Chapter 1

1

"All right, people. Talent is still on his way. We're looking at, minimum, thirty more minutes," a man wearing a trucker's hat called through a megaphone.

Seriously?!

That was the fourth "announcement" they'd had today claiming the same thing—a thirty-minute wait. The first one of its kind had been delivered almost eight hours ago.

Lauren Harrison was highly annoyed, although no one would ever know it from her placidly calm demeanor.

Not many things ruffled her. She was a high-powered woman in a high-pressure career. If she were easily rattled, she would have fallen apart long before. But there was one thing that got under her skin every time, even if she refused to show any outward signs of it.

She absolutely could not stand it when people behaved as if they were too good for everyone else around them. She detested it when people displayed any sort of attitude of entitlement. After working hard to get where she was by doing her job well and without complaint, she respected others who also worked hard at their jobs without regard as to whether she might consider their job on a lower rung of the social ladder than hers.

To that end, she had no patience for people who treated restaurant servers like their personal servants, for people who treated administrative and secretarial staff like second-class citizens, or—more to the point in this moment—people who were willing to make an entire television production crew of more than twenty-five people wait around for six hours because they didn't consider it important to be on time.

Lauren was at the home of one of her best friends, Karina Blackstone—known to the rest of the world as pop superstar Karina Black. Karina agreed to have her stunning Hope Falls mountaintop mansion featured on the celebrity edition of the real estate reality show Home Sweet Home .

The show offered a glimpse inside fabulous residences that the public would never ordinarily be afforded the chance to see. Lauren, a real estate agent who loved homes and architecture, would reluctantly admit to watching it every once in a while—although, she would be quick to point out that she was interested solely in the beautiful homes that were showcased and was not impressed one little bit by the appeal of the host; a charismatic and almost-too-good-looking-to-be-a-real-person Ben Stevens.

In fact, it was the complete lack of professionalism and courtesy currently being shown by the hours-tardy Mr. Stevens that was the cause of Lauren's irritation. The shoot was scheduled to begin at seven a.m. The crew was set up on time, ready to go. Lauren, the real estate agent who'd originally sold Karina the house and who was on hand to give Ben a personal rundown of the architectural details, was there and ready to go on time.

Even Karina was on time and she was one of the most famous people on the planet. She was the one person in this fiasco who would have the right to throw around her diva weight, and she was the height of professionalism.

Ben Stevens could take a lesson , Lauren fumed to herself.

It was now four o'clock in the afternoon and the host still hadn't seen fit to grace them all with his presence. Lauren sighed as she glanced at her watch for the twentieth time that hour.

Shaking her head, she walked over to where Karina sat in front of a vanity mirror getting her hair and makeup touched up by the professional stylists who'd flown in for the shoot.

Lauren gracefully slid into the chair next to Karina's, making eye contact in the mirror because Karina couldn't turn her head to face Lauren without disrupting the stylists' work. Lauren studied herself in the mirror side by side with Karina. They were both tall and slender, but where Karina had the dark, dusky-brown skin and silky, midnight-black hair befitting her Native American heritage, Lauren had light peach-toned skin and white-blonde hair, which was usually swept back in a chignon, not a hair out of place. The combination of her reserved and controlled manner and her Nordic good looks inspired more than one competitor or colleague to dub her "The Ice Princess."

Lauren said regretfully, "Kar, I don't know how much longer I can stick around at this point. I know I agreed to do the segment but I have already pushed appointments that I had this afternoon to this evening and I'd rather not reschedule again. I was actually supposed to be…what do they call it, out of here a few hours ago?"

"Wrapped," Karina replied.

"That's it. I was supposed to be wrapped a while ago. I mean, I hate to bail on you, but..."

"No, hey, don't even give it a second thought," Karina said genuinely. "I can fill him in on the details of the house. Sure, it won't be as brilliantly or professionally done as it would be by you, but it will be fine. If you need to take off, go ahead. You have a job to do."

