Stunt Doubled: A Movie Star Standalone

“No,” Ronnie said. “I’ll find a hotel here in Moab.”

“But how will you get to the set each day?” I asked.

“I’ll rent a car.”

“It’s over an hour’s drive each way.” Tanner pointed out. “Plus sometimes you’d be driving back in the middle of the night after a long, exhausting day—it’s not safe.”

“I don’t care,” Ronnie said. “I’m not staying with strangers.”

“They’re family,” Mac said.

Not surprisingly, that made Ronnie’s fists clench. “They’re your family. To me, they’re strangers.”

Though it was true, I was a little worried how Aiden or Mac might respond to that, but it was Tanner who answered. “But we don’t have to be. We’d like to get to know you. About your life in Tennessee. And about your mother and brother.”

Maybe I was imagining things, but his words seemed to affect her. “Just try it, Ronnie,” I urged. “We’ll give you all the space you need. And it’s a sweet deal. It’s only a twenty-minute drive from the set, and the studio hired someone to deliver meals and to clean. All we ever do there is sleep, shower, and head back to the set. You won’t even know we’re there.”

“Except your room is next to Ford’s,” Aiden commented. “And he snores.”

So nice of my old friend to mention that in front of a pretty woman. Past girlfriends had confirmed that I didn’t snore that bad. But at least he’d aggravated me, not Ronnie.

“Just try it out. If you really want to make a fresh start, you need to be on set on time every day. This is the best way to do it.” I stared directly at her and tried to convey that I knew this was hard for her—but that she should give it a chance.

I wasn’t sure if my message got across or if she realized she was out of options, but finally, she nodded.

“All right.”

She looked resigned, defeated, and exhausted. Ronnie had been through a lot in a short amount of time, and I was determined to do my best to make sure things would get better for her.

I wasn’t sure exactly how, but I knew that her staying with us was the first step.

6

Ronnie

The drive back from Moab felt like it lasted for hours. I sat in the backseat of a large SUV with Ford next to me, Tanner driving, and Aiden riding shotgun. I didn’t know these guys, and I didn’t want to know them—so why the hell was I riding in a car with them? And why the effing hell was I going to the home they shared?

Rage filled me, rage that I hadn’t been able to express at the restaurant. All those years I’d avoided any mention of Mac, and a big part of the reason was how much it hurt to think that he’d left us and joined a new family right away. I’d never, ever wanted to know about that new family—and now I was sitting in a car with his stepsons!

It had been a shock that one of Mac’s stepsons was a famous movie star, of course, but I didn’t give a crap about that anymore. Aiden was rude at dinner and I didn’t give a rat’s ass about him. It didn’t matter if Mac’s stepsons were princes or paupers—I’d never wanted to know them and I still didn’t now.

The only one of the three of them who hadn’t pissed me off—yet—was Ford. He wasn’t Mac’s stepson, though Mac seemed quite fond of him. But all those years when I’d seethed at the thought of my father taking on a new family, my anger had been directed towards Mac’s new wife and his stepsons—not their best friend.

As we drove down the very dark highway, Aiden and Tanner rambled on in the front seat. Probably about movie stuff, these guys seemed to talk about little else. But I tuned them out. Fortunately, Ford seemed to get my need for silence. Even if he hadn’t saved me from getting flattened by a Mustang, he would’ve been the least objectionable of the three.

Well, Tanner didn’t seem so bad. He’d been quite concerned after the near-miss today. But I doubted I could ever get over the fact that Mac chose him and his brother over me and mine. Even if Mac hadn’t been able to resist the lure of Hollywood, he could’ve come back during breaks in production. He didn’t have to throw us out with the bathwater when he wanted a fresh start.

Unease filled me. After all, hadn’t I come out here for a fresh start, too? But that was different. I hadn’t run out on my family, at least not permanently. I vowed to call my mother and my brother tomorrow evening. It was pretty late in their time zone tonight.

Then my fake brother—the slightly less offensive one—spoke up. “So what did you think of the set?”