Chapter 7
“What’ll you have?” Myles asked.
“Anything,” Piper replied.
“Well, tell me what you want to dream about, and I’ll know what to give you.”
The pause stretched out as Myles waited for her to return the line. “Oh, what’s that?” she asked.
His Betty’s brain was not at all on the task at hand. She kept glancing out at the loading dock, where Tucker and Brody were horsing around, fencing with PVC pipe and egging each other on in assorted accents. Did she have a thing for Tucker? Maybe he was the reason she had that rule about not dating your costars. Certainly, he’d been around the theater almost as long as she had. But Myles simply hadn’t gotten that vibe between them.
“I’ve got a whole big theory about it. Different kind of food makes for different kind of dreams. Now, if you have a ham and cheese on rye, you’ll dream about a tall, cool blonde. Peanut butter and jelly, you get a nice comfortable, average Joe. And a turkey on wheat with barbeque potato chips sandwiched in will get you a shape-shifting marmoset from Pluto.”
Not even a flicker of response.
“It’s a little chilly in here, isn’t it?” she returned.
Yep, that confirmed it. Head totally not in the game.
As Myles started to speak, he caught a flash of Tucker leaping off the loading dock in some kind of spin kick.
“Tucker!” Piper screamed and raced to where he now lay, curled in a ball, arms wrapped protectively around his leg, swearing a blue streak.
Myles was right behind.
Piper crouched down, voice brisk and efficient. “Let me see.”
Red-faced and faintly breathless, Tucker didn’t want to unbend. “It hurts. Christ, it hurts.”
“What happened?” Nate demanded, coming out from the stage doors.
“We were just fooling around,” Tucker groaned. “Doing spin kicks off the back of the truck.”
Tyler crouched on his other side, rubbing his back in a soothing gesture. “You are aware you aren’t twenty-one anymore?”
“Brody can still do it.”
Over Tucker’s head, Tyler fixed Brody with a glare that placed all the blame squarely on him.
He held his hands up in a How could I have known? gesture.
“It’s broken,” Piper announced. “I can feel the bump in the bone.”
“It can’t be broken,” Tucker argued. “I have to dance.” He tried to stand, using Brody and Piper to lever himself up. But the moment he put weight on it, the leg buckled, and he howled.
“Get him in my back seat,” Piper ordered. “I’ll take him to the emergency room.”
“I don’t wanna to go the ER.”
“Then you shouldn’t have broken your leg on a Saturday,” she said practically.
Tucker looked miserably at Nate. “Sorry. I would never have tried it if I didn’t think I could pull it off.”
Nate scrubbed both hands over his red and gray beard, as if he could somehow rewind the last few minutes. “It’s all right. You just get yourself taken care of. This is why we have understudies.”
Tyler went pale at that.
“Somebody take him. I’ll go get my car.”
Myles stepped in. “Here, let me.” He swapped positions with Piper, taking Tucker’s weight.
She scurried down the alley.
“You want to sit down?” Brody asked.
“If I go down, you’ll just have to haul me back up. It’s not so bad as long as I’m not putting pressure on it.”
“You can thank the adrenaline for that,” Myles told him. “It’ll hurt like a sonofabitch later.”
“Personal experience?” Tucker asked.
Piper backed her car down the alley.
“Ski accident back in college. High point was the ski bunnies who felt compelled to entertain me the rest of the week since I was lodge-bound.”
Tucker laughed. “Perhaps some of our cast members will take pity.”
“It won’t be me,” Piper told him, opening the door to the back seat. “Idiots don’t get special caretaking.”
But her hands were careful as she, along with Myles and Brody, managed to get him into the seat.
“We’ll all sign your cast, man,” Brody told him.
“No profane drawings,” Tucker ordered. “I’m an attorney. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”
“Aw, where’s the fun in that?” Brody teased.
Regret and concern flickered over Piper’s face as she glanced over at Tyler. “We’ll keep you posted.”
“Just take care of him,” Tyler said.
As soon as the alley was clear, Nate hollered, “Let’s get this truck unloaded.”
The rest of the cast members, who’d been hanging around the loading dock watching the drama unfold, sprang into motion again.
“Thank God it happened early so we’re not having to pull a substitution right before opening night,” Nate muttered and headed back inside.
Myles could see the indecision on Tyler’s face. She wanted to quit. And, really, Myles kinda couldn’t blame her. Piper had been right about the intimacy engendered by playing love interests in a show. To do that with someone who used to be an actual love interest had to be tough.
Her shoulders squared up, her eyes hardening. Decision made then.
Good for you, Myles thought.
Brody crossed over to her on the loading dock. “I’ve never seen him miss the landing before.”
“A lot’s changed in the last eight years,” she said. “Tucker’s not quite as spry as he used to be.”
She wasn’t talking about Tucker. Brody obviously knew it and was wise enough not to comment.
“Truck’s empty,” said Nate. “Let’s get to rehearsal.”
Brody gestured toward the stairs, a sweeping, courteous motion. “After you, Miss Haynes.”
So it was to be a show in a show after all. Bringing up the rear, Myles hesitated at the threshold, thinking back to Tucker’s fall.
Piper had screamed before he ever hit the ground, almost as if she knew he was going to get hurt.