Extreme Bachelor (29 page)

Next to Leah, Trudy gasped. Leah was
shocked, too—Nicole was so tiny that she was hardly even there. Not
in particularly great shape, but tiny nonetheless.

Nicole apparently thought
the same thing, because she said, “
Me
? I’m the smallest one out here!
Why doesn’t
she
have to lose any weight?” she cried, pointing directly at
Leah.

Leah instantly looked down; Trudy gasped
again.

“Because she’s nobody. You’re the star,
Nicole, and you need to drop a few L.B.’s, or it’s going to look
like we’ve got Attila the Hun lumbering through these scenes.”

“Shut up, Harold,” Nicole said, and flounced
off.

“Her ass
is
looking a little
large,” Trudy whispered.

But Leah was mortified. “What does that make
me? How huge am I?”

“Not to worry, hon,” Trudy said confidently.
“You probably won’t have that much time on screen anyway.”

Talk about going from bad to worse. By the
time lunch rolled around, Leah was really in a foul mood. She
begged off lunch with Trudy, Jamie, and Michele, who were intent on
shopping for rafting clothes. “What are rafting clothes?” Leah
asked.

Trudy’s mouth dropped open. “Are you
kidding? Cute little bathing suit tops and shorts.”

“And don’t forget the sandals,” Michele
added. “I am definitely getting some of those new all-terrain
sandals. You can run in them, too.”

Right, like Michele was ever going to run
after they wrapped this film.

“Thanks, but I’m going to pass,” Leah said.
“I don’t know if they carry size jumbo where you’re going. And
besides, Jumbo is really hungry.”

“Don’t do that to yourself,” Trudy said,
shoving her psychedelic sunglasses on her face. “You’re beautiful!
But maybe just a salad,” she suggested.

“Come on you guys,” Jamie cried. “We’ve got
to be back in an hour and a half, and the outdoor gear store is
across town.”

Leah watched them run across the parking lot
to Jamie’s car, then made her way to the commissary, where she
intended to have a salad of lettuce, period.

Later she was sitting at a table near the
back, her lettuce leaves consumed and leaving her wanting more,
reading a novel she’d started months ago, when someone jostled her
table by falling into a seat across from her.

Leah glanced up; a smile instantly curved
her lips. “Hi, Adolfo.”

“Mi
amor
, my heart is warm now that I see
you,” Adolfo said, and took her hand, brought it to his lips, and
with his gaze on her eyes, he kissed her knuckles
lovingly.

Leah laughed and tugged her hand free. “So
what are you up to, today, Adolfo? Trolling the commissary tent
looking for women?”

“Women! I have no need of
women!” he said dramatically with an incongruent wink. “It is only
you I wish to see,
mi
amor
. Only you who fills my dreams with
smiles,” he said, his hands doing a flowery little flitter. “Only
you with the nectar that lures me to you.”

“Nice,” she said, nodding. “Your lines are
getting better all the time.”

“Gracias
,” he said, inclining his
head in acknowledgment of her compliment. “I do it all for
you.”

Leah snorted, resumed reading.

“You don’t believe me?” He looked wounded.
“Look, then, look what I have brought for you.” He pulled a brown
paper bag from his back pocket, removed a small picture frame,
spread the bag flat, and placed the picture on it, turning it so
Leah could see it.

She leaned over to look and blinked with
surprise. It was a picture of her. She recognized the setting—she
was wearing camouflage, and it was the day they had been fitted.
She was standing with someone else, who had been cropped from the
picture, and she was laughing. Her eyes were crinkled, her mouth
open as she laughed. She had to admit; it was an appealing
picture.

“Adolfo!” She picked up the picture. “How in
the world did you manage this?”

“How!” he scoffed,
throwing his arms wide. “I am in the lighting,
mi amor
. My friends, they are the
photographers, of course.”

“You mean the camera guys?” she asked. “I
haven’t seen any of the crew yet.”

“They come one day for the pictures that
will appear in the papers and television.”

“And you had them take a picture of me?” she
asked, looking at him skeptically.

