Tinsel My Heart (2 page)

Grinding salt into all those wounds was the fact that he’d be eating, sleeping and breathing Christmas while here. A holiday he loathed. Jack did his best to keep his head down, eyes shut and ignore everything holiday-related as soon as the calendar flipped to December. Although lately, there’d been a stealth invasion of Christmas, bombarding him even before the fresh batch of Halloween horror flicks released every September. His life just couldn’t suck any more.

The mouth beneath the worst toupee known to man firmed, then spoke. “How soon can you start?”

Did this guy really think he was fooling anyone? A circle of fake grass on his head would look more natural than that toupee. Jack shoved his hands in his pockets. Because he wanted to give it a yank and see if it came off. Good thing there was a table between them. “Right away. No time to lose.”

“Wonderful. Becca will take you in hand.”

Oh, will she? Jack knew for certain that his life couldn’t get any worse. But he’d overlooked that it might get better. He pivoted on one heel to face the beautiful blonde. Should’ve wondered from the start what the hell she was doing here. Should’ve remembered that Ty kept in touch with her over the years. And figured out that she’d been the one jerking Ty’s heart strings to get him to commit to a project, gratis, when they were already knee-deep in pre-production on a movie. Damn it. Most of all, Jack should’ve remembered that staring into her aquamarine eyes made him forget to speak.

“Becca. Forgot to ask what your role is in this thing.”

“My job is to juggle all the moving pieces. I’m the producer.” She shot a wry grin at Judy. “And I guess that as of right now, my role is also to see to your needs. Whatever they may be.”

Holy shit. His whole, long list of grievances accordioned shut, overshadowed by the prospect of working with Becca. Day in and day out. The girl he’d always wanted, lost to Ty, but never forgot.

“I’m sure I’ll come up with something,” he said.

Chapter Two

Becca concentrated on walking down the icy sidewalk to the glorified garage that held the LPP sets. It took a lot of concentration, because her feet wanted to angle sideways so she could throw her arms around Jack. Climb him faster than a rhesus monkey scaling a carob tree. Back in high school, she’d wanted Jack with all the intensity of first love and teenage infatuation. But she’d gotten used to it. Learned to, if not ignore her girlish crush, then work through it. Since it had always been clear as day that Jack didn’t feel the same way about her. They were friends. Drama club buddies. Together with Tyler, the three were inseparable. Becca had always assumed they thought of her as one of the guys. Until the day Ty asked her to prom and changed their dynamic forever.

Now, though, she was a woman. Jack was most certainly a full-grown man. Now Becca knew what it was to
truly
want someone. Not a schoolgirl crush, but red-hot need. To feel that mad rush of desire that could be slaked only by getting naked. By twining around and inside each other. That sort of lust couldn’t be ignored.

Over the years, she’d kept up with Jack. Not stalked, exactly. But definitely never missed a sighting of him on television. Watched every award show he attended just for a five-second glimpse. And occasionally chose the longest line at the grocery store just to have time to flip through
People
magazine and look for pictures of him. So Becca knew exactly what he looked like before he walked in the door today. The muscles he’d added to his frame weren’t a surprise. It was just that, in person, he looked so very different. What none of the pictures or video clips managed to show was his charisma. The way he didn’t just inhabit a room, but took it over. Didn’t just stand next to her, but loomed, setting every inch of her skin on red alert.

Jack kicked at a snow drift in front of him. “Why are we outside to look at the sets?”

“We store them out here.” Becca pointed around the curve where the top of the roof was visible through the bare tree branches. “There’s more room to do touch-ups in the off-season. Inside the theatre, there’s only enough space to hold the sets for the current show. No shop space for construction at all. It’s one of the reasons the company’s moving.” She gave a humorless chuckle. “Well, that and the fact that our landlord refused to renew our lease. But we really had been looking for new space for a while. This just moved our plans up.”

He snorted. “Does that translate to
we can’t really afford it yet and are hanging on by the skin of our teeth?
”

“Guess I should’ve known better than to try and fool someone in the biz, so to speak.” No point in sugar coating it. LPP’s ragged finances were a constant topic of discussion, from the board members to the actors, crew, costumers, down to the box office agents. Better for her to tell Jack up front than have him cobble together bad information from rumors and hearsay. “We scraped together enough for a good faith deposit. The closing on the new building is next month. The only way to come up with enough for the down payment, closing costs and moving expenses is by selling DVDs of this production on top of the regular ticket sales.”

“Risky. If it doesn’t work, you could lose everything.”

As if she didn’t know that. As if it didn’t wake her up in a cold sweat every other night. “Thanks for the news flash.” Still, it was kind of cool to be discussing the inner workings of her theatre with one of the biggest directors in Hollywood. Almost as cool as finally discussing the inner workings of her beloved theatre with her long-lost friend and fellow life-long drama geek. Becca wondered just how hard it would prove to be to reconcile those two, disparate sides of Jack into the man she’d work beside for the next few weeks.

