Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
O ne more dress fitting and then she could hide in her trailer. Maybe she’d go to bed early and dream of a way to fix her mistakes. Yesterday’s milkshake hadn’t exactly covered her actions with Mary. And with all the extra scenes and dress rehearsals, she hadn’t seen Eddie at all today to judge how he was doing.
As Bianca reached the top steps to the wardrobe building, her phone vibrated in her pocket. Probably Grace telling her she was running late. Except her screen showed Frances’s name.
Bianca swiped the Accept button and stepped under the shade of the building’s roof. “Hey, Frances. Perfect timing.”
“Oh, honey.” The clank of dishes and mumbled conversation hummed in the background behind Frances’s voice. “Based on your last text, it sounds like I should have called you last night, but three ball teams and a baby-reveal party showed up all at once and stayed all the way until closing. We ran out of pie and specials. Tips were a blessing, but my feet mooed until my head hit that silk pillowcase you bought me.”
“I turned you into a silk fan, didn’t I?” Bianca leaned against the siding. “Wish I could have helped fill in for you guys. I promise I would have only dumped one, maybe two drinks in someone’s lap.”
Frances’s chuckle floated through the phone and felt like an embrace. Not as good as Eddie’s hug—or rather, the one she’d given him—yesterday. “Doubt that. Weren’t you a waitress in one of your movies?”
Bianca shifted the phone to her other ear. “Don’t watch that movie. I never should have done that part either. The language alone did not glorify God?—”
“We all have things we’re sorry for doing. Stop rehashing what I know the Lord has forgiven you for. Tell me about your boy Eddie instead.”
Where to start? “First, he’s not actually mine. It’s more like a partnership. Like the one you and your cook, Ace, have.” Bianca pressed her lips together as if to remember her and Eddie’s almost kiss from the river. “Though, he’s better than any man I’ve ever dated.” Bianca rubbed her palm across her forehead, and her fingers grazed her healing stitches.
“Don’t look for a man that’s better than the last. Look for one who points to the Lord. Now, I’m sorry to say, I only have four more minutes left on my break.”
Bianca pressed her other shoulder against the building and spotted Grace coming down the sidewalk. “I don’t have much time either.” She explained the shortened version of Mary and what Zack had told her. “I thought if I couldn’t fix the stuff in my family, I could at least get Eddie’s family restored.”
Frances hmm’d. “Unfortunately, some things aren’t ours to fix. King David realized that the Lord’s earthly dwelling place was lacking in comparison to the luxury he lived in. He wanted to build God a temple. Except God told him no. He wasn’t the man for the job.”
A gust of wind swept around Bianca. Dirt hit her face, and she tucked further against the trailer’s siding. “Okay…how does that story apply to me?” It didn’t exactly provide hope.
“For one, shouldn’t it remind us of God’s timing? David could have pouted, wallowed in pride about how it should have been him to build the temple because it’d been his idea, but instead, he kept following God and prepared his son for the task. Sometimes we can get too focused on the result and forget Who’s actually in charge.”
“I just wish I could do more. I did bring Eddie his favorite marshmallow milkshake. You really need to add it to your menu. It’s almost as good as your apple pie milkshake. And of course, I apologized. But I don’t feel like it’s enough.”
“Forgiveness is more than feelings, honey. Emotions aren’t always based on truth. But you know what is?”
Bianca inhaled. “God’s forgiveness.”
“If we try to earn it, we’ll fall short every time. If this Eddie is a man after God’s heart like you’re painting him to be, it’s not about striving to be perfect around him…Yeah…I see it, Ace, I’ll take care of it. Give me one more minute…Sorry about that, honey.”
Bianca smiled. “Maybe you should ask Ace out for coffee at someone else’s restaurant sometime soon. He might quit barking at you.”
Frances huffed into the phone. “I don’t need you trying to set us up like the rest of the town. I stand by what I promised myself, that I wouldn’t mix a personal relationship with Ace’s and my business partnership.”
Bianca stiffened. Wasn’t that what she had secretly been hoping would happen between Eddie and her? If she could stop messing things up between them.
Grace walked up the steps as her thumbs flew across her phone.
“Hey, Frances, I gotta go. But next time, I need to talk to you about Nathan.”
“What’d he do now?”
