Geena had no time to respond to that startling announcement because Sophie grew restless again and Damon and Phil left for real. That turned everyone’s attention back to Matt and the prospect of a video being made within the next twenty-four hours.
“I’m absolutely doing it,” he said. “Assuming it’s even possible to get something like that together in a hurry.”
“We mostly need a videographer.” Geena turned in her seat to look at Cade, Lexi, Molly and Ben. “Any ideas?”
“Yes.” Molly fairly crackled with energy. “One of the instructors at the community college, Drew Martinelli, would be perfect if she hasn’t left on vacation yet.” She pulled her phone out of her purse. “I’ll text her now.”
Lexi jumped on the idea. “This is serendipity. Cade and I need someone to video our wedding, so if she works out for this, maybe we could hire her for August.”
“She’d be great.” Molly typed quickly. “I just hope she’s still in town.”
“We need to have a potential script,” Chelsea said from the screen. “Finn has to head back to O’Roarke’s but I can stay on the call if you need my help.”
“Yes, please.” Geena turned to give her a quick smile.
“Whitney and I have to sign off, too,” Ty said. “We’re having dinner with her folks. But if you need anything, holler, and text or email us when it’s up.”
“Will do.” Cade glanced at the screen. “Thanks for being here, both of you. See you in August. Lexi and I are expecting a really big present.”
Ty laughed. “We’re getting you a very expensive kitchen gadget, bro, now that you’re such a gourmet cook.”
“Can’t wait.” Cade grinned. “Hey, thanks for being here.” Cade walked over to the computer. “So, it’s Chelsea and Geena on this project so far. Who else is volunteering to work out a script?”
“I will,” Rosie said.
“I’ll help, too,” Lexi said. “I’ve commissioned a few videos of my riding clinics, so I know a little about the process.”
Geena decided somebody needed to take charge of the project and she was the logical one. “If we have Chelsea, Rosie, Lexi and me, that should be enough.”
“And me,” Matt said. “I’ve had some experience with scripts.”
She gazed at him. “Yes, you have, and thanks for the offer.”
“It’s the least I can do.”
His smile tugged at her heart, but now wasn’t the time for a private conversation about how he was handling this turn of events.
“There’s Drew.” Molly grabbed her phone and glanced at the incoming text. “She’s available all day tomorrow.”
“Excellent.” Geena took that as a positive sign that the video was meant to be. “I know this is a lot to ask, but if she can show up before dawn, she’ll get some amazing footage.”
“Let me see what she says.” Molly typed in the request and waited. “Yes! In fact, she’d thought of that herself. She’ll be here before five tomorrow morning.”
“Good. Thank you, Molly. That’s huge.”
“Call if you need anything else.” Molly left with Ben.
“Looks as if you have everything under control,” Cade said. “I leave the project in your capable hands.” He glanced at Lexi. “See you at home.”
“You will. Fabulous job, cowboy.”
“Thanks.” He touched the brim of his hat and left with Herb.
“Okay, then,” Chelsea said. “Where do we start?”
Geena knew where that should be. She just didn’t think the man sitting beside her would go for it. “The video will publicize the academy, but let’s get real. Matt’s our biggest draw. We should start the video with him.” She glanced in his direction. “Does that work for you?”
He met her gaze with surprising calmness. “Yes, it does. I should probably narrate the thing. Since we have the videographer committed to arriving before dawn, the script should begin with an exterior shot as the sun’s coming up. Then pan to the barn, tight focus on the barn door and head inside to where I’m doing something.”
“Something manly,” Chelsea said, as computer keys clicked. “Like pitching clean hay into a stall. Keep talking. I’m writing all this down.”
“Are the horses out or in?” Lexi moved up to the front row and sat next to Geena.
“Out in the pasture,” Geena said. “More dramatic. It would be great if we could get them to race around a little.”
“I have an idea.” Matt leaned forward as if he actually might be enjoying the process. “Put Cade out with the horses. Have him grab a handful of mane and swing up bareback on Hematite. That’s always a crowd pleaser. Once he gets Hematite moving, Linus will follow and the others might, too.”
