Her Texas Rescue Doctor (13 page)

Chapter Thirteen

G
race had never felt less motivated to do her job in her entire life.

Her three wishes had been granted, and the rest was up to her. She'd wished they could stay in Texas. She'd wished for Deezee to disappear from their lives. But that third wish...

She's wished for a good man for Sophia. He was standing right here, and it was up to Grace to bring them together.

“Sophia's asleep. Let's get a cup of coffee and go on the porch.” Alex was already halfway in the kitchen as he spoke. “You take it black, right?”

He remembered.

She shouldn't be so surprised. After all, they'd just had breakfast an hour ago. But he'd paid attention to a little detail about her, and it gave her a thrill to know she'd been noticed.

Being in the tight confines of the galley kitchen with him brought up memories of midnight. She had to squash them down; this was her sister's new fake boyfriend, and if wishes came true, he'd become a real boyfriend.

She took her coffee and skirted around the couch to the sliding glass door. Alex stayed right behind her, reaching around her, opening the door. As she stepped onto the patio, her long hair caught on his hand, producing the gentlest tug behind her ear.

She might as well be that woman in a historical movie, she felt so very
aware
. Had her hair brushed him accidentally, or had he touched her on purpose?

If she could have a fourth wish...

Oh, that would be so easy. She'd wish that Alex was hers. She'd stop pretending she didn't notice him. No more tentative touches. She'd turn and bury her hand in the thick, dark hair at the nape of his neck and pull him close.

Why not?

Alex set his coffee on the patio table. “I'll be right back.”

He went into the living room, took a folded blanket from a shelf and shook it out, blue-and-silver sports team colors looking bright in the sun that poured in the window. As she watched, he lifted it above the couch and let it fall softly, naturally, over her sleeping sister.

Sitting in the warm sunshine, with her hands wrapped around a mug of hot coffee, Grace felt her heart freeze.

She hadn't seen anyone take care of her sister like that, not in ten years. Not since they'd lost their parents in one horrible blow, forcing Sophia to be the oldest, the breadwinner, the decision-maker. Sure, Grace might fetch her coffee, but only when Sophia told her to. Hair and makeup artists might fuss over her, but Sophia paid them. The studios, the agents, the publicist—they all wanted something from the bankable commodity that was Sophia Jackson.

Only Alex, wonderful Alex, was tall and strong and confident enough to treat Sophia like a person, not like a money-making celebrity. He was nice to her, despite having seen her at her worst. Because he wasn't in awe of Sophia, because he didn't depend on Sophia, he was just what Sophia needed.

That's why not.

Grace sat at the table and took a deep breath, forcing the air past the stone in her chest, expanding her ribs despite that sharp pain of jealousy. She'd wished for this. She'd wished that her sister could meet a man like Alex, and she had.

She would pull off this transformation, and Sophia would notice Alex. More than that, she'd make sure Alex knew how great Sophia was, too.

Alex sat down on her side of the patio table. Their chairs were side by side, so close that she could feel his body heat. Her heart began to thaw.

I wish I didn't want you so much.

Pen poised over the blank paper, she waited until she was sure her breathing was steady. Then she looked up at Alex. “What traits do you look for in a woman?”

He raised a brow. “That's your first question? I thought you might ask me what jacket size I need for the tuxedo. I've already rented one, by the way.”

She forced a smile and turned the page, titling it
Clothes
. “If you tell me where you rented it, I'll cancel it. The maker of Sophia's gown will probably have an agreement with a menswear designer. They'll send a tailor to fit you.”

“You're not my secretary. I'll cancel it myself if I have to. Let's wait and see if it's really necessary.”

“It will be. If Sophia wears Lauren, for example, then you'll be expected to wear a Lauren tux, as well. It's all contractual.” She felt steadier on this familiar ground, speaking about the workings of her Hollywood life. Her heart could remain cold, indifferent.

Alex took off his glasses and set them on the table, then kicked back in his chair and contemplated the porch ceiling for a moment. “How about your gown? Will you coordinate with Sophia, or do you get to choose your own color and style?” He turned blue eyes on her.

Oh, so blue—vivid and naked, with no glasses adding a layer of safety. Grace swallowed hard. “I'm not on the red carpet, so I don't need a gown. Um—do you have to wear your glasses? Do you have contacts?”

One eyebrow rose again. “Do my glasses have to be a particular designer when I stand next to your sister?”

“We'll get you new frames. But if you can get by without the glasses at all... Sometimes the cameras catch a reflection, and then people wouldn't get to see your—” She was blushing, darn it. Warm cheeks, cold heart. “You and Sophia would look striking together. You both have such blue eyes.”

She couldn't quite look into his. She dropped her gaze. Under that loose, faded shirt, his biceps were tight and tan. Her heart didn't feel so frozen.

Alex was quiet, so she peeked up at him.

“You're not afraid Sophia and I will look too much like brother and sister with our matching eye color? That's not a turnoff?”

“Blue eyes are never a turnoff.”

“I'm glad to hear that.”

Had he meant that he was glad
she
wasn't turned off?

As if.

She felt antsy, edgy. If he and Sophia actually got married, he'd be her brother. She didn't want such a hot brother. The Thor paramedic guy would've been fine, but Alex? No way.

She needed to stay focused on the task at hand. That was what her lists were for. She jotted
cancel tux
and
eyeglass frames
, then turned back to the previous blank page. “Let's get back to the first question. What do you look for in the ideal woman?”

“I'm taking Sophia to this event whether she's my ideal woman or not.”

Grace needed to know, anyway. If there was some trait that Alex liked and Sophia already had, then Grace intended to emphasize it. If there was anything she could do to make Sophia more appealing to Alex, she'd do it. Her cold heart would let her be ruthless. Someone like him wasn't going to cross their paths again.