Bianca stood by the door with Grace, who was staring at her phone. “Hopefully nothing else.”
Frances grunted. “I’m only a phone call away. Don’t forget to read your?—”
“I finished Romans this morning.”
“Good girl. Keep reading. You won’t regret it.” Bianca heard Frances’s smile in her tone.
Bianca hung up and slipped her phone into her pocket.
Grace opened the door for her with one hand while she typed with the other. “I’m almost done with this email. I think the outfits are on the third rack on the right wall.”
Bianca zigzagged through the racks of clothes and made it to the far wall. Except there sat Riley on the floor, her phone in her lap. Two racks of ballgowns surrounded her. Apparently, everyone was longing for a break today.
Had she just wiped her eyes?
Grace leaned toward Bianca. “Is she…crying?” she whispered.
Bianca peeked around the rack. Riley hadn’t struck her as an easy crier, but that could be why she was hiding. “We probably need to check.”
Grace wrinkled her nose. “You can go first. She scares me a little.” Then her eyes widened. “Wait…” she hissed as she scrolled through her emails. She stomped around the rack separating them. “Riley, please tell me they didn’t fire you. I suggested for them to cut out the massages, but if they cut you instead…”
Bianca clenched her teeth together. That was not how she’d pictured asking if Riley was okay.
Riley scrambled to her feet.
Grace tapped again on her phone screen. “I knew production money was tight, but I never thought your job…”
Riley glanced at Bianca and then back to Grace. “No, not fired. You’re stuck with me for a little longer.”
Bianca reached her hand out, but when Riley recoiled, Bianca fisted her fingers against her sides. Riley probably wasn’t a hugger either. “Is it something we can help you with?”
Riley crossed her arms. “I cry sometimes when I’m mad. Things will be taken care of soon. Then everything will be better.”
Grace looked up from her phone. “Mad or sad. I’m great at being both too.”
Bianca wanted to rub her temples. “I think what Grace means is, would you like to share what you’re mad about?”
Riley popped the knuckles on each of her fingers before finally heaving out a breath hard enough to lift the two strands framing her face. “My brother…I’m not even the oldest, but I’m forever fixing his messes. First, he had money troubles, which eventually led to him having to get a new job. Now his work’s having money troubles, and it’s affecting everything that it shouldn’t, including my life.” She glanced up and narrowed her eyes. “It’s not fair that some people never get what they deserve.”
Bianca nodded. “Money problems affect so much.” In her own life. Even with her family. And of course, Eddie would never have agreed to help if he hadn’t had grant issues. Plus, the film’s budget.
Riley blinked at her. “We’ve almost got things figured out…He says he’s about to be promoted at his new job, which has actually been beneficial for the right connections we need.”
Something crashed outside, followed by what sounded like nails hitting the metal roof overhead.
Grace glanced up from her phone. “Is that rain? Was it even in the forecast?” She jogged to the only window in the room, on the other side of a mannequin wearing a teal evening gown. “Man, it’s pouring.” Grace’s focus flew back to her vibrating phone. “A promotion rocks, Riley. That has to be good news. I was so pumped when Bianca let me be her assistant while I finish out this stupid assistant-to-an-assistant slash coffee-retriever gig.”
Riley’s gaze swung back to Bianca, and her eyes narrowed further. “What…ahh, happened to your neck?”
Grace frowned and inspected Bianca’s face. A gasp flew from her mouth. “Did you get hit in a scene? We really need to get a replacement stunt double set up.”
“What?” Bianca marched to the standing mirror at the end of the racks. A dark shadow ran along her cheekbone, but there was also something gray on the sleeve of her shirt. She rubbed at her cheek. “I don’t know what it is, but no one hurt me.”
Riley brushed at the gray spot on Bianca’s shirt, and Grace’s laughter echoed louder than the thunder. “I’m sorry. I think I need more sleep.” She wiped under her own eyes. “You were leaning up against the building when I got to the steps. That gray is the same coloring as the building’s siding. No one’s out to harm you. Thank goodness.”
Riley chased Bianca’s gaze in the mirror as if she, too, agreed that Grace really did need some more sleep with her laughter outburst.
“Well, good.” Grace took in a deep breath. “Let’s get you in that purple shirt and skirt.”
