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About this much, Taylor was certain. “I’m not selling the movie rights to another book.”
He swam closer. His glance took in the new stiffness of her spine. “How come?” he asked.
“I—” Taylor abruptly turned her glance, to avoid getting a full-on view of everything about him she had sought to forget. Suddenly she saw movement in the hedge of red-tipped photinia bushes enclosing the landscaped backyard. “What the…?” She frowned, as a branch snapped, close to the ground. Leaves rustled.
Jeremy’s gaze narrowed, too. He tensed. “You hear that?” he asked.
Taylor nodded.
“Could be some form of wildlife,” Jeremy speculated.
But what kind? Taylor wondered. Armadillos and porcupines usually had more sense than to wander this close to the ranch house. Snakes, on the other hand, had been known to search out water in the summer heat. More than a few had ended up in Texas swimming pools…surprising the heck out of the people in or around them.
Jeremy swam closer. “You stay here. I’m going to check it out.”
His insistence on being chivalrous now—when he had not done so during the time when she desperately needed and wanted his support—rankled. “Don’t be ridiculous.” Taylor stood, dripping water onto the steps. Haughtily she announced, “I’ll look.”
Oblivious to his lack of clothing, Jeremy vaulted out of the water. He clamped a staying hand just above her elbow. “No. I’ll go.”
Ignoring the view of his gloriously handsome body, she wrested free and stalked in the direction of the sound. To her mounting frustration, it took Jeremy less than two strides to catch up. She increased her pace determinedly. So did he. Side by side, they cautiously approached the hedge.
As they closed in, a fifty-something woman, clad in outrageously short shorts and a halter top, shot up. Simultaneously, a camera flash went off in their eyes, temporarily blinding them. By the time they could focus again, she was already running away.
“Sorry!” she shouted sheepishly over her shoulder. “Didn’t mean to get you. I was looking for Beau!”
“IT HAPPENS every once in a great while,” Paige Chamberlain said, upon arriving home an hour later.
As always, the tall, lanky redhead looked just as apt to step off the cover of a magazine as out of an operating room. Although that wasn’t surprising to Taylor, given the glamorous yet down-to-earth couple Paige claimed as parents. Dani and Beau Chamberlain were both gorgeous and upstanding members of the entertainment industry. Beau came at it from an actor/director position, Dani the publishing side as a renowned movie critic. Taylor had admired both long before she’d met them, when she and Paige had become friends during college.
In turn, Paige had admired Taylor’s parents’ talent for surgery and had spent many hours discussing the pros and cons of each surgical specialty with them. Taylor’s dad, of course, had favored neurosurgery, his specialty. Her mom had pushed for a specialization in the cardio-thoracic field. Instead, Paige had followed her own path and ended up specializing in pediatric surgery.
“So it doesn’t bother you then?” Taylor asked skeptically.
“It’s par for the course,” Paige said. “We get some fan lurking behind the hedges, trying to get a photo of my dad. If you see her again, we’ll call the sheriff’s department, but she was probably harmless. Just out of curiosity,” Paige opened the fridge and withdrew three bottles of beer, “why didn’t you two just get her camera and take the film away?”
Jeremy looked at Taylor. Not about to reveal their state of undress at the time, Taylor busied herself making hamburgers for the three of them.
“Never got close enough to her.” Jeremy apparently agreed with Taylor that no one save the two of them, and the interloper, need know about their stripped-down appearance. “The woman hopped on a motorbike—hidden behind the bushes—and took off. It didn’t seem worth giving chase.”
“Probably wasn’t.” Paige sighed.
“Speaking of the unexpected,” Jeremy continued.
Taylor nodded. She and Jeremy didn’t agree on much but they did agree on this. She turned to face their mutual friend. “Why didn’t you tell me Jeremy was already bunking here?”
Paige shrugged. “Because it shouldn’t make any difference. The ranch is plenty big enough for the three of us. Especially since Jeremy and I both will be working at the hospital the majority of the time. Furthermore, I don’t have any problem saying I am getting pretty tired of being in the middle of your quarrel.”
“Hey,” Jeremy interrupted with a scowl, “we never asked you to take sides.”
“Right,” Paige drawled. “You just stopped speaking to each other and forbid me to speak about either of you to the other. Not cool.”
Taylor glared at Jeremy.
Jeremy glared back.
