Broken Strings

Twenty-Two

Jay

Being a movie star was never as much fun as dreaming of being one – Marilyn Monroe

The stars twinkled brightly overhead and the moon cast beams of light upon where Jay reclined across the hood of his rental car, back against the windshield. He had his hands folded behind his head as a makeshift pillow and he stared up at the night sky.

"I can see why you like it out here," he said, turning his head to look at where Ginger lay next to him, her face upturned towards the moon and eyes closed. "It's very peaceful."

She smiled but didn't open her eyes. "I told you. It's my favourite place in town."

And he could see why. The Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge had been a peaceful place to spend the afternoon. Quiet and calm, though Jay supposed everywhere except the rodeo grounds had likely been quiet and calm today. He hadn't anticipated spending the day with Ginger when he'd awoken that morning but they'd had a riding lesson and then she had invited him for a walk when it was clear that he wasn't heading to the town's rodeo. He would have liked to have seen the events but he'd known that attending would be going against his trying to keep a low profile.

So he and Ginger had turned the walk into all-day adventure. They'd – or rather she – had grabbed them coffees at the diner and from there they'd taken his rental car to the wildlife refuge. It had eventually led to them reclining across the roof of his car as they watched the moon ascend into the sky.

Throughout the day, she had taken him to all of her favourite spots, including a pool of water where they'd tried to spot some fish and birds. In the woods, they'd found more birds, colourful, and Jay swore that he'd even spotted a deer peeking out through the brush.

More impressive than the wildlife and the beautiful surrounding habitat was Ginger. Though he tried to keep his eyes on the woods, he couldn't help the way that his gaze wandered towards her. Ginger was absolutely striking with the intense focus that filled her body when she was preparing to snap a photo. When she lifted her camera to her eye, there was something about the set of her shoulders, the way her lips parted just slightly, that made it hard for him to look away.

Jay couldn't help it. He tried, damn him did he try, because he knew that she was in a relationship and that he was looking at her the way that he shouldn't under those circumstances.

But Ginger was...

He didn't have words to describe what Ginger was except to say that he liked spending time with her. More than that. He liked her, plain and simple. Liked the way she said what was on her mind and didn't seem to be bothered at all by the fact that he was a famous movie star. The last time he'd had that was with Claire and well...

Jay's gut clenched a little. He'd lost that one to the other guy.

He shook himself. Ginger was happily with Travis and Jay wasn't the type of guy to come between that. If there was one thing he prided himself on most of all was that he was his parent's son and they'd instilled good values in him. Pursuing someone who was taken and using his status as an A-lister to do so, even if he didn't consciously intend to use his celebrity in that manner, was something he had never done and he wasn't about to start now.

"Do you think you got any good photographs today?" Jay glanced at her camera, resting upon her chest, the strap still secured around her neck, and then forced himself to look back at the dark sky before his eyes outweighed the rationality of his brain.