“I can just picture it.” Rosie’s face glowed. “It’ll be wonderful. Oh, I know what else we need in this video! We could use some roof repair on Cabin Three. Let’s get Damon up there and film him doing it.”
“Nice.” Chelsea kept typing. “Stetson, snug T-shirt, jeans and a tool belt. Damon rocks that look.”
“Before we go any further, I want to say something else.” Rosie looked around at the group. “Phil deserves to be up on that roof as much as Damon. Lexi, you have every right to ride bareback along with Cade. I don’t mean to be sexist, but—”
“The video needs to be about the brotherhood,” Lexi said. “I figured that out right away. We know what we want to accomplish and putting great-looking cowboys in each shot is the way to go.”
Geena nodded. “It is. We’ll want a scene with Rosie and Herb, but other than that, it’s all about the Thunder Mountain Brotherhood.” Geena glanced over at Matt. “Are you comfortable talking about that connection?”
“You bet. Until Ty mentioned it, I never considered that our story might help other foster kids. And I should have. I wish that I’d—”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Geena said. “We’ve all known celebrities who milked their tragic past to get attention. You didn’t want to be that person.”
He gave her a distracted smile. “Thanks.”
“That’s what will be so great about this video,” Chelsea said. “We have a talented actor narrating it. I predict this thing will go viral in no time.”
“Hallelujah!” Rosie threw both hands in the air. “I’ve always wanted a viral video!”
“Me, too.” Chelsea said. “We need to nail down the rest of the scenes so we can turn Matt and Geena loose on the dialogue. I figure you two are the movie people, so you’re the logical ones to handle it.”
Matt nodded. “No problem.”
After everyone agreed on the order of scenes, Chelsea emailed her notes to Geena and signed off.
Lexi glanced at Geena and Matt. “I’ll leave you to it. Writing dialogue is so not my area.”
“Not mine, either,” Rosie said. “I’ll rustle up your dinner and bring it in here so you can keep working.”
After Rosie walked out the door, Geena gazed at Matt. She didn’t have the words to express her admiration or her frustration. The two emotions were hopelessly tangled up in her mind, so instead of saying anything, she grabbed him and kissed him with enough force to knock off his hat.
He obviously wasn’t expecting it and he froze.
Lifting her mouth a fraction of an inch, she took a quick breath. “Steam up my glasses, damn it. You know you want to.”
With a groan, he pulled her close and his mouth came down on hers.
Oh, yes. She surrendered completely to the pleasure of kissing Matt. This was what he should be doing instead of worrying about whether he was the right guy for her. How could he doubt it when these moments of shared passion were so amazing?
Breathing unevenly, he pulled back. “We have to stop.”
“I know. Rosie will—”
“Be here any minute.” And he recaptured her mouth.
So sweet. So hot. She couldn’t imagine living without his kiss.
He lifted his head again. “Enough.” Blowing out a breath, he released her and stood. “I told myself I wouldn’t do this.”
“You didn’t. I did.” She gulped for air. “Not your fault.”
“I could have said no.” He located his hat on the floor and picked it up.
She smiled as she took off her glasses and polished them on her shirt. “I don’t think so. I’m irresistible.”
“Yes, ma’am, you sure as hell are.” He ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath. “Before Rosie comes back, I need to clarify something I said earlier. Although I’m staying a couple more days, I don’t expect you to.”
“If you’re staying, I’m staying.”
He shook his head. “Let me put it another way. I’d rather you didn’t.”
Wow, that hurt. She was prepared to stick by him during a difficult time and he wanted her gone. She struggled to regain her composure. “Assuming your birth mother actually shows up, I won’t be shocked by her, if that’s what you’re worried about. I have a fair idea of what to expect.”
“How can you, when I don’t? She was pretty messed up the last time I saw her. If she decides to come here, there’s no telling what she’ll be like. You don’t need to experience that.”
“What if—” She paused to clear her throat. “What if I want to?”
“Geena, I’m asking you to head back to LA.” He put on his hat and tugged down the brim. “Please.”
“Why?”
His voice was tight. “Maybe I should let you stay so you can see where I came from.”
