“And the rest is history,” Heather said softly.
“And the rest is history,” he repeated. “Any questions? You in the blue.”
“How long have you been working on movies?” the kid in blue asked.
“I’ve been here for twenty-one years now.”
“You must be old.” This comment came from a young girl causing all the adults to laugh, including Seth.
“Yes, I am old,” he said. “And guess how many movies I’ve worked on?” He paused, letting the kids shout out numbers that ranged from twenty to a hundred. “Not quite that many,” he said to a particularly high guess. “But over fifty. I spend almost every day on a movie set. I get to work with famous directors and actors—like Matt and Heather. My life now is nothing,
nothing
like the life I grew up with. Even though I’m not proud of where I came from, I’m proud that it didn’t keep me from getting where I wanted to be.”
His eyes caught Heather’s, and in them she saw his desire. Not just physical desire, but desire to connect. Desire for her to understand that he really did get it. The realization stole her breath away.
“So now you build sets for movies?”
Heather didn’t see where the question came from.
“Yep.”
“Do you design them too?” Now she saw it was an older boy sitting in the back, the boy who had shared his artwork earlier.
“Well, um, not exactly. I started out at the bottom of the set crew. Those are the guys who do all the crap jobs like carrying the heavy stuff and putting up drywall. I kept working and I worked my way to lead carpenter—that’s the boss of all the set builders. Some people can go from there to designing sets. Even, uh, even to higher jobs sometimes. Like designing the whole look of the movie from the set to the makeup to the costumes. Those people are called Art Directors or Production Designers.”
Seth struggled with his speech now and Heather wondered if he was embarrassed that he hadn’t achieved that level of success. Would he be less embarrassed if she wasn’t there? She’d been such a snob about his career, never giving him credit that he had built it entirely out of nothing. Just like she had.
She couldn’t fight the tug to validate him now. “Lead carpenters are very important on set, though. They have to be there every day, sometimes making adjustments on the fly. Like, if the director says, ‘I wish there was a door here,’ then the lead carpenter takes care of it. Just like that.” She snapped her fingers to demonstrate.
She met his eyes again. “They’re very important,” she repeated, this time directed at Seth. “If you get a sliver as far in your career, you should be proud. No matter where you started from.”
She recognized the words she spoke could easily be turned back on herself, and for the first time ever, she could see herself from the outside. Like she’d stepped into Dickens’s
A Christmas Carol
and had been taken away by the Ghost of Christmas Present, she saw what other’s saw, what Seth saw—that she’d come far, that she should be proud, that she wasn’t that sixteen year-old girl from the trailer parks anymore.
It wasn’t a complete transformation, but she recognized the moment for what it was—the beginning of release.
Chapter Fifteen
As the session ended and the celebrities said their goodbyes to the children, Heather felt a growing anxiousness to be alone with Seth. The principal walked the group to just inside the doors before excusing herself and Janice to discuss scholarship details. The other board members took off immediately, but Matt stood around with Heather and Seth for what seemed like a lifetime before declaring it was time for him to get going.
Finally, it was just the two of them. Seth opened his mouth to say something, but she cut in, needing to speak first. “I’m sorry I’ve been distant.”
“You needed space.” He shrugged his hands stuffed in his pockets, but the twitch in his jaw said he didn’t feel that nonchalant about it.
“Maybe.” She placed her hand on his arm, aware they were still in a public space, but no longer able to keep from touching him. “Maybe what I really needed was you. I missed you.” Her throat tightened. “A lot.”
Seth’s voice was equally strained as he said, “You have no idea how much I want to crush you to me right here and show you how much I’ve missed you back.”
She snuck a peek at the stiffening bulge in his pants. “I can guess how much.”
“Yes, it’s pretty evident.” He grinned.
God, his grin was so sexy. Her inner thighs stiffened at the sight of it. “There’s more to this date though, right?” Did she sound as eager as she felt?
“You’ll get your chance to maul me later, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Yep. She sounded eager. “The way I remember it, it will be you who mauls me.”
“Oh yeah. That
is
how it goes.” His eyes moved down to where her hand still rested on his arm, and she sensed he was soaking in the warmth of their subtle contact, just as she was.
With great strength, she removed her hand and stepped toward the glass doors, peering into the parking lot. “So what’s your plan for getting us out of here unseen?” Cameras had been allowed in for their tour, but had been kicked out for the discussion. She expected they’d be outside now, waiting for the stars to emerge. Now that Matt had left, she was the lone star they’d be waiting for.
“Oh yeah. It’s simple.” He joined her looking out. “There’s a hidden area over behind the school, a little over a half mile away. You can drive to it by following that road over there.” Seth pointed to the road that went around the back of the grounds. “I’ll jog down there and you can drive my truck over and pick me up. No one will see. Especially since there’s hardly any press out there.”
Heather’s spine went rigid. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t drive your truck.”
“Sure you can.” He pulled the keys out of his pocket and dangled them in front of her. “It’s an automatic. Easy to drive.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just…” God, this was embarrassing. She licked her lips, hoping to add moisture to her suddenly dry mouth. “Seth, I can’t drive.”
“Like, at all?”
Seriously embarrassing. “Nope.”
Seth laughed, incredulity lighting his features. “How do you not know how to drive?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s not as strange as you’re making it out. I was kicked out of my home before I got my license. Not that we had a car I could have driven anyway. Then I never had the opportunity or the money. When I could afford it, I just hired an assistant to drive me.”
“Wow.” He’d stopped laughing now. “Well, this sucks.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry. I should have asked Lexie.”