Adolfo smiled.
“
No
. I will be
liar if I tell you this. I choose this from many pictures they
take.”

She still looked at him skeptically, but his
smile just deepened, and he lifted his shoulders, palms up. “You do
not trust me?”

“No,” she said with a laugh, but looked at
the picture again. “This is really great, Adolfo. A little memento
of the movie. It was really very sweet of you.”

“For you, sweetheart, I do it. You must have
this wonderful picture of you.”

“Thank you.”

“So now you will come to dinner with me,
no?”

Leah laughed at his tenacity. “Maybe
someday.”

“Someday. When is this someday?” Adolfo
whined, looking exceedingly charming nonetheless. “Is it this man
again?”

“What man?” she asked coyly.

“The man, the man,” he
blustered, gesturing impatiently. “The bastard who does not deserve
you. The bastard who makes your heart sad.
This
man.”

“Oh.
That
man.”

“Si
,
si
, that
man.”

“Well . . .” she picked up
the picture again and admired it. “It seems he gets around a lot.”
She peeked up at him. “He dates a lot of women.” Adolfo lifted a
dark brow. “A
lot
,” Leah added emphatically.

“Ah,” Adolfo said, and nodded. “I know this
man. Let me tell you something. This man will promise you many
things, but he will never give himself completely to you. Do you
understand?”

“Better than you know.”

“There, you see? I am the man for you. When
will you have the dinner with me?”

“Maybe when we get back from
Washington.”

“As long as that!” he
exclaimed, but then softened, took her hand in his once more and
kissed her knuckles. “I shall wait,
mi
amor
, I shall wait as long as you will
torture me with this hope,” he said, and let go of her hand, smiled
very sexily.

For some reason, the way he said it, the way
his brown eyes seemed to sparkle through when he smiled, made her
toes curl a little. She laughed a little, slipped the picture into
the bag, and picked up her backpack. “Thanks again. And now, I have
to go. See you, Adolfo,” she said. She stood up, gave him a little
wave with her free hand, and walked out of the commissary tent,
almost colliding with a pole because she was too giddy to see
it.

WHEN Michael showed up to work that morning,
he looked at the package on the passenger seat and debated. This
was stupid—he should have just left well enough alone instead of
rifling through the little box that contained mementos from the few
highlights of his life—a mathlete badge from the eighth grade, a
Valentine’s Day card a teacher had once given him. A cork from a
rare bottle of wine he had shared with a European prince. A pair of
panties he couldn’t remember the specifics about anymore, but he
figured it had to be good because he had kept them.

And a couple of other things, like Leah’s
phone number scrawled on a cocktail napkin, a playbill from one of
the first plays he ever saw her in, before she even knew he
existed. It was that stupid playbill he’d taken and had engraved
and framed. The original playbill was yellowed with age and stained
by a glass of wine he’d had with his date the night he’d seen
Leah’s play, a woman whose name he could no longer remember.

But that had been Leah’s first Broadway
play, and she’d been spectacular. He’d heard about it from the guy
who had introduced him to Leah at a party, and he’d been so
intrigued he’d taken his date to see Leah’s play. His date never
knew he was looking at Leah, that he was admiring her every move on
stage. Even then he’d known there was something different about
her. To think he’d contributed to ending such a bright and
promising career filled him with grief.

And now—in light of what had happened
between them in the last week, it seemed like a stupid
extravagance. The day he had taken the playbill to the engraver, he
thought they had a chance. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

So he left the package in the trunk of his
car, unwilling to bare his heart just to have her reject it. And he
stayed in the office most of the day, working on the last-minute
details before they moved the operation to Washington for
filming.

At the end of the day, after the rehearsals
and meetings had ended, the T.A. guys were all in the office
finishing up when the door burst open and Marnie Banks, Eli’s
girlfriend, came barreling through. Her arms were full of wet gear,
which she dumped on the floor between them before putting her hands
to her hips and glaring at Eli. “Is that it? Because this gopher
has a wedding to work this weekend and no time to be running all
over town doing T.A.’s bidding.”

