For the Love of His Life (18 page)

Raul had a look of anticipation on his face as he spoke absent-mindedly. “Yes, some do.” He leaned forward, “Why don’t you and I go on a picnic tomorrow, Veronica? I haven’t done much hiking up here, since I’ve only been running with you. I’ve done a couple of short hikes with Jake, and Ivan took me for a stroll around his lake while I got to sample some of his Russian cigarettes.”

Raul made a face to show how much he enjoyed that and all of them laughed.

“Why? Do you need a break too?” Veronica felt words come out of her mouth, but her thoughts were on having Raul all to herself for a few hours, in the woods.

He frowned, “Yea. I’ve been studying and memorizing until I almost feel like I wrote the damned script. I can not only say my words, but everyone else’s too.”

Jared nodded approvingly. “That’s the sign of a real professional, Raul. That way you know everyone’s cues, not just your own. I’m really glad to hear that.”

He looked from one to the other of them and smiled. “Sounds like you both need a day off. I give you both dispensation. Go and frolic in the woods, my children. Enjoy yourself, because it may be your last chance before the filming starts. After that there won’t be any more opportunities to loaf around because I happen to know that your evil slave-driver of a director won’t give you any time off! Mwah-hah-hah!”

Raul rolled his eyes and moaned in mock pain, while the waitress brought three cold beers, along with Veronica’s soup.

“So, how do we do this picnic thing?” Raul asked casually.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never gone on a picnic?” Jared’s surprise was genuine.

Raul shrugged and shook his head. “No. I know you bring food with you and eat it outside. I think there is a blanket involved, so you’re not picking twigs and rocks out of your ass for days afterwards. But beyond that, I have no idea what the process is…”

Veronica finished her soup and grinned at him.

“I’ll take care of the food. After I get the pies into the oven tomorrow, I’ll pack some sandwiches and stuff, along with something to drink. I’ve got a couple of bottles of a good prosecco in my fridge at home. I’ll bring one, since we won’t need an opener that way. And I’ll grab a couple of the plastic champagne glasses that we always have in the cabinets here, to use for our New Year’s Eve celebration. I think there are some pomegranate seeds left from yesterday’s custard. I’ll bring those too, because it’s cool to watch them sink to the bottom of the glass then ride back up on the bubbles.”

Raul had a crooked smile on his face and Veronica only broke eye contact with him because her dinner arrived. The men resumed their discussion about the logistics involved with the making of the movie, and Veronica only partly paid attention while she furtively watched Raul’s facial expressions change from serious to amused and everything in-between.

Of course he’s got to know how to portray all kinds of emotions because he’s an actor…duh! But when he first got here all he did was sneer. He’s so much better looking now that he’s more relaxed. It’s like he pretended to be confident before, but he really is now. And it should be illegal for him to be so good-looking that I can’t take my eyes off him! Oh shit! Is Jared talking to me again?

“I said, what do you think about that, Ronnie?” Jared spoke louder to break into her thoughts. “Honestly, girl, it’s like your body is here, but not your mind!”

She shot a quick look at Raul and saw that he had a quirky smile on his lips as if he was aware of what she was thinking. That alone made her defensive.

“Brain…hurts,” she began as if she was a zombie. “No, really, I’m kind of brain-dead from all of the numbers I’ve been crunching today. Having the day off tomorrow is just what the doctor ordered. I’m sure I’ll be back to my usual attentive and argumentative self after I’ve had a day to relax.”

Somehow she knew without glancing at him that Raul was smiling wider. She continued to look at Jared, “So what was it you asked me?”

“ I said I have this idea that you could make a half-dozen extra pies maybe one day a week, and bring them and some of Gram-Marie’s soup out to the set, so we can give the crew a feast. We’ll be eating a lot of junk food because we’re so far up from the town that many will be living on chips and soda. But at least one day a week I’ll know everyone is getting a good meal into them. Do you think Gram-Marie will agree to that?”

“You’ll pay for all of that, of course?”

