Stunt Doubled: A Movie Star Standalone

He chuckled. “It’s still the same basic move. You still get to punch, kick, leap through the air, twirl around, etc. The only difference is that you don’t leave your opponent a bloody mess in the end. They frown on that in the movie biz.”

It did sound like fun, though I would’ve preferred to learn the real thing—not that I wanted to beat up anyone around here for real. Well, except Aiden, but his pretty face was probably insured for a million dollars, and I didn’t have that kind of money.

Ford studied me. “I think you’ll like it if you give it a try.”

“You’d really train me to do some stunts?”

“Why not? That is, if you can spare the time from your extremely busy unnamed and poorly defined job.”

It definitely did sound better than forcing Tina to think up tasks for me. And at the bar, I’d decided to use some of my extra free time getting into better shape. “Sounds perfect.”

11

Ronnie

At dusk, Tina and I packed up our things and then she took me over to the bonfire. I’m not sure what I was expecting—perhaps something the size of a campfire, but it was much bigger than that. There was a large ring of stones and logs set up in a cone-formation that were fully ablaze.

A ton of people were already milling around, talking, drinking, eating. It was a bigger crowd than I’d expected, maybe fifty people. The buildings and trailers around here were so scattered that I hadn’t realized this many people were working on the production.

“Hi.” A twin approached, holding two bottles of beer. The fact that his smile was tentative and not cocky or sneering told me which one he was.

“Hi, Tanner.”

His smile widened and he held out a beer. “Want one? Somehow I got the feeling that you don’t abstain from alcohol.”

I laughed as I took the bottle from him. Clearly, he hadn’t forgotten my less than sober appearance Wednesday evening. “There are more people here than I thought there’d be.”

“There’s free beer.” Tanner held up his bottle. On impulse, I clicked mine against it.

We began walking slowly around the bonfire. The night air felt good. Not cool, but cooler than in the daytime. A bunch of people greeted Tanner. One or two mistook him for Aiden. “Does that bother you?” I asked.

“Being mistaken for a rich, famous man who makes a crapload of money?” Tanner asked, and I nodded. “Sometimes,” he says.

“I can’t even imagine. In sixth grade, I was often mistaken for the only other Latina girl in my class, and vice versa. I hated it.”

“Not a lot of diversity in your town in Tennessee?”

“There’s more now than there used to be.” To my surprise, it was easy, talking to Tanner. He had the same dark, gleaming eyes, closely cropped beard, and incredibly sexy full lips as his brother. But with Tanner, I could appreciate his looks and relax. There was no way in hell I’d relax around Aiden.

Tanner sighed. “It was a good week of shooting, but I’m glad it’s Friday.”

“Do they shoot anything on the weekend?”

“Not usually. Not unless we’re really behind. The director tries not to push us too hard. Do you have any plans for tomorrow?” That last question was a bit abrupt and rushed.

It also struck me as funny. I was miles from home doing a job that wasn’t really a job. I only knew the names of a small handful of people here and vice versa. “How would I have plans for tomorrow?”

“You did on Wednesday night,” he pointed out. “So I didn’t know if you might be seeing that man again.”

“Evan?”

Tanner shrugged. “I just saw him get out of his car, I didn’t hear his name.”

“He’s a driver.”

“You hugged him.”

“He’s a very good driver.” I smiled at Tanner. “He’s just a friend.”

Tanner nodded. “I’d like to be your friend.” They were simple words—almost like a child might say to a new kid at school. But I’d take simple, sincere words over Aiden’s sarcastic ones any day.

For a moment, I looked away. Did I want to be friends with Tanner? If we’d met under other circumstances, sure. In fact, maybe more than friends. But there was so much baggage here. Years and years of pain.

Tanner didn’t seem surprised by my silence. “And speaking of driving… that’s why I asked if you had any plans for tomorrow.”

I cocked my head, trying to figure out where he was going with this. It would be ironic if he suggested driving over to O’Dowd’s Bar. Then again, maybe he didn’t know about that? It seemed like most people around here headed to Moab when they needed to get away for a bit.

I was pretty sure that Kylie served better drinks than anyone in Moab.

“Going to drive me out of town?” I teased.