Dawn Stewardson - Wild Action

Jay nodded, then looked at Carly again. “Goodie and I will be back after we’ve had lunch. I’d like you to show us the bear then. And you think you can keep that parrot in a cage for the duration?”

“Well, the bird likes his freedom,” Nick said. “So we’re not going to coop him up in a cage for a month or more. But all you need to do is tell everyone not to wear orange.”

“Or maybe we could see if the chef has a recipe for parrot cacciatore,” Jay muttered.

IT TOOK AT LEAST fifteen minutes for Carly to get Crackers back into the solarium—by which point the baseball cap was in shreds.

Nick had hovered nearby while she’d coaxed and cajoled, but he wasn’t nearly as much help with the bird as he was with Attila. She probably shouldn’t have told him Crackers could amputate a man’s hand.

Just as Crackers finally flew onto his perch, the phone began to ring.

“Don’t you move,” Carly said sternly, pointing her finger at him before she reached for the phone.

“Hi, darling,” her mother’s voice greeted her.

“Oh, hi, Mom, What’s up?”

“Nothing much. I just wondered if you’d heard exactly when your movie people are arriving.”

“Actually, they got here about half an hour ago.”

“Oh, good. And is everything going well so far?”

“Everything’s just fine.” Except for the fact that Attila might not perform for the camera and an unnervingly attractive man was living in her house. Not to mention having an entire horde of people setting up camp in her field and a parrot who’d come close to scalping the man who could make or break Wild Action.

“Well, I won’t keep you, dear. But we were curious about what happened when you met with the lawyers. How did that nephew of Gus’s take to learning that he’d left half the estate to you?”

“Ahh, he took it pretty well.” She glanced over and saw that Nick was still hovering. “Actually, he’s going to be staying here while they’re shooting. He’s helping out with Attila.”

“Really” her mother said, packing about thirteen questions into one word.

Carly had no desire to answer even one of them with Nick standing there listening, so she said, “Mom, things are pretty hectic and I’ve got to run. But I’ll call you in a few days—let you know when you should drive down.”

“All right, dear. We’re really looking forward to it. Your father won’t admit it, but he’s been a little bored since he retired, and he’s really interested in seeing a movie being shot. And Lisa’s just dying to meet Garth Richards.”

“I’ll call as soon as I know what’s what. ‘Bye for now.

“My mother,” she told Nick as she hung up. “My parents and sister want to come down for a few days and see how movies are made.”

“Your sister lives with them?”

“No, she’s a year older than me and married. But she’s a big Garth Richards fan. And she’s a teacher, so she’s free during the summer.”

Wondering what her family was going to think when they got a look at the man who was sharing the house with her, she turned her attention back to Crackers and told him to get into his cage. Instead, he tucked his head under his wing, trying to make himself invisible.

“I thought he hated being in there during the day,” Nick said.

Carly shot him a warning glance. She was hardly happy about the way he’d been such a smart ass with Jay; she just hadn’t had a chance to discuss it with him yet. And at the moment, she could certainly do without his taking the bird’s side.

“He’s got to learn he can’t behave like that,” she said. “And when Jay gets back here, I want him to see we’re being cooperative. Crackers, move it,” she added.

His head bowed, he shuffled along his perch and kicked a bar of the cage with one foot.

“In,” she said firmly. “You can come back out at dinnertime if you promise to be. good.”

He gave the cage another kick, graced her with a bird’s version of a dirty look, then eased inside.

“And the next time you get another birdbrained idea, remember this is what happens.” -She carefully latched the door, then turned to Nick. “As for you, were you deliberately trying to annoy Jay?”

“What? All I said was we weren’t going to keep Crackers in his cage for an entire month.”

“That’s not what I was referring to. I meant your line about most of your experience being with cats. If you’d told him you meant the neighbor’s pussycat, I’d have killed you. And when you asked if he’d like to see Crackers come swooping down at him again… What on earth were you thinking of?”

“Well, the guy’s a schmuck and I—”

“That is entirely beside the point. The point is we want him to think Wild Action is terrific, remember? So when he goes back to L.A. he’ll give his friends rave reviews about us.”

“A guy like that can’t have any friends. And stop talking to me as if I were twelve years old. You may own fifty-one percent of this operation, but don’t try laying down rules about what I can and can’t say to people.”

“That’s not what I was doing. I was merely offering a little constructive criticism—which you obviously can’t take. Dammit, Nick, you’re exactly like Gus.”

“Oh? Now why does that sound like an insult? Yesterday, you told me Gus was the sweetest man in the world.”

“Except when he was too stubborn to listen! Then he’d put a mule to shame.”

Nick turned on his heel and started across the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” Carly demanded as he opened the back door.

“I’ve got a few mules to put to shame.”

“We don’t have any mules.”

“Then I’ll make do with the ponies.”

Punctuating his exit line by letting the screen slam shut behind him, Nick headed around the side of the house—not wanting to admit to himself that Carly’s criticism hadn’t been completely off base. Put him face-to-face with a jerk like Jay Wall and he just couldn’t resist saying the odd thing he shouldn’t. It was a weakness that had gotten him into more trouble than he cared to think about.

Deciding to check out the camp while his temper cooled, he wandered down the drive to the field and surveyed the scene.

There were four generator trucks the size of large moving vans, as well as about fifteen equipment trucks and at least as many trailers and RVs. One of the outside trailers had a sign indicating it was the kitchen, and half a dozen tables with chairs had already been set up at one end.

The site was buzzing with people, all of whom looked busy, so he just walked around the perimeter of the ragged rows, sizing things up and trying to get his mind off Carly. But she was just too annoying to stop thinking about.

He really didn’t like the way she’d talked to him like a damn drill sergeant, and he’d have had a lot more to say to her if her little lecture hadn’t taken him by surprise. But now he was adding “control freak” to his list of her negative traits.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.