“No, I’ll want you to do it all for the glory of being able to feed my stars. To pay up I’ll mention you in the credits. Duh! Shit, Ronnie, of course I’ll pay for it. I’ll even pay for your gas to get out by us. I’d have you do it more often, but it’s going to be prime tourist season, so I know you’ll be busy. But I think one day a week will be good.”

“Let me ask Gram-Marie and see what she thinks. I’m sure she’ll have her own ideas about what it should cost you. I’ll let you know.”

Jared nodded. “Great. Now Raul, you said you would come with me to walk around the set area and see the land we’re going to be working on. I want to know where you want your trailer to be, since you’re the star so you get first choice. We’ll figure out everyone else’s from that.”

“Okay. I’m anxious to see the woods I’m supposed to be living in, so I can start to commune with the trees.”

Veronica grinned. “Back when you first got here, I’d have been afraid you’d pick a fight with the trees…you know, punch them, rough them up a little…let them know who’s boss. But now you need to remember, the trees are your friends. Give them a big hug and let them know you’re friendly.”

Jared snickered. “Please, Ronnie. I wanted you to teach him how to survive out in the woods…not how to look silly in front of the crew.”

“Oh? And being nude and pretending to make love to a woman in front of thirty-or-so fully-dressed crew members isn’t looking silly in front of them? Puh-leeze!” Raul rolled his eyes.

Veronica’s eyes widened as she realized that he was serious, and that was part of his job.

“Don’t look so shocked, Ronnie,” Jared teased her. “It’s not a porno we’re making. But he will have to convincingly portray a man very much in love with a woman he doesn’t think he’s good enough for, yet who finds the courage to dig deep into himself and show her he can become the man she deserves.”

There was an extended silence for a while, that dragged on longer than was comfortable for anyone. The waitress bustling out to get the plates was a welcome relief.

After paying the check, Jared got up. “Are you ready, Raul?”

Raul got up too. He smiled at Veronica. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning for our run, right?”

She nodded. “Yup. Then we can head on up to the Magnetic Rock trail. It’s got some really great views of the valley, and there’s a few rocky areas flat enough for us to spread out and have our lunch.”

Raul’s eyebrows rose and she realized he was thinking naughty thoughts from the twinkle in his eyes. Her face felt hotter as she realized she was blushing. Jared pretended not to notice anything, and turned to walk back into the dining room so they could head out to the parking lot.

Chapter Fourteen

The drive out to the trailhead was very familiar to Raul, even though he hadn’t stopped at the small parking lot before.

“If we stay on this road for long enough we end up in the Trails End campgrounds, right?”

Veronica nodded. “Yup. It’s called that because if you tried to keep going any further north, you’d end up falling into Seagull Lake!”

Raul nodded. “I’ve been up there with Jake and I ran around the campground repeatedly. We put two kayaks into the lake and paddled around for a while.”

Veronica glanced at him quickly before looking back at the road with a small smile on her face. “I wonder if it’s all of the paddling you’re doing that has given you that definition in your arms and shoulders?”

“I’m surprised you noticed,” Raul said.

“Why? I always notice what you look like.”

“Do you?” He stared at her profile for a moment. “I’m glad. Because I always notice how good you look. Like today, you left your hair down, which I really like. I like how the sun makes it look like white gold…and that blue shirt you have on matches your eyes.”

Veronica looked over at him again, quickly. “Really? You are quite the observant one, aren’t you?”

“I have to be. How I play other people is by noticing how they act. I imagine I am them and how it would feel to
be
them.”

“When did you start noticing stuff like that?”

Raul shrugged. “Dunno. I’ve always done it, for as long as I can remember. I wasn’t ever happy with being the new kid, which is what I always was. I don’t think I ever finished a whole year in the same school…at least until high school. So I was always getting made fun of for being different, or beat up for being the new kid that no one trusted. So as my defense I’d pretend to be someone else. If I thought the bully liked sports, I’d tell him how good I was at whatever sport I thought he’d care about. If the bully liked cars or girls, I’d tell him how much experience I had with that. I got so good at lying it got harder to tell the truth. Sometimes even I believed my lies, I was that good. Now I wonder if all of that is the reason I feel like there is no
real me
…I’m just the sum of the roles I’ve played.”

