Behind the Film Star's Smile (8 page)

And Jess had the distinct feeling that next Monday wouldn’t come fast enough for either of them.

*

On Sunday, Luke divided his time between training Baloo with the exercises Jess had already taught him, and working on polishing his lines.

But, despite what he’d told Jess the previous day about never letting his personal life distract him, he found himself getting very distracted indeed. Especially when he thought about how Jess had kissed him back yesterday.

This was insane. They both had baggage, valid reasons for not getting involved with someone else. And yet she was so unlike the showbiz women he was used to mixing with; she was utterly straightforward. And she made him laugh. She could tease him out of a dark mood—and comfort him with kisses.

But what could he offer her, beyond a lifestyle? He had no idea whether she wanted children—they were nowhere near the stage of their relationship where they could discuss that—but his infertility could turn out to be a deal-breaker, just like it had with Fleur. Did he really want to let himself fall all the way in love with her, only to have to let her walk away?

As if sensing his mood, Baloo put her paws on his knees and licked his nose.

‘You, too,’ he said. ‘I can’t offer you a proper future. And it’s mean to let you bond with me. And stupid of me to get used to having you around.’ Though one thing had become very clear over the last week—having the dog around had really made his house feel like home, instead of just a place to live.

Maybe there was some way he could find a compromise.

Maybe.

*

When Luke walked on to the set on Monday, he quickly discovered that everyone was pussyfooting round him; he sighed inwardly, knowing they’d read the article. How many of them agreed with it? he wondered.

The only one who didn’t handle him with kid gloves was Jess. She tapped her watch and rolled her eyes, really hamming it up. ‘What time do you call this? Talk about messing with a poor, hard done by Labrador’s routine. Off to work with you, McKenzie. Baloo here needs a nap.’

He could’ve hugged her for that. Because the teasing, and the way Jess didn’t look at him as if he was so fragile that one word out of place would make him shatter, made all the tension flood out of his muscles. She believed in him.

‘My apologies, O Great Animal Expert.’ He made a fuss of Baloo. ‘See you after shooting. Don’t steal or chew anything except a dog toy, OK?’

‘As if she would,’ Jess teased. ‘Break a leg.’

‘Thanks.’ He blew a kiss at Ayesha. ‘See you guys later.’

During filming, he found the rest of the crew were still treating him with kid gloves. When they took a break at the end of the first scene, he said, ‘Can I have a quick cast conference, here?’

George, the director, looked surprised. ‘What’s up?’

‘Very,
very
quick cast conference,’ Luke said.

George called everyone to gather round.

‘I’m guessing you all saw that article at the weekend,’ Luke said. ‘Guys, you don’t have to treat me like a special snowflake. OK, so I didn’t get nominated for an award for my last film. So what? It’s just one film, and it’s not the same as this one. Just so you all know, whatever that article said, this is going to be a great movie. The script is great, we’re all doing our jobs to the best of our ability, and our audiences are going to laugh and cry in all the places we want them to. We’re a team. And I’m not intending to let any of you down, OK?’

‘OK. That’s good enough for me.’ George clapped his shoulder. ‘And I’ll talk to the publicity team and see if they can fix up some interviews to show that you’re doing just fine.’

The rest of the cast from the scene followed suit, shaking his hand and agreeing with him. Except, he noticed, Mimi. So maybe she’d been the one feeding the information to the journalist. Revenge for turning her down? Or maybe it was because she’d been friendly with Fleur at some point. He didn’t know and he didn’t care. But he wasn’t going to give her any chance to try that kind of stunt again.

CHAPTER SEVEN

O
N
F
RIDAY
J
ESS
was taking Baloo for a walk in the park when she felt a tug on her shoulder; acting purely on instinct, she grabbed the top of her bag and looked round. A young lad in a hoodie was tugging on the strap of her bag.

He honestly thought she was just going to let him mug her, in broad daylight, in the middle of the park? ‘Get off!’ she yelled, expecting him to drop the strap of her bag and run off.

To her shock, he produced a knife. ‘Give me your bag,’ he demanded.

