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The skeleton of the float looked eerie without any of the flowers that would be added the final week before the parade. It was all welded steel and covered in chicken wire and plastic.
Other similarly staged floats surrounded Daniel’s. A welder sat on the chassis of the adjacent one, his welder spitting fire.
“I enjoyed the show this morning,” Chelsea said.
“I wanted Mom and Dad to send you.” Greer thought Chelsea was the most beautiful of all of them. She was tall and willowy with a dancer’s grace, though at the moment she just looked tired. Her long hair had been pulled into a scrunchie, but half of it was out and floated around her head like a halo.
“I’m too busy.” Chelsea handled quality control. Her job was to make sure everything worked right and looked right, down to the smallest detail. “You’re in the consulting phase now and can be spared.”
“All I have left is to start gluing on flowers.” And other organic material. Though flowers were the main starting point for any float, many areas were covered in seeds and grasses to add texture to the overall design.
“I was checking the hydraulics,” Chelsea continued, “and I wanted you to watch.” She waved at a man half-hidden in a well in the chassis. He waved back, and slowly the butterflies on the rear of the float began to descend.
Before she could comment, Greer’s phone rang. “Hello?”
“Miss Greer Courtland? My name is Logan Pierce.”
“Excuse me,” Greer said, having a hard time hearing over the noise of the welder. She stepped toward the back door open to the parking lot.
“This is Logan Pierce,” he repeated. “I saw you on Daniel’s show this morning. I was wondering if we could meet.”
“Why?” His own float was being built by another company.
“I’ve never had a woman ask me why I wanted to take her out to dinner.”
“I’m asking.” She tried to keep the suspicion out of her voice.
“I watched your interview with Daniel, and you were pretty funny. I want to get to know you.”
She paused. “How did you get my phone number?” She never gave it to people she didn’t know.
“My connections are staggering,” he responded with a wry chuckle.
“Really. How did you get my number?”
She could hear the smile in his voice. “I have a personal assistant who would make the CIA, FBI and NSA weep with envy.”
“I see.” Should she meet with him? She was deeply curious about the rivalry between the two men, and Daniel’s answers this morning hadn’t satisfied her curiosity. Maybe Logan’s would. “I thought you were in New York.”
“I’m visiting family for Thanksgiving. My parents still live in Santa Monica.”
Meeting him wouldn’t hurt, she supposed. “Where do you want to meet?”
“How about dinner at Craig’s? I’ll pick you up, say around 6:30.”
He sounded pleasant enough, but since he was based in New York, she didn’t know anything about Logan Pierce.
“No. I’ll meet you there.” She wasn’t about to put herself in a spot she couldn’t get out of.
“I’ll send a car for you.”
“I’ll drive myself.” She didn’t want to be dependent on this man when she didn’t know him from Adam. If she wanted to leave, she wanted to be able to do so on her terms.
He laughed, a rich, vibrant sound. “Seven, then, at Craig’s.”
“Okay,” she said before she ended the call. Craig’s! That was pretty classy. Celebrities were routinely spotted there, she thought as she turned to find Chelsea watching her. “You’ll never guess who that was.”
“Daniel Torres asking you out to dinner.”
“Close. His friend and float competitor, Logan Pierce.”
Chelsea’s eyebrows rose. “You’re kidding.”
“No. I’m meeting him at Craig’s tonight.”
Chelsea’s eyes went wide. “That’s the new in place.”
“You watch too much TMZ.”
Chelsea punched Greer on the arm. “This is so exciting. You’d better bring home a doggie bag. For me, not the dog.”
She laughed. “I’ll try to remember.”
After giving her approval on the hydraulics, Greer headed back to her office, till her father stopped her in the hallway.
“Meeting.” Roman Courtland was a man of few words.
She followed him into his large corner office overlooking the industrial park. Every available inch of wall space was covered with photos of the award-winning floats by Courtland Floats Designs, along with family photos.
Her mother stood at the window, a bottle of water in one hand. Tall and slim, Virginia Courtland wore a cream-colored pantsuit with a colorful Hermes scarf about her neck. She’d styled her black hair into a sleek French roll that emphasized her sharply defined cheekbones. She’d been born in Los Angeles after her parents had migrated from Bermuda nearly sixty years ago. Virginia’s father had been an actor with minor parts in nearly a hundred films. He’d made a good living but never attained a higher status than character actor.
