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“Yep. She wants to be a star but she was forced to find a real job between auditions and bit parts. Rodeo Drive—not quite my kind of rodeo, but it paid the bills until the owner up and shut everything down.”
From down the table, his mother tapped a spoon on her glass. “Clint, are you going to explain about this television show or do I have to read about it in the local paper?”
He let go of Victoria’s gaze and looked at his mother. Bitsy Griffin hated scandal of any kind. She valued her privacy so much, she’d rather stay in that old farmhouse than stay in the nice room he’d fixed up for her upstairs. So what made him think she’d ever agree to a television crew filming her every move? And his every scandal?
Denny glared at him, always in perpetual distrust of any man, especially her playboy brother, who’d introduced her to her playboy husband, who’d become her ex-husband but was still very much a playboy. Too many issues with that one.
“Let me lay it out on the table,” he said, holding his breath and bracing for a storm of catty protests. “Ms. Calhoun came out here the other day as a representative of the show and offered me a contract to appear in several episodes of the show. We talked about the offer and discussed the pay. I told her I’d have to think about it.”
“And it never occurred to you to tell us this?” Denny asked, fire burning through her eyes.
“I’m telling you now,” he replied, a heavy fatigue drawing him down. “I never agreed to have any of you on the show anyway. If I decide to do this that doesn’t mean any of you have to participate.”
“Did you invite her to come and explain to us?” Susie asked, her long nails tapping on the table, her brown eyes full of interest.
“No, he didn’t,” Victoria said, sitting up in her chair. “I came back to see what he’d decided and to answer any questions he might still have. I didn’t know...about all of you.”
“Of course you didn’t,” Denny said, her tone bordering on hostile. “My brother likes to keep us all a secret. Gives him more of a spotlight.”
“Look,” Clint said, holding out a hand in defense. “I’m sorry for not telling y’all. That’s because I had to think long and hard about this before I said anything. I know how rumors get started, some of them right here at this table.”
That quieted everyone.
“Would we have cameras around twenty-four hours a day?” his mother asked, her tone caught between interest and exasperation.
“No,” Victoria answered. “We’d frame each episode. That means we’d plan it out to tape show segments at a certain time, say for an event such as this. But we won’t be here every day, all day.” She glanced around the table. “We’d do a few episodes and see how it goes.”
Clint nodded at her, impressed with her calm, professional tone.
“What do you expect from us?” Denny asked, still glaring.
Instead of turning snarky, Victoria smiled. “Our viewers love Texas. They want to see how a real cowboy lives. You know, the horses, the homes, the cattle. Oil and everything that entails. The saying that everything is bigger in Texas pretty much sums up this show. We like to show off our stars.”
Denny didn’t look happy. “So you’d be exploiting us?”
Clint gave her a warning look. Denny sent back a daring look.
“We don’t want to exploit anyone,” Victoria replied. “But we do want good ratings. Good ratings mean better sponsors and more dollars and not getting canceled. So I get to keep my job.”
Susie shot Clint a greedy glance. His ambitious little sister would be all over this like a duck on a June bug. “Well, I am unemployed right now and I do have some acting experience. I’m available.”
“We haven’t reached that part,” Clint retorted. “And you know I’ll take care of you while you’re looking for work.”
“I don’t want to be taken care of,” his sister said on a hiss of breath. “I can take care of myself. But I would benefit from being featured in this show.” She shifted her gaze to Victoria. “Of course, I don’t come cheap.”
“Susan,” her mother said, a hand on her daughter’s arm, “let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is your brother’s house, but we all have a say in this since we live on the property.”
“It’s your property, Mama,” Denny said. “He could have asked before he allowed these people out here.”
“He didn’t allow anything,” Victoria said. “I came looking for him because he didn’t return my calls.”
“And why exactly did the powers-that-be send you?” Denny asked, a killer glare in her brown eyes.
Victoria didn’t skip a beat. “My boss is Samuel Murray and he is both the producer and director of Cowboys, Cadillacs and Cowboys. He sent me—his production assistant and story producer—because I’ve done every job on the show from camera work to hair and makeup to just being a gofer for food and drinks. He trusts me to scout out people who will be able to handle being on a reality show.”
For the first time since her hissy fit earlier, Tater spoke up. “And do you think we’re those kind of people?”
Victoria shot Clint a glance that reassured him and terrified him. “Yes. Yes, I certainly do.”
* * *
“I’LL WALK YOU to your car,” Clint told Victoria after they’d cleared away the dinner dishes.
They were alone now and at least she’d survived the scrutiny of his overly protective family. They’d all listened, intrigued and repulsed in turn, and she believed they were curious enough to want to try this. Susie obviously wanted to be a part of things and was ready to sign tonight. Denny refused to even discuss it. But Victoria wasn’t sure she’d convinced his mother, or Tater for that matter, to open up their lives to the world. And honestly, Victoria couldn’t blame them. There was a reason she stayed on the other side of the camera.