Lauren nodded, torn. On the one hand, she didn't like to break her commitments, which is what made the thought of rescheduling her appointments so distasteful. But on the other hand, she didn't feel right about leaving Karina with the job of remembering and relating all of the real estate minutiae that she would have no real reason to keep in her mind. Square footage and ceiling heights had little meaning to an artistic soul like Karina. She'd bought this house because of its stunning view and the fully equipped music studio it offered.

Before she could make her decision, she heard the distinctive voice of Karina's manager, Bernie Kaplan, as he made his shuffling way across the room to where the women were sitting. Bernie was a stooped, balding, white-haired little man who was not even a fraction as spry of body as he was of mind and spirit.

"Hello, beautiful women," he greeted them cheerfully. "I have news regarding when we might be getting this show on the road."

"Excellent!" That was exactly what Lauren wanted to hear. "When might that be?"

"No one knows. That's the news," Bernie said matter-of-factly. "But I'll keep you posted."

Karina laughed. "Oh, yes, Bernie. Please do. Your little updates are so helpful."

Bernie shrugged. "Can I know what I don't know?"

Lauren and Karina looked at each other, each silently puzzling out the grammar of the riddle to themselves.

"No, I cannot," Bernie answered for them. "But here is a small tidbit of information that you may find more enlightening. When I was waiting to speak to the producers about when we might get started, I happened to hear a very interesting conversation they were having."

"Were you eavesdropping, Bernie?" asked Karina reprovingly.

Bernie simply said, "If two people are having a conversation, am I rude enough to interrupt? No, I am not."

Karina laughed again, pointing out, "But you will gladly stand there and listen to it."

"That's just good business, chickadee," Bernie pointed out. "At any rate, what I didn't interrupt turned out to be a conversation about how much they liked this area. Stunning natural beauty, they said, and great, big, gorgeous homes. They were tossing around the idea of launching a spin-off show. Home Sweet Vacation Home . How about that?" Bernie looked supremely pleased with himself.

"How about that," Karina commented flatly.

"Don't you see it?" Bernie asked impatiently.

Both women shook their heads.

"Let me lay it out for you then. They will be looking for a host; preferably a successful local agent who just happens to have star quality, much like they found in one Mr. Ben Stevens."

Karina and Lauren nodded at him blankly.

"Still no?" he asked, exasperated. "Oy! What would you do if you didn't have me? I'm talking about you, bubeleh! You would be perfect." Bernie lifted his hand, indicating Lauren.

Still, it took Lauren a moment to grasp the implications of what he was saying.

"Me?" she said, wrinkling her forehead. "I'm not a TV host."

"Not yet," Bernie conceded, shrugging. "That would be where I come in. I could represent you, bring you to their attention, broker your deal—"

"Whoa," Lauren said. "Slow down. Is this spinoff even a certainty?"

Bernie dismissively waved this concern aside. "What in life is a certainty? Only death. Is this death we're talking about here? No, it is not. So there is no certainty."

Lauren looked at Karina, at a loss for what to say.

"Don't mind him," Karina said. "He's just thinking out loud. You can always tell Bernie's excited about an idea when he starts going all Yiddish and philosophy on you."

Lauren shook her head. "I'm sorry, Bernie. I don't mean to be rude. I'm just a little distracted by the scheduling issues today."

Karina grinned. "Welcome to show biz, babe. It's a hurry-up-and-wait kind of business."

Lauren couldn't think of anything worse. "Then I don't think I'm cut out for it."

Bernie, never one to be easily deterred, said, "Don't rule anything out. We'll talk, we'll talk."

Lauren opened her mouth to respond but never got the chance. She, Bernie, and Karina were all distracted by the commotion that was suddenly arising at the front door of the house.

Ben Stevens, it seemed, had finally arrived.

--- ~ ---

Ben sighed as he sat in the back of the town car that was sent for him by production. If only everything else in his life that day had gone as smoothly as the car ride from his hotel in Lake Tahoe.

He had to hand it to the Sierra Nevadas, the pine-tree-covered mountains were absolutely gorgeous. The forty-five minute drive, though stressful because he was running extremely late, had at least been filled with stunning natural beauty.

