Make Me Over_ Getting Real - Leslie Kelly [30]
“You keep teaching me tricks like the i before e one, or the one about two vowels going walking and the first one doing the talking, and you might be right.”
He chuckled. “Tori, I’m sure you heard those silly rhymes in first grade.”
“I didn’t listen much in first grade.”
“That I can believe.”
She raised a brow. “You calling me a troublemaker?”
His wide-eyed expression looked innocent. “Oh, no. Why on earth would anyone think you’re a troublemaker? Just because you led a hunger strike with your teammates to demand pizza for dinner Friday night instead of steak tartare.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I’m supposed to be the one without social know-how, but I sure know better than to eat raw meat!”
He met her eye, laughing with her, but the laughter slowly faded. He kept looking at her, his dark eyes full of interest. Warmth. Steam. That coulda been the steam from the greenhouse. But she honestly didn’t think the heat was coming from anywhere except him, this hot-as-blazes man.
The heavy moment was interrupted by a ringing sound. Drew reached into his pocket and withdrew a cell phone. Lucky him. Hers had been confiscated when she arrived on the set.
“Do you mind if I get this?” he asked after he checked the ID on the screen. “It’s my sister.”
She merely shrugged, then turned her attention back toward the book while he talked. She only heard his part of the conversation, but it wasn’t hard to tell he doted on his sister. He was sweet and playful with her, teasing, the way Tori sometimes did with her baby brother Sammy. Then he grew more serious and began to frown.
She couldn’t tell what was going on, but Drew didn’t seem pleased with whatever he was hearing. Finally he said, “It’s okay, Jill, I’ll call him. He can’t flunk you for that. But don’t do it again.”
After he’d disconnected the call, he dropped the phone back into his pocket. Feigning nonchalance, Tori asked, “Everything okay?”
He sighed heavily. “She finally went back to school, but she’s been missing a lot of classes. One of her professors is threatening to flunk her out.”
Tori nodded, still gazing at her book, not at Drew. Then she said evenly, “So you’re gonna bail her out, huh? Seems to me if she’s an adult she ought to be able to get out of her own problems.”
That was all she had to say. A long moment of silence followed, before Drew laughed softly. “Okay,” he admitted, “so we’re both suckers. Maybe I won’t call her professor and bail her out of this one.”
“Good plan,” she said, liking this additional proof that they were a lot more alike than she’d ever have expected at first.
“So tell me,” he said, suddenly sounding more serious, “what have you heard about these outings we’re supposed to have?”
She stiffened, unable to help it. She’d heard about what he called “outings.” The director had called them “dates.” Only none of the girls were supposed to tell Drew.
This was killing her, and she hated being reminded of why she was really here. For an hour or so every morning, here in the greenhouse, she was able to forget about everything else. Forget that inside the house were eight women ready to do just about anything—except maybe pop out of a cake naked—to get Drew’s attention. And even the cake thing didn’t sound too far-fetched for some of the girls, like Ginny and Teresa.
“I’ve heard,” she mumbled, hating to have to keep the director’s dirty little secret.
“Are you looking forward to them?”
She’d rather get a root canal than watch Drew Bennett walk out the door with one of the other women on his arm. If he kissed one’a them, she’d…she’d…well, she didn’t know what she’d do. Probably punch something. Or somebody. Maybe even him.
“Are you looking forward to them?” she asked.
“Well, you know I don’t want to be dragged on camera any more than absolutely necessary. I want as little to do with Hey, Make Me Over as possible.” Then he shrugged, a tiny smile playing about his lips. “But I have to say, I don’t mind the prospect of a few of them.”
Tori had no experience