“Mornin’, folks,” he greeted politely.

Out of the corner of my good eye, I saw the lioness sit up.

“Well, howdy there,” I quipped, eliciting titters down the row of chairs. “Lost your horse, cowboy?”

He flushed red from his neck to the roots of his buzz cut. It was disarming to see a guy that good-looking blush. Katie dunked a Q-tip in water and began dabbing at the mascara splotch.

“You’re Jackie Gold,” he declared.

While I wasn’t thrilled to be recognized with a fan blowing up my crotch, I was pleased to be the one commanding his attention.

“Yep,” I said. “Can we help you?”

“I was looking for my trailer. I’m kind of confused. This is my first day.” His Southern drawl only added to his appeal.

“It’s my first day too,” the lioness chimed in. She swiveled her chair and wrapped one of her shapely legs around the other like a climbing vine.

“Yeah well, it’s everyone’s first day,” I retorted more sharply than I’d intended.

The makeup lights were making me sweaty and needed a smoke. Or maybe it was this cowboy. This ridiculously attractive cowboy. I was flattered he’d recognized me, even for the wrong reasons. Living on the cover of the tabloids in every supermarket in the country for a year had made me easy to pick out.

Katie patted my cheeks a little too firmly with a powder puff and gave me a raised eyebrow in the mirror. I reached for my Evian.

“Got a ciggy?” I asked him, trying for a more pleasant tone.

“Sorry, no. I don’t smoke. You shouldn’t either, you know.” He winked and shook a finger at me.

Even with that corny wink, he was sexy.

“Oh, really? Are you trying to save me?” I flirted, momentarily forgetting the curlers in my hair and the fan between my knees.

He laughed and his face relaxed. His incredible smile twisted to one side creating half-inch dimples low on his cheeks.

His blue eyes met mine in the mirror. “Are you a woman who needs saving?” His look was direct. It caught me off guard and made my stomach flip-flop.

“Katie, gimme a Camel?” I detoured.

There was, of course, a non-smoking policy in the trailer, but I was the star, and no one was about to stop me. Katie sighed, took a non-filtered cigarette from her pocket, and lit it for me.

“What role do you have?” the lioness purred.

“Oh, I’m not acting, not yet. I’m Alex Harvey’s stand-in,” Brett replied, waving my smoke out of his face. He pointed to his hair as if to explain the buzz cut. “I’m supposed to look like Alex, well, like his character that is. They picked me because we have the same build.”