She clutched her denim-clad knees to keep her hands from shaking. “I know where you came from and it doesn’t matter. No, I take that back. It does matter. Knowing your background makes me admire you that much more.”
“Admire me? You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Of course I admire you! You could have let your past define you. Instead, you set an ambitious goal and achieved it.”
“All because my past does define me. Haven’t you been paying attention? I’m as selfish as my mother!”
She gasped. “You are not! How can you say such a thing?”
“Look at the evidence.” His bitter tone sent a chill through her. “I insisted that Rosie and Herb needed privacy when I really wanted privacy for me. I rejected your idea that I could help publicize the academy because it would louse up my precious retreat plans. It’s always been about my needs, not theirs.”
She had trouble breathing, but she forced the words out as best she could. “Matt, it happens to everyone. We think we’re doing something noble and it turns out our motives were self-serving. But you figured it out and now you’re doing the right thing.”
“Or maybe I see a way to save my own hide and I’m taking it.”
“No! You see a way to set everything right. You benefit and the academy benefits. It’s a win–win!”
“Even if it turns out that way, and I hope it does, that doesn’t change anything. I clearly have the ability to block out everything except what I want. I lived with that woman for twelve years. I’ve kidded myself that I escaped who and what she was, but—”
“I guarantee that you have.”
His gaze was shuttered. Not completely closed, yet, but it wouldn’t take much for the wall to come up. “I wish I could believe that, but I can’t.”
“Then why wait for your mother? What’s in it for you? If she does come here, I doubt it will be pleasant. You could leave before the video release and lock her out of your life forever. You could surround yourself with enough security that she’d never get through.”
He looked as if he wanted to pace but the room was cluttered with furniture. He turned a chair backward and straddled it so he was facing her. “Once again, selfish motives. I told myself I had to stay and protect Rosie and Herb from having to deal with her, but that’s not the real reason.”
“Why can’t it be one of the reasons? I’m sure they’d appreciate having you here if she comes calling.”
“They probably would, but my main reason for staying has nothing to do with them. I want to find out if there’s any trace of regret for what she did. But more than that, I need to know if I’ll look at her and see myself.”
“There’s bound to be some resemblance, Matt. She gave birth to you.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“I know. I’ve done the same with my mother. I like to think I’ve taken after my father.” Then she wished she hadn’t said it. Matt couldn’t use that strategy.
“Doesn’t apply.” His expression gave nothing away. The wall had come up.
“Dinner’s served!” Rosie came bustling in with Herb right behind her. Both were carrying trays. Matt jumped up immediately to help and Geena followed suit.
As they cleared a place on the desk to set the plates of food and bottles of O’Roarke’s Pale Ale, Rosie’s and Herb’s forced cheer suggested that they’d heard at least part of the argument. The concern in Rosie’s eyes as she glanced at Matt confirmed it.
Geena considered asking them to stay so they could bring the issue out in the open. But she might make the situation worse and she was a guest who’d been here less than forty-eight hours. Forcing an intervention seemed disrespectful.
After they left, she looked at Matt. “Are you going to be able to work on dialogue with me?”
“Yes. It needs to be done.”
Of course he’d be able to do it. He was a professional. So was she. “I’ll get my computer.”
Chapter Seventeen
Matt knew he was behaving like a jerk and yet he couldn’t stop himself, which was proof that he wasn’t the guy for Geena. It was now clear as a bell to him, so he wished she’d accept it, too. The sooner she left town, the better, but everyone would expect her to stay until the video was finished and she would insist on it out of professional pride.
That meant she couldn’t leave until the day after tomorrow, because of limited flights out of Sheridan. Which left a hell of a lot of hours to endure, especially when every time he looked at her he longed to pull her into his arms and kiss those full lips. More proof that he was a selfish bastard.
She reappeared with her laptop and he fought the urge to take it out of her hands and apologize for every terrible thing he’d said. He’d told her to leave when he desperately needed her to stay. He’d said they were wrong for each other when every time he held her it felt so right he wanted to shout for joy.
But that was his selfish side talking, the part he’d inherited from his screwed-up, narcissistic mother. For Geena’s sake, he couldn’t listen to that voice. He had to continue to push her away until she finally got the message.
