Chapter 18
Laughter drifted over the patio of Wyatt and Wade's apartment. They’d finished a lovely barbeque dinner and were now enjoying a round of cool drinks and good conversation.
"You've got to be kidding me," Wyatt boomed as he leaned back in his chair, his eyes locked on Ellie. "You're telling me this lucky son of a gun is rehearsing lines with you?" He brought his hands to his chest. "When I'm right here and readily available?"
Ellie grinned. “What can I say? I've only got eyes for Nash."
In truth, she hadn't expected Wyatt to be so personable, let alone flirtatious. But she sensed there was more going on behind the scenes. She sensed that Wyatt was working to mend fences between him and his only blood brother, Nash.
Ellie respected that. She didn't fully understand the issues between them, but from what she’d gathered, there’d been a lot of hurt on both ends. That hurt had perpetuated through their adolescent years, years known to be the most stubborn and bullheaded by nature.
"I don't know why she’d consider either of you when she's got this fine specimen to work with." Wade flexed his arms at either side of him and puffed his chest. "After all, I am the bull riding state champion of the year.”
Nash shook his head. "Boys, boys, it's like offering the girl jellybeans when she's already got chocolate cake."
That earned a mixture of laughs and jeers.
"Okay, okay, you know we had to get that out of our systems,” Wyatt said, “but tell us what this whole movie-making process looks like. You knew you had the part a long time ago, right?"
"Right,” she said. “There are basically three phases. Pre-production, where the cast studies the story, the characters, and their lines. Then there’s the phase we’re starting now—the production itself, which is when we film.
That takes roughly a hundred days, give or take.
In this case it will require less—it’s a simple romance movie—no action or anything—but in some cases, it requires a whole lot more.
And after that is post-production, where they take all the footage and turn it into a movie.
And while they do that, we actors give interviews, help promote, that type of thing. "
She hoped they wouldn't ask what that type of thing looked like. At some point, Nash would come into play, at the very least in interviews and such, and at most, as her plus-one at public events to promote the show. So far, Nash hadn't told anyone from his family about signing the contract, and according to a discussion they’d had during the flight there, he hoped he didn’t have to.
"I've a question for you," Wade said. "Do you ever get any creepy stalkers coming after you? That happens sometimes, right? I mean, that's why you have a bodyguard and everything."
Ellie nodded because, yes, they had met said bodyguard since Bronson was the one who’d driven them there and escorted them to the front door. He’d be manning the set the entire time Ellie was in Dallas.
Still, something about Wade’s question caused Ellie to think about the horrible dream she’d had. The bouquet of purple roses and the now chilling sight of the Wolf on the card.
Ellie didn't let herself think about it in the light of day, which is probably why her mind summoned it in the dark of night, but she did not want to view Wolf—a dangerous man her dad brought into her career and even more concerning, into her life—as a stalker—or even as a danger to her at all.
She wanted to believe that he was a business investor, one interested in staying at least slightly above the law by not murdering her dad and giving him a way out with a cut of Ellie's lucrative career.
"Uh, oh," Wade said.
"Uh, oh, what?” Nash asked.
Wyatt piped up with the answer. "She hesitated." He hadn't said it jokingly, either.
Ellie hurried and shook her head. She hadn't even told Nash about Wolf, and she wasn't about to tell him in front of the whole crew. "There’ve been a few creepy incidents, yeah, but nothing we haven’t been able to manage."
Her own answer played in a loop in her mind. Would this help manage the problem? How would this contract assure her that someone like Wolf would actually let her be—a man who was known to go outside of the law?
And would her dad end up getting himself into more trouble and the nightmare would start all over again? Perhaps that had already happened, and they were just waiting to drop the other shoe.
Ellie sensed her shoulders were deflating, so she sucked in a breath and glanced around the table. "Sorry,” she said. “I'm just…a little exhausted after that flight."
"Oh, yeah, yeah, we can call it a night if you'd like," Wyatt said.
But Ellie didn't want to end things on such a grim tone. Already, she could sense what hovered in the air: fear, and it was growing stronger the more she thought about that stupid card.
"First,” she said, channeling her trusty acting skills to put her face and voice right.
“I want to hear about you guys. Is it true we are going to tempt the world-famous practically impossible BUDS test?" At least she didn’t have to fake her interest. Ellie was dying to know more about the two members of Nash’s family who’d actually chosen to live away from the ranch.
Wyatt and Wade looked at each other, then glanced at Nash.
Nash, however, didn’t realize, because he was looking at Ellie, concern etched into his face. He must have sensed her energy and known that something was off.
Ellie cleared her throat. "What are we missing here?" she asked in Nash's place.
Nash seemed to snap out of his daze in time to eye his brothers.
"Well," Wyatt said. "I’m glad I get to tell you this in person; we decided not to do the SEAL thing after all."
"Not because we couldn't make it," Wade inserted. “It was just too much of a commitment away from home, and neither of us wanted to be gone so long.”
This was the perfect distraction Ellie was looking for. It was wonderful news.
"You're kidding," Nash said, excitement in his tone.
"I told you I was missing my pesky younger brother, didn’t I?" Wyatt said with a shrug. "We've already got a transfer in the works. We’re coming home in the spring."
A rash of questions broke out amidst an obvious celebration between the three. And while Ellie did her best to be a part of that, smiling and catching what was said for the most part, she was inwardly gripping hold of that fear once more.
Was she in danger?
Worse yet, had she put Nash in danger?
The mere idea was enough to send her into panic mode. She did her best to contain it, but, Ellie was already starting to regret signing the contract.