Aiden winked and smiled when he filled his paper cup at the cooler next to me. “Why are you hiding all the way back here?” I shrugged. “Just staying out of the way.” He pushed the edge of his T-shirt sleeve up, flexing beefy biceps as he crossed his arms. “Ah, where’s the fun in that. I could have used your help in there.” I thought about the irony. “No thanks. I get enough of barroom beer muscles back home. It’s purely a spectator sport for me.” It had been a while since I had to break up a brawl in my pub, though my trusty baseball bat was never out of reach.
Aiden glanced over his shoulder. “I could definitely use a cold one after that last stunt.
We have to gather some people together and go out for a few drinks.”
I knew better than to answer him, so I let his comment go and politely excused myself to relocate to a better vantage point.
After several more takes, my new friend found me again.
“Looks like we’re just about wrapped. So, ah, you have any plans after this or are you going to let me take you to dinner?”
“Take me to dinner? No.” I was shocked that he even asked. I walked away, staring off at the man I was planning on having for dessert, when Aiden followed me. Ryan’s gaze met mine, and when he caught sight of me having another conversation with my new admirer, his eyes narrowed on me with a look of obvious displeasure.
“I see. You’re hoping for a chance with him, aren’t you?” Aiden uttered in a mix of mockery and what I perceived to be jealousy.
“Well, I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but I hear he recently got engaged, so I’d say your chances are slim to none.” I wanted to say, “No shit. I’m his fiancée, dumbass,” and then thank him for discouraging a random woman from hitting on Ry-an, but Ryan was storming his way over to us with blatant concern plastered on his face. I wondered if all this casual flirtation on Aiden’s part was pissing Ryan off, but in eight more seconds I was going to find out for sure.
“Hey, do you want me to ask—see if he’ll give you an autograph or something? Now’s your chance before he leaves.” Aiden was too busy watching Ryan’s approach to see my eyes roll.
Ryan offered a handshake to Aiden and gave him a firm, manly pat on the shoulder.
“Hey man. That was some pretty awesome shit you just did. You going to be all right?
That one hit looked pretty painful.”
Aiden rocked on his feet from Ryan’s “friendly” pat and then got all puffy-chested, shirking off with a roll of his neck the mere thought that anything could cause him pain.
“Nah, I do this sort of stuff all the time. I’m good. Hey, um, Ryan? I take it you’ve sort of met this lovely lady already. Her name is Karen. Karen, Ryan Christensen,” Aiden said smugly, as if he and Ryan were best buds.
Ryan’s eyes narrowed. “Karen?” I shrugged my whatever. What was the point in correcting him? I knew Ryan was wrapped for the night and that we could leave.
It didn’t take long for Mike to come into the fold. My faithful human Rottweiler.
Attack!
“I was just asking Karen if she wanted to go out for a few drinks. There’s some pretty great clubs downtown, but I’m having trouble tearing her away from here.” Aiden gave me a nudge.
“Oh really?” Ryan questioned me.
I hoped he could see I was annoyed. “I tried to tell him no but he—” Keeps interrupting me.
“Ahh,” Aiden groaned. “You’re just afraid of having a good time.”
See what I mean?
He turned to Ryan. “Hey, before you take off . . . I don’t want to embarrass her and she’s probably too shy to ask, but do you think maybe she could get a picture with you?” Aiden fumbled and dropped his cell, mumbling how he would text it to me later.
I wrapped my arms around Ryan’s waist, ready to go back to our condo. Ryan’s shirt was damp with sweat. It had been another long day and I could tell he was exhausted. I also had a pile of clean laundry for Mike to take with him since the on-set laundry service was only offered to the talent, not the keepers of the talent.
“I can’t turn my back for one minute,” Ry-an groaned in my ear, letting his restrained irritation be known. Even though he was acting jealous, I decided that this emotional flare of his was going to be rewarded handsomely in the shower later.
“Believe me, I did nothing to encourage it.”
“I know, babe.” Ryan squeezed me, brushing some of my hair back. He cupped my face in his hand and kissed me wickedly.