They plunged into the dialogue project like the pros they were. They didn’t eat much but they drank all the beer. In Matt’s current frame of mind, another couple of bottles would have been welcome. But he wasn’t going back to the kitchen to get them. Rosie would waylay him, for sure. He’d seen the look on her face when she’d brought the food. She knew something wasn’t right.
Writing the dialogue under these circumstances was a tough slog, but he and Geena pulled it off. She emailed the finished product to Drew, who’d use it to plan the sequence of shots.
At last she closed her laptop and stood. “That does it.”
He got to his feet, too. “Yes, ma’am, it does.”
Irritation flashed in her green eyes. “If you’re such a heinous person, why bother with the gentlemanly behavior?”
“Maybe it gets me what I want.”
Her jaw tightened. “Are you implying that you used that yes, ma’am routine to get me out of my clothes?”
He could tell she was tired and pushed to the limit. The more obnoxious he was, the quicker she’d dump his sorry ass. “It worked, didn’t it?”
She slapped him so hard it brought tears to his eyes. Good. He deserved it.
“This is not who you are.” Her voice was choked with fury. “If you were really that rotten, Rosie and Herb wouldn’t love you.”
“They see what they want to see.”
She growled in frustration and started out of the room. “I’ll be back for the dishes. I’m sure Rosie and Herb have gone to bed by now and we need to clean up our mess.”
“Don’t worry about the dishes. I’ll take care of them.”
“Okay. Great.” She paused in the doorway and turned around. “Feel free to sleep in your room tonight. My door will be locked, so no temptation there.”
“Thanks for the thought, but I’ll sleep in the barn again.”
“Why do that? You and I are so done.”
“That’s not what your eyes say.” He’d keep it up until she hated him.
“I don’t give a damn what my eyes say. My mouth says we are done, cowboy. I’m locking my door.”
“In that case, I probably should warn you there’s something else I learned from my worthless mother.”
“What?”
“I can pick locks.”
“Then I should warn you of something I learned from my mother.”
“Oh?”
“How to deliver a well-placed knee to the groin.”
In spite of everything, that made him smile, but he ducked his head so she wouldn’t see. Dear God, how he loved her. Then he went very still as the insight played in a slow motion loop in his head. He loved her? Well, yeah, of course he did. Otherwise he wouldn’t be so determined to sabotage any feelings she’d developed for him.
He kept his head down until he heard her huff of anger and her retreating footsteps. Hiding his smile was about maintaining a consistent message. Hiding his love was about survival.
Anger fueled an adrenaline rush that carried Geena through her bedtime routine as she took a shower, and washed and dried her hair. Then she lay in the dark, eyes open, and prayed for him to come through the door. She hadn’t locked it, had never intended to. Not that they would make love in this room, not with Rosie and Herb sleeping nearby.
But if he’d come to her and taken back all those mean things he’d said, they could escape to the barn and put things right between them. She longed to rewind the clock to this morning when he’d been so wild for her he’d risked being discovered by Lexi and Cade, or this afternoon when they’d made sweet love on a cool patch of green grass.
This evening, with the help of his folks, and his brothers and their wives, they’d created a potential solution to his PR disaster, but at what cost? He’d begun to doubt himself before the Skype call, and the revelations from that phone meeting had left him shattered. Another person might reluctantly acknowledge their self-serving behavior and vow to do better. Not Matt. He was drowning in the shame of thinking he was just like his mother.
She thought of her own mother, who had, in fact, taught her the knee-to-groin move. Although Geena liked to believe she took after her late father, she had many of her mother’s traits, including fierce determination, which could easily become stubbornness.
Her mom had force-marched her through years of performance training, which had taught her self-respect and discipline. Her mom had been absent a lot, but she’d never completely abandoned the field. Geena had become self-reliant out of necessity, but that wasn’t a bad quality.
Without the upbringing her mother had provided, she might not have had the guts to follow Matt to Sheridan. She definitely wouldn’t have had the discipline to knock out a video script despite the tension that had ricocheted around the room the entire time. And the person she’d become would not lie staring at the ceiling until dawn, either.
