All For Love (2 page)

Paige had a feeling that they were probably responsible for at least half of
Seattle General Medical’s
viewership.

Though her first instinct was to dash backstage to put in her contacts, slap on some makeup, and change clothes, Paige knew there wasn’t any point to doing that. After all, it wasn’t as if he would see her as anything other than his dance teacher for the week.

“I promise you, Christian,” she could hear her sister say as she headed across the room toward them, “everyone is going to
love
having you over to the house for dinner tonight! You’re already missing Christmas with your family just to be here for rehearsal. I’d hate knowing you were sitting alone in a hotel restaurant when you could be having a wonderful dinner with all of us.”

“Thank you, Morgan. That’s really nice of you to offer, but I don’t want to impose on your family. Especially since your sister is already going to be working over the holidays just to accommodate my crazy schedule.”

“Speaking of my sister…” They both looked over as Paige approached. “Christian, I’d like you to meet Paige.”

“Hello, Paige.” He gave her a warm—and surprisingly appreciative—smile. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

As he took her hand in his, a jolt of awareness shot through her. She’d heard how magnetic he was in person, and of course how attractive. But those stories simply hadn’t done him justice. Now she knew why he had been cast in the role that Fred Astaire had made famous: Christian was perfection in every sense of the word.

Meanwhile, here she was looking like something the cat had dragged in.

Turning back to Morgan, he said, “Actually, if the offer is still open, I’d love to come to dinner.” He shifted his warm gaze back to Paige. “And maybe if there’s time later, we could talk about our plan for next week.”

Paige had already known that she would be spending twelve hours a day for the next week dancing cheek to cheek with him. Having him join the family for dinner should be a mere blip on the radar. So then why was her stomach suddenly turning backflips, even though she knew better than to feel the emotions bubbling up inside her?
She couldn’t let herself turn into the cliché of an island girl falling for a big star. Especially since she’d already been down that road once before, and it had all ended badly, not to mention embarrassingly.

After high school, she’d attended Juilliard and had stupidly fallen hard for Patrice, the premier danseur, after only one gorgeous pas de deux. And then, if that hadn’t been bad enough, he’d taken her choreography and left her behind like an old pair of dance shoes. After that experience, she’d decided both her dreams of being a prima ballerina and her dreams of finding Mr. Right were nothing more than foolish childhood imaginings. Looking back, it had all been so predictable, and she was not going to make
that
mistake again.

Which was why she refused to let herself keep blushing like a schoolgirl with a crush or to feel at all embarrassed about looking stained and disheveled from her busy day working with her ballet students. Even if she was standing before the most gorgeous man in the Pacific Northwest.

“It was great meeting you, Christian, and I’m looking forward to working with you. If you’ll excuse me, I’d better finish closing things up here. I’ll see you later at dinner.”

And with that she walked away, trying to pretend that the warmth of Christian’s gaze—one that she could still feel trained on her, even without turning to look—hadn’t affected her at all.

CHAPTER TWO

Two hours later Christian headed down from his hotel room to his car, which he’d brought over on the ferry from Seattle. It wasn’t until he was at the door of the hotel lobby that he realized he hadn’t thought to get an address for the Walker house. As he approached the woman at the front desk, he noted that she had the slightly awed look that so many people got around him now that his TV show had taken off in a big way.

“I know this may sound like a bit of a strange question,” he said in a friendly tone deliberately meant to put her at ease, “but I’ve been invited for dinner at the Walker family home and I just realized I don’t have their address. You wouldn’t happen to know it, would you?”

“Oh that’s easy, Mr. Greer. Everyone knows where the Walker house is.” She pulled out a small map to give him directions. “In fact, you can walk there from here, if you’d like.”

Everyone?
That was surprising. But then, the island shared their surname. And it was small enough that locals likely knew where everybody lived. Christian had only just become used to people recognizing him all the time. Had the Walkers had that experience all their lives?

Deciding to head out on foot rather than drive, Christian was soon standing in front of a big, well-tended old house. It wasn’t nearly as huge as some of the Hollywood mansions he’d been in, but it looked perfect for raising a large family.

