over at Sam and flashed him a confident grin.
“What’s not to like?”
“You got me there.”
“I didn’t know cowboys drove luxury sedans,” she said, changing the subject. Every moment she spent with Sam Pleasant felt like she was gambling with her self-control. She knew what she’d said and wasn’t foolish enough to lie to herself about how pushing Sam away was in direct contradiction to how she was starting to feel about him. But she knew it was less than a good idea to bring attention to the way he looked at her or the fact that they both couldn’t seem to stop flirting with each other. The car. The car was a safe subject.
“It’s a little cold for us to take the ATVs.”
“I’m just messing with you,” she replied even though she was trying to marry these two images of Sam Pleasant she had in her head. The cowboy hat and the worn jeans cut quite the figure behind the wheel of a sleek new Tesla.
“My agent told me to stop showing up for meetings in my truck after I started getting real jobs. Also I don’t know if you’ve tried to park an extended cab anywhere in LA but—”
“Actually.”
“Oh, word? Actually what?” His warm laugh filled the car.
“Back in my set PA days I drove a ten pass van for, like, three months. Finding places to park that thing was such a pain in the ass.”
“So you get it.”
“I do.”
“I gave my truck to my cousin.”
“That’s nice of you.”
A soft smile touched the corner of his lips, making Amanda think there was more to that story, but she didn’t push. “So who am I meeting tonight?”
“I think you met my brother Jesse before the wedding.”
“Briefly, yes.”
“It’s his house we’re going to. My brother Zach and his fiancée, Evie, are doing regular date night before date night extreme tomorrow. So they won’t be around.”
“Okay,” Amanda laughed.
“My cousin Lilah will be there. She’s the youngest of all the Pleasants. Well, the grandkids. There are four great-grandkids now.”
“Oh wow, how many grandkids are there?”
“Fifteen. Lilah’s the youngest of eight.”
“Double wow.”
“Did you just say double wow?”
“Sure did. So your brother and your cousin.”
“And my play cousin Corie, she’s Miss Leona’s personal assistant, but we’ve known her her whole life so she’s family.”
“Okay. Got it.”
“And Corie’s kinda girlfriend, Vega.”
“What’s the kinda about?”
“They’ve been doing the will-they won’t-they dance for a minute, but they’re clearly feeling each other.”
“Okay. So siblings, cousins, maybe girlfriend doing the delicate dance.” They came to another high fenced property. Amanda could see the lights from some houses off in the distance, but not much else. Sam slowed the car, then flipped his turn signal even though the long desert road was empty. She did love a responsible driver. She glanced up and saw the lone street sign that looked out of place in this very particular way.
Pleasant Lane. Sam turned toward a set of massive gates, then pushed a button up in his visor. The gate slowly opened.
“Oh. So you have your own street. That’s cool.”
Sam responded with a slight smile as he maneuvered the car up the driveway that seemed a whole mile long. Amanda used Poppy to ground herself in reality as they pulled up to a sprawling cul-de-sac with three large Spanish-style ranch houses. The small dog betrayed her though as soon as they pulled to a stop in the wide driveway of the first house. It started wiggling in her arms, eager to hop out.
“This is where you grew up?” she said. There was no reason for her to be surprised. His grandmother was Hollywood royalty and clearly his brothers weren’t doing too bad for themselves either. A beautiful private estate in the middle of nowhere was the least they could do for themselves.
“No,” Sam said as they parked next to a shiny black pickup truck. “ We moved here after my grandfather passed away. My dad wanted us to be close together so he had Pleasant Lane built.” He cut off the car, then turned to her.
“Ready.”
“Should I not be?”
“I was saying that more to myself.”
“Why’s that?”
“I’ve never brought a girl home after she dumped me.”
Amanda leaned back, glaring at him as a smooth, punch-me-in-the-face smile spread out over his mouth. “You know I thought you would be cool about this, but I’ll give you that. You get one.”
“I’ll take it. Thanks.” His smile flashed even wider before he opened the door and stepped out of the car. Amanda rolled her eyes, following close behind