Climbing out of bed, she put on her glasses. Then she located the boots Rosie had loaned her and the flashlight tucked in the bedside table drawer in case of a power outage. Once again she’d play the role of uninvited guest. He might turn her away. In fact, he probably would. But she had to try.
Rosie and Herb hadn’t bothered to lock up, so she was able to slip out easily while carrying her boots and flashlight. Locked doors seemed to be a rarity in the country, which made her earlier comment to Matt all the more ludicrous. She wasn’t sure her bedroom door even had a lock.
Cool air greeted her as she stepped out on the porch and sat in one of the Adirondack chairs to put on her boots. The ranch looked different at night, a little bit alien with only the dusk-to-dawn lights illuminating the circular drive and the barn several yards away. She descended the steps. The crunch of her boots on the gravel drive seemed unnaturally loud in the stillness. When a cricket chirped in the bushes beside the porch she jumped.
Placing a hand over her racing heart, she paused to take several deep breaths. She could do this. The barn wasn’t that far away. She started out, putting her feet down carefully so her boots on the gravel wouldn’t sound so much like somebody chewing potato chips.
No one was out here, so it might not matter, but she didn’t want to attract attention from...anything. Belatedly she remembered that Wyoming was filled with wildlife. She’d heard that making a lot of noise would frighten animals away, but she wasn’t sure that was true of really big creatures like bears.
Okay, now she was scaring herself. Time to calm the heck down. Once she’d passed outside the glow of the first yard light, she lifted her head to look at the stars. Oh, my. They covered the navy-blue sky like spilled sugar. She’d never seen so many.
Then she heard something. Glancing wildly around, she saw a shadow near the barn door. A pretty big shadow, like a bear on its hind legs would make. She tried to yell but only managed a tiny squeak. She was so stupid to come outside by herself! And now a bear would eat her and she’d never get to tell Matt that she—
“Geena?” Matt stepped into the light hanging over the barn as his long strides quickly eliminated the distance between them. “What in God’s name are you doing out here?”
“I—I...wh-what are you doing out h-here?” Her teeth chattered as relief washed through her, leaving her weak and trembling. “I thought y-you were a b-bear!”
“Ah, Geena.” He gathered her close and rested his cheek on the top of her head as he rocked her gently back and forth. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Is th-that a rhetorical question or d-do you want an answer? Because I c-can give you some ideas if you n-need any.” She held on to his solid warmth and gradually the quivery feeling subsided.
His body started to shake and eventually she realized he was laughing. He’d muffled the sound in her hair, which was probably a good idea because maybe a bear really was lurking nearby. She’d seen grizzlies on TV. Two people, even one built like Matt, were no match for a grizzly.
Even so, she felt a thousand percent safer in his arms than she had walking through the dark alone.
Finally he cleared his throat and gazed down at her. “What sort of ideas would you like to offer me?”
“Could we discuss this in the barn? I’m worried about bears.”
“There aren’t any bears around.”
“How do you know?”
“The horses would get agitated.”
“Oh. Well, good, but I’d still like to have this conversation inside, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course I mind.” But as he said it, he drew her closer, which revealed that a certain significant part of him didn’t mind at all. “I came down here to get away from you, and then you show up in your Captain America shirt and your boots, and you must have washed your hair because it smells amazing.”
“I did wash it.” She began to quiver for a different reason altogether. “And I admit I did that for you. I thought maybe you’d come to my room and we could...talk.”
“Talk. Right.” He rubbed her back, moving gradually lower until he cupped her bottom and pulled her in tight. “I thought you were planning to lock your door.”
Her body warmed as his fingers flexed, creating an arousing massage. “Does it even have a lock?”
“No.” And he started laughing again. “We’d better head for the barn before this gets any hotter and we wake up the folks. In the summer they like to sleep with their windows open.” Looping an arm around her shoulders, he guided her toward the big double doors. “I should be walking you back to the house, but I can’t seem to make myself do that.”
“I’m glad. I really...the way we left things was...”
“It was awful. That’s why I was outside, just looking up at the stars and thinking. I kept wondering if I should go back to the house and at least apologize, but then I knew you’d be in bed wearing that sleep shirt and the inevitable would happen.”
