American Diva Read Free Page B

to hook him up with one of the caterers.
    He avoided those two like bird flu. It seemed that since Eli and Marnie had hooked up a couple of years ago, the rest of the guys had likewise gone down like tin ducks in a shooting gallery. Michael and Leah had actually married a couple of months ago, and even Cooper was seeing Jill regularly now. Now, everyone was “concerned” about Jack.
    Okay, so Jack was experiencing a bit of a dry spell in the feminine companionship category. He realized he was getting to the age—thirty-five—where it was time to put up or shut up if he ever wanted to have kids. But it wasn’t exactly happening, and it damn sure wasn’t going to happen with the caterer. Leah and Marnie acted as if they could hardly stand his single status. It was suddenly their ambition in life to see him happily involved with a woman. It didn’t matter that Jack was okay with being single. He figured he was just a cowboy who was best on his own. And besides, now that the guys were settling down, Jack had a new goal.
    For years he’d thought TA was the best gig a guy could ever hope for, particularly after coming off a career in the Air Force where he’d learned to fly practically anything. He loved to fly, but at TA, he’d found his second calling—he loved the feature film stunt work they did, loved the movie business in general, and loved the extreme sports outings they arranged. Granted, a couple of their extreme gigs haven’t been his cup of tea (a wedding, coaching twenty women to do some pretty wild stunts, and now this one), but he was usually up for anything.
    What he wanted was to start his own flight school. But flight schools were expensive—in addition to needing a good, reliable plane, he’d need a hangar, an airstrip, and enough money to get a business off the ground.
    He had the plane—an old Cessna Grand Caravan, which he thought was brilliantly designed. But his had an engine problem. He was rebuilding the engine himself, in an old hangar he’d rented in Orange County. If he could get the plane up and running and pass all the FAA inspections, the next step was to infuse enough cash into a down payment to purchase the hangar and start up the school.
    That was a hell of a lot easier said than done. He did well with TA, but not well enough to have that sort of cash on hand. So Jack was biding his time, rebuilding his plane, and saving every dime he could make.
    Frankly, he didn’t need a woman around who would prompt him to spend his cash on stuff like flowers and weekend getaways and, God forbid, a ring . Which was why, when the rest of the TA guys and their significant others trekked to the other side of the island to catch the Audrey concert, he opted for some alone time on a moonlit beach with nothing but a bucket of beer and his iPod. It was the only way to avoid the matchmaking attempts of Leah and Marnie.
    He walked on a path lit with tiki torches, maneuvered one of the big double chaise lounges out from beneath the cabana, and dragged it down to the beach. When he had situated it just so—directly under the full moon, a few feet away from the receding tide but close enough he could still smell the salt—he dropped his bucket of beer next to the lounge, stretched his arms high above his head, and looked out over a Pacific Ocean whose surface was illuminated by the moon.
    Sweet .
    He’d been waiting for this for three full days and was going to enjoy the hell out of it. Tomorrow, they would pack up and move on, but tonight, he was going to lie under the stars and the moon on a private beach without a soul around and just chill.
    He started to sit down, but realized he’d forgotten his iPod. He left the chaise and the bucket of beer and walked back to his cabin to find it. Only he’d misplaced it, and it was another half hour before he made his way back to the beach, thirstier and even more ready to relax. But as he walked down the path, he noticed a movement on his chaise—some . . .