Looking at the Hudson matriarch now, no one would guess the older woman had led a secret life as a spy masquerading as a cabaret singer in France during World War II. That’s how she’d met Charles and their courtship had begun, and it was where they’d secretly married. When France was liberated, Charles had been ordered to fight in Germany, but he’d promised to return for his bride as soon as he could. He’d kept that promise, and then he’d brought Lillian here to the home and studios he’d built for her and made her a star. Lillian in turn had made Hudson Pictures a megasuccess, a privately owned filmmaking dynasty.
Dana sighed and pressed a hand to her chest. Every woman should have a larger-than-life romance like that. Her eyes grew misty just thinking about a lover who would cross the globe for her or stand by her through the difficult challenges of life. But so far, she hadn’t been that lucky. She’d had boyfriends in high school and college, but nothing with forever written on it—not even close, but not for lack of looking. She found either friendship or passion, but she’d never managed to find a man who brought her both. And that was what she wanted more than anything.
She was determined to hold out for a true love like her parents’, her brother’s or Lillian and Charles’s. With three excellent examples you’d think she’d have better luck.
“Dana.”
She startled at Max’s firm tone. “What?”
He stopped outside their office bungalow and stared down at her through narrowed eyes. “Did you hear a word I said?”
Her cheeks burned. “Um…no. I’m sorry. I was thinking about the Honor script and how lucky you were to convince Cece Cassidy to write it. She did a great job.”
“Jack convinced her.”
Upon Lillian’s request, Max’s cousin Jack had approached his former lover for the job. “He ended up with a great screenplay from her and found a son he didn’t know he had—a double blessing.”
Jack and Cece’s romance was just one of several connected to Honor’s cast and crew. Was it too much to hope for one of her own before they wrapped? Apparently.
And then she noticed Max’s scowl. “Lillian is thrilled to have a great-grandchild.”
His frown deepened. “Is there anything else you’d like to share with me before we go into this meeting?”
She winced at the bite of his sarcasm, and then she wanted to smack her forehead. Duh. She’d forgotten that according to the Hudson rumor mill he and Karen had been trying to get pregnant when Karen died. Mentioning his younger cousin Jack’s son had not been a good idea.
“No. I’ve made a list of bullet points that require attention and action right now, but I’m not exactly sure why your uncle David is calling this meeting, and he wouldn’t say. I don’t know if what I have is relevant.”
She hurried through the door he opened for her and bolted toward her old desk, where she dropped her briefcase and withdrew a folder, which she passed to him. They had yet to sort out a new office for her, and since her replacement hadn’t been found, there was no rush to vacate the space. Max had rejected each of the applicants’ résumés personnel had sent over. He’d yet to call one single person in for an interview.
“Everything you need should be in here. Do I get to sit in on the meeting?”
“Yes. But I’ll do the talking.”
“Understood.”
He’d barely spoken on the drive in. Was he still thinking about the kiss that, she suspected in his opinion, shouldn’t have happened? She couldn’t stop rehashing it. If only she hadn’t jerked away…
What would he have done?
Nothing. He wasn’t kissing you. He was kissing whomever he’d been dreaming about.
But what if she was wrong? What if he had known it was her?
Excitement made her shiver.
Get real.
All right, so chances were he hadn’t been thinking of her.
Should she tell him she’d enjoyed the kiss? Probably not. If she played her hand and he rejected her, it could get uncomfortable. Would she be able to handle the humiliation of running into Max at one Hollywood event after another? The Hudsons were powerful people. One word from any of them whispered in the right ear and she’d have a hard time ever finding a job anywhere in the movie biz.
That would be a disaster because the last thing she wanted to do was tuck her tail between her legs and run home, disappointing herself, her father and her brother.
But what if she could find a way to make Max notice her as a woman…?
She thought about her brother fighting the odds and winning, and about her father who’d found a way to achieve his dreams on the East Coast instead of the West, and her mother who made a living sharing her color-drenched view of the world with others. She’d faced rejection head-on daily until she’d finally found success.
Dana asked herself how she could be any less courageous.
She watched Max’s stiff spine as he headed for his office.
Every member of her family took risks on a regular basis, with their hearts and their careers. She was the only one who always, always, played it safe. Coming to Hollywood was the only real risk she’d ever taken…and she’d done that only after she’d landed the job as Max’s executive assistant.
It was time she found the courage to gamble on something that really mattered. And what really mattered was Max.
“We have a problem,” David Hudson’s voice said over the speaker.
Dana wasn’t crazy about Max’s uncle. He might be charming on the surface, but in her opinion he was a womanizer who never had time for his children. The only reason she didn’t hate him was because he treated his mother, Lillian, well.
“What problem besides a shortage of time?” Markus Hudson, Max’s father and the CEO of Hudson Pictures, countered.
Dana liked Markus, and she saw a lot of him because he was close to Max and often stopped by the office to chat. Markus was a wonderful husband, father and son.
While only Dana and Max occupied the office, Max’s oldest brother Dev, the COO of Hudson Pictures, plus Luc, Max’s younger brother who acted as PR director, had joined them on the conference call but had been silent thus far.
“What kind of trouble, David?” Max asked.
“Willow Films is making a World War II picture scheduled for release just prior to Honor.”
Dana gasped and nearly dropped the pen she held for note taking. Willow was Hudson’s biggest rival. There wasn’t a lot of good feeling between the two film companies. In fact, the competition sometimes turned ugly.
“Worse,” David continued, “rumor has it the story has some similarities to Lillian and Charles’s. But I can’t get anyone to tell me how similar the two films are.”
“How accurate is your source?” Dev asked.
“I trust it,” David replied.
Dana could feel Max’s tension and see it in the lines on his face. His fingers fisted on his desktop. “Even if we could swing an earlier release at this late date, I don’t think I can finish Honor any faster.”
“We’re not asking that of you, son.” Markus’s voice filled the room. “But we might need to put a PR spin on this to make our film sound bigger and better and different or Willow will kill our momentum.”
“I’ll get on it,” Luc said. “But it would help to know more about their product.”
“I’ll see what I can get,” David said, “but they’re pretty damned