Greer’s father, Roman, was of medium height with a thick head of curly black hair threaded with gray. He wore jeans and a black sweater with the sleeves pushed up. Like Virginia, he was LA-born, but his family had been in Los Angeles since the early 1800s. His ancestors had managed to escape from slavery in Georgia and thought to make a place for themselves in Spanish-held California. His two-times great-grandfather had been Native American, and the Nez Perce heritage showed in his slightly hooked nose and wide-spaced eyes.
Roman looked tired. These last few weeks before the parade were the most intense and stressful. All the labor of the last ten months culminated in round-the-clock shifts as floats were checked for any last-minute issues before heading to the staging tent set up on the Rose Bowl parking lot. There, hundreds of volunteers needed to finish the floral decoration on time.
Greer grabbed a bottle of water from the undercounter fridge behind her father’s desk and sat down on the sofa. “I think this morning’s interview went well.”
Her mother nodded as she took a seat in one of the chairs. “He seemed to ask you a lot of personal questions.”
“He made me a little uncomfortable.”
“You handled yourself well,” her father said as he sat in the other chair and crossed one leg over the other.
“Rose Queen training,” Greer answered. She took a sip of water.
“I wish he’d allowed you to talk more about the float.”
“They want me to come back on a weekly basis now that it’s coming down to the wire,” Greer said. “They want to do some on-site filming, too. Dad, what were you thinking?’”
Roman gave her an innocent look. “What do you think I’m thinking?”
“Why did you take on a celebrity client? Not that he’s been a problem, but now I have to budget a morning to do an interview when I should be overseeing the final decorating.”
“You work too hard,” he said. “In the last four years, two other companies have popped into the float business. If we want to stay ahead of the game, we need to put ourselves out there. And you are the perfect person to do that. You’ve got the degree in structural engineering. Not to put down your sisters, but they chose more nonscience degrees.”
“Smooth, Dad, smooth.”
Chelsea had a degree in Elizabethan literature, and Rachel had a degree in finance.
“Don’t get us wrong,” her mother interjected, obviously in agreement with her husband. “You all bring something to the table, but you ensure the structural integrity of every float. Without you, the floats might collapse in the middle of the parade. Do not make me remind you of the great float debacle in 2001, which forced your dad to go out on his own.”
Greer simply grinned at her mother. “I get it.” She slanted a glance at her father. “You told your boss that the float wouldn’t work and you were right.” The float fell apart a half hour into the two-and-a-half-hour parade and had to be pulled out of line and pushed back to the staging area.
“It was a beautiful day,” Roman said with a wide grin.
And being the only African American family in the float business had brought its own level of notice, letting others know what one family could achieve when they worked together.
“I still think the interview went well,” Greer said. “Next time I’ll be better prepared and won’t let him drag me off topic.”
“You were pretty amusing off topic,” Virginia said with a chuckle.
“The wave has gone viral,” Roman said.
“We need to take you off social media,” Greer retorted. She took another sip of her water. “Dad, did Logan Pierce approach you about designing his float?”
“No,” Roman said. “He went with Associated Float Design. Why?”
“He called me and wants to meet for dinner tonight.”
“Are you going?” Virginia asked.
“Sure. Why not? Maybe I’ll get some answers to this rivalry he and Daniel Torres have going.” She stood and yawned. Maybe she shouldn’t have accepted Logan’s dinner invitation. She needed sleep more than good food.
* * *
At exactly seven o’clock, Greer pulled to a stop in front of Craig’s. The valet opened the door to her Toyota 4Runner and held a hand out for her. She accepted the help. He handed her a ticket and took her keys.
She’d dressed carefully for her meeting with Logan. After going through her closet, she’d chosen a pearl-gray silk sheath with a matching jacket trimmed in black satin ribbon. She wore a silver locket that looked perfect with her gray and stylish silver earrings. Black stilettos and a clutch purse completed her look. She’d smoothed her hair back from her face and kept her makeup at a minimum.
