Free Calling All the Shots by Katherine Garbera

Jack might be hurt. Why did it matter? Just a
second ago she was debating—stop it, she thought. She’d been lying to herself
from the beginning. She liked Jack and she wanted him to be that prince in
frog’s clothing for her.
    She dialed Nichole’s number but hung up before it could ring.
Was she really going to get her pregnant friend out of bed in the middle of the
night to check the AP wire? She could do that herself. Willow got on her
computer and was typing Jack’s name into the search engine when her phone
rang.
    She glanced at the ID just in time to see it was him.
    “Jack? Oh. My. God. Are you okay?”
    “Yes. I’m fine. PJ is in a coma, though,” Jack said.
    “I’m sorry, Jack. I…” She couldn’t think of anything else to
say except, “I’m so glad you are okay. Hollywood
Today didn’t say who was hurt. I was so afraid it was you.”
    “It wasn’t,” he said.
    “Thank God,” she said. “Do they think PJ will pull
through?”
    “They’re not sure,” Jack said, his voice breaking. “I’ve known
PJ forever. He’s a friend, Willow.”
    She should have realized that—most of the people that Jack had
on his show were his friends. “Are you okay? What happened?”
    “I’m shook up, but fine. He was attacked by a shark. I’ve never
seen anything like it,” Jack said.
    “What can I do?” Willow asked. Jack sounded not scared exactly
but definitely shaky, and she wanted to help him if she could.
    “Just hearing your voice is helping. Why did you call? I
thought after our earlier conversation, well, that maybe things were going to be
different between us.”
    “You thought wrong,” she said. She wasn’t going to deny there
was still a lot about Jack she didn’t trust but she could no longer pretend that
he didn’t matter to her.

Six
    J ack got off the plane at JFK Airport,
donned his dark sunglasses and walked quickly through the throngs of people with
his head down. He was tired, worried about PJ and wanted to see Willow. But
after their last conversation he hadn’t wanted to ask her for anything.
    He already felt too vulnerable where she was concerned. And
with everything that was going through his mind right now, he knew better than
to reach out to her. He’d do something stupid that he’d regret later.
    Though Willow had made jokes about his fans, he did have them,
and there were times like today when he was exhausted from traveling and
worrying about one of his friends, that he didn’t want to be “seen.” He made it
out of the airport and was looking for the car he’d hired when he heard someone
calling his name.
    He bit back a curse and then recognized the voice. He wouldn’t
have thought it possible but there was Willow Stead, standing a few feet from
him wearing jeans and a leather jacket and looking like the total badass she
could be when she put her mind to it.
    “Well, hello, gorgeous,” he said in his best sexy voice. She’d
surprised him and he couldn’t remember the last time anyone had done that. He
was so damned happy to see her it was all he could do not to reach out and lift
her off her feet while he hugged her.
    “Hello yourself. I figured you might appreciate a friendly face
when you landed,” she said. “I called your agent and got your flight
number.”
    “I do,” he said, shifting his overnight bag from one shoulder
to the other.
    “Great,” she said. “You look tired.”
    “I am. I just want to get someplace where I can crash,” he
said.
    “Then follow me.”
    He did, pulling out his cell phone to text the car company he’d
arranged to meet him and tell them he didn’t need a ride. He followed Willow to
the parking garage and a restored 1979 MGB with a ragtop. It wasn’t the car he
expected her to drive. He hadn’t even expected her to have a car because she
lived in New York.
    The November air was chilly after the warmer Los Angeles
weather, but he welcomed it because the cold air meant he was back on the same
coast as Willow and