“How are sales going?”

“Online pre-orders of the DVD are outpacing our projections. Still, we anticipate the bulk of our sales will come from audience members on show nights.” She grabbed his arm. Her leather glove almost slid right off his jacket. One more thing she might as well get out, up front. “Which is why I have to thank you. Worst case scenario, we could probably pull the live show together. We’ve got a lot of repeat actors. But the filming of it, that’s something none of us could do. If it wasn’t for you, we’d have to refund all our current sales, and scrap the plans to film the show. We’d lose our deposit, we’d lose our home, and the company would’ve probably folded. You saved us, Jack.”

“All I did was show up,” he said with a nonchalant shrug.

“Don’t pretend to be modest.” It pissed her off that he’d try to pull the wool over her eyes. Becca wasn’t some flunky. No stars-in-her-eyes fan. She
knew
Jack Whittaker, and didn’t intend to let him forget it. “You were always a crappy actor, at best. If you were any good at it, you would’ve made your name in front of the camera instead of behind it.”

“Way to put me in my place.” Jack pulled his unbuttoned coat to the sides. “Why not finish the job—stick an icicle in my chest?”

They were at the garage now. Several icicles hung from its gutter. Becca contemplated grabbing one, holding it against his chest until it slowly melted into his thin T-shirt. Watching the moisture spread across his pecs, molding the shirt to them. Letting the icicle slip lower, creating a wet trail down the center of his body. Geez, the next few weeks were going to be brutal. Like sending a diabetic into a Godiva store and expecting them to not gnaw their own hands off out of sheer, unrequited wanting.

“I’ll hold that option in reserve in case you commit a bigger transgression. So you’d better be on your best behavior,” she teased.

“Threats already?” He let his coat fall closed. “What happened to all that gratitude you were trying to shovel on me?”

“Right. Back to my point.” Becca sobered her tone. “I get that you’re trying to right Tyler’s wrongs. That you feel he owes us, and you’re the only one who can pay off that particular debt. But I also know, better than anyone, just how much it’s costing you to be back here in Minneapolis. So truly, I’m thanking you from the bottom of my heart.”

He looked at her without a word for several seconds. Then he patted Becca’s arm and slid out of her grasp. Reached for the door handle, then froze. “What is that awful stench?”

Grateful for the warning, Becca switched to taking cautious breaths through her mouth. “The goats, probably.” The handler had brought them over a few days early. Something about not wanting to stress them out with both a change in location and having to act all at the same time. Evidently goats were as touchy as human actors.

“You have goats?” Jack twisted around to face downtown Minneapolis. The skyline, a mere forty blocks away, speared above the treetops. He pointed at the cluster of skyscrapers. “This is a major metropolis. Got its own basketball, baseball, hockey and football teams. Why the hell are you keeping goats like we’re living in some cave in Afghanistan?”

Had he been expecting them to use camels in the show? Guess he did see everything through an inflated Hollywood lens now. “They’re featured guest artists in our production.”

“Goats?” He spat the word out as if it was a chicken bone stuck in his throat.

Seriously, what had gotten into Jack? The live animals were an integral part of what made the show so special. Everybody knew that. “Not just goats. Chickens, pigs, and of course the donkey that carries the Virgin Mary.”

“A real, live donkey?”

“Yes. His name is Sid.” Gentle as could be...unless you pulled his tail. Then he shot out his back leg with all the strength of the Minnesota Viking’s kicker.

Jack fisted his hands on his hips. “Am I supposed to direct a movie, or a goddamn zoo parade?”

Exasperated, Becca threw her hands in the air. “Don’t you know anything about
Season of Celebration?
”

How could he not know? Didn’t Tyler talk to him at all? Oh, and did the guy live under a freaking rock? Sure, their show hadn’t been this extravagant when Jack lived here. Back then, it was ten people in a church basement. But it had grown steadily. The LPP took over the annual production. People clamored to participate and then it just exploded into an epic spectacle. Both Minneapolis and St. Paul viewed it as the must-see event of the Christmas season. They were featured on the national news every year, for crying out loud. She knew Jack distanced himself from talk of his hometown. Still, it stung that he hadn’t at least searched the Internet for their show while waiting for take-off.

“When I hopped on the plane at LaGuardia, the sum total of my knowledge was that Tyler had screwed you guys over and you were putting on some holiday thing.”

Some holiday thing?
She couldn’t believe the dismissive, condescending tone in his voice. Becca opened the door and stepped into the dark interior of the garage. It smelled of sawdust and fresh paint. And yes, to her chagrin, a tiny bit of the goat and sheep stench had seeped inside too. “Guess you’re disappointed we’re not a burlesque show with strippers hanging candy canes off their nipples.”

