He was right, though. She’d been as thrilled by the hotel as she had by her first glimpse of the Hollywood sign on the hill. Located only a few steps away from the glittering shops of Rodeo Drive, she knew the famous hotel’s ornate European façade, with its distinctly rounded awnings and rows of sculpted trees, was straight out of the pages of Hollywood history—not to mention being the site of one of her favourite films of all time. It was just a shame she wasn’t going to be there at Christmas, when they reportedly did an outstanding job of decorating, transforming its exterior into a dazzling display of twinkling lights.
By then she’d probably have been discovered as a fraud and sent home with her tail between her legs—back to eating rice and pasta like she had in her student days, while she’d waited for her grant money to arrive. Only this time she’d be waiting for meager pay-cheques that couldn’t support the debts she had after caring for her father before he died. Well, now, there was something to look forward to.
‘Ready?’
She nodded as Will swung a long arm in invitation and allowed her to step ahead of him. Squinting at the bright light outside, she took her sunglasses off the top of her head moments after Will donned his. A California necessity, she’d discovered since she’d landed. And as much of a status symbol as everything else, judging by the designer wear everyone but her had shading their eyes.
Silently, they turned right—Will matching his longer stride to hers—then right again at a major light, until they approached a strip of nice-looking semi-casual restaurants. Will’s choice was an ivy-covered courtyard, where the maître d’ greeted him by name and held out chairs for them before unfurling linen napkins onto their laps and handing them leather-bound menus with a flourish and a small bow.
Cassidy fought the need to giggle like a schoolgirl. At the grand old age of thirty, she should be more mature. ‘Well, this beats cheese sandwiches in the park.’
Thick dark lashes flickered upwards from their study of the menu. They brushed his deeply tanned skin once, twice, and then he quirked his brows a minuscule amount and continued reading. ‘That was a long time ago.’
Seeing him again, it felt like yesterday to her. But she didn’t say that. Instead she allowed herself a moment to surreptitiously examine him while he made a decision on what to eat. Had he got sexier as he’d got older? Yes, she decided, he had. Darn it. Men were known to do that. Wasn’t the fact he was more successful than her, richer than her and plainly more confident than her enough? At least one of them had got it right. Small consolation, though.
It was tough not to be as mesmerised by the sight of him as she had been at twenty. And twenty-one. And twenty-two. From the thick dark hair that curled disobediently outwards at his nape, all the way down the lean six foot three of his body, he was one of those guys blessed with the ability to mesmerise woman. Who could have blamed her for the crush she’d had from a distance for over a year? Or for how shy she’d been when he’d first talked to her during a group project in their screenwriting class? Or how…?
‘Do you know what you want?’ Will asked, in a low rumble that sent a sudden shiver up her spine.
The spine she straightened a little in her chair. Because, yes, actually—she did know what she wanted. She had a list, as it happened. High up on it was the ability to make the most of an opportunity when it came e-mailing her way, without blowing it by drooling all over the man who had long since left her behind. So now he’d given her an opening, it seemed as good a time as any to ask:
‘A better idea of what the studio expects from me would be nice.’ She even managed to tack on a smile when he looked at her again. See—she could do confident if she tried.
Will took a breath and closed the menu, calmly setting it down on his side-plate as he glanced around at the lunchtime crowd. ‘They expect what they paid us that hefty advance for back in the day. We both knew what we were doing when we signed on the dotted line.’
Did we? If she’d known the heartache signing that contract would bring her way she wasn’t so sure she would go back in time and sign it again. But Cassidy let it slide. ‘So, after all this time they suddenly want script three? Just like that? When movie number two pretty much fell flat on its face…’
‘At the box office. But thanks to a rabid internet fan base it made money on long-term residuals. You’d know that from the fact we still get royalty cheques. This time we have the opportunity to be one of those sleepers that might well prove an accidental tent pole, with a good script and the right budget.’
Cassidy blinked at him for a moment, and then confessed, ‘I have no idea what you just said.’
He almost smiled. ‘Hollywood speak.’
‘Is there a dictionary?’
‘Not that I’m aware of.’
‘Pity.’ She tried another smile to see if it had any effect. ‘You’ll have to translate for me, then.’
‘Bottom line?’
Oh, please, yes. ‘That might help.’
Something resembling amusement glittered across his amazing eyes. ‘They want a script yesterday, and as you and I own the rights jointly to the original copyright we’ve both got to do it. We’re joined at the hip till it’s done and they’re happy…’
‘No pressure, then.’
The wide shoulders beneath his expensive dark jacket lifted and fell in a brief nonchalant shrug. ‘We did it before, Cass. We can do it again.’
The tiny word ‘we’ seemed to tug on a ragged corner of her heart every time he said it in his deep rumble of a voice. Not that it meant anything any more. He probably didn’t feel the pressure she did. Why would he? He’d been writing scripts ever since he left—had success after success to his name: award nominations, contracts and his own production company. Whereas she, his former writing partner…?
Well, she had a knack for getting seven-year-olds to stay quiet, but that was about it. The closest she’d got to writing was putting her lessons on a blackboard…
Automatically she reached for iced water the second a waiter poured it, swallowing a large gulp to dampen her dry mouth. A cold dew of perspiration broke out on her skin while she wondered when was a good time to confess how long it had been since she last written a single original word. Maybe just as well she hadn’t unpacked properly yet.
The waiter smiled at her as if he felt her pain. So she smiled back.
Will’s voice deepened. ‘Have you done much writing?’
Oh, come on! How could he still read her mind when it had been so long since he’d seen her? It was the perfect opening for honesty; yes. But since she already had a shovel in her hand it seemed a shame not to use it.
‘Not much scriptwriting. I’ve dabbled with other stuff.’ In that she’d read instructional books—lots of them—to no avail. ‘You know how it is. Use it or—’
‘Lose it.’ He nodded, the corners of his wide mouth tugging in a way that suggested he was fighting off one of the smiles that would addle her thoughts. ‘This shouldn’t take long, then. If you were rusty it might have taken a while to get you back up to speed.’
Cassidy swallowed more water to stop a confession from slipping free. Had it got warmer all of a sudden? She suddenly felt a little light-headed.
Out of nowhere he added, ‘We made a good team once.’
She almost choked, her eyes watering a little as she looked at him and he finally let that smile loose. Oh, that was just unfair. She instantly hated him for it. With the white-hot