to cover his room and board.”

“I’d rather sell him to some other poor shmuck and get my money back.”

“It’s like you aren’t even listening.” Reminding herself it was wrong to hit people, she ran a hand down the pig’s back. “Huh, I think I can feel his spine and ribs. I wonder if we need to involve the police on animal cruelty charges.”

The gorgeous actor went pale under his perfect tan face. His eyes shifted from the pig to Avery. “I’ll sign the waiver. And write the check. I don’t know what kind of two-bit operation you’re running, but this feels like a scam right here.”

She didn’t have patience for people who mistreated animals on a good day. Today was not a good day. Today, she was Dirty Harry. She stepped toward the actor, well into his space. “You just got yourself on the watch list of the Alliance for Safe, Sanitary, Humane Animal Treatment, buddy.”

Pia pulled him by the sleeve over to the table. “You should sign your check and the waiver and get out, unless you’re trying to move up to the blackballed list.”

Mr. Johnson signed like he was racing a ticking bomb and left without even a backward glance for poor Stanley the pig. Aargh. Why did actors make her want to scream?

She stalked over to the table and sat down, petting the napping pig in her arms. This time, Stanley’s little warm body soothed her. “Sorry about that, everyone. Let’s take a five-minute break.”

“You totally made that last part up.” Pia grinned over at her. “You put him on the A.S.S.H.A.T. list. Nice.”

Stanley snuffled against the palm of her hand with his little piggy snout. “No. He did that all by himself, didn’t he, Stanley?”

“You did good, Av.” Pia picked the clipboard up from the table. “You doing okay? All we’ve got left are Wally the Wonder Dog, Mr. Sprinkles the dachshund, and Pudding Head the counting mule.”

Three hoof clicks sounded from the nearby stall.

“Thank you, Pudding Head! Yep, I’m good. Let’s wrap this up.” Avery settled Stanley in a small pile of straw nearby, and they got back to work. They processed the last three animals in less than thirty minutes and sent them on their way.

They probably hadn’t found the spokes-animal they were looking for, but they did have a few exciting prospects for new clients.

Pia relaxed back in her chair with a supermarket tabloid while Avery called the Hog Heaven Pig Sanctuary only a few hours away. During the call, Stanley woke up and began playing with the straw, tossing it the air with his snout so it rained down on his head. He turned himself into a little piggy scarecrow before running across the barn, the straw flying behind him.

She smiled as she ended the call. “One problem solved, one to go. We found a home for Stanley.”

“Awesome. If only finding your family were as easy.” Pia smacked the tabloid in her hand down onto the edge of the table. “A few years ago they wouldn’t leave you alone. Michelle called like clockwork every time your face was splashed across the tabloids.”

They both stared down at the tabloid in Pia’s hands.

“Pia, you’re a genius.”

“What? No. Avery, remember when you told me the next time you have a stupid idea, tell you?”

“Look, I know it’s crazy pants, but like you said, what options are left?”

“Agreed, but there are risks for you.”

“Pia, I was five when my parents died and it still hurts as if it happened yesterday. I don’t ever want to feel that pain again. Or that alone. Tansy and I may not be sisters by birth, but I’ve loved her since the day my foster parents brought me home—” Panic tightened its grip on her throat, choking off her sentence.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up. If Tansy were my sister, I’d be doing the same thing.” Pia sighed and sat back, the tabloid crinkling in her hands. “I’ll sit here quietly and read while you think of an idea.”

She understood why Pia worried. “I don’t have to out myself. I look different than I did five years ago. All I need is one photo. That’s it. No one will recognize me except my family. Michelle and Bob will see me, and they’ll call—”

“Just like they used to.” Pia frowned.

“That’s the plan. We’ll be able to see if any of Tansy’s siblings are a good donor match.” Avery sighed as the weight in her chest lightened, relieved to have a possible solution to her misplaced family. “All I need to do is get on the cover. You know, have my fifteen minutes of fame—”

“You had five years,” Pia said, without looking up from the tabloid. “Whoa, Sijan Cates is trying to hide from another scandal out in L.A. a few hours away. Such a naughty, naughty man.”