Her stomach turned to water. So he wasn’t just an opportunist thief who could be scared off by attention being drawn to him, then. And, from the slurred sound of his voice, he was taking some kind of drug that clearly made him feel invincible. He’d have no hesitation in sticking that knife straight into her.

Give him the bag.

That would be the sensible thing to do.

But the bag had her phone in it. With photos of Matt and Comet. Texts from Matt that she hadn’t been able to bear to delete.

She couldn’t lose them.
Especially not today.

‘I said, give me the bag,’ he snarled again.

Baloo barked, then growled at him; he turned on the dog and kicked her hard in the ribs. Baloo yelped and hit the ground.

And then Jess’s police training kicked in. Everything went into slow motion, as if she were wading through treacle. The next thing she knew, the mugger was on the floor with his arm twisted between his shoulder blades, the knife was safely out of his reach, and her knee was pressed into the small of his back.

‘You’d better hope my dog’s all right,’ she snarled. ‘If you’ve hurt her...’

It would be oh, so easy to pull his arm that little bit tighter and snap the bone. To hurt him as he’d hurt her dog. To grab his hair and keep smacking his head into the ground. To hurt him in revenge for all the thugs like him who hurt people—thugs like the ones who’d beaten Comet and left Matt to bleed to death.

So, so easy.

And so, so wrong.

‘Someone call the police,’ she yelled. She glanced over at Baloo, who was sitting beside her, shaking.

‘It’s all right, sweetheart,’ she soothed. Please let Baloo be all right. Please don’t let the thug have broken her ribs or caused internal bleeding.

Again, she had to resist the urge to grind the mugger’s face into the dirt and snap a bone or two.

People crowded round her. She was aware of people offering to help, to take over from her, but she wasn’t letting the mugger go or risk the chance of him escaping. She wanted him cuffed and charged. And she wanted him stopped in this way of life, before he really hurt someone.

‘Is this his?’ one of the bystanders asked, bending towards the knife.

‘Yes. Don’t touch it,’ Jess warned. ‘It’s evidence and we don’t want his fingerprints compromised.’

‘What, you’re a pig?’ the mugger asked with a last bit of drug-induced bravado, using the derogatory nickname for the police.

Not any more, she wasn’t, but he didn’t need to know that. But she had no intention of engaging in conversation with him. Not until his rights had been read to him, and she couldn’t do that herself any more.

At last, she heard the familiar wail of a police siren.

Two police officers came rushing over. ‘What’s going on here? Oh, Jess!’ one of them said in surprise.

She recognised the two officers as colleagues from her old station.

‘Mikey, Ray,’ she acknowledged them both. ‘This guy tried to mug me and grab my bag. He pulled a knife on me—’ she nodded to indicate the weapon that he’d dropped earlier ‘—and he kicked my dog. I’m happy to testify in court, and I want you to make sure animal cruelty is added to the rap sheet.’

‘You hurt my arm,’ the mugger whined. ‘And your dog tried to bite me.’

Jess raised her eyebrows. ‘I think you’ll find that I’ve used appropriate force, and no more. And my dog didn’t try to bite you. You were threatening me with a knife and she growled at you. You
kicked
her, you bastard.’ She felt her muscles go tight. Right at that moment, she wanted to kick the mugger. Where it hurt. Really, really hard.

‘OK. We’ll take it from here. And we need to take a proper statement from you, Jess,’ Mikey said.

She relinquished her hold on the thug. While the officers read the mugger his rights and cuffed him, she checked Baloo, gently feeling the area where the dog had been kicked.

Baloo whined, but Jess hoped that it was because the dog was scared and sore, rather than because she had broken ribs. She couldn’t feel anything like a break. But the bastard had kicked her hard. Jess thought again about what had happened to Comet; she only just managed to hold it together, aware that she was shaking now as much as the dog was.

‘Are you OK to give a statement here, Jess? Do you need someone to get you a mug of hot sweet tea or something?’ Ray asked.

‘I’m fine,’ Jess said, as if saying it would make it true, and sat on the floor so Baloo could creep onto her lap. So what if a Labrador was way too big to be a lapdog? Right now the dog needed comfort—and so did Jess.