“It’s time the two of you made up so the three of us can be friends again, the way we used to be.” Paige munched on a potato chip. “I miss the fun we used to have, you know?”
Taylor slid the patties into a sizzling skillet and went to the sink to wash her hands. “Even if we bury the hatchet, it is never going to be the same. You two are still in medicine. I’m not.”
“You could be again if you wanted to be.” Jeremy rummaged through the fridge.
Paige looked reprovingly at Jeremy, as if to say, “Not that old argument again!”
“My sentiments exactly,” Taylor said.
Jeremy tossed them a look over his shoulder. He set pickles, mustard, ketchup and mayo on the counter. “I can’t help feeling the way I do.” He straightened and shut the door.
“Yes,” Paige countered, stepping past him to get the lettuce, tomato and cheese, “but you can certainly help saying it.”
Jeremy harrumphed at Taylor. “You were the most talented student in our class.”
Taylor flipped the burgers. “Grades aren’t everything, Carrigan.”
He lounged against the counter opposite her, arms folded across his chest. “You had a way with patients.”
Trying not to think what his steady appraisal and deep voice did to her, Taylor appraised him right back. “There are many professions that require good people skills.”
Cynicism lifted one corner of his mouth. “You shouldn’t have quit just because your parents expected you to be a doctor.”
With effort, Taylor tamped down her rising temper. “I quit because I wanted to write.”
“You could write and still be a doctor.”
Taylor looked at Paige. “Make him shut up or I’m going to deck him.”
Paige layered sliced tomatoes on the platter, next to the lettuce and onions. “You heard the woman.” She sent Jeremy a debilitating look. “Shut. Up.”
Jeremy moved so he could see around Paige. “Go ahead and punch me,” he dared Taylor. “I’m just saying what has to be said.”
“No.” Taylor closed the distance between them in three quick strides. She tapped his chest. “You’re saying what you feel. Your emotions have nothing to do with what I want or need.”
“Probably not,” he acknowledged. “I just think it’s a shame. The world needs more doctors like you—”
Paige put two fingers between her teeth and whistled loud enough to stop traffic on Times Square. “Enough!” She waved her arms like a referee breaking up a fight. “Both of you—apologize—now!”
“For what?” Jeremy and Taylor said in unison.
Rolling her eyes, Paige touched her fingers to her forehead. “I give up. I’m going to the guesthouse.”
“Don’t you want your burger?” Taylor slid the sizzling meat onto an open bun.
“Don’t mind if I do.” In stormy silence, Paige added condiments to her sandwich and a handful of chips. She took her plate and bottle of beer with her, calling over her shoulder, “Good night!”
Silence fell.
Taylor added the works to her burger, too. “I think I’ll eat in my room.”
Jeremy clamped a hand on her shoulder, delaying her exit with a sincere look. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Again.”
His apology seemed genuine enough, Taylor noted grudgingly. She set her plate on the kitchen table, next to her beverage, and took a seat. She spread her napkin over her lap. “The real question is, are you going to bring it up again?”
“No.” Jeremy garnished his burger, then sat at the other end of the table. He sat down and dug in. “Especially since it’s obvious I’d be wasting my breath.”
They ate in silence for several minutes.
Aware she had waited years for the chance to go toe-to-toe with him over this very subject, she said, “It’s not as if I never sold a book, you know. I’m a published novelist and a screenwriter.” She didn’t know why she felt she had to keep saying that. If she’d been a doctor, she wouldn’t have been forced to defend the value of her profession. Of course, if she’d been a doctor, people wouldn’t have questioned the value of her job.
He polished off one burger, got up to get another. “Got any copies of your book with you?”
Her defenses snapped back into place. “No.”
He grabbed another handful of chips, too. “I’d like to read it.”
Was this a trick? Another way to continue his crusade to get her back into medicine? It didn’t appear so. More like a way to assuage his guilt. She didn’t need penance from him, either. She made no effort to hide her irritation. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Why don’t you want me to?” he asked, even more curious. He kicked back in his chair and polished off his beer. “I thought all authors wanted to have their stuff read. Isn’t that the point of being a novelist? To be popular? To have your voice heard and all that?”