She glanced around as she entered the restaurant. She’d never been to Craig’s before. The facade only hinted at the elegance inside. She stepped into the warmth and was immediately greeted by the hostess. “I’m meeting—”
“Mr. Pierce is waiting for you, Miss Courtland,” the hostess said smoothly. “If you’ll follow me.”
Craig’s had an elegant feel to it. The walls were dark wainscoting with brick above it. Art hung at intervals on the wall. Brick pillars supported the ceiling. The hostess led Greer to a prominently placed booth. Logan Pierce slid out and stood, a smile spread across his face. He was a muscular man a few inches taller than Greer. She didn’t know if his carefully brushed and arranged blond hair was natural or bleached, but he looked good. Sparkling blue eyes met hers and he grinned, showing perfect teeth of a dazzling white.
He held out his hand. “Thank you for coming, Miss Courtland. May I call you Greer?”
She slid into the booth and he sat across from her. “Please, if I can call you Logan.”
Logan nodded. The hostess walked away, and a few seconds later, a member of the waitstaff approached. Mona, as she introduced herself, placed glasses of water in front of them and then asked for their drink order.
“Merlot, please,” Greer said.
The woman listed the different brands, and Greer chose one. She didn’t recognize the label but knew it would be excellent. Craig’s would offer nothing less. Logan ordered bourbon on the rocks.
“Thank you for coming,” Logan said.
“Why?” she asked. “Why do you want to have dinner with me?”
He looked taken aback for a second but recovered neatly. “I thought you might be hungry.”
She laughed. “It is dinnertime, so you didn’t make a bad assumption. But I don’t think that’s your real reason.”
“Why do you think I asked you out?” He leaned toward her.
“I assumed you wanted information on Daniel’s Rose Parade float.”
His eyebrows went up, and his blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “You caught me.”
Greer narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t think I was your type.”
“I like smart, funny women.”
The waitress brought their drinks. As Greer took a sip of the excellent wine, a shadow fell across the table, and she glanced up to find Daniel standing in front of them. A tiny, dainty-featured blonde woman hung on his arm. Greer recognized her from her TV show but couldn’t remember her name.
“Mind if we join you?” Daniel motioned the actress into the booth next to Logan and then pushed in next to Greer.
As Greer shifted over, she noticed Logan’s face. He looked completely surprised, especially when the blonde woman slipped closer to him with a tiny purr. Daniel simply smiled.
“What are you doing here?” Logan asked, his voice sounding choked.
“Got to eat,” Daniel replied. “You’re my best friend and I thought I’d join you. We don’t get to spend much time together.”
“You normally take your dates to your parents’ restaurant.”
“Not tonight,” Daniel said cheerfully. “Pass me the bread please, Greer.”
Greer pushed the bread basket toward him, shifting a little further away. “You’re interrupting my date.”
“I’m saving you from boredom. Logan has two subjects—himself and sports.”
“I do not,” Logan objected.
“You told me last week you wanted to meet Melody Wilkerson. So I called her up and invited her to meet you.”
Melody giggled, putting a childlike hand over her mouth. “I’ve been dying to meet you for years.”
Greer sat back and watched as the woman walked her fingers up Logan’s arm and pouted prettily. “Why did you bring that woman on my date?” she half whispered to Daniel.
“You shouldn’t be dating Logan.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because you should be dating me.” Daniel grinned at her.
“You didn’t ask me out.”
“I didn’t expect Logan to work this fast.”
“I see. So you brought Melody as a distraction while you fling me over your shoulder and carry me out.”
He laughed. “That wasn’t my plan, but I’m terrific at unexpected modifications.”
Greer shook her head, trying not to laugh. “You’re too funny.”
Daniel gave her a cheeky grin. “The only people who think I’m funny are my brothers.”
“Oh no, this was funny.” She gestured at Melody, who’d totally captured Logan with one hand on his arm and the other touching his hand playfully. She was so tiny, Greer wondered if she bought her clothes in the children’s department.
“Look at him,” Daniel told her. “He’s so easily distracted.”
Logan was studying Melody’s low-cut top and the perky breasts beneath it.
“I guess those things are mesmerizing. And most likely fake.”
