Rendezvous (Renegades 5)

“Hey.” Jax sounded upbeat as usual. “Great job on the series. Talked to Drogan last night. They want you back next season. But you probably already know all that.”

“I do, but it’s always nice to hear it from you,” he told Jax while he watched Brooke wander to the kitchenette’s counter and lean her hip there, scrolling through messages on her phone. “What’s up?”

“Drogan’s jumping over to the Avengers movie that started up a few weeks ago there. He’s working with Copalli.”

“Uh-huh.” There were half a dozen series and movies being filmed in Austin at any one time. Keaton had run into crews and actors working on the newest Avengers film in town.

“You know Dupleaux, the stunt guy from France?”

“Uh-huh.”

“He took a bad fall yesterday. Drogan and Copalli want to know if you’ll step in until Dupleaux’s ready to jump back in.”

Hell yes. The reaction was instantaneous, and excitement bolted through his body. He darted a look at Brooke, who’d abandoned her coffee and was staring off into space, looking restless. A sliver of insecurity opened in his chest. Was she ready for this to be over? He pushed the split-second thought aside. It didn’t matter. He wouldn’t say no to Jax either way.

But he answered with a far more subdued, “Of course.”

After agreeing to check in on the set first thing to run through the day’s stunts and meet with the actors and directors, Keaton disconnected.

Brooke looked over and smiled, but the sparkle in her eyes was gone. He hoped this news replaced it.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Better than okay.” He strolled toward her, hoping his heart didn’t get trampled in the next two minutes. At the counter, he pulled her into his arms. “Jax said another stuntman here hurt himself, and they want me to step in until he’s back on his feet.”

Brooke inhaled sharply. Her eyes brightened. Her hands curled into his shirt.

And just like that, Keaton’s heart grew wings.

“Does that mean…?” she asked excitedly, then pulled back. “Wait. What does that mean?”

“If that spark in your eyes is any indication, it means I’m going to have to invest in a very large box of condoms at some point today.”

Brooke broke into a smile and laughed. “So you’re staying? How long?”

“Don’t know.” And right now, he didn’t care. More time was more time. He cupped her face in his hands, kissing her. “I’ll know more after I work with the crew today.”

She pulled on his shirt to drag him into another kiss, her mouth open and warm. “Mmmm,” she murmured between kisses, her lips curved with a sweet smile. “So happy.”

Her phone rang. Her shoulders slumped. Her head dropped back. “Oh my God.”

Keaton laughed and kissed her neck. Then murmured in her ear, “Rendezvous with me at the steps on the trail after work, and I’ll make you forget all about her for the rest of the night.”

5

Brooke sat across the limo from Jillian, trying to hold on to her patience in the face of almost no sleep and Jillian’s unreasonable demands.

“Ms. Dempsey?” The secretary for the Entertainment Tonight reporter they were supposed to be on their way to meet said on the other end of the line, “Are you still there?”

Brooke opened her eyes. “Yes.”

“I’m sorry, but this morning is Hugo’s only opening for the next six weeks. Are you sure Ms. Bailey can’t make it?”

“Um…” Brooke’s gaze skimmed across the limo to Jillian, and she tuned in to her boss’s conversation with Charlotte, Jillian’s agent.

“Look,” Jillian was saying in her you-work-for-me, how-can-you-be-so-stupid tone, “this is very simple, Charlotte. It’s not a negotiation. How many times do we have to go over this? You tell Blue Sky Airlines that if they want my face representing them, then free first-class airfare wherever they fly in perpetuity is part of the contract. Period.”

“No,” Brooke told the woman on the other end of the line, simply not up for attempting to rationalize her boss back to the interview today. “I apologize for the schedule change, but she’s not going to make it.”