Blame It On Texas

Lewis released a frustrated breath. “Is that a trick question?” He peered at her from behind his lenses.

Temper flaring, Lexie rummaged through her shoulder bag for her keys. Thank heavens her stepmother and father had loaned her a ranch pickup to drive while she was in town, so she didn’t have to rely on Lewis McCabe for her transportation home. “It’s an honest inquiry,” she replied in a voice laced with steel. She paused to look up at him and let their glances mesh, sorry now she had kissed him at all. “And yours was an honest answer.” She held the keys so tight they pinched her palm. Chin held high, she marched past him, toward the exit.

Lewis fixed her with an exasperated look. “Where are you going?”

She barreled past. “None of your concern.”

“Lexie. Come on.”

She ignored the entreaty in his tone and tossed him a withering look over her shoulder as she sped through the double glass doors. Bad enough she had doubts about her chosen vocation—she didn’t need to hear them from him! “Find yourself another stylist to help you, Lewis,” she snapped. “I’m out of here.”

Chapter Four

“Please, Mrs. R., you’ve got to help me,” Lewis said.

Jenna Remington shook her head at Lewis. “To tell you the truth, Lewis, after what you said to Lexie last night, I think it’s hopeless.”

“I didn’t mean to insult her.” Lewis followed Jenna around the stylish dress boutique.

With a shrug of her slender shoulders, Jenna glided past rows of couture wedding dresses bearing the Jenna Lockhart Remington label, to a rack of equally dazzling evening dresses. “But you did insult her profession and hurt her feelings, Lewis. So maybe it’s best you just let Lexie be.”

Lewis ignored the lanky teenage girl who paraded out of the dressing room area in a bright blue beaded evening gown. “I can’t leave things the way they are between us.”

“Just a minute, hon,” Jenna told Lewis. She swept over to the customer and helped her onto the pedestal in front of the three-way mirror. “What do you think of this one, Sydney?”

“I don’t know. It looks so…adult,” Sydney said, turning this way and that in the beautiful gown. She lifted her gazellelike neck. “I look like I’m twenty-three or something.”

“Not the look you’re going for,” Jenna surmised thoughtfully while Lewis waited impatiently for them to finish so he could get back to finding a way to get back in Lexie’s good graces.

Sydney flung her waist-length copper hair over her shoulder. “No! Looking older than you are can really date an actress!” She lifted her hair off the nape of her neck experimentally.

“What age would you like to appear?” Jenna asked seriously.

“Seventeen. The same age I’m going to be in the movie I just did,” Sydney replied, studying how she looked with her hair twisted in a knot on top of her head.

The door to the boutique jangled. Swearing inwardly at the additional interruption, Lewis turned in the direction of the sound and saw Lexie and her mother walk in.

As always, the sight of Lexie took his breath away. His spirits sank as he took in the arctic chill in her turquoise blue eyes when their gazes met.

He had really, really screwed up.

Before he had a chance to say anything, Sydney clapped a hand to her chest. Completely ignoring the Contessa, who was dripping in jewels and some sort of fur stole, Sydney gasped in excitement. She hopped off the pedestal and rushed toward Lexie. “I can’t believe it! Lexie Remington, in the flesh! Me, in the same room with the hottest stylist in Hollywood!”

Lexie shot Lewis a brief, withering glare, as if to say, “See? Some people do appreciate me,” then turned back to Sydney with a smile. She extended a gracious hand. “Hi. And you’re…?”

“Sydney Mazero. Hottest new thing in Hollywood.” The young girl blushed self-consciously. “I hope, anyway.”

“Sydney’s movie—Calamity Sue—premieres in Austin at the end of the week,” Jenna explained.

Sydney’s head bobbed up and down. “And I’m still trying to find something to wear that—sorry, Jenna—doesn’t look I’m dressing up in my mother’s clothes!”

Jenna smiled, patient as ever. “No offense taken. My designs are for the older set.”

“Could you help me find something, Lexie? Please?” Sydney clasped her hands in front of her in mute supplication.

“Lexie’s on vacation,” Jenna interrupted.

“Alexandra,” the Contessa interrupted, even more preemptively, “is going to Dallas with me.”

Lexie tensed. “No, I’m not, Mother.”

“Alexandra,” the Contessa corrected, “I thought we had agreed a few days of shopping and staying in a five-star hotel would do wonders for you.”

“Shopping isn’t fun to me, Mother. It’s work. And as Jenna said, I’m on vacation.” Lexie glared at Lewis again, letting him know she was sorry she had ever agreed to forget that and help him.

Sydney looked crestfallen. “I understand,” she said softly. “I’m sorry I put you on the spot by asking. I know you only take the A-list actors now. It’s just the way the business works.”

“Actually,” Lexie said, pausing to give Lewis another telling glare, “I’d be glad to help you pull together an ensemble for the premiere, Sydney. But first I have to tend to a few things, so if you could…just wait…”

“I’ll be in the dressing room.” Sydney picked up her skirt and dashed off.

“That was really nice of you,” Lewis said.

“Wow,” Lexie replied sweetly, “how nice of you to approve.”

Ouch.

The phone rang behind the counter and a saleswoman picked it up. “Just a moment,” she said, putting the caller on hold. “Lexie, Constantine Romeo’s assistant is on the phone. Apparently, Constantine wants you to help him create a look for the European tour of his new movie.”

The Contessa’s eyes lit with interest. “Isn’t that the young man who…?”

“Yes, Mother, it is.” Lexie looked at the salesperson, who was still holding the phone. “Tell him thanks but no thanks. And if his assistant calls again, just do us both a favor and don’t tell me about it.”

“Okay. Sorry, Lexie.”

“No problem.”

Looking out the window, Lewis saw a limo pull up at the curb and a uniformed driver get out. “Alexandra,” the Contessa implored, “I really want you to come with me.”

“I really don’t want to go.”

The Contessa glanced at her watch. “Fine,” she snapped. “I’ll go alone. But when I get back you and I are going to spend time together.”

Lexie merely nodded. The tension in the room lessened markedly as the limo pulled away with Melinda inside.

“I think I’ll go see if Sydney needs anything,” Jenna murmured. She and the saleswoman ducked into the back, leaving Lewis and Lexie to square off with each other.

“For the record, I think you should forgive me,” Lewis began.