Chapter 20
MICAH
Acouple days later, we were celebrating. The last day of LA shooting had gone smoother than I’d expected. We’d wrapped the final interior sequences, gotten every shot on the list, and somehow managed to stay under budget. A minor miracle, considering how the first day had gone.
The craft services table had been replaced with a full catering spread, and someone had wheeled in a portable bar that was doing brisk business. Music pumped through speakers rigged up by the sound department. The energy in the room was loose and celebratory.
This wasn’t the final wrap party. That would come after Hawaii, after we’d captured every last frame of footage. But it was a milestone worth celebrating. LA was done. The hardest part of production was behind us.
I grabbed a beer from the bar and surveyed the room.
The crew had shed their usual work mode and were actually relaxing for once.
I spotted Toby doing some kind of awkward shuffle that I think was supposed to be dancing.
Lisa and Buzz were deep in conversation near the food table, laughing about something.
Even Jack had shown up. He was holding court in a corner with his entourage, probably regaling them with stories about how he’d single-handedly saved every scene.
Grace was across the room, talking to one of the camera operators.
She’d changed out of her wardrobe into skinny jeans that showed off that fine ass.
She had on heels and a tank top. It was very casual and easily the sexiest she’d ever looked.
Her hair was in a messy bun and her face had been washed clean after a week of stage makeup.
She was laughing at something the guy said, her whole face lighting up.
I took a long pull of my beer and tried not to stare.
The past few days had been torture. We’d been professional on set. Completely professional. No lingering looks, no accidental touches, nothing that could give anyone ammunition. But every time she walked past me, I caught her scent. Every time our eyes met across the set, I felt that electric pull.
And every night, I went home alone to my empty house and thought about her.
The scandal had dominated the entertainment news cycle. Grace Stone and Jack Montana were on every gossip site and tabloid cover. The paparazzi had set up permanent camp outside her apartment building. She couldn’t go anywhere without being photographed.
Which meant we couldn’t go anywhere together.
I watched couples pair up on the dance floor.
Not actual couples, just people that had spent the last week working eighteen hours side by side.
They were all having a good time. That’s what we needed.
Blow off a little steam before another long week of shooting.
Grace stood at the edge of the floor with a glass of wine in her hand.
I should stay where I was and keep my distance. I walked toward her anyway.
“Dance?” I asked, keeping my voice casual.
She looked up at me, and I saw the hesitation in her eyes. The same calculation I’d been running in my own head. Was this too risky? Would people notice? But the dance floor was crowded. Half the crew was out there. One dance wouldn’t draw attention.
“Sure,” she said softly.
I took her hand and led her into the crowd.
My other hand found her waist in a very junior-high way.
She stepped closer, not quite pressed against me but close enough that I could smell her shampoo.
We moved together, nothing too intimate.
Nothing that would raise eyebrows. Just two colleagues sharing a dance at a work party. Perfectly innocent.
Except it wasn’t.
It took every ounce of self-control I had not to pull her closer. I remembered the way she tasted and it was something I craved every fucking day.
“You did good work today,” I said, because I needed to say something that wasn’t I want to take you home right now.
“Thanks.” She smiled up at me, and God, that smile. “I’m excited for Hawaii.”
“Yeah. Should be beautiful. The locations are incredible.”
We were making small talk. Boring, professional small talk. While my entire body screamed to close the distance between us. I wanted to feel her melt against me.
Her eyes met mine, and I saw everything she wasn’t saying. The same frustration. The same want. The same impossible situation we’d trapped ourselves in. We both wanted to be very naked.
“I wish we could just be normal,” she whispered.
“I know.” My hand tightened slightly on her waist. “Me too.”
The song ended. We stood there for a beat too long, neither of us wanting to step apart. Then someone bumped into us, breaking the spell. We separated with polite smiles that didn’t reach our eyes.
“I should go mingle,” she said.
“Yeah. Me too.”
She walked away. The party wound down around midnight. People started filtering out, calling for rides, making plans for the break before Hawaii. I stuck around until the end, helping oversee the cleanup, making sure nothing important got left behind.
Then I went home… alone.
The obnoxious sound of my phone ringing woke me way too early. It was my one day to sleep in after burning the candle on both ends for too long. We had a couple days off before we flew to Hawaii to finish out the rest of the shoot.
The Star Wars theme told me it was my father calling. A joke about Darth Vadar.
I groaned and reached for it on my nightstand.
With one eye, I looked at the screen and saw it was barely after seven.
“Dad?” I croaked out the word.
“What the hell were you thinking, hiring Grace Sterling to be in your movie?”