Generally, Ben liked to work in the backs of limos and town cars in order to make good use of the dead time, but today was different. He needed to get his head right. He needed to get into the "I'm Ben Stevens and you're watching Home Sweet Home " mindset. He needed to dial up his personal charisma.

This was an incredibly important episode of Home Sweet Home ; it was the celebrity edition with Karina Black. You didn't get much bigger than Karina ‘Pop Princess' Black. What a get she was. The network was obviously going to promo the hell out of it before it aired. It was entirely possible that more people would watch this episode than any other in the show's history. He needed to be on his game today.

Unfortunately, his day had started at two a.m. with a panicked call from his sister and he had been dealing with his mother's doctors ever since. It took hours to get answers and even more to calm down his sister, but he'd gotten off the phone with both of them thirty minutes ago and they were okay. For now.

Up until today, Ben had been able to keep his personal life completely separate from his professional. Because his personal life was just that...personal. His family and their privacy was his number one priority. Today had tested that boundary. In the end he'd only revealed to production that he was dealing with a personal matter and he'd gotten away with it because after four seasons of never being late, never complaining, never pulling the "personal matter" card he'd built up some goodwill. Still, it didn't change the fact that his actions had not only put production behind, but also cost them a pretty penny.

Shaking his head Ben tried to clear his cluttered mind. Thinking about his mom, his sister, the fact that he was over eight hours late...well, let's just say it wasn't conducive to getting himself into his "star magnetism" mindset.

The truth was that Ben felt an incredible responsibility to the show and the twenty-five-plus people who worked on it. He knew that aside from the incredible shots of gorgeous homes that each episode featured, he was the main linchpin upon which the success of the show hinged. The better the performance he delivered, the better chance they had for solid ratings, and the better chance to keep twenty-five-plus crew members employed in an increasingly unstable job market.

Yes. He took that responsibility very seriously.

He knew that in order to have the greatest chance to give the best, most engaging, most magnetic performance possible, he needed to be "in character" the entire time he was on the set. In his mind, he referred to it as being "in character" even though he was appearing on the show as himself and not a character in a scripted drama. It was, in a way, like acting out a part—the part of a highly stylized, amped-up version of himself.

Any natural charm and charisma that he innately possessed, he did his best—to paraphrase the immortal words of Christopher Guest—to turn it up to eleven. There might be people out there who could turn their "it factor" on when the cameras started rolling and then revert to their natural state immediately after the director yelled "cut"—Ben wasn't one of them.

It wasn't like he had set out to be a television personality, after all. He'd been an average run-of-the-mill real estate agent. When one of his clients, a producer, recommended him for the gig, he'd been completely unprepared. He learned on the fly and was doing the best he could under high-pressure circumstances.

When the town car came to a halt, Ben could see—by the collection of equipment vans parked in the driveway and out on the street—that they were in the right place.

Giving himself a small pep talk, he reminded himself that everyone in there was going to be on edge. Don't add to the stress. Be happy. Be charming. Be magnanimous. Put on a great show.

Ben took a deep breath, pasted a wide smile on his face, and got out of the car.

--- ~ ---

Karina and Lauren walked over to stand side by side in the archway that led from Karina's entryway to her living room. It was the perfect vantage point to watch the event that had everyone on the set buzzing with busy energy, scurrying to and fro, and chattering to each other in their headset mics. The entrance of Ben Stevens.

Lauren recognized him as he walked through the door. Yes, that was definitely the handsome host she had seen a number of times on her television screen.

As Ben crossed the threshold, the production team began to clap and cheer.

Lauren knew that, although tardiness was a pet peeve of hers , for personal reasons, most people did not feel as much vitriol as she did for lateness. Still, she found herself crossing her arms in a pointed refusal to join in the applause and leaning down to comment to Karina snarkily, "Must be nice to have a job where you actually got applauded for waltzing in eight hours late."

Karina smiled at her indulgently, "Again. Welcome to show biz, babe. What you're witnessing is the scale of talent. When you're not a "name," you get treated like cattle. When you are a "name," you can do no wrong. There's no in between."