He was just about to knock on the front door when his phone went off. He smiled at the sight of his mother’s name on the call display. “Hi, Mom.”

“Christian, I was just calling to make sure that you got to the island okay.”

“Thanks for checking on me,” he said, still smiling. He’d accepted a long time ago that no matter how many birthdays he’d had, his mother would always worry about him. His father had left when Christian was a young boy, and she’d been the best single mother in the world. “Sorry, I meant to phone earlier, but I got caught up on a business call.”

“I know you need to prepare for your big new movie role, honey, but I sure am going to miss you this Christmas.”

He was going to miss spending Christmas with her, too. It was why he had made sure that his mother would be surrounded by her siblings and their families over the holidays during his absence. Family, he knew, was very important.

“I’m going to miss you, too,” he said. “In fact, if dance practice goes well, maybe I could squeeze in—”

His mother cut him off. “If you’re going to be the next Fred Astaire, you’re going to need every second of those classes you’re taking on the island.” Her voice softened. “And I just know you’re going to do a fabulous job, honey.”

“Thanks again for calling, Mom.” He thought he heard footsteps coming from inside the house. “I’m about to meet Morgan Walker and her family for dinner, though, so I’ve got to go.”

“You’re at Morgan Walker’s home?” his mom asked.

“Actually, I’m at the house she grew up in, but I believe her whole family will be there.”

“Christian, you know that I am just about her biggest fan ever!” For a moment, she sounded like an awed schoolgirl. One who never missed an episode of Morgan’s show. “How could you not tell me this?”

Right then, the front door swung open to reveal Paige standing in the foyer. Wearing dark jeans and a pretty light blue sweater, she looked simply stunning.

She smiled at Christian...at least until she saw the cell phone pressed to his ear. Her smile faded as she gestured that he should come in when he was ready, then she turned and walked away.

“You have to get me Morgan’s autograph, Christian,” his mom said, now in high gear. “Or, better yet, let me talk to her. You know how much I love her show.” When he didn’t answer right away, his mother continued with, “I’m sure she won’t mind. She seems so nice on TV, and if her family is anything like her, they’ll all be just as nice, won’t they?”

Christian couldn’t help but think about Paige. Of how fresh and pretty she’d looked back at the theater. And the smile she’d given him just now before it had faded. “Yes,” he agreed. “Yes, they are very nice.”

Morgan walked into the foyer a few moments later, smiling in greeting. “Hold on a second, Mom.” Covering the phone with one hand, he said, “Morgan, I’m sorry to do this in the middle of a family occasion, but would you mind speaking to my mother for a few moments? She’s a big fan.”

Morgan laughed at that. “Your mother’s a big fan of mine?”

“Huge.”

But Morgan had already reached for the phone and was saying, “Hello, Ms. Greer. Angie, of course…no, it’s no problem. It’s absolutely lovely to get to speak to you.”

Christian listened as Morgan laughed at something his mother said. Probably some story about him as a kid. Like all mothers, she tended to come out with those at exactly the moments when they would be the most embarrassing. Eventually, Morgan said good-bye to his mom and handed the phone back to him.

“Now, honey,” his mother said, “you will make sure to get Morgan’s autograph for me, won’t you? You won’t forget?”

“No, Mom, I won’t forget. I love you. I’ll call you later.” He hung up and turned back to Morgan. “Can I ask one more favor? Can I get your autograph for her before I leave tonight?”

“Absolutely. I’m so flattered.” Christian followed Morgan into a large living room filled with people. “Now that I’ve chatted with your mom, come meet my father, Tres. He’s
your
biggest fan.”

“It’s great to meet you, Christian,” Tres said as he shook Christian’s hand. “Thanks for joining us for dinner.”

“The pleasure is all mine.”

The Walker family was very warm and welcoming, if a little on the large side. He was wondering where Paige had disappeared to when Morgan began to introduce him to everyone else. In addition to her father and Paige, there were three other Walker sisters and an assortment of boyfriends and husbands, as well as their grandmother, Ava, whom everyone called Grams. Christian was definitely going to have to be on his game to keep all the names straight tonight.

