Page 39 of Snow Balled

She waved that aside with a flick of her hand. “I didn’t do much acting in that movie.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

She shook her head. “It was more like reacting, not acting. My main job was to make Aiden look good.”

If that was true, it was a damn shame. She had amazing skills. “You got to fight in that scene at the end.”

“That was my friend, Ronnie. She’s a stuntwoman.”

Oh. I hadn’t been able to tell. “Surely you did more than just fawn all over Aiden Hunt.”

“Not much more,” she said with a grimace.

“He must be pretty used to women fawning all over him. Is his ego a mile wide?”

She thought it over as she sat on my lap, making no move to get up. “I thought so at first. I thought he was a real jerk.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That seems to be your knee-jerk reaction to most men.”

Her soft lips quirked into a smile, and she nodded. “Sometimes some of them prove me wrong.”

“I hope I’m in that camp.”

“I think maybe you are.”

That was good. With her sitting on my lap, I didn’t have a safe place to put my right arm, so I rested it on the sofa behind her and touched her hair lightly. “You look different with it down.”

She shrugged but didn’t move away from my touch. “It’s down when I’m an actress. It’s pulled back when I’m in writing mode.”

I smiled at that. “You Hollywood types… always with the costume changes.” I ran my fingers through her silky strands again, knowing I should stop. Just the fact that she was sitting on my lap, talking to me instead of shying away, was progress. “You really surprised me tonight.”

“That I can act?”

“That you could be so damn forward. What got into you?”

She grinned. “I lost myself in the role. And then when I saw the terror in your eyes, I just couldn’t stop.” She gazed past me, lost in thought. “I guess… I was just so relieved that you guys didn’t freak out when you saw the trailer that I felt kind of giddy with relief.”

“Giddy?” I didn’t think I’d ever heard anyone describe themselves that way.

“Yeah. You surprised me, too, you know.”

“I did?”

“Yeah.” She trained her emerald eyes back on me again. “I thought you were this kind, friendly, reformed computer nerd…”

“And now you think otherwise?” I still wanted her to think I was kind and friendly. Maybe not the computer nerd part, but hopefully our little impromptu acting class hadn’t made her think too badly of me.

“Well, yeah.” Her voice was soft and serious. “Because now I know better.”

Uh-oh. “What do you mean?”

“You fight dirty,” she whispered, as she shifted her hips on my lap. Her voice was so low, I barely heard it.

“What do you—?”

“I can fight dirty, too.”

What?

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