She gave a clear description of exactly what had happened, all the while soothing the dog and holding her close.

‘And you’ll testify in court, if we need you to?’ Ray checked.

‘Absolutely.’

‘Great. Well, we’ll be in touch and let you know what happens.’

She got to her feet again to sign the statement, and he hugged her. ‘It’s good to see you again. We’ve all missed you, you know.’

‘I missed you all, too. But, after what happened...’

‘Yeah, we know. It’s...’ Ray blew out a breath. ‘It’s hard.’

*

He could actually have a lunch break today? Delighted with the news, Luke rang Jess to see if she was free for lunch. No answer. Well, she was probably busy at the production office. He called in to see her, only to discover from Ayesha that Jess had already taken Baloo to the park. Well, OK—it wasn’t that huge a park. He’d probably be able to spot them within a couple of minutes.

He signed out of the set and crossed over to the park. He could see a police car parked across the road with blue lights flashing, and there appeared to be a crowd of people in the park. He glanced over briefly, and then stood absolutely still with shock.

Jess was right in the middle of that crowd. With Baloo. And the police were talking to her.

What the...?

Forcing himself to stay calm, he walked over to join her. ‘Hey, Jess. Is everything OK?’ Stupid question. Of course it wasn’t.

‘It’s fine now,’ she said. ‘Nothing to worry about.’

But her voice was slightly brittle, and he knew she was keeping something back. Something important.

‘You take care, Jessie. And call us. We’d all like to see you,’ one of the policemen said, hugging her.

‘I will, Mikey.’

‘Promise?’

She smiled and patted his shoulder. ‘Promise.’

What was going on?

He guessed that maybe Jess had worked with the policemen or their partners in the past, but something was very clearly wrong.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked again.

‘I’m fine.’

He didn’t think she was. There was no colour whatsoever in her face and her eyes were huge. ‘What’s happened, Jess?’

She took a deep breath. ‘We were mugged. A guy tried to grab my bag. He had a knife.’

Luke went cold. This could’ve been much, much worse. Jess could’ve been seriously hurt. ‘Oh, my God.’

She flapped a dismissive hand. ‘I disarmed him and it’s OK now. He’s in custody.’

‘You need some hot sweet tea,’ he said. ‘And some space.’ People were crowding round, still. And he didn’t think it was just the mugging that had attracted them; people were beginning to nudge each other and point at him, too. ‘Let’s go back to the set. Find somewhere quiet so you can sit down and catch your breath.’ He shepherded her and Baloo out of the park. He’d also noticed that the dog hadn’t leapt all over him, the way she usually did; instead, Baloo was subdued and clinging to Jess’s side. Clearly the mugging had frightened the dog badly.

He got them both signed back into the set, then bought them both a drink and a sandwich at the catering tent before taking her back to his trailer.

‘Thank you,’ she said softly, clearly on the edge of tears. He was shocked by how protective it made him feel. He wanted to wrap her up and keep her safe. And he wanted to pin that mugger against the wall and put the fear of God into him so the kid never, ever tried to hurt someone again.

He blew out a breath and unclenched his fists.

‘It’s hot and sweet. I thought it might help,’ he said, pushing the paper cup of tea towards her. ‘And, if you want to talk, I’m here.’

*

Oh, God. He was being so nice, Jess thought. And she was just a mess.

He’d meant well, she knew. Hot sweet tea was supposed to be good for shock. But even the scent of it made her gag, bringing back memories of the last time someone had made her hot sweet tea. Gallons of the stuff, while the bad news unfolded and unfolded and unfolded until it swamped her.

She swallowed hard. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t drink it.’

He rummaged in the fridge. ‘I have sparkling water or milk, or I can make you some instant coffee.’

She shook her head. ‘Thanks, but I don’t want anything.’ Her throat felt swollen from holding back the tears. Right at that moment, she didn’t think she could swallow food or drink.

Luke gave her space while she toyed with the sandwich he’d bought her and fed all the chicken to Baloo.

‘I have cyber cake,’ he said, taking his phone out of his pocket and finding a picture of cake on the internet. ‘Not
quite
as good as your sister’s remedy, but it’ll have to do at short notice.’