Maybe for some. She wrote because she had to, because she had something to say, stories to tell that wouldn’t get out of her head until they were written down. Taylor’d been a storyteller as far back as she could remember, always drifting off into daydreams and conjuring up movies in her head. It was a heaven-sent gift that was as much a part of her as her straight black hair, and just as impossible to explain.
She sighed and looked Jeremy in the eye. “The only reason I would want you to read my book is because you enjoy that type of story. Since I can’t really see you ever picking up a chick lit novel by anyone else—to read for pleasure—then the answer is a resounding no. Do not do me any favors!”
Merriment crept into his dark brown eyes. “I could broaden my horizons.”
Taylor snorted and kicked back in her chair, too. “I’m not saying you don’t need to do that.”
“But?” Electricity sparked between them.
She shook her head, aware her heart was racing. “Not at my expense.”
His handsome features tightened into a mock-reproving look. “You’re awfully prickly.”
“You’re awfully pushy,” she retorted.
“And moody.”
“Keep it up, I dare you.”
His grin broadened. “So what’s really going on with your life?”
Taylor jumped up to clear the table. “What do you mean?”
His movements as lazy as hers were restless, he got up to help. “You told Paige you drove eighteen hours straight to get here, when you could have taken a flight and had your Jeep shipped back to—where was it you said you’d been living?”
“Chesapeake, Virginia.” Taylor slid dishes into the dishwasher, straightened, all attitude once again. “What’s your point?”
“My point is,” he explained, his voice as silky-smooth as hers was blunt and impatient, “that you told Paige the move back home could have been done for you, at movie studio expense, if you had been willing to wait another few weeks for it all to be arranged, by their business affairs office. Instead, you got in your car and drove all the way here, on very little notice.”
He was far too observant for comfort. Worse, he’d always seen things that no one else noticed. She tilted her chin at him. “So?”
Jeremy stared at her with a steely resolve that matched her own. “The last time you took off in your Jeep—that I know of anyway—and drove that long and that hard, was the day you quit med school.” He paused, his gaze roaming the contours of her face, lingering on her lips, before slowly returning to her eyes. “So what’s happening in your life that Paige and I don’t know about?” he asked, even more softly. “What are you running from this time?”
Chapter Two
“And Last But Not Least,” Anchor Mandy Stone read the teleprompter with a salacious smile, “up and coming novelist-turned-screenwriter Taylor O’Quinn set tongues to wagging when she skipped the wrap party for SailAway. Insiders were not surprised. Dozens of rewrites for the troubled pic have left everyone feeling frustrated and unhappy—including the film’s two leads, Zak and Zoe Townsend.”
(Cut to film of wrap party.)
“The story had some problems, as it was originally written,” Zak admitted, presenting his best side to the camera and taking his wife’s hand.
“But we’ve done our best to fix them,” Zoe added, pausing earnestly.
“We just hope Taylor’s all right.” Zak wrapped an arm around Zoe’s shoulders and pulled Zoe in close to his side.
Zoe nodded, looking even more doe-eyed and distressed. “When Taylor left the set, and drove off in her SUV, she was in tears…”
June 2 edition of Short-takes! Celebrity Entertainment Network
Taylor couldn’t help feeling relieved when their heated confrontation was interrupted by Jeremy’s pager. As he put in a call to his answering service, she scrambled to come up with a reasonable response to his accusation. Unfortunately, her reprieve was short-lived.
Medical crisis averted, Jeremy snapped his cell phone shut and gazed at her expectantly. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”
Taylor set the damp dishcloth down with more than necessary care. She turned back to Jeremy, her expression stoic. “I’m not running away.” She enunciated each word distinctly, then moved past him.
Arms folded, Jeremy watched her head for the exit. Her actions evoked bittersweet memories of a time when they could have had everything. If only she had stayed in Texas, instead of heading off for parts unknown… “Then why are you bolting the kitchen?”
As she whirled back around to face him, her long black hair rippled across her shoulders. “Perhaps because I’m done talking to you?” She smiled sweetly.
Jeremy shook his head. “You’re running from me the way you ran from whatever’s going on in Los Angeles.”
Defiance gleamed in her blue eyes. “You’re wrong.”
“I don’t think so.” He closed the distance between them. “I’ve always been able to read you like a book.”
Temper flared in her cheeks, turning them a rosy pink. “Then you know how ticked off you’re making me right now.”
“It doesn’t change the truth,” he drawled.
“I’m going to bed.” She glared at him.