But really, why would he have asked? Didn’t everyone know how to drive? It wasn’t his fault. She was the one ruining their date. “I’m a real loser, aren’t I?”
Seth’s eyes turned dark. “Don’t ever say that, Heather. You’re perfect just the way you are.”
Her gut reaction was to roll her eyes and disagree profusely, but his seriousness and her recent awareness of herself caused her to pause first. “Thank you,” she said after a few seconds. His brow shot up in surprise. “I’m trying to see myself the way you do. It’s a new thing. We’ll see how it goes.”
“I like that. I bet it goes well.” He stuck his keys back in his pocket. “I feel bad, though, because I don’t have another plan.”
Heather squinted down the road. “Look, I can walk down there and you can drive over to meet me.”
“No way. You can’t walk out there by yourself. If anyone’s watching, it will be easy to follow you.”
“There’s barely anyone here.” Though she could make out a TV crew in the parking lot. She couldn’t see any independent photographers, at least. They could be hidden in one of the parked vans, but charity events usually only had the big media players.
Seth peered out the glass doors, his eyes resting on the TV van. “I can’t let you do that. I said we’d be discreet. We’ll make it happen.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and Heather could tell he was trying to come up with another solution.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Janice leaving the principal’s office. “Let’s ask Janice to help us,” Heather said to Seth as she waved the director over.
Heather explained their situation to Janice, leaving out the bit that she and Seth were on a date. Having worked long enough with celebrities in the Urban Arts program, Janice understood and agreed to help.
The three of them walked out together. As Seth got in the truck and pulled away, Heather stopped to answer a few questions for the cameras, hoping if she gave a little now they’d leave her alone as she and Janice drove away.
“Will they follow us?” Janice asked as they climbed into her Copper Prius.
“Not usually if it’s the local news, like these trucks seem to be. It’s the unmarked paparazzi that get crazy. They’re the ones selling the story to the highest bidder so they try to make the story as good as possible.” Heather looked over her shoulder as she put on her belt, surmising the interest of the media. The TV crew was already loading the camera in the back of the truck and the other photographers were chatting with no sign of rushing off. “I think we’ll be safe.”
Janice drove out of the parking lot and turned the opposite direction Seth had, making a wide circle before turning back to the road Seth had pointed out as the meeting place. They were in luck—no one followed.
It seemed like hours passed before they were parked and Heather was out of the car and stepping into the truck, waving goodbye to the Urban Arts Director.
And then she was exactly where she wanted to be. Alone with Seth.
Thank Christ that his truck had tinted windows, because the Prius wasn’t even out of sight and Seth couldn’t stop himself from pulling Heather across the bench and into his arms. He had to have his hands on her, couldn’t spend another minute without touching her. The morning had been long and good-for-the soul but it had also been hard-on-the-dick, his desire for her a pleasant ache that never eased.
Her mouth opened in a soft gasp as he moved in on her, and he took it as an invitation for his tongue, sliding it into the moist warmth between her lips. His hand twisted in her hair as their tongues tangled around each other, teasing and tasting, stroking and sucking. His other hand palmed her breast, each squeeze eliciting a breathy moan from Heather’s throat that he gladly swallowed with his kiss. Damn she was sexy. So sexy he could barely see straight. So sexy that she overwhelmed him entirely.
With unimaginable determination, he pulled away, and gazed down on her. Her face was flushed and her chest rose and fell in quick short breaths.
“Don’t stop,” she murmured, her eyes still pinned on his lips.
“There is nothing more that I want to do than keep kissing you, princess.” His thumb traced her jawline. “But I will not be able to stop with kisses. And though fucking you in my truck sounds incredible, it’s not on the agenda.”
“Screw agendas.”
He leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “There is screwing on the agenda.” He let his teeth bite down on her sensitive lobe, his cock twitching at her sexy moan. Then he reached over her, pulled her seatbelt across her, and latched it before scooting to his place behind the wheel. “Just not here. Not yet.”
She groaned. “Oh my God, I’ve already waited a lifetime.”
Seth put the truck in drive and pulled out onto the road, glancing furtively for any stray media. “I would have come to you anytime last week. All you had to—”
“—do is ask,” she finished with him. “I know, I know. I was being stupid.”
He scowled at her self-admonishment.
“I’m not being hard on myself, Seth. I’m being honest. I didn’t think you could handle my baggage.”
“I can.”
“I see that now. I’m sorry you had to go through the things you did, but I’m sort of glad too. Because I know you get it, even though I didn’t give you credit. It wasn’t personal. I don’t ever think anyone can handle my baggage.”
She turned in her seat so she could face him head on. “Which is really what I meant when I said it feels like I’ve waited a lifetime. I didn’t just mean this week or this morning—I meant I’ve literally spent my whole life waiting for someone to call me out and pull me in all at the same time. Does that make any sense?”
“It does.” While he relished the serious timbre of their conversation, Seth wanted their date to be fun. Heather had enough serious in her existence. “And I’m more than happy to pull out and push in whenever you need it.”
She laughed a whole-hearted belly laugh that made him wish the crotch of his pants had more stretch. “That’s not what I said, you perv.”
“Hmm. Guess I wasn’t listening close enough.” He swept a look along the sides of the highway, half intent on finding a place to pull over and put sex earlier on the agenda. But he could be patient. She was worth the wait, every time. “We have a little over an hour before we get to our destination. You can pick a station if you want. Or we can talk.”
“And if I ask where we’re going?”
“I won’t tell you.”
She stuck out her lower lip in a sexy pout that brought naughty images to his mind caused him to adjust himself for the millionth time that day.
Think of puppies
, he told himself.
And nuns. Nuns with puppies.