Lauren shook her head. "It's such a bizarre world you live in, Karina."

Karina eyed her sideways. "Hey, don't look at me, Laur. This isn't my world anymore. I live in Hope Falls now, same as you."

Ben moved to the center of the entryway and was waving both hands to the assembled crew, who were still applauding. Lauren thought that he looked like royalty about to address his subjects.

Give me a break.

"Hey, folks," he said with what Lauren thought was a transparently false, humble expression. "I know there's been a big delay. I'm sorry about that, these things happen. But moving forward now... Let's have a great show."

Lauren turned to Karina with a raised eyebrow. "Wow. ‘ These things happen .' How sincere! That's right up there in the kind-of-apology department with 'mistakes were made.' I can tell he's really and truly sorry after that little speech."

Karina laughed and was about to reply but they were interrupted when the very topic of their conversation himself approached them.

"Ladies," Ben said in a loud, too-hearty voice, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to introduce myself before we get started. I'm Ben Stevens."

Of course, since Karina was the huge superstar and the guest on the show he was about to host, he'd really come over to introduce himself to her and not to the both of them. Lauren knew this. However, she couldn't get past the uncanny sensation that the majority of his spotlight-like attention was focused on her and not on Karina.

"Hi, Ben," said Karina, offering her hand casually. "I'm Karina. Pleased to meet you."

Ben extended his hand and gave Karina's a firm shake, saying, "Absolutely. It's a pleasure to meet you. We're all so happy that you're doing the show."

"Of course," Karina replied pleasantly. "And I'd like to introduce you to my very good friend, and the agent who helped me with the purchase of this home, Lauren Harrison. She's here to do a short segment describing the property."

Lauren extended her hand to shake his, saying in a neutral, businesslike tone, "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Stevens."

Ben took Lauren's hand, but instead of shaking it like she'd expected him to do, he slowly turned it so that her palm was facing down and lifted it to his lips, pressing them to the back of her hand for, what felt like to Lauren, an uncomfortably long time.

She was too shocked to yank her hand away, and by the time she recovered enough to do anything at all, he had already lowered her hand, winked at her, smiled his megawatt, made-for-TV smile and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Harrison."

Ben's behavior was so outside the realm of what Lauren would've expected to happen in a business situation that it left her momentarily speechless. She was grateful that she maintained enough composure to keep her jaw from dropping, but nevertheless, she was rarely rendered speechless, and she didn't relish it.

Rather than charming her, as he was clearly attempting to do, the greeting only amped up her irritation with the man, who clearly felt that the rules of professionalism and decorum applied to him about as much as the rules of punctuality.

Ben turned his gaze momentarily to the cavernous living room. His attention was captivated by the crown jewel element of the house—an entire wall of unbroken floor-to-ceiling glass windows with a spectacular view of the pine-covered valley that was home to the town of Hope Falls. The view beyond that window was so picturesque, so perfect, that at times it didn't seem real.

The backdrop of pine trees was dotted here and there by brilliantly colored aspens. Running through the valley below, from one end to the other, was a twisting, meandering stream. At the very center of the valley lay the town of Hope Falls, which from Karina's window, looked like a toy town that would come with a toy train set.

Lauren never tired of that view, no matter how many times she saw it. She actually envied Ben for a moment because he was lucky enough to be laying eyes on it for the first time.

He turned his attention back to Lauren and Karina. "This is a beautiful home. But I have to say—the thing that makes it the most unique, in my experience, is that, with homes of this caliber, it's exceedingly rare to find one that comes with an agent whose beauty actually exceeds that of the property."

He flashed them his brilliant, movie-star smile and turned to move farther into the living room.

Even though he didn't stay around to witness it, Lauren was supremely aggravated that he—again—rendered her speechless. What was it with this guy? She'd read his bio online. He wasn't just some "pretty face" they brought in to host—he was an actual real estate agent. She didn't see how it would be possible that he didn't understand how unprofessional his behavior was. The only explanation was that he didn't care.