“Thanks,” she told him now, putting her guilt and her own reservations out of her mind. “That was a great dinner.”
His self-deprecating smile sizzled with charm. “I almost burned the steak.”
“The steak was just right but I was talking about the undercurrents around the table.”
“Oh, I see. You’d like to get that on the screen?”
“That’s the kind of family interaction we dream about getting on TV.”
“Keep dreaming then, darlin’.” He strolled her to her car then leaned back against it to stare down at her. “I don’t think my girls are quite ready for prime time.”
Victoria didn’t want to lose this chance, especially after meeting his family. At first, she’d only been intent on showing Clint Griffin in his worst light because she wanted to reveal him for the player he’d always been. She’d wanted nothing more than to expose his shenanigans to the world because viewers loved to see others in misery. But she had a gut feeling that showing him interacting with all of his female relatives would send a new message and make the ratings skyrocket. Women loved a man who knew how to handle women. It was a bit sexist but true. Clint’s handling of his many girlfriends would contrast nicely with how he interacted with his family. Plus, everyone loved watching notorious people having meltdowns. It was a sad paradox, but it was there. She had every reason to want to cash in on that.
“What can I do to convince you?”
“I’m almost in,” he said, nodding. “But even before you showed up tonight, I was gonna explain it to all of them and ask them to let me work around them—not include them, unless they agreed to it.”
“Susie seems interested,” she pointed out. “And she does have an impressive acting résumé from what she told me.”
“Yes, that and an ego the size of our great state,” he said on a guarded chuckle. “I’ll have to think about bringing her in but she just might work out and she does need some means of an income.”
“We could start with you,” Victoria replied. “We’d just coordinate scenes with you, doing your thing. Nothing too hard. Then we’d ease into the family stuff.”
“Me?” He puffed up. “Well, that’s what you came for, right?”
Right. But she was getting more than she bargained for. Just being in the same space with him upped her ante and made her have interesting, dangerous daydreams. “You don’t seem too worried, either way. Your picture is in the papers a lot and you make the local news on a weekly basis. This would just be another day at work for you.”
“With one infraction or another, yep.”
She tried another tactic. “Maybe you don’t want people to know that you’re really a decent man who’s trying to hold his family together, a man who takes in his sister and niece because they’re going through a rough patch. A man who takes in his other unemployed sister to save her pride. Or a man who makes sure his widowed mother has a home when she needs a place to get away and be by herself.”
“You got all of that from dinner?”
Victoria couldn’t deny what she’d seen with her own eyes. “I got all of that from watching you and your family and asking you questions. I think the viewers would be surprised, too.”
His gray eyes turned to silver and swept over her with a liquid heat. “Well, I like to surprise people.”
She wondered about that while she tried to shield herself from that predatory gaze. “So, what if we just go with taping you first and then see how everyone else feels?”
“How ’bout I think it over and call you tomorrow?”
Victoria needed more than that. She’d like to march triumphantly into Samuel’s office first thing in the morning and tell him she’d nabbed the infamous Clint Griffin for their show. But that would have to wait. “Okay. Call me early. I have a busy day tomorrow.”
“I have your card,” he replied. “I’ll get back to you.”
How many times had she heard that from a man?
Victoria left knowing she’d never see him again unless she subscribed to all the papers and magazines in town. He’d go on being him and she’d miss out on getting it all down on tape.
A shame, too. She really liked his mother.
CHAPTER FIVE
“OKAY, I’M IN.”
Victoria held her cell to her ear and rolled over to stare at the clock. Five in the morning? “Clint?”
“Yeah. I’m in. I’ve thought about it and I like this deal. But at the price I named and with the stipulations I requested.”
Victoria sat up and pushed at her hair. Greed didn’t seem to stop this man, but who was she to judge. She wanted him for the show. “Have you been up all night thinking about how you’ll spend this money?”
“No. About an hour or so. Couldn’t sleep. Old habits die hard. But yes, I’ve got big plans. You know, always think big. This is Texas and I plan to give the masses what they want, but the money will mostly go for a cause dear to my heart and maybe a few other things.”
Not sure what her boss would think, she let out a sigh. “Well, okay. I’ll tell Samuel and he’ll have our lawyers get with you to draw up the contract.”
“With stipulations,” he replied again, his tone as clear and precise as the silence that followed. “Highlight my nonprofit, Griffin Horse Therapy Ranch—better known as the Galloping Griffin—and don’t tape anyone in my family who is off-limits.”
“Got it.” She needed coffee to continue this conversation. “Is that all?”
“Like I said, I want to showcase a couple of organizations I’ve been involved with and...I want to secure my niece’s future. Nothing so underhanded and horrible, see?” He went silent and then said, “It’s not like I’m going to use the money to start that harem you mentioned. Or open a bar or hold a toga party at my house. Although, I wouldn’t mind seeing you in a toga, understand.”