“I can’t have Elvis’s baby, and where are the alien abductors when you need them? Besides, it would take nine months to produce a three-headed alien baby anyway.” Avery drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “Wait. Who did you say is nearby?”

Holding up the front page of
The Tattler
for Avery to see, Pia pointed to a devilishly good-looking man, stabbing his rippled six-pack with her plum-painted nail. “That drool-worthy man right there. Sijan Cates.”

“Sigh-juhn Cates? Great! Who is he?”

Pia rolled her eyes. “Only the hottest movie actor for the last five years. In fact, I think he hit Hollywood just as we hightailed it out of there. He was up for the best actor Oscar last year,” Pia said. “You know, when you left Hollywood, you didn’t have to become anti-Hollywood.”

“Sure I did. Okay, I think I just became Sijan Cates’s number-one fan. I’m going to ride his coattails to my fifteen minutes of fame. You’ll have to come with me and point him out since I don’t think I could pick him out of a lineup if he has his shirt on.”

Pia looked up from ogling the front page of the tabloid. “Sorry, I got distracted. If you think I’d miss a chance to see you act again, you’re crazy.”

“With this plan, I might be certifiable. But it’s the only plan I’ve got.”

***

“All right, let me see if I have the latest scandal straight.”

Sijan Cates sat with his older brother in Dave’s Diner, a former passenger train car turned restaurant. There were two main entrances, one at each end of the car. Booths snaked around the front of the diner next to the front windows while a sit-down counter sat in front of a cramped but ruthlessly clean kitchen. Dave, the owner and cook, was known for his biscuits and homemade blackberry jam, and his burgers. That’s it. Ordering anything else on the menu was like playing Russian roulette with your stomach. But if you wanted biscuits and jam, a burger, or all the most up-to-date gossip, the diner was the place to eat.

“Hell, Ty, I came home to get a break from it.” He frowned across at his brother, but of course, it had no effect.

“It says here in
The Tattler
you got a sweet young thing pregnant and then dumped her.”

“I did not get a sweet young thing pregnant. I’ve never even met that sweet young thing. Hell, if I slept with even half the women the tabloids claim I do, I wouldn’t have time to get out of bed, let alone make movies.”

“According to them you’ve got a revolving door on your bedroom with a ‘Now Serving’ ticket machine attached to the wall next to it.”

Sijan leaned back as their waitress, Renee, slid steaming mugs of coffee in front of them both. “Renee, run away with me and save me from all this.”

“Sijan, if I weren’t having hot flashes, I’d be just another crazy woman trying to get a piece of you.” Renee tucked her serving tray under her arm and wagged a finger at him. “Now, your latest scandal’s got the Grapevine stirred up. I don’t think the Simon sisters can take the excitement.”

“Those ladies can handle anything. Besides, they’ve seen this before. Remember four years ago when an ex-girlfriend tried the same thing?”

“Thank goodness for DNA tests and poor math skills.” Tynan grinned. “She sure didn’t account for your six months of filming in Prague. You do attract the crazy.”

“It’s Hollywood.” Sijan’s muscles tensed at the memory. “Too many people can make money off you. I’m just an ‘opportunity.’ An opportunity to get a script read, a part in a movie, or free publicity.”

“Or generous child support payments for the next twenty years.”

“Hey, I’ve dated some nice, normal women. Once I learned to steer clear of actresses.”

Tynan nodded. “That would explain all those models, politician’s daughters, and savvy career women.”

He’d be the first to admit he’d enjoyed the benefits of his movie-star status over the years, but he’d always shied away from serious commitment like it was a box of rattlesnakes. Lately though, the serial dating felt . . . empty. Especially after coming home and seeing how happy his brother Quinn and his fiancée Delaney were. “I need a hiatus from women.”

