Chapter 2
Chapter Two
“ W ould you stop hassling me and just play?” Blake Ryan, child star turned teen heartthrob turned Hollywood’s Hottest Leading Man, according to the magazines, bounced the basketball once, then passed it to his best friend, Marshall, with a little more force than he intended.
“Ouch. I strike a nerve?” Marshall spun the ball in his hand, then threw it back to Blake.
Marshall’s blond hair was already matted to his forehead, and sweat poured down the side of his angular face. Marshall had been number three on the Hottest Men list the year Blake hit number one. “All I said was it seems like you’re avoiding something. Or some one . Maybe both.”
“I’m not avoiding anything.” Blake dribbled the ball and edged to the right. “I’m getting mentally prepared for an important project with a little court time.”
“Give me a break.” Marshall shifted to the right to keep himself between Blake and the basket. “We wouldn’t be out here in hell’s furnace if you weren’t bent out of shape about something. I mean, your backyard is great, don’t get me wrong, but I’d rather be in the pool, not sweating on the court just as the sun starts to boil. So what’re we doing here? Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
Blake grimaced. He was trying not to think about it, which was exactly why he’d called Marshall over for a little one on one.
Damn the man for knowing him so well.
Time to change the subject. “How’d it go with Kellie last night?”
He lunged to the left, but Marshall was too quick and blocked him before he could edge closer to the basket.
“Nice try, man,” Marshall teased. “I’m not that easy. You can’t fake me.”
Marshall whipped his hand around to steal the ball.
Blake blocked with his shoulder, twisted around to the right, and took the shot. The ball swished through the net, then bounced off the court and rolled to a stop near the twelve-foot-high stone fence.
“You’re absolutely that easy.” Blake ran after it.
Marshall bent over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath while he waited. “Yeah, I really am. Still, last night was a bust. She had to go to the hospital.”
Blake grabbed the ball and carried it back to the court. “You get her tangled in that sex swing again?”
“It’s not a sex swing, you pervert, it’s a hammock, and no. Her sister went into labor. She wanted me to go to the hospital with her to see the baby.” His friend shuddered.
“How’d you wriggle out of that?” Blake asked.
They switched places so Marshall could be on offense.
“Told her I had to finish edits on the screenplay so you could have them this morning.” Marshall winked. “For the meeting.”
“That meeting was two weeks ago. I know because that’s when I signed my life away.” Blake tossed the ball to Marshall. “What edits?”
“Stop being such a drama queen. It takes a lot less time to do voice work than it does a location shoot. You don’t even have to leave town. Easy peasy.” Marshall dribbled and faked right, then left, looking for a hole. “I reworked the bar scene. The dialogue needed more snap.”
Blake kept pace with him, arms outstretched to block. “You gotta give that scene a rest, man. If you keep harping on the bromance it’ll turn our cool caper into a sappy rom-com or something. Besides, the fake-out scene that happens before the con needs the most work.”
“Minor detail,” Marshall said. “The con is brilliant. That’s what everybody will remember.”
Marshall dashed right, spun around, and shot. The ball brushed Blakes’s fingertips and veered off past the net to bounce down his driveway.
“Shit,” Marshall muttered.
They both took off after it because if someone didn’t stop the ball, it would roll all the way down to the gate. His house was on a hill, and the run would be more of a workout than either of them wanted right now, especially in this heat.
A few feet down the drive, Marshall stopped running, leaving Blake to retrieve the ball on his own. By the time he managed to get the ball and jog back, Marshall had sprawled on one of the lounge chairs by the pool.
“You realize if you quit now you can’t win the fifty bucks I promised,” Blake told him. “You have to actually play to win.”
“I didn’t have a shot anyway. You’re already up fifteen points.” Marshall squinted at him. “Besides, don’t you have to get going? The read-through is in, what, thirty minutes?”
Blake pulled a couple of bottles of water out of the mini-fridge in the outdoor kitchen and checked the time. “Two hours. Man, I’m not looking forward to this. The script doesn’t feel tight. I bet you anything they aren’t finished. ”
His friend gave him a suspicious look and took the offered bottle. “You get to be a cartoon. What’s not to like?”
For one thing, he’d never done voice work before and wasn’t exactly sure how hard it would be to slip into the role when he wasn’t acting it out, and for another, the idea of having to record a song was intimidating, but he wasn’t about to admit that to Marshall. The teasing would be relentless.
