Boys Are Back in Town Falling for You / Forward Pass / Ready And Willing

October 2006THE PROBLEM WITH GREAT exit lines was that they had a way of making a liar out of a man.Kirk stood on the edge of the cliff and gazed out over the valley below. The countryside was just as he remembered it -- dry limestone slopes dotted with cedars and scrub oaks, dropping down to shady bottomland intersected by shallow creeks. In the distance lay Prescott, a little newer and shinier than it had been fifteen years earlier, but with enough of the old landmarks still standing to remind him of what life there used to be like.He peered over the edge of the cliff to the bottom of the ravine, where the second-unit crew had finished inflating an air bag big enough to catch a grown man falling from a great height with a minimum of bodily injury. The average person in his right mind wouldn't consider taking a six-story dive with nothing but a glorified balloon to break his fall, but for Kirk it was all in a day's work.He loved the rush of that heart-pounding moment right before a stunt, whether he was flying across a gorge on a motorcycle or hurling himself off a ten-story building. Of course, a gust of wind at the wrong time could knock him inches off course, which could be deadly.And that made the rush even better. Off to one side in a cordoned-off area stood several townspeople who had come out to witness the excitement of making a movie, and the irony of it wasn't lost on Kirk. In that crowd were undoubtedly some of the very people who at one time would have stood in line to give him a one-way ticket out of town. He dropped his forehead to his hand to rub away the twinge of pain he felt there, amazed at how just thinking about Prescott's narrow-minded citizens was enough to give him a headache.When the producer said they were investigating the possibility of shooting in the Texas hill country, Kirk hadn't thought a thing about it. Texas was a big state, and the hill country covered a lot of acreage. Then the scout returned with the news that he'd found the perfect location -- Prescott -- and memories Kirk wished had stayed buried forever had come flooding back.No. That wasn't completely true. There had been one good thing. Someone he'd never been able to forget."You okay?"Kirk looked up to see Andy approaching, walkie-talkie in hand. "Yeah," he said with a sigh. "Just a little headache.""One too many beers last night?""Not unless one is one too many.""Then it must have come from sleeping on one of those mattresses at that dinky little place we're staying. Just once I'd love to work on a big-budget picture. You know. The kind where they put you up somewhere besides the No-Tell Motel.""I believe they call it the Bluebonnet Inn.""Whatever.""Is everything set up?" he asked Andy."Yep. As soon as the doctor's on site, it's a go." Kirk came to attention. "What? She's not here yet?""No, and she'd better arrive in a hurry. We're losing the light, and Dan's screaming that he doesn't want to set up the shot again tomorrow. The budget is already so tight it squeaks."Dan Pederson was one of the tougher directors to work for. It took nothing to piss him off, and the lack of a mandatory doctor on site when the producer insisted on one would certainly do it. But all Kirk could think about was the doctor herself. If she didn't make it for some reason...At the bottom of the ravine, a red SUV swung around in a semicircle and came to a halt. The door opened, and a pair of long, jeans-clad legs appeared. A woman emerged from the car, pulling off her sunglasses to survey her surroundings.It was her. No doubt about it.Even at this distance, there was no mistaking that lithe body, that graceful walk as she approached Becky, the production assistant. As they exchanged a few words, a soft breeze picked up her dark, shoulder-length hair and stirred it around her face, and when she threaded her fingers through it and tossed it back as he'd seen her do a thousand times befGraves, Jane is the author of 'Boys Are Back in Town Falling for You / Forward Pass / Ready And Willing', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373837137 and ISBN 0373837135.