Daniel shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”
“Really?” Greer glanced back at Melody, who leaned into Logan’s arm, brushing her breasts against the sleeve of his jacket.
“Melody isn’t my type.”
“You brought her.”
“I’m just being a good friend.” He gave her an innocent, almost angelic look.
“I think you’re being diabolical.”
He gave her an evil henchman laugh, and she shook her head. Daniel Torres was charming. Too charming. And yet she could see that he’d chosen a good distraction. Logan was falling under Melody’s spell.
“You chose your weapon well,” she finally said. “Though why you two are dueling over me, I don’t know. Let me ask you something. Do you really want to date me, or just win? If my float had feelings, it would feel cheap, used, unappreciated.”
He leaned toward her and half whispered in her ear. “Do you feel cheap, used and unappreciated?”
“Goodness, no. I’m amused. You’re like two kindergarteners fighting over a swing.”
“Are you saying I’m a child?”
“Mmm. Let my silence speak volumes.” She took a sip of her wine.
“You and I should sneak out of here and get some burgers.” Daniel nudged her with his elbow. “Logan won’t notice we’re gone.”
Greer considered his invitation. “No. Logan asked me out to dinner, and to leave now would be extremely rude.”
Daniel sulked for a moment. “Okay. My mother did bring me up well.”
The waitress brought extra menus and returned a few minutes later to take their food order, patiently answering Melody’s questions about nutrition and the number of calories of different dishes.
Dinner turned out to be pleasant enough even though Melody greedily ensnared Logan’s attention throughout the meal. He looked embarrassed, but Greer patted his shoulder and told him to enjoy himself. She was enjoying herself watching the two men.
As they stood out on the sidewalk after dinner, Melody clung to Logan like a limpet. The valet brought his Mercedes and Melody climbed in, not even asking if Greer needed a ride home. As the Mercedes sped away, Greer’s Toyota came to a stop in front of her. She tipped the valet with a smile and as he held the door open for her, she looked at Daniel.
“If you want to date me, then ask.” She slid into her car, put it in gear and left before Daniel could answer.
Chapter 2
Daniel’s phone chimed. He glanced at the display. Greer had responded to his text, and he smiled. He’d sent several texts thanking her for an enjoyable dinner and telling her how great the float was going to look. Her dedication to her work showed, and he couldn’t have been more pleased.
He’d felt a little sorry for crashing Logan’s date. Not sorry enough to stop himself. Greer wasn’t for Logan. She was too down-to-earth, too practical. Logan liked winsome, waiflike women who barely looked old enough to vote. Greer would have run circles around him.
The door to his office opened, and his twin entered.
“Hey, bro,” Nicholas said with a disarming grin. They might have been twins, but they were opposites. Nicholas was the creative type. Tall and lean, he’d always liked to dance, and somehow along the way dancing had evolved into choreographing. Any man who considered dance and choreography unmasculine had never met Nicholas. How many men could catch a woman who’d just flung herself into the air and then lift her above him and make it all look as though she was as light as a feather?
“What brings you to my studio?” He set down a stack of papers. Daniel had been working on material for his next show. His special guest would be a rising young actor who was thought to be the next action-adventure hero, and Daniel wanted interview questions that weren’t the run-of-the-mill, media-hype questions about his next movie.
“Thought you might be interested in this.” He handed Daniel a tabloid magazine. “I’m impressed.”
Daniel’s photo was prominent on the cover. He stood next to Logan with Melody in between as they left Craig’s. The headline Love Triangle was splashed across the top. A tiny bit of Greer’s elbow could be seen at one edge.
“Why do you bother reading this stuff?” Daniel shoved the tabloid back at Nicholas.
Nicholas sat down in the leather chair across from Daniel. “Because the fun is in finding the grain of truth inside the speculation.”
“These magazines are all about speculation. They throw information at you from undisclosed sources and hope the reader will come to some sort of salacious conclusion.” Daniel hated being in the tabloids. Usually he managed to avoid them, but being with Logan the other night had changed that. A few photographers had been dogging Logan the last couple of days, hoping for that one sensational photo that would bring them the big bucks.
“That’s the fun,” Nicholas said cheerfully. “I know where this night ended up in my head.”
