Free Behind the Film Star's Smile by Kate Hardy

couldn’t concentrate.
    All he could think about was the fact that he’d be seeing more of Jess. And how she’d felt in his arms when he’d hugged her impulsively.
    It should make him want to run a mile. After Fleur, he’d dated a lot, in a vain attempt to make himself feel better. But it hadn’t worked, so he’d simply stopped dating and given himself a bit of space to get his head together. He’d managed to avoid most of the situations where well-meaning friends had tried to fix him up with someone they thought would be perfect for him.
    But Jess Greenacre... Jess intrigued him. He wanted to know what made her tick. What made her laugh.
    She was definitely a puzzle. A dog trainer who knew barristers and medics. Or maybe they were people she’d met at university, or friends of the family, and he was making too much of it.
    He just about managed to focus on rehearsals until the lunchtime break. And then he discovered he wasn’t actually getting a break—they needed to go straight into shooting.
    ‘I need to make a couple of quick calls, first,’ he told George, the director.
    ‘They need to be really quick,’ George warned.
    ‘I’m calling Jess, to let her know that I need her to look after Baloo at lunchtime, and my aunt Monica, to see how she’s doing this morning,’ Luke explained.
    And how stupid was it that he was disappointed not to get the chance to see Jess?
    *
    ‘No, it’s fine. I understand,’ Jess said when Luke explained the situation over the phone. ‘You don’t need to apologise. Now go, before you get into trouble.’
    In the end, she took her lunch break with Baloo in the park opposite the set. Just for fun, she ran through a couple more training moves with the dog, and was impressed by the way the dog responded. ‘You could have a real career in show business, sweetheart,’ she said, scratching the top of the dog’s head.
    Baloo sighed and rested her head on Jess’s knee.
    ‘Enough for today, I think,’ Jess said. ‘Give me a wave goodbye for the park?’
    Baloo woofed and lifted her paw.
    ‘That’s cool,’ a voice said beside her.
    Jess turned to see a little girl who looked as if she was six or seven. Alone in the park and talking to strangers? That wasn’t good. She tried to keep the little girl talking while she scanned the park to see if a parent or carer was nearby. Failing that, she’d put a call in to the nearest police station and get someone to look after the little girl and keep her safe until her family or carer was found. ‘What’s cool? That my dog can wave?’
    The little girl nodded. ‘Does your dog dance?’
    ‘I’ve never tried dancing with her,’ Jess said. Where on earth was the child’s mother? Was she one of the nearby women concentrating on a mobile phone call?
    ‘There was a dancing dog on the telly on Saturday night. It was really good.’ The little girl regarded Baloo solemnly. ‘You should get her to dance.’
    To Jess’s relief, a woman came hurrying over to them. ‘Aisling! You know you shouldn’t go off and talk to strangers,’ she scolded, then grimaced at Jess. ‘I’m so sorry. My daughter does like to talk.’
    ‘You were on the phone, Mum,’ Aisling said.
    Jess schooled her face into a neutral expression, though privately she agreed with the little girl. Her mum really should’ve concentrated on her rather than on the phone call. Children were precious—and Jess knew from her police work how easily things could go wrong. ‘Aisling, maybe next time you should wait until your mum’s said it’s OK before you start talking to someone,’ Jess said gently. ‘Not everyone’s nice.’
    The little girl’s lower lip wobbled. ‘But you’ve got a dog . That means you’re nice.’
    Not always, Jess thought. And the dog wasn’t actually hers.
    ‘She’s desperate for a dog,’ Aisling’s mother explained to Jess. ‘Love, you know we can’t have one. The landlord won’t let us have dogs because they chew