I sighed. “What’s wrong with that? She’s great. Killing it. I can’t wait for you to see what she’s doing.”
“You can’t trust a fucking Sterling.”
His vehemence surprised me. He was never like that. I grabbed a pillow and tucked it against the headboard and sat up. When Grace told me about the family feud, I didn’t think much of it. But now I wondered if she was right.
How had I never heard about this before?
“Why?” I asked. “What the hell happened between the two of you?”
“Gordon tried to screw me on a business deal a long time ago,” he said with disgust.
I laughed. “That’s what Gordon says about you. He told Grace not to work with a Blackwell.”
“Of course he’d say that. He’s a liar and a thief.”
“What happened?”
I didn’t dare tell him I was very fond of Grace. Family first. That was always the rule, and if the bullshit between them was big enough, I would have to choose my family before anything got too far with Grace.
“If Gordon had gotten his way, you would have never been born,” Dad said.
I couldn’t even begin to understand what the hell that mean. “That’s dramatic,” I said with a laugh.
Dad exhaled dramatically. “It’s a long story, but he tried to break your mother and me up.
We were dating, and Mom had been attached to one of Gordon’s movies.
That man tried to change the terms of her contract at the last minute.
Your mother ended up quitting the production and went to do a movie with me.
Gordon spread all kinds of lies about her sleeping around.
Then he tried suing her for all kinds of damages. Then he sued me. So fuck that guy.”
That made sense and I would absolutely side with my mom on that one.
“Okay I get why you hate him, but why does he hate you?” I asked.
“Because that movie of his fell apart once your mother was no longer starring in it. Gordon claims we ruined him financially. And yeah he took a hit on the project but it wasn’t our fault.
Plus he’s doing just fine financially. He’s a bitter prick who can’t stand that he lost the girl and that stupid movie. ”
“He wanted Mom?” I asked.
“He could never have your mother.” Dad scoffed. “I’m not surprised the daughter is stirring up trouble too.”
“Dad, Grace didn’t do anything wrong. She wasn’t the one kissing Jack.” I explained the situation. “The studio wants us to let it ride. The press is still buzzing about it. We’ll clear it up eventually. No harm, no foul.”
“Still trouble,” he muttered. “You never should have hired her.”
“Dad, trust me, when you see what she’s done on screen, you’re going to see why I hired her. And to be fair, I had no idea who she was until recently.”
“See! She tricked you. She’s a plant.”
“Dad, no, she’s not. She didn’t want anyone to know who she was because she wants to make it on her own.”
He snorted again. “You mean she wants to slither onto a Blackwell set and bite you in the ass.”
“She’s not biting me in the ass,” I said.
“You need to be careful,” he warned. “Trust me on this. Everyone in Hollywood knows what kind of man Sterling is.”
“Maybe that’s why she doesn’t want to use his name,” I said. “You can’t blame her for what her father did.”
“Apples rarely fall far from any tree,” he muttered.
“And you think it’s fair for Sterling to blacklist me because I’m your son?”
He laughed. “As if he could. You’re a Blackwell. That is not the same as a Sterling.”
I shook my head. My father built an empire and he wasn’t afraid to brag now and then. “It’s fine, Dad. She isn’t him. She’s doing well. And when you see her on the screen, you’ll get it. You’ll be trying to recruit her for your next film.”
“Never going to happen,” he said.
I laughed. “I’m going back to sleep. I have a busy week ahead.”
“Get through this thing and never hire her again,” he said. “The fewer connections you have to them, the better.”
“Bye, Dad,” I said. “Tell Mom I said hello.”
I hung up and stared at the ceiling, the weight of it all crashing down like a ton of bricks. My father wasn’t a petty man. He didn’t hold grudges over nothing. If Gordon Sterling had gone after my mother, then the hatred was earned. I got it. I’d burn the world down for my family too.
But Grace wasn’t Gordon. She’d spent years running from his name, building something that was entirely her own. She didn’t even know the full story of what her father had done.
Neither did I, really.
Fuck. What a mess. Grace was Gordon Sterling’s daughter, and my father was ready to go to war over old grudges I barely understood.
The woman I’d spent the night with and I couldn’t stop thinking about was caught in the middle of a feud older than either of us. If Dad found out I was sleeping with her, he’d lose it. And Grace had no idea how deep this went. How feral my family could be when it came to protecting each other.
I rubbed my face, knowing I had to keep this quiet, keep us professional on set, but the knot in my gut told me it was already too late for that.
And honestly, I was already thinking about the end of the shoot. I wanted Grace back in my bed. My dad would lose his shit if I showed up to family dinner with a Sterling on my arm.