Dreaming With My Eyes Wide Open (Hollywood Legends #2) (7 page)

“I appreciate the offer, Lyle. But…”

“I know you get up with the sun.” Lyle laughed. Why he
thought it was funny Nate didn’t know. The smile Paige gave him back put Nate’s
teeth on edge.
Really
?
Tell the guy he’s an idiot and get in the
house
.

“We’ll be starting that project tomorrow, Paige. First
thing.”

Paige gave him a look that told him he should have kept his
mouth shut. It was too late to take the words back. He would have to live with
the consequences, whatever they were. She didn’t make him wonder for long.

“There is no timetable, is there, Dad?”

“No, not exactly.”

“And I’m not a school girl with a curfew.” Paige gave Lyle
another smile. This one wider and warmer. “I would love a glass of wine. I hope
you don’t mind work boots. I know how particular you are about those new
hardwood floors.”

“Not to worry. You can take your boots off before we enter
the house.”

Lyle escorted Paige to the truck, holding the door as she
pulled herself into the cab. Scampering around to the driver’s side, Lyle
hopped in. The vehicle started and down the road they went in a flash as though
he worried she might change her mind.

Nate watched the taillights disappear into the night.
What
had just happened
?

“What happened?” Chuck asked.

“That’s what I want to know.”

“Not with Lyle. I know what happened there. You poked the
bear, Nate.”

“Paige being the bear.”

It was an interesting analogy. She wasn’t big and hairy.
Quite the opposite. But she had a definite growl when provoked. It was sexy.
Hell, everything about her was sexy.

Nate glanced at Chuck. Those were thoughts he should keep
out of his head when he stood next to Paige’s father.

“Paige likes to make up her own mind. If she feels like
she’s being pushed, she pushes back.”

“In this case, that means leaving with faux-rancher.”

Chuck let out a large belly laugh.

“Come on, let’s head inside.” He chuckled again.
“Faux-rancher. I like that. How’d you pick up on it so fast?”

“He has hands like a man who sits behind a desk all day.
Soft. Pampered.”

Nate took Chuck’s jacket, hanging it beside his own on the
pegs by the door. When Chuck started loading the dishwasher, Nate automatically
helped. He grew up with a full-time cook and housekeeper. However, he and his
brothers had chores, their parents made sure of that. Doing dishes was
something Nate was very familiar with.

“Mona at the hair salon in Basic says he gets a manicure
every week.”

“I used to do that.”

“No kidding.” Chuck took a long look at Nate’s hands.

“There was this pretty manicurist who worked at the salon my
mother went to.”

“How pretty?”

“I was nineteen. I was in my very intense, and very brief,
Dolly Parton stage.”

“Now that paints a picture.”

Nate grinned, remembering what an idiot he had made of
himself. He had recently moved into his own place. It wasn’t much. Determined
to live on his salary, it was a shock to find out how expensive even a studio
apartment was in Los Angeles. The last thing he should have been spending his
money on was getting his cuticles trimmed and nails buffed.

The romance lasted all of a month. The sex was fine.
Average. The moment Polli — she always introduced herself by telling him her
name was spelled with an I — asked Nate to introduce her to his father, that
was it. No more manicures. No more Polli with an I. The lesson had been
expensive but invaluable.

On rare occasions, he still slept with women who wanted to
use him to get ahead in Hollywood.
If
there was a strong physical
attraction
and
they knew the score ahead of time. Nate made it clear
from the beginning. He knew what they wanted, but sex was all they would get.
Some stayed, some didn’t. He did his best to make sure the ones who spent the
night with him went away happy. The others? He imagined they went looking for
another
benefactor
.

“It won’t be easy.”

Chuck handed Nate a dishtowel before he rinsed out the
glasses Erin had always deemed too fragile for the dishwasher.

“I’ve dried dishes before. I think I can handle a few
glasses.”

“Don’t be obtuse.” Chuck put a crystal water goblet in the
tray to drain. “You’re interested in my Paige.”

“I find her interesting,” Nate said hesitantly. The last
time he met a woman’s father was in high school. The worry back then had been
about ruining their baby’s reputation. Since Nate tended to date
fast
girls, their reputations were already well established. The stories he could
have told
dear old Dad
about their little girls would have aged them
twenty years.

