LITMIR.BIZ

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most of the fight out of her. “What am I supposed to do in the meantime?”

      He held out a hand. “You could start by climbing off the counter.”

      She watched Buster, who’d begun to snore. “I don’t like dogs.”

      Josh’s low chuckle rumbled through her. “I never would have guessed.”

      She didn’t move from the counter. “The fourth season of the show, I got a dog.” She closed her eyes at the memory. “My character, Jenna, got a dog. It hated me on sight. The first day on set it bit me. Twice. I wanted to get rid of it, but the director’s girlfriend was the dog trainer. She said it could sense my fear. That it was my fault the dog growled every time I came anywhere near it. Of course, the thing loved Amanda. Everyone loved Amanda.”

      “Who’s Amanda?”

      “Amanda Morrison.”

      “The movie star?”

      “Highest-paid woman in Hollywood three years running. Back in the day, she was my sidekick on the show.”

      She expected a crack about how far the mighty had fallen. He asked, “How long was the dog around?”

      “Lucky for me, the director was as big of a jerk with girlfriends as he was with me. By the end of the season, the dog was gone.”

      “Did it ever warm up to you?”

      She shook her head. “I got faster at moving away after a scene. I never realized how much my fingers resemble bite-size sausages.” She blew out a breath. “Animals and me, we don’t mesh.”

      She looked away from the sleeping dog, surprised to find Josh standing next to her beside the kitchen island.

      This close, she could see that his dark brown eyes were flecked with gold. A thin web of lines fanned out from the corner of them. He was tall, well over six feet, with broad shoulders that tapered into a muscled chest under his thin white T-shirt. Unlike most guys in Southern California, Josh didn’t look like he’d gotten his shape with an expensive gym membership or fancy trainers. He’d clearly worked for it. Real sweat kind of work. He wasn’t bulky, but solid. Although he wore faded cargo pants and gym shoes, he still gave off a definite cowboy Mr. Darcy air.

      If Mr. Darcy had an unnervingly sexy shadow of stubble across his jaw, a small scar above his right eyebrow and a bit of a crook in his nose like he’d met the wrong end of a fist one too many times. A dangerous, bad boy Mr. Darcy.

      It was one thing to slip on giving up chocolate; bad boys were quite another. She’d had enough of bad boys in her time. They swarmed L.A. like out-of-work actors.

      His gaze caught hers, and it took her a moment to remember what she was doing in this house in the mountains, cowering on the kitchen counter.

      He reached out a hand and she took it, still a little dazed. “It’s not going to come after me?” she asked, throwing a sharp glance at the dog.

      “I’ll protect you,” he answered, his tone so sincere it made her throat tighten. Among other parts of her body.

      Off balance, she scrambled down, the heel of one shoe catching on the corner of a drawer and sending her against the hard wall of his chest. She stepped back as if he’d pinched her, but he didn’t release her hand.

      His calloused fingers ran the length of hers. “Nothing like sausages,” he said with a wink.

      She snatched her hand away and moved to the other side of the island, thinking the altitude was making her light-headed. Praying it was the altitude.

      “Where’s Claire’s mother?” she asked. As she’d hoped, the spark went out of his eyes in an instant.

      “She was having some problems—personal stuff—needed a little time to get herself back on track. So Claire’s here with me.”

      “For how long?”

      He shrugged. “As long as it takes. Why do you care?”

      “I have experience with bad parents. It can mess with you if you’re not careful.”

      “Are you careful, Sara?”

      “I’m broke,” she said by way of an answer. “Like I said before, I need the money from the sale of this house.”

      He hitched one hip onto the island. “You own the house, but it’s only on a quarter-acre lot. I’ve got all the land surrounding it. Your part isn’t going to be worth much without the land.”

      Crenshaw hadn’t mentioned that. “Then why is my mother’s latest boyfriend so hot for it?”

      Josh took a moment to answer. “Basically, I’m hosed without the house. I can’t run a guest ranch without a place to put the clients. If he gets you to sell to him now, I won’t have an income stream this summer. And without money...”

      “I know what happens without money.”

      “Right. Here’s the deal. Assuming things go well when the season starts, I can pay you double the mortgage for the next three months. That should get you through until I can secure the loan.”

      “Why should I do it your way?”

      He lifted one brow. “Because you’re a kind and generous soul,” he suggested.

      She answered with a snort. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

      “It will make your mother crazy mad.”

      “That’s a little better.”

      “Listen, Sara. Your gran was one of the best. She was nice to me when I was a kid and a good friend since I got back. While I don’t know the terms of her will, it doesn’t surprise me that she left you the house. She loved this place and she talked about you a lot.”

      “I barely knew her.”

      He nodded. “One of her biggest regrets was that she didn’t do more for you. Help you out when things got rough.”

      “Woulda, shoulda, coulda,” Sara said, but turned away when her voice cracked. “You know, I spent a summer here right before the show got picked up.”

      “Trudy told me.”

      “It’s funny. I don’t remember a thing about that time.”

      “Look around the house...maybe it will come back to you. I’m going to find Claire. Whatever you decide, Sara, your grandmother did love you. You should know that.”

      She waited until his footsteps faded, then let her gaze wander after quickly checking that the dog remained sleeping on the floor.

      The house was more an oversize log cabin, exposed beams running the length of the walls and across the ceiling. Their honey color gave the interior a cozy warmth in the late-afternoon sunlight. Across from the kitchen was a family room with high ceilings and a picture window that framed a million-dollar view of the craggy peaks surrounding the valley.

      An overstuffed sectional and several leather armchairs sat in front of a wall of bookshelves with a large flat-screen TV in the center. Nothing looked the least bit familiar to her, and she wondered whether Josh had gotten the new gadgets or if her grandmother had been into cutting-edge electronics.

      Did all of it belong to her, or would he strip the house if she sold? Maybe she should have spent a little more time with the attorney. Sara had been so angry when her mother had shown up that she clearly hadn’t gotten the whole story about this place.

      Couldn’t anything be easy? she wondered as she made her way up to the second floor. She peeked her head into the first bedroom. Posters of pop stars and young actors lined the walls. A blue-and-purple comforter with peace signs covered the bed. Claire’s room.

      Next to that was a bathroom, and then came the master bedroom. She stayed at the threshold, not wanting to venture into the room where Josh slept. Even from the doorway, she could smell

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