As they all began to take their places at the large dining table, he was glad to see that he had been seated next to Paige. Very glad.

She wasn’t anything like the models and actresses he spent so much time around. No doubt that was part of the reason he wanted to get to know her better. But it wasn’t nearly the entire reason. Nor was the fact that they needed to get along so that they would be dancing well together by the time the studio sent an entertainment news crew to the island for a publicity shoot.

No, it was simply that from the very first moment he’d seen Paige in the dance studio, his heart had all but stopped in his chest.

She was beautiful. Breathtakingly, heart-stoppingly beautiful. The kind of beauty Christian thought he ought to be used to after spending years around some of the best-looking actresses in television. Yet, next to Paige, none of those women measured up. Paige had the same blond hair and elegantly crafted features as Morgan, but there was something else there, too. Something that made her look astonishing even in simple dance leggings and glasses.

What
was
it about her? Her porcelain skin? Her innate poise and elegance? Her sky-blue eyes? Christian could certainly think of several co-stars who would happily sell their souls for looks as perfect as Paige’s.

Maybe that was a part of it, too. There were plenty of beautiful people in Hollywood, and at the TV studios in Seattle, but few, if any of them, seemed so sweet, or to possess such a sense of decency and gentleness. None of the actresses he knew, for example, would have ever worn dance leggings and a ponytail backstage during a show. On the contrary, they would have been busy making sure that the whole occasion was about them. Whereas Paige had quite obviously wanted to make sure that everything ran as smoothly as possible for the kids. He’d even spotted her backstage, helping out a girl who’d hurt her foot.

Finally, Paige came back into the living room. And as he held out her seat for her—her eyes going wide as she realized she was going to be sitting next to him throughout dinner—he suddenly couldn’t help but wonder if this week in Walker Island would change his life forever.

CHAPTER THREE

“Is it true that Jimmy Zhang actually gets faint at the sight of blood?” Paige’s father asked Christian.

“You really are a fan of the show if you know about that, Tres,” Christian replied with a smile. “The first week we were shooting, it looked like he might have to quit the show, because even though it’s fake blood it looks pretty darn real. But he’s such a great actor that the writers came up with the idea of making his character an infectious-diseases specialist who can’t stand to look at blood, or anything even the slightest bit gross. Of course, by that point Jimmy had spent the week training himself to get over it.”

Paige nibbled at her food, barely tasting it, though she’d been starved by the time she’d left the dance studio. She was surprised to note just how effortlessly charming and gracious Christian was as he made her father laugh with the insider information about the TV show before turning to speak to her grandmother.

“I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere before, Ava.”

“I bet you say that to all the girls, dear,” her grandmother replied with a twinkle in her eyes.

Christian laughed, before saying, “I’ve just remembered, there was a documentary about the island, wasn’t there? I caught it at Sundance.”

“The documentary was mostly about Hanna and Joel,” Grams insisted. “Although I do seem to be getting quite a bit of fan mail. What do you do with your fan mail, Christian?”

“It’s hard to stay on top of it,” Christian admitted, “but I figure that if they can take the time to write to me, I can take the time to reply. And it helps that a lot of people are getting in touch through social media these days. It means I can keep the conversation going.”

Yet again, Paige was surprised by his response. She’d expected him to say that he had people to take care of his pesky fans. After all, he was a really famous TV star. Surely he had assistants for that and for everything else, too.

Then again, when she’d seen him standing on the front step, hadn’t she been wrong to assume he was talking to his agent about some new big-money role? Who would have guessed that he would be talking to his mother? And that she would be putting him on the grill about getting Morgan’s autograph. He’d sounded like anyone who was trying to please their mother.

It had been kind of cute, actually.

“I’ve noticed that same thing ever since Michael got me online. It’s amazing the way we all end up having a big group conversation,” Grams said. “I’m also amazed that people from the strangest places seem to want to ask me about my dancing back when I was young.”