“Get your mind out of the gutter, Nicky,” Daniel growled. Nicholas hated being called Nicky. But his brother just grinned in delight. “Why are you here?”
“Just needed a chat with my bro.”
Daniel eyed his brother. “What do you want?”
“I want be on the float with you.”
Daniel was so taken aback he could only stare. “You do? Why?”
“Why not? Me dancing on the float would be great advertising for the next season of Celebrity Dance. After all, we’re on the same network. I talked to my bosses, and they will be talking to your bosses.”
Daniel rubbed his temple. “I guess that means you’re going to have to meet with Greer. She has this complex rule about weight and positioning and stuff I would never think about.”
“She thinks like a dancer.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“In my world that’s a good thing,” Nicholas replied. “Explain what happened to you and Logan.” He tapped the magazine.
“I crashed Logan’s date with Greer and I took Melody along to distract him.”
“And you did this why?”
“I didn’t want him going out with Greer.” He sounded childish even to himself.
“You’re not five years old anymore, bro.” Nicholas shook his head.
“He’s just not her type,” Daniel objected.
“And you are?”
“Of course I am. Or at least, I’d like to be.” Daniel realized he deeply admired her. “She’s fascinating. She was a Rose Queen.” He remembered her teasing wave.
“That’s not the only reason you’re interested in her.” Nicholas eyed Daniel with a sparkle in his dark brown eyes.
“Something about her is real. She’s smart and funny, and I’ve always liked smart and funny. Who knew a person could make a living designing and building floats? They’re beautiful.”
Nicholas shrugged. “She’s certainly different from the normal actress/model/singer you ordinarily date.”
“Why are we talking about girls?” Usually Daniel and his brother talked about everything, but for some reason Daniel was reluctant to talk about Greer.
“We talk about girls all the time,” Nicholas said with a short laugh. “You’re just uncomfortable, and I’m enjoying it.”
Daniel ignored the comment and focused on the real reason for his brother’s visit. “Like I said, you’re going to need to talk to Greer, because I don’t know how you’re going to dance with the butterfly.”
“I’m dancing with the butterfly, all right. I’m bringing Michelle Mercer.”
Michelle was one of the other professional dancers on Nicholas’s show. They had danced together before when Nicholas had first started out and landed in a Broadway show. Daniel had met her once and thought she was nice enough, but a bit flighty.
“I’ll set up an appointment, and we’ll head over to the warehouse where Greer works.” Daniel made a note to himself to call her later.
Nicholas let himself out with a small wave and a thank-you.
Daniel sat back in his chair, wondering why he liked Greer so much. Most of the women he dated were beautiful models, or actresses, or in the industry. He dated them to be seen. He saw them as stepping stones for his career. But Greer was different. Different in a way that he liked.
He wanted to explore his feelings more, but a ton of work awaited him on his desk, and he needed to get back to it.
* * *
Greer stood to the side of the skeleton that would be Daniel’s float. The caterpillar was a long piece of plastic tubing, articulated in a dozen sections. The head would move back and forth on its own little motor. The chrysalis hung from a tangle of wire shaped into a branch. And three butterflies flew out the rear of the float. As Chelsea operated the hydraulics, the wings moved in a stately flight pattern, and the butterflies went up and down.
Greer had to figure out where to place the two additional bodies Daniel had told her about. She tried not to be irritated, especially because Daniel had told her that the studio wanted to hire her to design their annual Hollywood Christmas parade float. The lucrative offer tempered her irritation.
“Where are you putting the two other people?” Chelsea asked as she jumped down off the chassis.
“I think if we move the caterpillar back a foot, there’s room to put a small dance floor,” Greer replied. “It’ll be cramped but doable. And Daniel’s brother is a professional dancer. I’m sure he’ll know how work in that small a space.” Daniel had his spot to one side of the driver, and one of his coworkers would occupy the other side. He told her he hadn’t decided yet who that would be.
“I’ve watched Celebrity Dance, and I have to admit, he’s all kinds of yummy,” Chelsea said. “Are you okay with him being all kinds of yummy?”
“A girl has to be flexible.”
“I remember the great axle disaster of 2010.” Chelsea laughed and picked up her clipboard from where she’d placed it before crawling onto the float.