His bad-boy attitude obviously came out during the wee hours of the night. That image got her fully awake and back to business.
“It depends on how the stipulations can be highlighted as part of the show. But I’ll leave that up to you and the lawyers. Samuel will want to sit in on the meeting, too.”
“And you. I want you there.”
“I don’t usually—”
“I want you there.”
His husky request in her ear singed the skin on her neck and left it all tingly and warm. “Okay. I’ll let you know the time and place.”
“Good enough. See you then.”
Victoria tapped her phone and ended the call. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, she got up and padded to the kitchen for coffee. Samuel would be happy but she didn’t have that sense of joy she usually felt when they were about to work with a new subject. In fact, she felt something new and disturbing and difficult to accept.
She was still attracted to Clint Griffin.
That would never do, she decided. Never. Slamming down a hammer of self-control on her carried-away imagination, she stomped to the coffee pot and hit the on button. On that distant night, she’d enjoyed kissing the man, but she’d chalked that up to being young and naive. She had not come looking for him to become the next reality star because, honestly, one kiss long ago had not shaped her whole adult life. She’d been attracted to him that night, attracted to the tension and intensity of the man and to the notion that he’d even noticed her. But what he’d really noticed was the nearest female and the chance to flirt with her and maybe take her home.
When Victoria, still bruised from being left at the altar, had turned him down flat, he’d walked away without so much as a backward glance.
Victoria had been hurt, yes, but she’d gotten over that and made a life for herself. Even after her groom had left her at the altar, she’d managed to brush herself off and get on with life. After a while, she’d been glad she hadn’t married so young and she’d sure been glad she hadn’t had a one-night stand with Clint Griffin. Now she was happy to be independent and free.
Or she had been until Samuel had come to her with the notion of trying to get Clint for the show. Of all the cowboys in all of Texas, why had Samuel stumbled on this one and decided he’d be perfect? Seeing Clint again after such a long time had brought out all of her anxieties and self-doubts. So she was using the old revenge tactic to get back at him. But would it be revenge if he became a ratings winner?
“This is such a bad idea,” she mumbled to her wilted red geranium plant. It sat on the wide kitchen window with a lonely sideways tilt. Why her mother always brought her plants to kill was beyond Victoria. But she watered it anyway and begged it to stay alive. “Plant, what do you think about Clint Griffin?”
The plant’s one wrinkled flower took that moment to shed a few limp petals.
“That’s what I thought, too.”
Victoria turned back to her coffee and grabbed a Pop-Tart and stuck it in the toaster. She’d get a shower and get into the office so she could warn Samuel about the few noble requests their bad boy wanted in the contract.
And she’d certainly have to brace herself to get through the next few weeks. Life with a self-centered cowboy wouldn’t be easy. Even if this one looked as if he hadn’t been back on the horse in a while.
* * *
“HE WANTS EVERYONE in on this except his immediate family?”
Samuel stared at Victoria, his eyes bulging with disbelief. “We need those women to spice things up, V.C. Now what do we do?”
Victoria had been in the same meeting but she and Samuel had stepped outside to let Clint talk things over with his people. Clint had announced in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want his sisters or his niece to be a part of the show. At all. And she wasn’t sure if this was coming from him, or his mother and sisters. She wondered how Susie with the stars in her eyes felt about this.
“You heard the man,” she replied to Samuel. “He’s trying to protect his family.”
Surprising, but he’d been adamant. She glanced back through the windows to the conference room. He had his head down and was talking low to one of the suits.
When she remembered how good he’d looked in his jeans, boots and button-up shirt while he was playing hardball with them earlier, she had to swallow back the lump of awareness that caught at her throat each time she was around the man. Clint Griffin was bad news. She couldn’t wait to get that on tape so women everywhere would agree with her.
Or fall in love with him.
Samuel’s snort of disdain brought her out of her gossamer-revenge-tinged daydream. Her boss wasn’t ready to concede anything just yet, but he still wanted Clint. Even with charity events and a hands-off family.
“Yeah, right. So far, he’s managed to keep his relatives out of the limelight but we’ve found ’em now. I get his need to protect his womenfolk, but the world wants to see the interaction you described to me. We like people pushing at tables and breaking bottles. We need people shouting at each other and making scenes in public places. It’s the kind of stuff that makes or breaks a reality television show. We know that, but we don’t have to tell them that. Meantime, you can work on loosening his stubborn stance.”
Victoria wasn’t so hot on that idea, so she decided to stall Samuel’s own stubborn stance. “Then in the meantime, we need more cowboys and less family. Just until I can figure something out. We can create more outings, more bar scenes, a party atmosphere.”
Sam thought that over. “He does like to party, right?”
“Right. That’s why we went after him.”