He gave a nothing-to-see-here shrug. “It’s in the way. I have better things to do.”
Marshall narrowed his eyes. “No, you don’t. You literally got nothing better to do, because if you don’t finish playing the prince in Scorched , we don’t get to start Conned , and we’ve given blood, sweat, and most of our twenties to get that project off the ground.”
“I know.” Blake stared at the pool that took up a large part of his backyard.
The pool was a gift from his mother for his twenty-first birthday. She’d duplicated the one in his tenth movie, Jake’s Day Off , down to the hot tub and simulated lagoon waterfall. He’d hosted one hell of a premiere party around that pool.
He and Marshall had come up with the idea for Conned that night. They’d known they had a hit on their hands before they’d even written it.
But that was almost a decade ago, and the movie still hadn’t been made. They’d both put a good portion of their own money on the line, but it hadn’t been enough. They needed a backer if the script were ever going to see the light of day.
So when the studio offered him a deal, it had felt like serendipity and winning the lottery all rolled into one. Their first, second, and third leading man choices for a new animated feature had all flamed out for various reasons, and now they were two weeks from kickoff with nobody even close to being on the hook to play Prince Jesse .
It was a simple deal. If he did the voice work, they’d provide the rest of the funding—twenty-five million dollars—and studio backing for Conned . That meant the marketing might of one of Hollywood’s biggest studios would be behind his directorial debut. It had been an easy yes, even if it did feel like a waste of time to play with cartoons.
“It’s just annoying. Scorched feels cheesy to me. Kind of like how ours was when we started. I just don’t think it’s finished yet, which isn’t a good sign.”
“Hey, ours ain’t cheesy, it’s a future classic.” Marshall peered at Blake over his sunglasses. “We’re going to make something modern and fun. It’ll be a thriller caper with a feel-good ending and franchise potential, and we need that deal you signed to do it. We won’t get the funding if you don’t play your part. You’re not thinking of backing out, are you?”
He wanted to say yes.
He wanted to race right past this stupid animated movie and get on with what he increasingly felt was his life’s calling.
“I didn’t spend my entire childhood on movie sets to be a cartoon. I want to tell a really great story, not ham it up in a studio. I don’t have time to deal with a bunch of people who don’t know the first thing about the business.”
“I thought you said they got Gina Paige to voice the dragon?” Marshall asked. “She’s won like, what, five Tonys? Can’t say she’s inexperienced.”
“Not her. Princess Jewel. Piper Bellamy.”
Marshall snorted. “Can’t say she’s inexperienced either. That girl can sing . She can carry your lame ass through all the songs. Can’t believe you get to meet her and I don’t.”
That stung, mostly because he’d been thinking the exact same thing himself ever since he’d been coerced into taking on the role in order to secure the funding for their own movie. “I can sing.”
He meant to sound confident, but it came out defensive. He could sing, but it wasn’t something he’d ever trained for or practiced, a fact he was now regretting. His mother always wanted him to take singing lessons, but he’d thought they would be a waste of time. He could sing well enough to kill it at karaoke, but he was an actor and soon-to-be-director, not a singer.
“Oh sure, you have some raw natural talent but you’re nothing compared to her . She’ll run circles around you.”
Blake flipped him off.
“Aww,” Marshall drawled in a baby voice, “is it going to be difficult for you, Mr. I Won an Oscar When I Was Ten Years Old? Are we feeling intimidated because we’re finally going to be the amateur in the room?”
“Shut up.”
Marshall, who could always tell when he got to Blake, grinned. “Gee, is someone feeling a little sensitive? Come on, it’ll do you good to have to face something you’re not already an expert at. You’ll get to feel what the rest of us feel every time you walk on set for a change.”
“I’m not worried about the singing, okay? It’s not a big deal.”
“Well, I know you’re not worried about the acting, so if it’s really not the singing, and it’s not the acting, then what…oh. Oh! ” Marshall’s grin widened. “I got it. It’s not a what, it’s a who . It’s a full table read, right? That means Rachel the Leech will be there today.”
Blake closed his eyes and shuddered. “Don’t remind me.”
Marshall hooted a laugh. “Blake and Rachel, together again. Come on, it’s animated. It’s not like you have to show up at the same time as her in the studio.”
