Dear Cupid (27 page)

Mike shifted, looking restless as his eyes searched the crowd. When he spotted her on the hill, he went still. He smiled slowly, and her body tingled with the simple pleasure of seeing him, of knowing that in a moment she’d be talking with him, laughing with him, just
being
with him.

Katy, girl,
she told herself,
you are definitely in trouble
. The thought made her nerves jangle as she watched him excuse himself and stride up the hill to join them.

“You came,” he said, sounding as breathless as she felt. Their eyes held for a moment and she wondered if he would kiss her.
Not in front of Dylan
, her panicked brain pleaded, even though her body argued strongly in the other direction.

As if sensing her quandary, he turned his attention to her son. “Hey, kid, what do you think?”

“I think Mom’s right.” Dylan nodded gravely. “Y’all are definitely serious.”

“Nah, this here’s fun and games. What I do on the computer, now that’s serious work.”

Kate looked about, desperate for a way to calm her pounding heart. “I can’t believe it takes so many people to film one scene.”

“It doesn’t,” Mike said, nodding toward the river. “Most of the people here are just using the stunt as an excuse to take a little time off. It’s not every day you get to see someone do something this stupid.”

“Stupid?” she asked.

“Well, I ask you—would you jump off that bridge? On horseback?”

From where she stood, it didn’t look that high. But then she tried to imagine standing on the bridge looking down with the added height of the train and horse beneath her. “Absolutely not.”

Mike nodded in agreement. “The one thing I’ve learned about stunts involving horses is that anything can happen. Like, what if Trey lands in front of the horse and gets pawed when the animal starts swimming? Or what if he gets kicked in the head on the way down? I’m telling you, anyone who does this kind of work for a living is nuts.”

“I think you might be right,” she said.

“What about the horse?” Dylan asked, and his hand tightened around hers. “Could it get hurt?”

“Nah.” Mike ruffled Dylan’s hair. “Trey would never do anything he thought might hurt one of his horses, even if the ASPCA would let him. With all the animal rights police running around these days, you could beat up a kid on a film set easier than you could abuse an animal.”

Kate scowled at him playfully. “Well, I would hope you wouldn’t abuse either.”

“You sure?” He winked at her. “And here we were talking about tossing a kid off the bridge, just to see how he’d land.” He bent playfully toward her son. “What do you say, Dylan? You want to go for a swim?”

“No way!” Laughing, the boy ducked behind Kate.

“Ha, ha, very funny.” She tried to smirk at Mike but it felt more like a smile.

“Oh, well, if you want to be a killjoy.” Mike gestured to a row of folding canvas chairs set up behind one of the cameras. “You want to meet some of the crew before the action begins?”

“Actually, I think we have a better view from up here,” she said.

“You got it,” he agreed easily. They settled down amid the wildflowers with Dylan between them. Kate tucked the skirt of her sundress about her raised knees. In the distance, voices shouted over the drone of generators as the film crew prepared for the shoot. A burst of laughter came from the crowd of other observers.

“So,” Mike said, giving her his full attention, “did you get those sample packets of your column off to any papers yet?”

She groaned. “No, but I will as soon as I have time to put them together.”

“Come on, Kate,” he scolded her lightly. “How long does it take to write a cover letter and stick a few pages in an envelope?”

“It’s not like I haven’t been busy this week.”

“Kate.” He gave her an exasperated look. “You’ll never sell your column if you don’t send it out.”

I won
’
t get rejected either
. “I’m working on it, okay?”

“I know.” He reached past Dylan and rubbed her shoulders. The contact relaxed her shoulders and melted something inside her. Studying his face in the sunlight, the kindness in the blue eyes surrounded by generous laugh lines, she felt the wall about her heart weaken a bit more.

As their gazes met and held, he seemed to read her mind and silently urge her to give in, to let go of her fear.

I can
’
t
, she wanted to tell him. Some instinct warned her that a broken heart over Mike would hurt  even more than what she’d suffered over Edward. Because loving a man like Mike with all her soul would be so very easy. While loving Edward had been girlhood fantasy.

“Oh, look!” Dylan pointed down the hill. “The train’s moving. Is he gonna jump now?”

Mike broke eye contact, and the moment was gone. “Not yet,” he said, glancing at his watch. “First Frank has to check all of the measurements from the cameras to the opening of the freight car to be sure they’re right.”

“What do you mean?” Kate asked.

“The animation has to be the same scale and angle as the live-action shot. This scene will be the climax of the movie when the train explodes, destroying my robot. Kevin Lee’s character will barely escape by leaping from the train on horseback. In order for the effect to work, all the technical data has to be dead-on accurate.”

“Cool!” Dylan’s face tipped up toward Mike’s. “So, we’re gonna see the train blow up too?”

“Not today.” Mike smiled at the boy. “That’s what the audience in the theater will see. Today, all we’ll see is Trey doing the stunt. The rest of the animation team will create the fireball on their computers back in California, while I finish creating the robot here. Once everything’s done, a film compositor will combine all the elements to make it look as if everything happened at once.”

“And it’ll look real?” Dylan asked.

“As real as the dinosaurs we created for
Jurassic Park
.”

“You worked on
Jurassic Park
?” Dylan’s eyes widened.

“Nearly every animator I know worked on that one.” Mike regaled Dylan with stories from the making of
Jurassic Park
and some other movies he’d worked on.

Watching them, Kate saw her son’s eyes fill with awe, and her fear veered off in a new direction. If Dylan formed an attachment to Mike, how would he feel when his new hero disappeared? And if she couldn’t give Mike what he seemed to want from her, he would definitely disappear at some point. Or, even worse, she would give him her heart, only to watch his current interest turn to irritation—as it had with Edward. If she, as a woman, couldn’t compete with a stockbroker’s job for attention, how could she ever compete with a job like Mike’s?

