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“So, you designed the float.” He held up the final drawing showing his choice. The float consisted of a caterpillar, then a chrysalis and finally several full monarch butterflies at the rear to indicate the year’s theme, A Celebration of Life.
She nodded. “I basically work on the engineering to make sure everything runs, twirls and swirls properly and nothing breaks down on Colorado Boulevard.”
The audience laughed in approval.
“Let’s talk a little about you.” He glanced down at the notecards on the small table between them. “You have a degree in structural engineering from Cal Poly Pomona, and you’ve been designing floats since you were...sixteen.” Now, that was impressive. Smart as well as beautiful. He liked that.
“My parents started Courtland Float Designs when I was six years old, and they built it up into what it is today.”
“I’m totally fascinated by your family business. You have made a business out of designing floats for the Rose Parade.” He felt nothing but awe for her and her family. Who knew anyone could make a business out of parade floats?
“Not just the Rose Parade,” Greer said, leaning forward a bit. “We’ve designed floats for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Carnival in Rio.”
“You’ve been to Rio. Tell me about Rio.”
She grinned coyly at him. “Sorry, no can do. What happens in Rio stays in Rio.”
Oh, he had to get the answer to that question. He’d been to Rio a time or two himself. “I’m disappointed you won’t share.”
Her grin widened. “Rules are rules.”
He was very captivated by her. He leaned forward and caught a faint scent of her perfume—a warm vanilla musk with an underlying note of lemon. “I understand you were a Rose Queen.”
“Yes, during my senior year in high school. I had a great time that year.”
“A Cal Poly graduate and a Rose Queen. You’re smart and beautiful. What was the hardest part of being the Rose Queen?”
“Number one on the list was how not to look cold. You could be cold, but you could not look like it. Number two was the wave.” She held up her hand and started doing the wave.
“You look like the Queen of England.”
“We had classes. The wave is sort of like screwing in a lightbulb.”
She had the best dimple right next to her mouth when she smiled. The dimple transformed her face, and his gaze was drawn to it. He had a sudden urge to lick that dimple and kiss it. He shook it off and focused on his interview. “What is the hardest part of building a float?”
“Designing something that works and is still beautiful within the boundaries of the rules and regulations of the parade. There’s a lot to balance with a float. You have to consider the weight, height and length. The only thing that stays the same every year is the route. You know where all the turns are.” Her hands fluttered as she talked, echoing her excitement and passion.
A woman with passion. He could work with that. “I can see you love what you do.”
“I get to play in fantasyland all year long, so why not?” Her words came out as a sigh.
“Let’s talk a bit about the first step toward getting a float into the parade.” When he’d first decided to sponsor a float, he’d had a sharp learning curve.
She sat back, her face taking on a serious look. “The theme for the next year is announced the day after the parade. Once you have the theme, the first step is to create a design. Each designer submits to the parade committee two designs for each float they are commissioned to create. Once the design is approved, we move on to materials and construction.”
“Sounds nerve-racking,” Daniel said.
She nodded. “You’d think that after making floats for so many years, it would be easy, but it’s not. It’s like a first date over and over again. You just want to make sure you do everything right and be your best. And hope your underslip doesn’t show.”
The audience roared with laughter.
Daniel nodded in agreement. He understood being the best. At a signal from the director, he wrapped up this week’s interview. “Thank you, Miss Courtland.” He turned to the camera. “We’ll take a commercial break, and when we come back—weather and traffic.” The camera went dark and Daniel stood.
Greer stood with him. “Is it true you and your friend Logan Pierce have a bet on who is going to win the Sweepstakes Trophy?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
“You sound disappointed. A little friendly competition never hurts anyone. You compete with all the other floats.”
“I compete with myself. I have seven designs in the parade this year.”
Was that disappointing? It almost felt like she was cheating on him before the first date. Because if he had anything to say about it, there would be a date.
“I don’t know what to say. I’ve never had to share a woman before. It feels like you’re cheating on me.”
She burst into laughter. “Are you serious?”
“I am. I thought I was your one and only.”
“No.” She shook her head. “My babies have to eat.”
The audience roared with laughter. Daniel waved at them. “You have children.” She was married! Darn. He hadn’t seen that coming.
“Yes.”
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“I’m a little confused here.”
“No, my children are the four-legged kind. Though one of them has only three legs. I designed a float for the Humane Society a couple of years ago and couldn’t resist adopting them.”
Suddenly he realized she was teasing him. “I’m a dog person.”
“I have two dogs and a cat. I’m always looking to add to the family.”
His mother would love her. She was smart, beautiful and kind.
“Do you cook?”
She frowned. “What does that have to do with float design?”
“Just some personal information.”
“I like to cook, but I don’t always have time.”
He knew that feeling. If not for his parents occasionally stocking his freezer, he’d have been eating takeout every night of the week. Now in their second careers, his parents owned a restaurant, so the food was always good.
“Well, thank you for coming today. I think the audience loved it,” he said. “I look forward to seeing you next week and hearing your report.”
“I’ll be here.”
He walked her off the set just as the camera came live again, but it was pointed at Jennifer, the meteorologist. He didn’t have to be back to his desk for another four minutes, and for some reason, he wanted to spend those minutes just watching Greer Courtland walk down the hall.
He waved, and an intern came to escort her out.