Another clap of thunder rattled the window, and a flash of lightning reflected onto the tiled floor.
Grace grabbed the labeled clothes off the rack and handed them to Bianca. She shooed Bianca to go change behind the curtain.
Riley cleared her throat. “Do you guys have plans tonight?”
Bianca pulled on the purple shirt and the skirt. She tugged on the front of the shirt, which dipped almost to her bra. “This outfit’s not going to work. What’s the other option?”
“Show us,” came Grace’s hopeful tone.
Bianca’s phone vibrated on the tile by her foot.
Please don’t be Nathan.
She smiled at the screen.
Eddie.
She tucked the phone to her ear and came out from behind the curtain. “Hey.”
Grace tilted her head at the purple shirt. “I don’t think it’s—” She pointed to Bianca’s phone. “Sorry.”
Bianca yanked on the hem of the skirt and then pulled her phone away from her ear. Had Eddie butt dialed her? “Hello, Eddie?”
“It’s Eddie? He hasn’t been around today,” Grace stage-whispered.
As if Bianca didn’t already know that. She waved Grace back to the rack as Eddie finally answered. “Hey, yeah. Sorry. The rain’s coming down hard, and we’re crammed in the dugout.”
She put her hand to her chest. “There’s a game tonight?”
“They finally rescheduled it last night from another previous rainout.”
Which meant he could have told her about it but hadn’t.
Eddie sighed. “But it just got rained out again. So then I made a quick decision and agreed to meet Mary for dinner.”
Bianca’s hand went up to her neck. He was meeting his mother? Maybe her mistake hadn’t been that bad. “Th-that’s…” Was it great or not? “Are you sure?”
A pause and then, “No, but Zack suggested maybe…Anyway, I thought one of the guys would go with me, but they’re all busy last minute and all, and Zack also mentioned that maybe you should come. Two birds, one stone, so to speak. You could get your pictures of us out. I’d meet Mary and be finished. Maybe she wouldn’t focus solely on me and…I would have backup. That’s probably more like four birds.”
Bianca covered her mouth. He wanted her as his backup. Even after what she’d done.
Grace tiptoed forward. “What’s going on?” Her whisper echoed more like the next round of thunder.
Bianca plugged her other ear. “Of course. I’ll go with you to see Mary.”
Grace’s eyes widened as Riley typed on her phone.
“Can you be ready in twenty minutes?” Eddie asked.
“Can I be ready in twenty minutes?” Bianca parroted.
Grace raised up both of her thumbs.
Bianca paced a straight shot toward the curtain. “Okay, yes. Where do you want to meet?”
“I’ll bring an umbrella to your trailer and pick you up.”
Raindrops hammered against the roof above. “How about the wardrobe building?”
“The gray building next to the makeup trailer?”
Grace threw out her arms as if to ask what was happening as Bianca responded, “Yes. That’s it.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I get all my kids home.”
After Bianca hung up, Grace raised her brows. “So?”
Bianca pressed her phone to her chest. “Um, Eddie asked me to have dinner with his mom.”
Grace clapped. “Perfect. I’ll call Ed. He’s still in town and can get the best photos and?—”
Bianca shook her head. “Tonight is not about me. No photographers.” It was the least she could do for Eddie.
Grace lowered back onto her heels. “Okay…we’ll hope and pray that someone in the restaurant spots you, then. I guess it will be more organic that way.”
Yes, pray. Bianca needed to do more of that. Out of the corner of her eye, Bianca noticed Riley heading toward the door, and that’s when Riley’s unanswered question popped into Bianca’s head. “Riley, hey, sorry. I never answered your question. Were you wanting to hang out tonight?”
Riley glanced over her shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. Like Grace said, this sounds like a perfect plan. I need to meet with my brother anyway.”
Bianca watched something that looked like hurt cross Riley’s eyes. “If you’re sure. We can do something maybe tomorrow.”
Riley met Bianca’s eyes. “I’m sure we’ll meet up soon enough.”
Grace grabbed a silver dress with lace sleeves off a rack. “Hope things work out for your brother soon.”
Riley waved. “They will. Trust me.”
Bianca accepted the dress from Grace and held it up to her shoulders. She turned and glanced in the mirror. If the plan for tonight was so perfect, then why had she been Eddie’s last choice?