“Yeah, but first I have to get through today.” Every time he thought of Rachel Morris, his pulse raced, and not in a good way. More like in a buried-alive sort of way. “I can’t believe they cast her. Seriously, what are the odds?”
“Come on, man, she wasn’t that bad.” The broad grin on Marshall’s face said he knew exactly how bad it really was, and he was delighted about it.
Blake stared at him. “You do remember the day she sent five hundred and thirty-two text messages because I went to a screening with my mother instead of that wrap party, right? And the way she wormed her way into that dance scene? Oh, and the time she reamed whats-her-name”—he snapped his fingers twice, wracking his brain for the name—“Winslow…remember, the short redhead? Rachel cornered her in the makeup trailer and ripped into her about flirting with me. She couldn’t even say her lines after that. It delayed the shoot three whole days.”
Marshall held up his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, sure, Rachel’s a little high maintenance and a bit psycho, but she’s definitely doable. I get why they picked her. She has a great voice, and she’s a pretty good actress, too. So what if she was a little clingy. It’s been years, I’m sure she’s over you by now.”
“She makes me claustrophobic.” He’d been seventeen when Rachel Morris had planted a kiss on him. She was two years older and a lot more mature, and at first, he’d been very interested in her.
She had fascinating lips that had mesmerized and enticed from across the room. He’d fantasized about those lips for weeks until he’d finally experienced them firsthand.
After the kiss, she’d attached herself to him like superglue, and he’d realized that some things were much better when experienced from a distance—and that his mother had been right. Work relationships could be a bad, bad, bad thing.
“You know, she would probably work for the girlfriend in Conned. Want to ask her while you’re there today?” Marshall’s eyes flashed with barely contained amusement.
“You can be a real ass sometimes, you know that?”
“I do. It’s a God-given gift.” His friend’s shit-eating grin was proud and unashamed .
“If you were really a good friend you wouldn’t sound quite so gleeful.”
“I’m not just a good friend, I’m your best friend.” Marshall bared his teeth. “I have to put up with all your shit and help you hide the bodies, and in exchange, I get to enjoy your suffering. It’s in the contract.”
“I don’t remember signing anything.”
“It’s verbal and completely binding.” Marshall stood and pulled off his shirt. “Forget about Rachel. You get to record in your own clothes in an air-conditioned studio next to a Bellamy Babe. What’s so bad about that?”
“Your fixation on the AC is not helping.”
“I had a total crush on her in high school, remember? She was smokin’ hot. That dark hair and those eyes…damn. I’m a sucker deep brown puppy dog eyes.” Marshall tossed his shirt on the lounge chair, then sat down to pry off his shoes and socks.
“It’s an animated movie, it doesn’t matter what she looks like.” Blake drained the rest of the water in his bottle and tossed it into the trash. “The point is she’s never done anything like this before. We’ll spend more time teaching her how to act than actually recording. It’ll slow the whole project down, which means ours will be stuck in development hell.”
Marshall snapped his fingers. “Hey. You can introduce me to her. Take me with you to the reading.”
“Hell no.”
“Come on.” Marshall kicked his shoes out of the way.
“It’s a closed set. Besides, the last thing we need is you trying to charm the room. You’ll disrupt everything and then we won’t get the reading done.”
“Me, disruptive?” Marshall put a hand on his chest and blinked with wide-eyed, complete bullshit innocence. “Never.”
“Be serious, man. The faster this movie gets done, the faster we get the green light on Conned .” Blake drained the bottle of water and stood up. “Enjoy your swim. I have to get cleaned up.”
“Yeah, well, be sure to practice your songs in there,” Marshall called out.
“You know it creeps me out that you still listen to me singing in the shower,” Blake shouted over his shoulder.
He lived only ten miles from Day Dreams Studios headquarters, a sprawling campus in Glendale where the core animation work was done, which meant it took him almost an hour to get there in the cursed LA traffic.
The read-through was being held in Building Two, which contained several large studio spaces for recording motion, voice-overs, and action sequences, along with three theaters and several floors filled with offices and editing suites.
Five ivy-covered buildings surrounded a central courtyard that featured a large three-tiered fountain, a basketball court, park benches, and lush, carefully tended gardens. Artists had crafted tributes to all the legendary Day Dreams animated characters out of the greenery to greet visitors, and small sculptures waited among the vegetation to surprise and delight.
