The Girl From Summer Hill (Summer Hill 1)

p; “Puh-lease,” Casey said. “He’s an actor. I never know what’s real and what’s not.”

“I’m glad to hear you can see that. I was worried about you having a second heartbreak so soon after your breakup, if he returns to L.A.”

“Why not? For three days I can eat masses of ice cream and chocolate and tell myself I deserve it.”

Stacy laughed. “You’ll want to do that after you see Nate and realize that I have landed the only perfect man on the planet. I feel sorry for all other women.”

“I bet he looks like a frog.”

Stacy sighed. “No, he is utterly beautiful. You should see him shirtless! He is the most gorgeous—”

As Casey listened to her half sister extol the virtues of the man in her life, she couldn’t help wishing she could reply in kind. She wished she could tell about her and Tate in the little red truck, and about the peacock, and about what happened in the well house. But she said nothing about any of it, not even their dinner together. Any of it would cause too many questions. “What does this guy do for a living?”

“That’s the oddest thing,” Stacy said. “I’m not sure. I know it has something to do with whatever Kit did before he retired, but I don’t know what that is.”

They stayed on the phone for another twenty minutes, but Casey didn’t reveal anything else about her and Tate. After she hung up and got into bed, she wished he were there beside her.

“You don’t think people are going to be suspicious when we both disappear for lunch?” Tate asked. They were in the well house, their own secret place, and they had just made love on the pillows of Letty and Ace. It had been nearly a week since they first made love. During that time, unless it was for the play, he and Casey had done their best to not look at each other. But the moment there was a break, they met in a predetermined place, usually in the well house.

“I think people see you as untouchable.” She ran her hand down his bare chest. “Still leaving tomorrow?”

He kissed her fingertips. “I have to. It shouldn’t be more than a couple of days. And while I’m gone, you guys can rehearse in the theater. You’ll be glad of that. No peacock screeching.”

What she didn’t want to say was how much she was going to miss him. She didn’t even want to say that to herself. “You’ll probably get asked to star in another big-deal movie and never return. Poor Josh will have to play Darcy.”

“Probably,” he said seriously.

In alarm, she looked up at him. When she saw that he was teasing, she put her head back down. “From what Stacy said, Kit’s nephew is a real beauty. Maybe he’ll come here and play Darcy.”

“For the first time, I’m glad there are no kissing scenes.” Laughing, they began to kiss, their bodies close together.

“We better go back.” Casey’s lips were against his.

“Definitely.” But they didn’t stop kissing.

Something hit the roof of the little building, making Casey jump. “What was that?”

“Him,” Tate said. Draped in front of the window was the tip of the peacock’s tail. “Guess he decided to try to fly.”

Casey was quickly getting dressed.

“We have a few more minutes.”

“I better go.”

Reluctantly, Tate sat upright. “I don’t understand why we have to sneak around. I feel like some teenager from the wrong side of the tracks and you’re the good girl who—”

She stopped buttoning her shirt to look at him. “Is that the plot of one of your movies?”

“I’m too old to play a teenager, but it’s a script I turned down.” He put his hand on her arm. “I want to take you out to dinner. I want to go to a movie together. I want us to sit on a park bench and eat ice cream.”

“You’d cause a riot wherever you went.”

He didn’t reply, just looked at her.

“Okay, so yes, you can disguise yourself quite well, but…” She couldn’t think how to finish that. Every day of the past week he’d asked her the same question, but she’d never come close to telling him the truth. What was she to say: “I want to protect myself from what I know you’re going to do to me”? She didn’t want to put those words into the open, because then there’d be a discussion about the future. In September he’d return to his own world and she’d stay where she was.

But hey, Jack had offered her a job cooking, so maybe Tate would too!