1
Ronnie
As I stepped out of the car and took in the view—red cliffs and mesas in the distance, a smattering of trailers, trucks, and buildings in front of me, and the vast desert in between—only one thought came to mind.
What the hell am I doing?
It was the same thought I’d had when I left Tennessee early this morning. And when I’d changed planes in Dallas. And when I’d arrived in Grand Junction, Colorado and seen the driver holding a sign with my name on it.
Evan, the driver, put my things down on the red-tinged dirt road at my feet. I thanked him and tried to press a bill into his hand, but he smiled and said it had been taken care of.
For a moment, we stood side by side, staring around us. There was a large building that looked like an airplane hangar. A row of trailers. A few smaller buildings. A few structures further away that I couldn’t identify. And remarkably few people around.
“Doesn’t really look like a movie set to me,” Evan said. “I heard Aiden Hunt is starring in it.”
I shrugged. The fact that action star Aiden Hunt was the star of the movie being filmed here was literally all I knew about it. And I only knew that because I’d seen it mentioned in an in-flight magazine on the way here.
The driver squinted in the sun. “Is it a western?”
“I’m not sure.” There were some people walking between buildings over to the left. A few of them had on cowboy hats, but other than that, there was no sign that this was a period piece. No horses. No stagecoaches. “I don’t think so.”
Evan gave me a quizzical look but was kind enough not to point out that most people who traveled across the country knew at least a little something about their destination. He pulled out his wallet and fished out a business card. “There’s a town just across the Colorado border called Norris. It’s small, but it’s got a good bar, which is more than I can say for any place around here. Maybe we could go there sometime. I can come pick you up.”
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” There was attraction in his eyes—I’d seen him glance at me in the rear-view mirror a few times on the way over—but behind that was kindness. After a few attempts at conversation, he’d gotten the hint that I wanted to be left alone, and he’d obliged. That was a far cry from many of the men I knew who felt they were entitled to a woman’s attention whether she wanted to give it or not.
His expression softened as I took the card. “It doesn’t have to be a date. You might just need to get out of here at some point.” His gaze slid over the landscape. “Not much going on in the deserts of Utah except for movie-making.”
“I’ll be fine.”
He smiled as he put his wallet away. “I’m sure you will. And hey, maybe you’ll meet Aiden Hunt and he’ll sweep you off your feet.”
“Maybe.” My smile probably didn’t reach my eyes, but it seemed to reassure him as he climbed into his car, gave a wave, and drove off. The dust swirled as I stared after the car. Perhaps it was the gentle warning in his words, but it kind of felt like my last chance at turning back had just disappeared.
Perhaps because it had.
To quell that line of thinking, I instead focused on a mental image of Aiden. Action movies weren’t really my thing, but I’d seen him in a film or two. He was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome in a rugged kind of way. Maybe it was just the movies he was in, but he seemed much more suited for a landscape such as this than city life. Maybe that was why so many of his films involved car chases and fist fights. And love scenes, too. There was usually a leading lady two thirds his age in need of rescue in his movies.
Blinking in the bright sun, I studied my surroundings as I altered my recurring thought.
What the hell am I doing here?
Then I remembered—I had nowhere else to go.
“Are you an extra?” a middle-aged woman with kind eyes and frizzy hair asked. After much wandering, I’d finally found a two-room building that seemed to serve as the main office.
“No, I’m…” My words trailed off quickly. The truth was, I had no idea what my job here would entail. But when I accepted it, I’d been desperate to get away. My former life already felt distant, like it had been a dream. A very bad dream. Everything I’d worked so hard for had imploded and left me with nothing. Nothing except a mob of angry people online who hated me. “Is Roy Mackenzie around?”