tell him I’m coming to California to make amends.
Nope, I have to hear from Amber that he was starting to shoot the new version of his dad’s old show this week and he’d be on location on a site just south of the city. The location was teeming with trailers and equipment and trucks and people…
So. Many. People.
Like I’d said—hell. I wasn’t much on crowds in the best of circumstances, and after two planes and a miserably long cab ride, I was not in the mood for the laughter and the loud talking that surrounded me as I made my way past what looked to be a makeshift outdoor cafeteria and a long line of burly guys having a smoke.
“Hey, cowboy, you lost?” someone called out. I squinted and then blinked rapidly at the sight before me. A girl wearing short denim shorts and a plaid shirt tied just under her breasts. Her hair was parted in braids on either side of her face like she was some porno version of Daisy from The Dukes of Hazzard.
And then she took a couple steps closer and I squinted in disbelief. “Amber?”
“Good to see you too, Jack.” She moved toward me with slinky, sexy movements like she was putting on a show. For whom? I had no idea, but her arms twined around my neck, and her barely covered top was pressing up against me and—
Who the hell was this? It was Amber, but not. And not just in looks. It was her smile, her sultry gaze… It was everything about her.
“Okay, what is happening here?” I gently pried her off of me, and with one more laughing look to someone in the distance, she turned back to me with a smile that was much more in keeping with the Amber I’d grown up with.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, my brain finally catching up with my senses.
Her eyes widened and her gaze flicked over my face like she was trying to read me. “Didn’t Brandon tell you?”
I frowned. “You know he hasn’t spoken to me in weeks.” More like a month and five days, but who was counting?
“Yeah, well, I figured by now you’d have learned about… everything.”
My eyes narrowed as hers widened further. “About what, exactly?”
She glanced over my shoulder again. “You know what? I’d really better go. I’ll tell Brandon you’re here and looking for him.”
I opened my mouth to call her back because… I had questions. So many freakin’ questions. “Hey, what did you mean—”
“Do me a favor, ‘kay?” She spun around on one of her spiky heels, and my mouth gaped. Seriously. Who ever heard of cowboy boots with heels?
“What’s that?” I called back.
“After you’ve talked to Brandon…” She hesitated, her sexy saunter faltering for a second as she licked her lips, her amusement fading. “Don’t hate me forever, all right?”
“Hate you for—” I shook my head because she was already heading around a corner. Off to find Brandon, I supposed.
My attention was caught by the most ridiculous scene I’d ever witnessed. And no one was even filming. A young shirtless guy with a six-pack and oiled up skin was attempting to wrangle a horse, and he was failing. Miserably.
My squint turned to a grimace as I watched the scene unfold because… holy crap, someone was going to get hurt. The guy clearly had no idea what he was doing, and his eyes were nearly as wide and panicked as the poor horse’s.
I looked around to see if anyone was going to step in, but when the mare started kicking, I moved in, jumping over the fence that kept this horse and a few others penned in and walking up to the shirtless moron who was trying to hang on to the reins for dear life. “Can I give you a hand here?”
He let go instantly and backed up. “Oh good God, yes,” he breathed.
I didn’t laugh, even though I wanted to. A few minutes later, the horse was under control and I was taking her to the location where she was supposed to be making her acting debut. Poor horse. This was no place for her… or me. “I feel your pain, girl,” I said to her as we reached the spot I’d been pointed to. “Luckily for me, I’ll be out of here just as soon as I make sure my buddy is all right.”
The horse huffed some air right into my face as if to say, ‘you lucky bastard,’ and I laughed, stroking