Wild Action

Hearing footsteps on the stairs, she dug a beer from the back of the fridge and reluctantly closed the door. When she turned, Nick was standing in the kitchen eyeing Crackers.

“Is he usually out of his cage?” he asked.

“Uh-huh. He really hates being in it during the day. But he stays in it at night. I think he worries that one of the cats might try a sneak attack while he’s asleep.”

“Would they?”

“I doubt it. And if they did, they’d regret it. Big macaws have incredibly strong beaks. He could amputate a man’s hand. But he wouldn’t,” she added quickly. “He loves people.”

Nick nodded, although he didn’t look entirely convinced. Then he glanced at the beer she’d forgotten she was holding. “That looks good.”

“And you look like a cowboy,” she said, handing him the bottle. “You also look even more like Gus. He always wore jeans and boots.”

“Must be one of those things that run in families." Nick twisted the top off his beer and took a long, slow drink.

Watching him, Carly felt an unexpected twinge of attraction. Oh, she’d realized earlier what a good-looking man he was. But it had been an in-the-abstract kind of awareness, because he hadn’t struck her as her type.

Not that she exactly had a type. As she’d told him earlier, living out here meant her social life had never been exactly hectic. And there’d been nothing about any of the few men she had gone with over the years that had made her think they were Mr. Right.

When Nick lowered the bottle, she reached for her glass of tea and said, “Let’s sit outside. Maybe there’ll be a breeze.”

She gestured him to precede her, letting her thoughts drift back to where they’d been. Whatever her type was, Nick Montgomery wasn’t it. His hair was far too short for her taste, and in his suit he’d seemed too…civilized was the word that came to mind.

Although now, she had to admit, with those hiphugging jeans and his T-shirt clinging to every muscle, that wasn’t true anymore. But Nick was her temporary business partner, and she’d be a fool to even think of him in any other light

He’d only be here for six weeks, tops, then he’d be heading back out West Or maybe he’d be gone a lot sooner. For all she knew, he might be out of here ten minutes after she told him about the problem with Attila.

She followed him outside and they sat on the porch in silence for a minute—until one of the cats stalked by to check out the company.

“His name’s Blue, and he’s been in quite a few commercials,” she offered. “That’s mostly what Wild Action has done until now. Commercials, some work for television, the occasional documentary and one Canadian feature film that opened and closed the same week. I don’t think they even bothered making it into a video.”

“So Two for Trouble really is your…our big chance.”

She nodded, aware that this was the perfect time to speak up—while he was contemplating how important the movie was to them. All she had to do was think of the right words.

When Carly lapsed into silence, Nick sat casually looking in her direction and not letting himself stare at her long, tanned legs. It was tough not to, though. They were such great legs they’d stop traffic if she ever walked down a city street in those shorts. And as for that little sleeveless blouse…

Earlier, she’d looked the picture of innocence. And she even smelled innocent—like prairie wildflowers. But in that outfit she looked sexy as hell. And it had him imagining all sorts of things that had nothing even remotely to do with their business partnership.

Shifting his gaze from her, he told himself he’d have to be careful while he was here. She had an easy manner he found appealing. And when you added that to the way she looked…Well, he’d just better watch himself.

He’d had his share of relationships with women, but none of them had ever felt as if they might last forever. And he sure didn’t want to find himself in one that did feel right when the time and place were entirely wrong.

His life plans didn’t include either animal actors or rural Ontario. All he wanted was enough money to go back home to Edmonton and set up his agency.

“Nick?”

When he glanced at Carly again there was a tiny drop of perspiration on her throat, trickling ever so slowly toward the V of her neckline. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t keep from following it with his eyes.

Finally, it disappeared beneath her blouse, but by then he was following it with his imagination.

“Nick, there’s something we have to talk about.”

He looked up quickly, feeling like the proverbial kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“We have a bit of a problem with Attila.”

Aha! His imagination instantly shut down and he switched into cop alert. He’d known there was something she’d been holding back about that bear, and her expression told him it was more than a bit of a problem.

“Did I mention that he’s the star of Two for Trouble? The animal star, I mean?”

“No, I think you just said he was in it.”

“Oh. Well, he is. The star, I mean.”

Nick waited for her to go on, doing his best to hide his annoyance. But he’d bet that she’d been intentionally avoiding talking about the bear—that she’d been waiting until she got her newfound partner out here, away from civilization, before she hit him with whatever this problem was.

“You see,” she finally continued, “the boys’ encounter with Attila is a really pivotal scene in the movie. And there’ll be a lot of earlier shots of him— foreshadowing the encounter.”

“I see. And the problem is…?” he asked, bringing her back to the important issue.

“Well, Attila hasn’t been himself lately. I know he misses Gus, but from our point of view…The problem is that he’s taken to only doing what I tell him when he feels like it.”

“Because he’s in mourning? That’s bear behavior?”

“Well, I’m sure missing Gus is at least part of it.”

Nick uneasily thought back to something she’d told him in Brown’s office—that if Jay Wall wasn’t pleased with their animals, the agency’s name would be mud.

“If missing Gus is only part of the problem,” he said, picking up on her last words, “what’s the other part?”

“Well, Attila always worked better for Gus than he did for me. So I suspect he considers me just a backup trainer. And now he’s acting like a child who’s trying to see just how much he can get away with.”

“But if he worked better for Gus, then the two of you must have done things differently. Why don’t you try doing everything exactly the way he did?”

“I already do. We always used the same tone and commands and hand signals. You have to with animals or they get confused. So there’s got to be some thing else involved. Maybe something as simple as the fact that Gus was a lot bigger than me.”

Nick eyed her, doubting she’d weigh a hundred and fifteen pounds sopping wet.

“Or maybe it’s that bears find a deeper male voice more authoritative.”

“That’s a fact?”

“No, it’s just a possibility. Nick, the only real facts I have are that Attila responded better to Gus and that right now I can’t count on him to listen. So I can’t help thinking…”

Carly paused, then the rest of her words came rushing out all at once. “It would make a lot of sense to try another man working with Attila. Ideally, one who resembles Gus. And if you wore some of Gus’s clothes, his scent would even be mingled with yours.”

Nick simply stared at her, the words you and yours flashing like neon signs in front of his eyes.