8. David
8
David
“ I ’m sorry. I’m not familiar with your company. What other shows does New Millennia produce?” Drew asked.
That he cared had me scoffing. He could not seriously be considering this bullshit reality show about chicken farmers, could he?
Maybe he was just playing along to get under Lucy’s skirt. Going with that idea, I stayed quiet and listened.
“Our newest and hottest hits have been Hot House starring Tasha and Clay. And Trash to Treasure featuring designer Gabrielle Lee,” Heather explained.
“And don’t forget Trash to Treasure Wedding with Gabby’s hottie hubby Zach,” Lucy chimed in.
Lips pressed tight, Drew shook his head. “Nope. I’m not familiar with any of those.”
Well thank God for small miracles. Maybe Drew hadn’t turned in his man card after all.
“Those are all aired on HNS, the Home Nation Station.” The slogan rolled easily off Heather’s tongue, like she was the station’s pitch person. Hell, she might be for all I knew.
“Ah. Yeah, I don’t get that channel.” Drew lifted a shoulder.
“Um, there’s also our newest show, Cold Feet . That’s going to be on the Reality Network.”
“Yes.” Drew sat up straighter. “I saw the preview. I loved it.”
“You did?” I frowned.
He glanced at me. “Yeah. The women only wear bikinis. Like all day, every day.”
“Ah.” I nodded.
That explained it. Drew watched for the scantily clad women. I leaned back, relaxing again.
“The concept is we take a bride and a groom and lock them in a beach house for the month before the wedding with eight hot groomsmen and bridesmaids and they have to decide if they still want to get married at the end or go with one of the others in the house,” Heather explained for my benefit.
I drew my brows low. “That sounds absolutely diabolical.”
“I know. Isn’t it great?” Drew grinned and then leaned forward to reach for the pen on the table between him and Lucy. “All right. This all sounds good.”
“Whoa. Wait. What do you mean this sounds good?” I asked.
He shot me a confused look. “I’m gonna sign.”
“You don’t want to think about it?”
“No need.” Drew pulled the paper toward him.
I reached out and pulled it away. “I really think you should sleep on it.”
Drew’s brow furrowed. He turned to Heather and Lucy, holding up one finger. “Give me a minute? My friend and I will be right back. Just hang out here.”
“Sure.” Lucy sent him a sensuous smile that I had no doubt Drew felt all the way down to the dick that was obviously doing the thinking for him.
I stood and followed him out the door and into the yard. He kept walking until we were at the picnic table under the tree where we’d eaten lunch with Heather on Saturday.
He turned to face me. “What is up with you?”
“Me? What’s up with you ? You’re about to sign a paper without even reading it. I really think you should have a lawyer look it over.”
“David, you heard them. It’s just permission for a simple twenty-minute video.”
I shook my head. I didn’t believe anything was simple when it came to Hollywood people. “I don’t trust them.”
Drew laughed. “You don’t trust Heather? The woman rescued a rooster and won’t use anything stronger than dang when she cusses.”
“Of course I trust Heather.”
The woman was an open book. There was no way she could be duplicitous. She couldn’t hide shit. I could see everything she felt and thought.
“That doesn’t mean I have to trust the company she works for,” I pointed out.
He sucked in a breath. “Okay. I’ll have a lawyer look over the contract. If nothing is shady I’m signing it.” Drew pinned me with his stare. “All right?”
I nodded. “Good enough.”
“So, you happen to know a lawyer around here?” Drew asked, smiling.
Anna’s business card was still in my wallet from when I’d visited her about the shelter. She was a lawyer as well as an advocate for animals. If she couldn’t handle it, I bet she knew someone who could.
“Yeah. Actually, I do.”
Drew bobbed his head. “All right. Let’s go back inside so you can tell them.”
“Me?” I asked.
“Yes, you.” Drew shot me a wide smile then headed for the house.
In the kitchen the two women looked excited. Little did they know I was about to put a damper on their day.
I took the paper from the table. “So Drew is going to have a lawyer look this over before he decides.”
Heather was visibly taken aback from the change in plans.
“That’s perfectly fine,” Lucy commented for the both of them.
“Thanks for understanding. You know, I’m sure nothing is going to change but—” Drew began.
“It’s best to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s.” Lucy nodded.
“Exactly.” Drew smiled.
“Of course.” She flashed her pearly whites at him.