She frowned at the thought. Could Mike and Edward share that trait? They were polar opposites in every way except one: their absolute absorption with their careers. What if Mike, like Edward, wanted a woman in his life primarily for the convenience? Someone to take care of all his needs but have none of her own?

Could a woman possibly figure that out before she gave her heart? Or was love an all-or-nothing gamble? Did she dare take that chance with Mike, knowing up front how much he loved his career? He had, after all, hired her to deal with things so he could dedicate more time to work. Was that a big red flag she’d be stupid to ignore? Or was she foolishly holding back for false reasons?

“Here we go,” Mike said, standing up.

Kate stood, as well, forcing her attention on the train as it moved onto the bridge. The director motioned with his hand and the mechanical arm holding his seat and camera rose. Downstream, near the ambulance and vet’s truck, Jesse mounted a second horse, and rode to the water’s edge.

“I didn’t realize Jesse was in this shot,” Kate said.

“She’s not,” Mike explained. “She’s waiting out of camera range to catch Trey’s horse if it gets away from him.”

Someone hollered for quiet. The director spoke into a walkie-talkie and Trey appeared on foot in the doorway of the freight car, waved to Jesse, then disappeared back into the car.

“What you can’t see,” Mike explained in a hushed voice, “is the platform attached to the other side of the train. Trey will back the horse onto that, so the horse can take a full stride before he jumps.”

Kate nodded, her gaze riveted to the train.

Then, suddenly, the horse and rider shot through the opening of the freight car to arch through the air. Trey leapt sideways, free of the saddle, his arms cartwheeling as he fell. Horse and rider landed with a splash several feet apart and disappeared beneath the water. The instant they resurfaced, Trey frantically swam toward his horse and grabbed hold of the saddle horn as the animal splashed and pawed its way toward the bank. Kate’s breath caught as she watched them struggle. Something must have gone wrong. Glancing toward Jesse and the rescue team, she wondered why they weren’t doing anything.

Finally, the horse reached the bank, literally dragging the half-drowned Trey from the water. Kate covered her mouth with both hands when Trey collapsed face first onto the ground, his body seized by a violent fit of coughing. The horse staggered, with head down, as if barely able to stand. She took a step forward, not sure what she meant to do, but Mike grabbed her arm, holding her back. An instant later, someone yelled, “Cut,” and applause broke out along both sides of the river.

Beside her, Mike clapped and whistled as Trey jumped nimbly to his feet, shaking water from his long hair. The horse, which had looked on the brink of death a moment before, tossed its head as if laughing. Trey grabbed the bridle and gave the horse a big kiss right on its nose as the crew gathered around them. Jesse rode up and tossed a towel at Trey.

“Had ya fooled, didn’t they?” Mike winked at Kate.

“Scared the tar out of me is more like it.” She pressed a hand to her heart.

“That was too cool!” Dylan said. “Can we go down and see the horses?”

“You bet.” Mike reached down, grabbed Dylan beneath the arms, and swung the boy up to ride on his hip. Dylan giggled in response.

Kate froze, startled by the sight of Mike and her son laughing together. She realized with blinding clarity her heart wasn’t the only one at risk. If she fell in love with Mike, and he turned out to be another Edward, it would crush her son.

Oblivious to her anxiety, Mike started down the hill, calling to her over his shoulder. “Come on, let’s go join the party.”

Okay, don’t panic, she told herself. No one had given their heart away. They were simply here to enjoy the day. Dylan deserved a little fun after the week he’d had. And frankly, so did she.

~ ~ ~

“Mom, lookit me!” Dylan called from his perch in front of Jesse on her horse. His mother didn’t hear him, though, with all the people standing between them, laughing and talking. But he wanted her to see him sitting on a horse. An actual horse! Jesse even let him hold the reins, because he’d promised not to pull or jiggle them. He wouldn’t either, because Jesse said horses didn’t like that, and she knew
everything
about horses.

Just like Mike knew everything about movies. Mike had introduced him to all his friends, and even lifted him up onto the horse when Jesse said it was okay.

“Mom!” he called again. “Lookit me!”

She finally turned around, and her eyes went round. “Oh my goodness! Are you okay up there?”

“I’m a cowboy!” He bounced up and down, wishing Jesse would make the horse go faster, instead of just walking around Mike in a slow circle.

“No, don’t kick,” Jesse said, placing a hand on his leg.

“Sorry.” He glanced up at her and smiled. He liked the way she smiled back at him. She was really pretty. Even prettier than his teacher, Miss Marshall.

“Dylan, be careful.”

He glanced over and saw his mom chewing her thumbnail. For one scary moment, he thought she would charge over and scoop him into her arms, the way she did sometimes when he did something she thought hurt him. He braced himself, ready to holler if she tried.

“Maybe you should come down,” she said.

“Nooo!” He pressed back into Jesse even as she pulled the reins and the horse quit walking.

“I’m sorry,” Jesse said to his mom. “Mike said it would be okay.”

His mom shot Mike a funny look, like she was mad even through she kept smiling.

“Kate?” Mike frowned back at her. “What’s wrong? Dylan’s perfectly safe. Jesse’s got a good hold on him.”

“I know, he’s just ...”

“Having a really good time,” Mike said with a laugh.

“You’re right.” His mom nodded like a stiff doll.

“Hmm, hey, buddy.” Mike stepped closer and patted Dylan’s leg. “Maybe you should come down.”

“No. I like riding.”

“I know, but I bet riding makes a man hungry, and they’re serving barbecue.”  Mike held up his arms. “What do you say we hit the chow tent?”