Chapter Ten #2
Vanessa followed Will and Hunter came to stand next to Emma. "When we get through the doors, my girlfriend will be standing off to the side and you can hang out with her. She's wearing a red sweater tonight so you can't miss her."
"Thanks."
"Chloe is awesome!" Chase said. "But I'm still waiting for her to write me a rom-com."
"Keep waiting," Hunter replied teasingly.
"Wait, your girlfriend writes rom-coms?"
Hunter nodded. "I was in a movie called An American in Dublin. She wrote that. And she writes for The Bunker. It's a TV show. Your grandmother loved to grill her whenever Chloe came to one of these conventions."
"She writes for The Bunker? I loved watching that show with my grandmother!" Emma turned to Hunter with a huge smile on her face. "Oh my gosh, can I really ask her some questions? Because I have so many after the season finale."
Chase rolled his eyes. "You weren't star-struck when you met me, but you're in awe of Hunter's girlfriend."
"She writes for The Bunker!"
A teasing smile spread across Chase's face as if he found her reaction to Hunter's girlfriend amusing and enlightening. She would miss that smile when this was over.
They had reached a door with a person standing there with one of those headsets on and Emma could hear someone on the other side.
"Are you ready for your favorite stars of Project Lyonheart?"
There was a roar from the crowd and a shiver went up her spine.
These fans were just like Nana, standing there waiting to see their favorite actors and here she was now living this experience.
Well, sort of. She was on the other side of the door, which wasn't really where she belonged.
She didn't really belong here with Chase or really anywhere with Chase.
But she couldn't think about it now. The doors opened and the cheers from the crowd hit her head on.
Wow, it was loud. Will stood by the open door as Vanessa walked out followed by Hunter and Chase with Emma.
She noticed a few people give her a shocked look like Who is that woman with Chase?
He didn't seem to notice as he put his hand on the small of her back and pointed to a woman standing off to the side in a red sweater.
"Are you Chloe?"
Emma had to yell over the noise of the crowd even though she was almost standing next to the woman now who gave her a smile and nodded, knowing it was too loud to say anything in response. She seemed to welcome Emma easily as if knowing Chase was enough to be welcomed in this place.
She turned to see the three actors smiling and waving on stage while the moderator for their panel was standing off to the side. Vanessa was blowing kisses to the crowd while Hunter was casually waving.
And then there was Chase, who was totally hamming it up.
He was pointing at people in the crowd, waving at others, moving across the stage to make sure everyone got a chance to see him.
It definitely matched his personality — or at least the version of his personality that Emma saw when she first met him.
He seemed to have mellowed out a bit around her now, like when they sat on the side of his pool and it was just the two of them with a bottle of wine and leftover cake.
But in this moment, he was movie star Chase Warwick making sure everyone in the crowd knew that he saw all of them, and that they saw him.
And that's when someone gave him a mic. Oh, this was going to be interesting.
"Lyonhearts, how are ya?" he yelled to more roars from the crowd. "You all look amazing! And I'm not just saying that because you're the crowd in front of us."
The crowd laughed at his little joke as he charmed this group so well that Emma couldn't help but get pulled into it.
His co-stars and the moderator took seats behind him, but Chase was still standing up front taking over the spotlight.
It almost seemed like this was something he had done before, like he was the hype guy who warmed up the crowd before they started a panel to make everyone from his co-stars to the fans more comfortable.
"I see some new fans out there and some familiar faces too.
Andrea, you know I'm talking about you." He pointed to a middle-aged woman with brown hair in the front row who waved back at him.
"And I thought I saw Danny somewhere." His eyes scanned the crowd until he found a man on the side with his hand up.
"On the left! Well, my left, your right.
You know what I mean." He pretended to get a little flustered and the crowd laughed in response.
"Before we get started, I just wanted to acknowledge another familiar face that isn't with us tonight.
Some of you may remember Dorothy Colton. "
"Nana!"
Emma's head snapped to the sound of her grandmother's name somewhere back in the crowd. Emma thought she was the only one who called her grandmother "Nana" but it seemed like everyone in the Project Lyonheart fandom, and even the other actors, called her that.
"Yes, Nana." He gave the fan a small smile, then took a deep breath and looked out over the crowd. "Unfortunately, Dorothy passed away a month ago and it's just been a real loss for our Lyonheart fandom."
"Oh no," came a quiet voice in the crowd.
Emma turned to see some of the fans looking sad, one wiping their eyes.
She heard a few sniffles too. It started to make her get a little choked up on her own.
She knew Nana had stories about seeing friends at some of these conventions, especially people who also lived in southern California and would go to these things together.
But she didn't realize just how many people from this fandom knew her grandmother.
It was touching and a bit unnerving too.
She knew her grandmother liked to keep this part of her life as her own and not drag Emma to these conventions, but now Emma wondered what she had been missing.
She wondered if maybe this challenge with Chase was Nana's way of showing Emma this part of her life.
She could understand why Nana may have wanted her to see some of this, especially to see Chase in this room looking at Emma with a warm smile on his face.
"I did bring a guest with me this weekend though. Dorothy's granddaughter Emma is here, so can you all say hi to her?"
Chase gestured towards Emma standing off to the side and everyone started clapping for her.
It felt weird to see people smiling and even getting a few woos from the crowd, but it was nice.
It was good. She was even keeping it together instead of breaking out in tears, which surprised her.
It was just a lovely way to acknowledge her grandmother.
No one seemed to be smiling as big as Chase was, standing in front of the crowd clapping along with a warm look on his face. He even gave her a wink before bringing the mic back up to address the crowd.
"Alright, alright. That was lovely, thank you," he said as he took a bow to the crowd.
"Now if you've been to these things before, you may have been lucky enough to have Nana compliment you on a question you asked.
So let's do Nana proud and chat a little and then take some great questions from the audience. How does that sound?"
The crowd cheered again and Chase finally started to head to his seat for the panel discussion. As soon as he sat down, he looked back to check on Emma and catch her eye. She couldn't help but smile and give him a small wave and she saw him wink at her again.
What a weird turn of events this was turning out to be. She felt like things were changing between her and Chase, and yet she couldn't acknowledge it — at least not yet — because Chase was up on stage in his element talking to his fans. Real feelings would have to wait for later.