Lucy was definitely the smoother of the two women. That didn’t make me trust her more though. I’d take Heather and her inability to hide everything going through her head over her slick co-worker any day.
In fact, maybe I should take advantage of that fact right now and get the real story on this show and this Lucy person who Drew seemed to be so blinded by.
“Hey, feel like that visit with Rowdy now?” I asked her.
“Yeah. Thanks. I’d like to check on him before we leave.”
“Make sure I didn’t eat him for lunch while you were talking business?” I asked, not really joking since I knew how she felt about me.
When she didn’t reply I knew I was right. This woman didn’t trust me as far as she could throw me. And that was fine, because I didn’t trust her company and their reality show contract either.
We walked toward the coop’s wire run. Even from a distance I could spot Rowdy inside. He was not only the lone cock in the yard, he was also the only red bird in a cage of white hens.
Heather smiled as we got closer and I was suddenly jealous of the damn rooster. I knew I couldn’t put that look on her face.
“Hey, boy. How are you? Having fun?” she asked.
I let out a snort. “Pretty sure he is. Having lots of fun. Often.”
She shot me a glare. “Life isn’t just about sex.”
I laughed. “His life is. It’s pretty much his sole purpose for living.”
She scowled but didn’t argue. I counted that as a win.
At least until she spun to me, put a hand on her hip and asked, “Why are you so against this show?”
I had a better question. Knocking back the brim of my hat I asked, “Why are you so dead set on getting Drew to do it?”
She hesitated, which only made me suspicious. Maybe I didn’t trust her as much as I told Drew I did. Finally, she shook her head.
“Talk.” I folded my arms and waited.
“Fine. You want to know why? Because coming up with the show pitch was fun and different and for the first time in my two years at Millennia in the marketing department, one of the executive producers actually bothered to learn my name. And it’s all because I was telling Lucy about being here Saturday with you and Drew and she commented that it sounded like the makings of a good show.”
That was quite a rant—and I believed every word of it. But more than that, one point stood out to me from amid the rest. “So, you were telling your friend about me, were you?”
She leveled a glare on me. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“I won’t. I’d wager you were telling her all sorts of horrible things about me and what I might do to your rooster.”
She smiled sweetly. “I was, actually.”
I let out a laugh. “Figured as much.”
“So your turn. Why don’t you like the idea?”
“Because I don’t trust this New Millennia Media of yours one little bit.” I matched her truth with one of my own.
“Why not?”
“I think they’ll do what’s best for them, whether it’s good for Drew or not.”
“It’s just some video of a day in the life of a guy and his chickens. Simple.” She spread her empty hands wide.
There was that word. Simple .
If I’d learned one thing in my thirty-two years on this Earth it was that nothing was as simple as it seemed, and this whole thing was already getting way too complicated for my liking.
“You know, you could be in it too while you’re here. The offer’s not just for Drew. We’re ready to start shooting right away.”
My eyes widened. “You think that’s my problem with this whole thing? That it’s Drew and not me?” I scoffed. “Sorry, darlin’. You couldn’t be more wrong.”
After Strickland got dragged through the press at the end of last year, the last thing I wanted was to be in front of the camera.
I glanced at her and noticed the strange expression, the pink cheeks, the way she wouldn’t meet my gaze. “What’s wrong?”
“You call all women that?” she asked.
“Do I call all women what?”
“Darlin’.”
I couldn’t help my grin. “Why? You like it?”
Her brows drew low. “No.”
“Liar.”
She spun to face me now. “That’s rude to say.”
“Even if it’s the truth?” I asked.
She opened her mouth and I looked forward to the continuation of our verbal sparring since it was my favorite part of being with Heather. But after sleeping in the sun since we’d gotten here, her damn rooster chose that moment to wake up and get amorous—loudly.
That threw Heather completely into a tizzy. Her cheeks going from pink to red, she spun away from the wire run. “I have to get inside and get Lucy. We need to head back to work.”
“Mmm, hmm.” I knew bullshit when I saw it, but I let her have her delusion that I believed her excuse.
Meanwhile I took note of two things I’d learned today. I could completely throw her off balance by calling her darlin’, which I intended to do often from now on. And any sex, even of the chicken variety, embarrassed her.
I wasn’t sure how to use that tidbit yet but I stored it away for later.
Today had been enlightening, on so many levels.