* * *

“Becca!” Jack’s choked laugh exploded from his throat. “You can’t talk about strippers.”

She turned on the work lights. They illuminated large brown-and-tan flats meant to bring the arid warmth of Bethlehem into the stark white Minnesota landscape. Too bad they didn’t create any actual warmth. Jack had lost all feeling in his fingers about five minutes ago. In other words, the moment they stepped outdoors. He’d forgotten how numbingly cold it got here. Just blocked it from his mind, as he would anything that horrible. The way plane crash survivors couldn’t remember the trauma of their actual accident.

The set pieces he could see were far from basic. The paint job was textured and three dimensional. Colors were terrific. Top-notch carpentry. If he didn’t know better, he’d think he was looking at the set for a Broadway show. As sentimental as Ty could be, Jack knew his partner wouldn’t have volunteered for an embarrassingly amateur community production. But he hadn’t expected anything near this professional. It would’ve taken his breath away—if Becca hadn’t already accomplished that with her outrageous comment about strippers.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re—” Becca of the innocent eyes and disarming smile. The sweetest, most warm-hearted person he’d ever met. “—you’re you,” he finished with all the glibness of a freshly hooked walleye.

“The
me
you knew at seventeen is gone, Jack. I’m all grown up. I know about all sorts of sordid and sexy topics.” She crossed her arms across her chest. Tilted her head so all those blond waves cascaded almost to her waist. “Chances are it’s another news flash Ty didn’t bother to pass on to you, but I’m not even a virgin anymore.”

Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it was just being inside again. But suddenly, heat rushed back into his extremities. All of them. Including the one dangling between his legs. Jack had fielded the advances of movie stars, models and the most desperate female species of all, the wealthy and bored New York socialite. Some he’d dated. Some he’d just screwed. Some he’d nimbly danced away from as fast as humanly possible. Bottom line, he knew his way around women. Something about Becca threw him off, though. Jack couldn’t tell if she was flirting, or just annoyed and trying to yank his chain.

“I might need to see the film at eleven from that particular news flash.” And play it in his editing bay, where he could freeze the screen every 1/100 of a second.

She bit her lip, but a smile pricked up the corners. “How about I set you up with a homemade video of last year’s show instead? The sound is horrible and the camera shakes every time the guy holding it breathed, but at least it’ll give you a basic overview. Introduce you to the brilliant acting chops of Sid the donkey.”

Guess he’d read her wrong. Definitely not flirting. Not with a mention of the damn donkey. He squatted to look at the terrific manger made of interwoven branches. Trailed a hand across its smoothness. “You know that old acting adage, never work with kids or animals?”

“Yes.”

“I happen to believe in it. Follow it like it’s the fucking secret of life. Kids are unpredictable and can slow down a production. One tantrum can cost thousands of dollars. Animals? Ten times worse.” Jack stood and dusted off his hands.

“Then brace yourself for ten times the headache. We’ve got children and animals.” She ticked the list off on her long, slender fingers. “And a cast of literally more than a hundred people. This isn’t some little community Christmas pageant. Angels fly down from the ceiling, for crying out loud. I’m shocked you haven’t heard about the epic scope of our show.”

“Shocked? Please. You know damn well that I wiped this town off my shoe with my graduation tassel. Never looked back. Ty knows better than to ever mention any hometown news. Even stoned off his fucking ass, he knew to stick to that one simple rule.”

“You sound...mad.”

“Yeah, you could say that. Pissed off works too. Or furious, that fits.” Because it was there, because he had no better way to let off some steam, Jack kicked at a pile of sawdust. “Thanks to Ty’s latest bender, we had to shut down pre-production on
Bermuda Triangle
. All the months we’d already put into this job, wasted. Money gone. Our team lost their jobs. The actors will scatter, try to find other roles. The opportunity to make this movie, this fucking fantastic film that could’ve been a ringer for next year’s award show season, is gone.”

Becca’s mouth formed into a perfect O that mirrored her wide-eyed shock. “Addiction is a disease. What Ty’s going through now in rehab must be awful. Doesn’t your friend’s suffering mean more to you than any lost revenue?”

Here he’d thought it would be safe to let off a little steam. Jack couldn’t rant in front of anyone else in the business. Or any of their New York friends. The façade of a perfect partnership had to stand strong. But here, with Becca, in a musky, musty garage, he thought he could be honest. “Oh, I get it. You think I’m being a dick? No sympathy for the guy who’s supposed to be my best friend in the world?”

“Pretty much. I care about Ty too, you know. If you care, you don’t judge. You have empathy for him.”