Free Extreme Bachelor by Julia London Page A

around.
Nicole Redding was staring up at him, her hands on her tiny hips,
her lips pursed and her frown deep. “Nicki,” he said with a false
smile. Why in the hell did she have to show up now? He mentally
kicked his own ass for having slept with her. She’d been trouble
from the get-go.
    “Well, hello , stranger,” she said in a tone
that made him cringe, and gave Leah a once-over before lifting her
face to be kissed.
    Michael reluctantly put his hand on her
elbow and pecked her cheek, Hollywood-style.
    She reared back, squinting up at him in a
way that made her multimillion-dollar face look very bitchy. “I
didn’t know you were in town.”
    “Yeah . . . I just got in.”
    “Costa Rica, I heard.”
    “Yep.” Why was she here? Why didn’t she go
back to Bel Air where she belonged?
    “So what are you doing here? Film? A woman?
Or both?” She laughed at her little dig.
    Michael didn’t laugh. “Neither. But thanks
for asking.”
    “I guess T.A. is doing the
stunt work for War , huh?”
    “Looks like.”
    “Lucky me,” she said with a frown. “I’ll get
to see the guy who—”
    A loud screech startled them both, and
Michael turned to where Leah had been standing. She was in her car,
backing out, and her car was making an awful screeching sound.
    Nicole coughed as the smoke from Leah’s
tailpipe blasted them. “—the guy who dumped me,” she finished.
    “Come on, sweetheart,” Michael said, waving
a hand in front of his face to dissipate the smoke spewing out of
the back of Leah’s car. “Don’t be like that. It was mutual and you
know it.”
    “It wasn’t mutual,” she whined, waving her
hand, too. “I never once said I wanted to break it off.”
    “Maybe you didn’t say it, but when you
started having those late-night sessions with the director, I
didn’t think you were exactly committed to our little affair,
either.”
    She tossed her head at that. “Do we have to
stand here in that junker’s exhaust?”
    “No. That junker is leaving,” he said, and
watched Leah drive away with only one functioning brake light.
    “Jesus, they should outlaw those things,”
Nicole said. “All right, all right, Michael, the car is gone, you
can look at me now. God, that’s so typical of you. Production
hasn’t even started, and you’re already hitting on some
actress.”
    “I’m not hitting on her.”
    “Whatever,” Nicole said with a dismissive
flick of her wrist. “I’m going to go get a drink. You want
one?”
    Frankly, he could use a drink, and Nicole
could be fun when she loosened up a little. “Okay, but no sushi
bars,” he reminded her.
    She smiled. “No sushi, you wimp. Just let me
get my things.”
    She gave him a come-hither look that might
have sent a less experienced man to his knees before stepping
around him and moving on. Michael turned around, watched Leah’s car
sputter around the corner, and shoved both hands through his
hair.
    One ex-lover. One ex-love of his life. So
far, not a particularly great start to a film he’d been so damn
certain was a gift from Guy Universe.
     
    Subject: Re: YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE!!
    From: Lucy Frederick

    To: Leah Kleinschmidt

    Time: 11:10 pm
     
    Ohmigod, I think I am going to die. Leah,
Leah, please do not do anything completely stupid because you know
you have a tendency to be really stupid when it comes to guys. You
CANNOT talk to him! I mean, okay, obviously you have to TALK to
him, but you can’t let yourself TALK to him, TALK to him, do you
understand? I hope I don’t have to remind you how you laid on the
couch for six months after he did what he did. You were a friggin’
basket case! You ate an entire box of Fruit Loops in one sitting!
Just pleeeease promise me you will remember that he walked out on
you, that out of the clear blue, he announced that he was leaving
and that was the end of that. He had no regard for your feelings or
what you guys had shared for almost a year. I