Veronica pulled into the parking lot and put the car into park before turning to him with a smile. “I didn’t like the Raul who first got here. But when you introduced yourself to me with your real name, I realized that there is a real person inside of you, and you are an interesting man.”

“Do you think if I tell Gram-Marie my real name again she’d stop mispronouncing my name and calling me
Rall
?”

Veronica snickered. “I doubt it. She gets these ideas in her head, and there’s no way to convince her she might be wrong, or might need to change. She’s old, so no one calls her on it.”

Raul nodded. “And while it irritates me, I’m very grateful to her for not throwing me out on my ass after the whole biker incident. I guess I’ll just have to live with it.”

“So let’s get the stuff out of the back and get this hike started, okay?”

They got out of the truck and Veronica opened the back to pull the backpacks she’d brought closer to them.

“I’ll carry the one with the food in it and you carry the one with the blanket in it. Be careful, because the prosecco is wrapped in an icepack, then in the blanket. Try not to fall and shake it up, or we’ll have to lick it off the leaves!”

“I’ll try. Aren’t we going to use any bug spray?”

Veronica shrugged. “You can, if you want. But I don’t like to have that stuff on me when I’m going to be eating. I’ve got a long-sleeved shirt on and my jeans are ankle pants. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of my skin exposed.”

“What if you get too hot from hiking in the sun?”

“Then I’ll tie my shirt around my waist and take my chances. You’ve got a tee shirt and jeans on, so that only leaves your lower arms exposed. Spray them, if you want. But stand over there so I don’t have to smell it.”

Raul grinned. “Okay, okay. I get the feeling you don’t like bug spray much.”

“No, I don’t. I don’t like fly bites, but the mosquitoes mostly leave me alone. I guess I’m not sweet enough for them to be interested.”

“They love me…it must be my dark skin. I must taste like dark meat, huh? Sweet and juicy and just what the bugs are looking for.”

Veronica blushed slightly and Raul was pleased to think that she must have had naughty thoughts about what his skin tasted like. It hadn’t been intentional, like a pick-up line. But it had obviously gotten to her.

“So are you gonna spray or not?”

“No, since you don’t like it. But you’ll have to listen to me bitch and moan if I get bitten a lot.”

“Deal,” Veronica grinned. She handed him one of the backpacks and put the other one on herself.

“Let’s get moving. We can be up on the ridge over-looking the river valley before we get really hungry.”

“I’m hungry now, but whatever. It looks like we’ll have the trail to ourselves, since there’re no other cars in the lot here.”

“That’s because it’s a weekday. But yeah, think of it as our own private woods.”

Veronica led the way and they began to walk along the trail. It was clearly marked in some areas, and less clear in others, especially on the rocks. They stopped to look at the rock sculptures that some people had made, piling rocks up like blocks. Once in a while one or the other of them would stop to pick up a rock and admire it, or call the other’s attention to a flower. It was warm, but not overly hot, so Veronica only rolled her sleeves up and kept her shirt on. Raul was tempted to take his shirt off, but didn’t want to be so obvious about wanting Veronica to admire him…nor did he want to take the chance that she wouldn’t!

They weren’t hurrying, but they weren’t really dawdling either. After about an hour, Veronica announced they had arrived at their destination.

“See?” she asked him, pointing. “We’re on top of the ridge and down there is a small river. It’s a nice view now, but you should see it when the leaves change color in the fall…it’s gorgeous then.”

Raul walked over and looked at the view, “It’s really pretty now. I can just imagine what it will be like when the leaves aren’t shades of green, but are oranges and reds and yellows. Maybe I’ll get lucky and we’ll still be around for the color change. I’m not sure how long Jared thinks we’ll be filming.”