Chuck wasn’t an anxious father of a teenage girl. That put
this conversation on a level Nate wasn’t prepared for. What did he say to a man
who knew he wanted to sleep with his fully-grown adult daughter? Nate had no
idea.

“She’s a beautiful young woman.”

“Yes.” There was no arguing with that. Not that Nate wanted
to. He waited with trepidation for Chuck to continue.

“Vibrant. Intelligent. She taught herself to read. Can you
imagine?”

“You don’t need to sell me, Chuck.”

“That’s what it sounds like, doesn’t it.” Chuck shook his
head with a laugh. “
Here’s my daughter. Prime stock, ready for market.
Paige wouldn’t speak to me for a week if she heard me talking like that. Her
mother would have ripped me a new one.”

“Paige has a lot of her mother in her.”

“Thank God.” Chuck motioned to the framed picture on the
wall. “She got the best of her mother. That down deep need to do things on her
own is pure Erin.”

Nate took a close look at the photograph. A smiling,
bright-eyed woman with a short cap of honey-blond hair stood with her head
resting on Chuck’s shoulder. They looked… in love. Nate recognized it. He grew
up with parents who never lost that glow of finding their soul mate.

Paige had her mother’s hair. The shape of her face. The full
mouth. Her height and slender build she inherited from her father along with
his dark eyes. Their combined gene pool had done a fine job. In Paige, Nate
could see Erin
and
Chuck.

“We always wanted more children.” Chuck dried his hands.
Unknowingly, he answered the question Nate had earlier wondered about. “For
whatever reason, it never happened. I suppose we doted on Paige a bit more than
we should have.”

“That’s natural. My parents indulged us. And kicked us in
the ass when necessary.”

“Erin was good at pulling Paige back.” Chuck unconsciously
traced his wife’s face through the glass-covered frame. “Left to it, I let her
run wild. She was something to see, Nate. Fearless. Still is. Except when it
comes to men.”

“Chuck…”

“Hear me out. Would you like some coffee? I think there’s
some brandy we got as a gift one Christmas.”

“I’m good, thanks.”

Chuck put a hand on Nate’s shoulder, steering him to the
living area that flowed out of the kitchen. Chuck took a seat in his usual easy
chair. Nate sat opposite. The furniture was comfortable. Homey. The blues and
browns of the upholstery broken up by the occasional splashes of color.

The kind of room a person could relax in. So that’s what
Nate did. He liked Chuck. And he was interested in hearing anything and
everything about Paige. If the man harbored ideas about a blending of the
Landis and Chamberlin families, he could think again. Nate was here to help
make a movie. Not find a wife.

“Get that deer in the headlights look off your face, Nate.”
Chuck flipped the lever on the side of his chair. He sighed as the footrest
popped up, elevating his legs. “I’m not a matchmaker.”

“Good to know. What is this about, Chuck?” Not ready to
relax like his host, Nate sat forward. “I’ve been here less than a day. I’ve
had half a tour of the place and an excellent meal.”

“All true.”

“Let’s not forget that Paige chose to
drink some wine
with your neighbor rather than spend another minute in my company.”

“That annoys you, doesn’t it?”

Deciding silence was the best defense, Nate shrugged.

“You aren’t the first man to be dazzled, Nate.”

Dazzled? Was that his problem? He certainly wasn’t acting in
a rational manner. Paige had gotten to him. Fast. He felt turned around and out
of sorts. Nate didn’t like the feeling. He was the even-keeled Landis. Women
amused him. Aroused him. They were fun and sexy. He played for a while, and
then moved on.

Paige wouldn’t be any different. Would she?

“Since she’s single and never been married.” Nate raised his
eyebrows. “Has she been married?”

“Nope. Not even close.”

“Right.” Why it mattered, Nate couldn’t say. “Then what
happened to all these dazzled men?”

“They tried to catch her eye. Some succeeded for a time.”

“Like Lyle?”

“Like Lyle.” Chuck rubbed his chin, his eyes pensive.
“Mostly, Paige doesn’t see the effect she has on men.”

“Come on.”