“Bite your tongue. Life is a smorgasbord and you are too young to go on a diet. Seriously, Si, I joke, but this”—he rattled the tabloid before tossing it down in disgust—“just pisses me off.”

“Every job has its downside, right?” Sijan shrugged tense shoulders. He leaned back against the booth, consciously willing his muscles to relax. “I’ve decided I’m just going to lay low and focus on my work while the studio’s lawyers deal with that.”

“You decided?”

“Yup. About five seconds after the president of Majestic Studios called me into his office three days ago and explained loudly and in a few choice phrases that my next two films need to exceed box office predictions.”
Or else
.

“One year ago, this same man couldn’t wine and dine you fast enough after your Oscar nomination.” Tynan sat back, muttering a graphic although physically impossible suggestion for the president of Majestic Studios. “Fame sure is a fickle bitch.”

“Yep, but the cool kids still want to hang out with her. It’s her cousin, infamy, you have to avoid. She can tank box-office revenue. Between my last costar’s drug problem and the new tabloid fodder the lawyers are dealing with, my box office stands to take a big hit.”

Which was why he needed to put out some of these fires before his next movie was released in three months. Lying low in Climax for a few weeks would help. It would give him time to re-focus on plan B, something he’d been working on between films. He wasn’t planning to quit making movies yet, but he was taking this latest speed bump as a sign to get plan B ready.

“It’s time to get serious about plan B, which a lot of people are going to hate. Starting with Jerry.”

Jerry Vickers, his agent, walked through the door of the diner and slid onto the bench across from him just as Sijan arrived at this conclusion. Time to drop the reality bomb on Jerry.

“Sijan.” Jerry nodded. Tynan scooted into the middle of the U-shaped booth but maintained his territory with a narrow-eyed warning glance. “How have you managed to give me the runaround in this pokey little town?”

“Pokey? We prefer the word quaint. Did the studio send you out to babysit?”

“You might say that. They want this scandal to disappear pronto. With the premiere coming up and the PR ready to roll out, they don’t want to see your name in a single headline unless it’s because you saved a little old man with CPR or landed an airplane during a mid-flight emergency.”

“Got it.” Not that he had too much control over it. The tabloids had papers to sell, and his name sold papers. The more salacious the headline, the faster the papers flew off the stands.

Renee stopped by for Jerry’s drink order before rushing off to seat some newcomers.

Tynan speared Jerry with his locked and loaded gaze. “Everyone who knows Sijan knows that woman is lying through her bleached and capped teeth.”

Sijan sat back and enjoyed his coffee, happy to let Ty go to bat for him. Hell, no matter what happened, he knew he’d be able to count on his family. He and his brothers were close. You took on one, you took on all five. They had each other’s backs.

“He may sleep around, but he would never abandon his child.”

Sijan coughed on his swallow of coffee and grimaced. “Gee thanks, Ty. For the record, I only slept around my first few months in Hollywood when I was young and stupid. And even then I was always careful. And I never took advantage of sweet young things. Ever.”

“We know that, Sijan, but the studio wants to make sure the ticket-buying public knows that too. Just stay below the radar and we’ll all be happy.”

“Not a problem, since I’ve decided to hang out here in Climax for a while.”

“What? You can’t. I’ve scheduled meetings out in L.A. next week. We’ve got to make some decisions about your next couple of projects.”

Tynan leaned forward into Jerry’s space. “Actually, he can, Jerry.”

“Whoa. I forgot how much you and your brothers look alike.” Jerry stared back and forth between Sijan and Tynan. “Tynan, have you ever thought about act—”

“Hell no. That’s Sijan’s gig, although, looking at him, I’m not sure why he does it. Why do you, Si?”

Jerry all but sputtered. “What are you talking about? Look at him. Your brother is the hottest actor in Hollywood right now. He commands millions per film. Gets his pick of directors and actors to work with. He’s living the American dream, man.”

Renee slid Jerry’s soda on the table. “My American dream is full of big tippers from L.A. Just saying.” She turned a shining smile on Jerry before refilling the coffee cups and moving on.