She gave him a watery smile. ‘Thanks for trying.’

‘Talk to me, Jess,’ he said softly. ‘Better out than in. And it’s set rules. It won’t go further than me.’

She dragged in a breath. ‘I guess today brought a lot of things back to me.’ Her voice was shaky. ‘The mugger kicked Baloo. I wanted to break his arm and get revenge for Matt and Comet. I really wanted to hurt him, Luke. That’s exactly why I can’t be a police dog trainer any more. I can’t send handlers and dogs into difficult situations where some bastard could put a bullet through them and leave them to die, the way it happened to Matt and Comet. And I can’t trust myself to be a good cop and act according to the law.’

‘But you didn’t hurt the guy,’ he reminded her. ‘You disarmed him and you got someone to call the police.’

‘But I
wanted
to hurt him, and that’s the point—what if I’d lost control?’

‘I don’t think you would,’ he said.

‘I can’t take that risk. It wouldn’t be fair on anyone. I’d be a liability to work with.’ She shook her head. ‘That’s why I resigned. I can’t go back to the force. Ever.’ And for all this to be brought back to her today, of all days...

She was crying silently, tears sliding down her face. The dog was anxious, nudging Jess with her nose and whining.

Luke put his arms round both of them, holding them close. ‘Jess. You don’t have to go back. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.’ He kissed the top of her head. ‘It’s OK. I’m here. So’s Baloo.’

And that made her feel even more guilty. This attraction she felt towards Luke—how much of it was for his sake, and how much was her trying to replace Matt and Comet?

*

‘I’m sorry.’ Jess scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘I was being wet.’

‘Don’t be so hard on yourself,’ Luke said softly, knowing he was being a hypocrite because he’d done exactly the same thing when his marriage broke up.

She ignored his comment. ‘I need to get Baloo to the vet’s. I checked her over myself and I’m pretty sure she’s just bruised and frightened and shocked, but I want to be double sure that she doesn’t have any broken bones.’

Or internal bleeding, he thought—this had clearly brought back everything that had happened to Comet. Hadn’t she said that the thugs had broken the dog’s ribs and a leg?

‘I’ll come with you.’

She shook her head. ‘You can’t. You’re expected back on set.’ She bit her lip. ‘And I’ve probably already ruined the continuity and what have you—I’ve made wet patches on your shirt.’

‘Wardrobe can sort that out later. This is a question of priorities.’

‘Luke, people are depending on you. Baloo will be safe with me.’ She gave a mirthless laugh. ‘Well, she should have been safe with me in the park, but she wasn’t, was she?’

‘It isn’t your fault.’

‘Yes, it is. If the mugger hadn’t targeted me she’d be fine.’

‘Does it not occur to you,’ he pointed out gently, ‘that it’s actually the mugger’s fault? He was the one who chose to try and steal your bag. He could see that you had a dog with you and everyone knows how loyal dogs are. He must’ve known that the dog would bark or growl at him.’

She dragged in a breath. ‘Even so. Look, I’ll text you from the vet’s. Keep your phone on silent.’

Luke realised that this was her way of saying she wanted some space. Right now she probably wanted to get her equilibrium back. Half of it was the shock of being mugged and half of it was from the memories it had brought back.

So he needed to back off. Now. ‘OK. I’ll wait to hear from you.’

‘And this time,’ she said, ‘I promise I’ll keep your dog safe.’

He didn’t have the heart to remind her that Baloo was only his dog temporarily. ‘I know. I trust you.’

But the look on her face said it all. She didn’t trust herself.

Yeah. He knew what that felt like, too.

*

Jess texted Luke from the vet’s.
All fine. Just bruising. No scary stuff.

She was surprised to get a text back immediately.
Good. Stop worrying. See you both later.

Maybe he was on a break between scenes. He wouldn’t have ruined a scene just for her, would he?

‘Well,
we
are going back to the park on the way to the set,’ she told Baloo. ‘We’re going to face it now, so it doesn’t get a chance to scare us and get blown out of proportion.’