Eli grinned, got up from his chair,
sauntered over to Marnie, planted a big kiss on her lips, and said,
“Thanks, baby.”

Marnie instantly softened. “You’re welcome,”
she said with a pretty smile, and cozied up to Eli, returning his
kiss with one that prompted Cooper to tell them to get a room.

Marnie stepped back and surveyed the office.
“This place is a pigsty,” she announced cheerfully. “And who needs
the wet suits, anyway? It’s the hottest summer on record.”

“Tamara,” Jack said with a weary sigh. “That
chick carries more aggravation in one hundred pounds than all the
women I’ve ever dated rolled up together.”

“All the women
you
ever dated? Who’s
that, your prom date and this new girl Lindsey?”

Jack glared at Eli. “Thanks. Thanks a lot,
Eli. Why don’t you just borrow a bullhorn from the director and
announce it to the entire cast?”

“What makes you think I haven’t?” Eli asked
stoically.

“Everyone knows it anyway, Jack,” Marnie
said with an airy flick of her wrist. “But what’s this about
Tamara? I thought Eli said the women were really working together
as a team.”

“They are,” Eli confirmed. “They’ve really
come around, and I think we’ve got a group of women that could
really kick some ass. I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t think
that was possible when we started this gig.”

“You and me both,” Jack snorted. “I’ve never
had a worse crew to train in my life. Remember? There was all the
talking and the phones and whining. Jesus, it was torture.”

“Yep,” Cooper said, leaning back and putting
his hands behind his head, “we’ve definitely whipped this group
into shape. Those women have probably never been in better shape in
their lives.”

“And they owe it all to you guys, huh?”
Marnie asked, hands on hips. “TA has once again improved the lives
of dozens just by showing up to work.”

“Hey. We did get them in shape,” Jack
protested.

“They’re professional actresses, Hercules.
They are trained to adopt the persona of the roles they are going
to play.”

Before anyone could argue, Marnie whirled
around to Michael, who immediately tried to look busy to avoid her
gaze. There was one thing a person quickly learned about Marnie—if
you got on her radar screen, it was hard to get off.

As if to prove his point, Marnie marched the
two steps she needed to reach his side. “So, Romeo,” she said,
tapping his shoulder. “How’s it going?”

“Great, Marnie. Great,” he said, and tried
to turn around to his computer, but Marnie plunked herself down on
the desk, blocking his view of the screen.

“Really? You don’t look so great. You look
sort of grumpy.”

Somewhere behind him, someone snickered.

“Okay,” he said, smiling up at Marnie.
“Someone around here has a big mouth. Based on what transpired
earlier, I’m going to guess Eli,” he said, slanting the cowboy a
look. “But you don’t need to worry about me, sweetheart. I’ve got
it all under control,” he said, and gave her a wink.

“Oh really? Well, then, I’ll leave you
alone. I won’t tell you that she just stomped past the window here
and didn’t even look to see if you were inside.”

Much to the delight of his partners, Michael
instantly jerked around and craned his neck to see out the
window.

“Well hell, I never thought I’d see the day
the Extreme Bachelor would be the guy wondering what to do next,”
Eli drawled.

“Oh, honey, don’t be so hard on him.
Everyone needs a helping hand now and again,” Marnie said, casually
studying her cuticle.

Michael stood up, grabbed his bag, and slung
it over his shoulder. “I’d love to stay and chat about how badly
I’ve screwed this up, but I’ve got something I need to do.”

“Wait!” Marnie cried,
reaching up and brushing the hair from his eyes. “Oh
wow
,” she sighed. “You
are a handsome man.”

Michael chucked her playfully on the chin
and walked out as Eli protested that he didn’t appreciate Marnie
fawning all over Mike, while Marnie laughed and assured him that
she loved only him.

Michael didn’t hear the rest—he had to run a
little to catch up to Leah, who was indeed stomping along at a
clip. But he caught her, just before she went out the gate to the
parking lot.

“Oh, hi, Michael,” she said, and pushed a
hand through her hair, but the blond locks just fell back again. “I
didn’t know you were here today.”