As a man who reluctantly, and silently, added himself to the
list of the dazzled, Nate found Chuck’s claim hard to believe. He wouldn’t call
Paige an all-out heartbreaker. Nothing that calculated. However, she had a
healthy amount of flirt in her. She knew how to get a man’s attention.

“Don’t get me wrong. Paige knows she’s attractive. But like
her mother, she thinks of herself as average. Average looks, average appeal.”

Nate snorted.

“We see; they don’t.” Chuck smiled. “My Paige has an ego. A
big one. But it involves her brain. She tends to think she’s the smartest
person in the room.”

“
That
I’ve noticed.”

“The problem is she usually is.”

“That would drive a lot of men away.”

Chuck gave Nate a considering look. “You didn’t argue.”

“About her being smart? Why would I? I was raised by a woman
with more innate intelligence that anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Callie.”

Nate nodded. “It drives my dad crazy that she always claims
to be right.”

“Because?”

“Because she is.” Nate smiled at Chuck. “Ninety percent of
the time.”

“Let me guess. On those rare occasions, your dad lets it
go.”

“Are you kidding? Dad crows about it for days. Mom pretends
to be annoyed. They make up quickly, which I suspect was the point all along.
What they do behind the closed doors of their bedroom, I don’t want to think
about.”

Nate loved that his parents were still hot for each other.
Thankfully, they kept most of the details to themselves.

“Paige will never marry just for the sake of it.”

“Isn’t that a good thing? You want her to be happy.”

“She’s single-minded, Nate. The right man is likely to pass
her by because she refuses to lose focus on her goals for the ranch. She needs
to learn how to have some fun.”

Chuck gave Nate a long, steady look.

“Me?” Nate asked. Surely, Paige’s father wasn’t pushing him
to have a fling with his daughter? That would be… weird. “What are you saying?”

“Be her friend. Lottie is great; I love her like another
daughter. But she’s man crazy.”

“I noticed.”

“She’s a sweet girl. She and Paige are fiercely loyal.”

“I noticed that too.” Paige took her loyalty a bit farther
than necessary. At least, where Nate was concerned.

“Lottie means well, but her idea of having a good time is to
drag Paige to the only bar in Basic. Saturday nights can get pretty rowdy.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Chuck qualified. “I’m not criticizing
Lottie. It simply isn’t Paige’s thing.”

No, Nate couldn’t imagine Paige going full-on
Coyote Ugly
.
Though she would look fantastic in a pair of short shorts. Nate pulled his
thoughts away from the image of Paige’s long, bare legs.

“Friends?” Chuck didn’t know what he asked. Nate had a lot
of friends. He couldn’t recall picturing any of them naked.

“I knew I could count on you.” Chuck stood, stretching his
arms over his head. “I think I’ll go on up to bed. Is there anything you need?
I know Paige put fresh towels in the guest bathroom.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Good. Well then, I’ll see you in the morning.” Chuck had
his foot on the stairs when he turned his head. “One more thing.”

“Yes?”

Nate wasn’t sure his brain could take anything else. As it
was, he would be mulling this conversation over for some time. Between that and
listening for Paige to return, he would be lucky if he got more than a couple
hours sleep.

Chuck’s parting words guaranteed his night would be
sleepless.

“At some point, if you and Paige decide to become friends
with benefits, don’t you dare do it in my house.”

DAMN NATE LANDIS. If it weren’t for him, she would not be in
the company of the dullest man ever put on the face of the earth. She only
agreed to Lyle’s invitation because she refused to let Nate dictate her
actions. Yet, in the end, that was exactly what she had done.

Now she was stuck in Lyle’s house, listening to him drone on
about some hybrid beef that he planned to import from New Zealand. There was no
blunting the pain with wine. After one sip of the foul-tasting brew, Paige
couldn’t bring herself to drink any more of it. She had no idea why he thought
she liked it.

Lyle never listened. He liked the wine so he decided she
liked it too. Typical.

Damn, Nate Landis.

“There is a meeting of like-minded cattlemen in Chicago next
month. I’m going to use the time as a mini-vacation. I thought it would be the
perfect chance for us to get away.”

“Us?” When had they become
us
?

Lyle Wilson bought the land adjacent to the Double C while
Paige was in college. The newly named Wild W Ranch was a combination of three
properties, making it one of the largest privately owned spreads in western
Montana.