Once she was out of sight, he turned back to his desk to get ready for his next segment. But her sexy scent remained in his head for the rest of his day. As did the sound of her husky laughter.
* * *
As Greer drove back to her office, she couldn’t keep her mind off her handsome host. Daniel Torres was not what she’d expected.
She hadn’t wanted to go on his show, but her parents had appointed her. She had been so nervous she feared she’d stutter her way through the segment. She didn’t want to embarrass her family, but that sexy hunk of man threw her for a bit of a loop. Never a fan of the unexpected, she almost turned into a puddle of silence when she’d laid eyes on him in person.
As she walked into her office, her sister Rachel peeked in at her and grinned. “We watched the show. You did great. Mom was really impressed.”
Greer shrugged. “I tried.”
“Is he as handsome in person as he is on the screen?”
“You mean Daniel Torres?” She fanned her face. “Oh yes, he is.” She had to admit she liked what she’d seen. “He certainly seemed interested in his float.” Though she was a little confused by this competition with his friend. Not that she wasn’t a competitive person. She’d had to be at Cal Poly. But this contest had so many random factors. What would happen if neither one took the Sweepstakes Trophy? Or if each won a trophy in a different category? The logistics made her head spin. She was always good about designing floats that could take different trophies. She liked to win, and trophies equaled money in the bank. The float business might have been about making pretty things, but she had to make pretty things that won the shinies.
“Interested in his float? I think he was more interested in you,” Rachel said with a sly smile.
A girl could hope. “Don’t be absurd. You read the tabloids. That man goes through starlets like they’re candy.”
“I don’t know. If he was in love with any of the starlets, don’t you think he’d have gotten married by now?”
“Look at George Clooney. He played the field for decades. Daniel Torres has twenty years to go before he finds his forever wife.”
Rachel laughed. “You don’t have a romantic bone in your body.”
Greer shook her head. “I save all my romance for my floats.”
“Yes, and I’m sure they keep you very warm at night.”
“Scooter, Pip and Roscoe are very good at keeping my feet warm at night.” She didn’t need a man. In fact, she didn’t think she wanted one on a permanent basis.
“By the way, Chelsea wants you to come over to the warehouse,” Rachel told her. “She’s testing the hydraulics on Daniel’s float.”
“I’m on my way.”
* * *
The warehouse, where the floats were built before being moved to the parking lot of the Rose Bowl for final prep the week before the parade, was a block away from Greer’s office in an industrial park. Her sister Chelsea stood next to Daniel’s float, a clipboard in hand.
The design presented some height challenges. Floats had to fit underneath the seventeen-foot-high Sierra Madre/I-210 freeway overpass. Anything higher than that had to be lowered by hydraulics in mere seconds. Daniel’s final design featured several monarch butterflies flying high off into the sky.
“Good, you’re here,” Chelsea said.
The skeleton of the float looked eerie without any of the flowers that would be added the final week before the parade. It was all welded steel and covered in chicken wire and plastic.
Other similarly staged floats surrounded Daniel’s. A welder sat on the chassis of the adjacent one, his welder spitting fire.
“I enjoyed the show this morning,” Chelsea said.
“I wanted Mom and Dad to send you.” Greer thought Chelsea was the most beautiful of all of them. She was tall and willowy with a dancer’s grace, though at the moment she just looked tired. Her long hair had been pulled into a scrunchie, but half of it was out and floated around her head like a halo.
“I’m too busy.” Chelsea handled quality control. Her job was to make sure everything worked right and looked right, down to the smallest detail. “You’re in the consulting phase now and can be spared.”
“All I have left is to start gluing on flowers.” And other organic material. Though flowers were the main starting point for any float, many areas were covered in seeds and grasses to add texture to the overall design.
“I was checking the hydraulics,” Chelsea continued, “and I wanted you to watch.” She waved at a man half-hidden in a well in the chassis. He waved back, and slowly the butterflies on the rear of the float began to descend.
Before she could comment, Greer’s phone rang. “Hello?”
“Miss Greer Courtland? My name is Logan Pierce.”
“Excuse me,” Greer said, having a hard time hearing over the noise of the welder. She stepped toward the back door open to the parking lot.
“This is Logan Pierce,” he repeated. “I saw you on Daniel’s show this morning. I was wondering if we could meet.”
“Why?” His own float was being built by another company.
“I’ve never had a woman ask me why I wanted to take her out to dinner.”
“I’m asking.” She tried to keep the suspicion out of her voice.
“I watched your interview with Daniel, and you were pretty funny. I want to get to know you.”
She paused. “How did you get my phone number?” She never gave it to people she didn’t know.
“My connections are staggering,” he responded with a wry chuckle.
“Really. How did you get my number?”
She could hear the smile in his voice. “I have a personal assistant who would make the CIA, FBI and NSA weep with envy.”
“I see.” Should she meet with him? She was deeply curious about the rivalry between the two men, and Daniel’s answers this morning hadn’t satisfied her curiosity. Maybe Logan’s would. “I thought you were in New York.”
“I’m visiting family for Thanksgiving. My parents still live in Santa Monica.”
Meeting him wouldn’t hurt, she supposed. “Where do you want to meet?”
“How about dinner at Craig’s? I’ll pick you up, say around 6:30.”
