Stunt Doubled: A Movie Star Standalone

“Except Tina said she left about three. She’d be back by now.”

“Sounds like Mac’s not the only one who’s worried.”

I shot him a look that could melt ice. “I’m the one Mac’s going to blame if she wandered off in the desert and got lost.”

“Maybe she got sick of this and went back home,” Tanner said.

Ford shook his head. “Ronnie’s not a quitter.”

“Isn’t that what she did when she left her family, her job, and her life and showed up here?” I demanded.

Before Ford could respond, headlights flashed across the living room windows.

“That’s got to be her,” Tanner said, jumping to his feet like a puppy who hears his master’s car. It looked like he was as lovesick over our houseguest as Ford was. Both of them were suckers for a beautiful woman. Yeah, Ronnie was hot. So the fuck what? I worked with gorgeous women all the time. Sure, in the beginning, I’d gone for their looks. But now I knew better. Character and integrity were more important. And in this line of work, they were rarer qualities.

Ford and Tanner walked toward the front door, but I just went to the window. Ronnie climbed out of the passenger seat of a dark sedan at the same time the driver got out. She walked around the car and hugged him. Well, now we knew what she’d been up to. She worked fast—she’d only been here, what, three days? And had already found a booty call.

I was sitting down when Ronnie entered the living room followed by her entourage—formerly known as my brother and my best friend. Now they seemed to be her devotees. “Call Mac,” I growled.

“Excuse me?” Ronnie glared at me, swaying a bit on her feet. Was she drunk? Guess the fellow wined and dined her before taking that lithe body of hers.

“He’s worried.”

“How is that my problem?” she demanded. Tanner opened his mouth but she whirled on him, nearly overbalancing. “And don’t tell me he’s my father, because he’s not. He’s your father. So one of you can call him.”

Tanner held up his hands in a gesture of surrender—big surprise there—but Ford stood his ground. “You can’t blame him for being worried, Ronnie.”

“Can’t I? Where was his concern the past nineteen years? I could’ve been hit by a car or fallen down a well or gotten kidnapped, and he wouldn’t even have known. Because he didn’t care then, so I don’t give a damn if he thinks he cares now. I don’t answer to him.”

“You apparently don’t give a damn about us, either,” I said.

Surprise registered on her face followed by disbelief. “I told Ford I didn’t need a ride home. What, were you holding dinner for me? I can just picture you sitting around the table, waiting for a woman you just met and don’t like very much. Doesn’t sound very likely to me.”

“We didn’t know when you’d be back,” Ford said mildly.

“So?”

“Forget it,” I advised them. “She doesn’t give a crap what we might think. Why should she? Mac got her a job. Gave her a place to live. Got us to chauffeur her around. And yeah, I don’t remember it being in my contract that I had to share this house with a pampered princess, but hey, what Ronnie wants, Ronnie gets.”

Ronnie’s eyes practically glowed red. She took two steps toward me and tripped over the edge of the rug under the coffee table. Tanner rushed forward to steady her. She shook him off and glared at me. “You think this is what I had in mind? When Mac told me he had a job and a place for me to stay, I believed him. After all, if a parent can’t do one damn favor for their child in two decades, then who can? I didn’t know I’d be staying here.”

“If you hate it all that much, why don’t you go stay with lover boy?” I glanced pointedly out the window.

“Are you insane?” she shrieked.

“Are you?” It wasn’t the strongest comeback ever, but she practically had steam coming out of her ears.

“No, I’m drunk. What the hell is your excuse?” Since she didn’t give me a chance to respond, I figured she meant it as a rhetorical question. “I didn’t ask for this. I thought I’d be staying in a hotel, not with you guys. I never even knew you worked in show biz.”

I snorted, but Ford jumped in before I could say something cutting. “It’s not exactly a secret that Aiden Hunt is a movie star.”

“I didn’t know either of their names,” Ronnie said, which seemed pretty damn hard to believe. Her voice grew quieter. “I never wanted to.”

“Why?” Tanner asked.

“Because you replaced me.” She took a wobbly step back.

“It’s okay, Ronnie. Don’t think about that now,” Ford said, standing next to her. “Why don’t you come in the kitchen with me and get something to eat?” Not a bad idea to get some food into her in her current state.