The Girl from Summer Hill(6)

He looked back at Tate, who was glowering down at his cup of coffee. What in the world was wrong with him? In public, Tate was a very private person. When he had to attend something, he usually took his sister.

But when he was with his friends, he was nearly always relaxed and laughing. Jack knew Tate had planned to stay in Summer Hill for at least a month. Tate liked the company of his cousin Kit, who was old enough to be his father, but then, maybe that was why Tate liked him so much. And he’d talked about how he had other newly found relatives moving to the little Virginia town. It had all been good.

So why was he sitting at the table looking miserable? Why wasn’t he out exploring the place? And why was he dreading going to some local auditions? Tate was great with the armies of squealing females who followed him around.

Jack watched the girl disappearing into the trees. “What color hair does she have?” He purposely didn’t say who “she” was.

“Kind of red. I think it was natural.”

“Yeah?” Jack said. “Anything else natural about her?”

The glower left Tate’s face and he smiled a bit. “From the way she jiggled when she ordered me out of the house, I’d say her upper half is quite natural.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “What were her pajamas like again?”

Tate smiled broader. “Very thin and half unbuttoned. And crumpled up from being in bed. She didn’t have anything on under them.”

Jack was working to keep from grinning. “Are you sure you want to leave here tomorrow?”

Tate gave a full smile, something only his friends saw. “Go get dressed. I have a script to read and Kit doesn’t want me there until after lunch.”

“I think I’ll meet you there.” As Jack went up the stairs to his bedroom, he was chuckling. “Not tempted, huh?”





“Hi,” Jack said from outside Casey’s door.

She was putting food into boxes and coolers as she prepared to take it to the old warehouse where the stage was being built. Unfortunately, she was using so much force that she almost broke a Pyrex dish.

“Hello,” Jack said louder as he knocked on the doorframe.

Casey jumped. “Sorry, I— Oh. You.” Her eyes were wide.

“May I come in?”

“Of course, but it’s a mess in here.”

“When a place smells as good as this one does, it’s beautiful to me.”

“I have to—” she began, but stopped. Jack Worth, her absolute favorite movie star, was standing in her kitchen. Her first thought was how odd it was to see this man life-size. He looked good, but he also looked human, normal. And right now she recognized what she was so good at dealing with: a hungry person. “Would you like something to eat?”

“Please,” he said.

Minutes later, Jack was seated on the far side of the island and before him was a feast. Casey had opened every container and dished out some of each to him. She warmed up the sweet-potato hash and fried fresh eggs to put on top.

“This is great.” He was eating a maple-walnut muffin and looking around the kitchen at the rows of jars of home-canned jams, their tops covered with red-and-white gingham. On a side wall hung skillets from four inches wide to one that could feed a crowd. Three tall, narrow bookcases were between the big doors to the outside and they were packed with cookbooks, binders, and card boxes. By the big stainless-steel stove were shelves packed with bottles of oil of different colors, most of them with herbs and peppers inside. “I mean it, every inch of this place is great.”

Casey smiled, pleased by his compliment. If she’d been told she was going to meet Jack Worth, she would have said she’d instantly turn into a fangirl. But as she watched him eat, she realized she felt the same way she did with her brother. “Excuse me, but I need to pack things.”

“Go ahead,” Jack said. “How are you transporting all of this?”

“I have to call my brother to come with his truck.”

“Tate has a big pickup in his garage. I can get it and give you a ride.”

She blinked at him. To ride with Jack Worth? All his stunts with cars flying through the air seemed to run through her mind.

“I promise I’ll keep all four wheels on the ground.”

“Then I’d rather go with someone else,” she said solemnly.

Jack laughed. “Okay, next time I’ll take the Jeep and we’ll find some rough roads.”

“You’re on.” She put a squash casserole into the cooler. “But you’d better not tell…him, the owner, who’s in the truck or he might not let you use it.”

“Bad first meeting, huh?” Jack bit into an apple muffin that had a salted-caramel top.