“You can just smile and pose for photos as you enter the venue, but there will be press asking you questions all night. You have to remember that when you are part of a celebrity's life, you are on the record every single second, with every single person, not just reporters. You have to be very careful about talking to people.”

“I'm not going to talk about Sophia with strangers. We'll be sitting with people I know from Texas Rescue.”

“You still have to guard what you say. My dry cleaner has been asked by a blogger if I told him anything new about Sophia. The clerk at the deli counter has been asked which sandwich I ordered for myself, so he could figure out that the other one was for Sophia. She likes turkey, dry, on whole wheat with sprouts, by the way.”

He'd started frowning. When it was just the two of them, she realized, he didn't keep that poker face in place. “I think the guys in Texas Rescue are going to be a little more loyal to me than a deli counter clerk is to you.”

“They can be your loyal friends, but they'll still be grilled. You can't slip when you talk to them, so they won't slip if they talk to a reporter. We have to prepare. It's like that movie
Green Card
. Do you know it?”

“I can't imagine how my life is like a movie.”

“It's one of the standards in the industry, a marriage-of-convenience story that came out twenty-five years ago. Gérard Depardieu, Andie MacDowell. It was a rom-com—that means romantic comedy—but it still got an Academy Award nomination, which is unusual.”

“And this has to do with my ideal woman?”

“It has to do with telling me your preferences. In the movie, the marriage began as a sham to get him a green card, but then the man and woman had to get to know one another in order to pass government interviews, sort of like how you'll have to pass reporters' interviews. They memorized each other's wants and likes to make their fake relationship seem real. And, of course, once they got to know each other, they ended up really falling in love.”

Love.
The word seemed to linger in the air, suspended between the warm coffee and his blue eyes.

He looked away first. “You know your movies.”

She shrugged, just one shoulder. “I guess you could say it's part of my job. I'm in the industry, sort of.”

The frown deepened. “You are definitely in the industry. Sophia Jackson wouldn't be the success she is without you.”

“You don't know her very well yet. She's driven. She's the one who won't waste her time reading a rom-com script unless someone says it's
Green Card
caliber. The last few months with Deezee were really an aberration. She's normally very focused.”

“She can focus on her career because you save her so much time and distraction. This morning, from what I heard, you know the industry as well as she does. That's why she asks for your advice.”

He'd noticed. Grace had hoped it would make her look better in his eyes, but that was before she'd seen how tender he was toward her sister.

Had she misread that? As the blanket had floated down over her sister, Alex had looked...not exactly tender, actually. Perhaps he'd looked sort of matter-of-fact about it all. There was a person with pneumonia who might feel chilled while she slept, so he put a blanket on her. That didn't mean he was falling in love, did it?

It would by the time she was through with it. Alex was about to learn everything good there was to know about Sophia.

“She could hire a hundred different people to be her assistant, but you couldn't hire anyone to be Sophia Jackson. I only know the year
Green Card
was released because it was the same year I was born.”

“So you're twenty-five.”

“Yes.” Her pen hovered over the paper. “How old are you?”

“Thirty-one.

“Perfect. Sophia is twenty-nine.”

“You're writing down my age?”

“I'll make a list of things Sophia should know about you. She'll memorize it. She has an amazing memory. When she's filming, she memorizes pages of script every night. Sometimes, the writers will change the dialog and hand her new pages in the morning, and she'll know them by her first call. You'll see. I'll type up the notes I take this morning, and she'll know you inside and out by tomorrow.”

“Or, she and I could have a normal conversation on the way to the ball.”

“I wouldn't be a very good personal assistant if I let you two get into the limo unprepared.”

“The limo? I take it I'm not driving.” He held up a hand to forestall her. “I'm sure there's a good reason for that. What else do you want to know?”

He rested his forearms on the table, leaning toward the serenity garden that was his backyard, but he didn't look at the cactus and fruit trees. Instead, he looked at her. It was amazing what a difference a shave made. A few good photos of those sky blue eyes, and the public would have no doubts that Sophia Jackson had spent the week in Texas
not
being heartbroken over DJ Deezee Kalm. Anyone who pitied Sophia this morning would envy her once she made her appearance with Alex.

Grace wrote
Preferences
at the top of her page.

“I don't have a list,” Alex said. “How can I order up a human being to my specifications?”

“You could start with the basics, like blue eyes and blond hair.”

“I've never had a thing for any particular coloring.” He let his gaze roam over her, as if he was seriously considering her coloring.

Beige, boring, blushing...

His voice grew quieter. “But I'm definitely not immune to beauty. When a woman is really beautiful, it doesn't matter if she's dressed up or dressed down or...wearing her pajamas.”

That was Sophia. No plastic surgery, no Botox, no fillers. Thank goodness Deezee had self-destructed before he could convince her to change anything.

“I'll tell you something else I notice,” Alex said. “I admire a woman who isn't afraid to stand up for what is right. Loyalty to her friends and family is very appealing.”

He was describing Sophia perfectly. Grace jotted down
loyalty, ethics, beauty
.

“It's too bad we can't use the whole story when you're asked how you two met. If you could tell everyone how you were impressed with her loyalty yesterday, that would be something unique.”

“When was this?” He sounded genuinely curious.

“At the hotel, when she encouraged me to talk to the police. She knew that writing that witness statement was the right thing to do. It seemed to me that you liked her a little more after that.”

He sat back, which made his shoulder brush hers. “It was nice to see that you were getting some support from her.
You
were the one doing the right thing.”

Grace angled her chair toward him. It allowed her to face him more fully. It also kept their shoulders from touching. “You two have so much in common, see? You came to the hotel to support me, too. You both want to see justice served.”

“That's one way to look at it.”

Grace counted it as a small victory.