It felt like walking into a theme park, without the tourists.
Once he was past security inside Building Two, he followed the signs to a large studio space with black walls and a black ceiling with tracks running across it in a grid pattern. The floor in the center of the room was painted black, and along the edges ran with the type of exit indicator lights used on airplanes.
Tables formed a square big enough to serve dinner at Hogwarts on the black portion of the floor with chairs that indicated at least ten people per side. Each place featured a name tag, a copy of the script, a box of pens, bottles of water, and a bowl of M she created an experience.
She put her hand on Blake’s shoulder to steady herself while she climbed onto a chair. “Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Scorched ! Please take your seats. Now, please. We have a lot to sort out and we’re already a year behind. Sit, sit, sit.”
Rachel patted Blake’s back and winked at him. “We’ll continue our little chat later.”
Some moved to their seats at the table, while a whole group dressed in workout clothes filed in from the hallway to take the chairs along the walls.
Tamar stepped from the chair onto the table, then released his shoulder. “Thank you for the assist, Mr. Ryan. You can take a seat.”
“My pleasure.” He sat and looked around the room. At some point, it had filled with people, most of whom he didn’t recognize. He’d never seen so many at a simple table read before. He hadn’t realized there were that many speaking roles.
Tamar cleared her throat. “Okay, quiet, please. Quiet. Yes, even you, Paul.”
It took a few seconds for the message to travel through the room and for people to give her their attention. She waited with the air of someone who knew she would be obeyed.
Once quiet settled, she smiled. “Thank you. As you can see, we’re a little crowded this morning so keep the chatter to a minimum. I want to make a few personal remarks and then we’ll get to it. For those who haven’t figured it out or who are trying to forget, I am Tamar Shurer, and I am your director.”
The audience applauded, and a few whistles permeated the air.
Tamar waved the applause away. “Let’s see if you still like me at the wrap party, shall we?”
A smattering of giggles filled the room.
Tamar pointed to a woman on the far side of the room. “The lovely lady with the notebooks is the woman who wrote this magnificent tale. When Diane showed me this script five years ago, I knew it was something special and I jumped at the chance to be a part of it. Unfortunately, we hit several speed bumps along the way. Timing was bad, economy was bad, the cast was bad…no, I’m kidding on that part. Mostly.”
The audience groaned, and chatter broke out here and there as stories were exchanged.
Blake knew they’d had trouble casting his role, but he wondered what else they’d had issues with. He glanced at the empty chair next to him. Why wasn’t Piper Bellamy here? Missing the table read would leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. He wasn’t the only one who’d noticed her absence, either. He saw several people keep checking it as if she would magically appear.
“Finally, we are here,” Tamar said. “We have the best people, the right people, and we will tell a great story. Enough with the pep talk. Now for the bad news. It’s August, and the promos have already gone out for a Christmas release. That leaves us three months and change to get the voices and final animation in place.”
Groans traveled around the room as that news sank in.
“I thought it was launching next summer,” a high-pitched voice asked from somewhere to the left .
“I heard next Christmas,” a man on the right said.
Tamar shook her head. “No. This project is already over budget, and next year’s release is already scheduled. It goes now, or not at all. Much work has already been done, so it’s not impossible. I wouldn’t be here if it was. Paul will be pushing the schedule so be sure to check in with him before you go anywhere.”
“Better yet, don’t go anywhere,” Paul said. “There’s cots in the storeroom if you want to move in. It’s only the next three months of your life. No big deal.”
Nervous laughter skittered around the room. Most probably thought he was kidding, but Blake had heard the rumors about Paul’s work ethic. He was ruthless when it came to deadlines and an absolute perfectionist when it came to the final product.
“Right. So let’s get to it.” Tamar clapped her hands together once to get attention. “To make sure we have a firm foundation, we will go around the table. Introduce yourself, your character, and read the paragraph on page one.”
Tamar eyed her chair dubiously. Apparently, it was easier to get up on the table than to get back down.
Blake stood and held out a hand to help her. “Madam Director, allow me.”
“Thank you.” Tamar took his hand. “And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why Blake Ryan is our prince.”
“Piper!” Paul exclaimed.
Everyone turned to see Piper Bellamy standing just inside the doorway. She didn’t look anything like what he’d expected. She was tiny to start with, barely taller than Tamar. He had vague memories of her in concert videos and social media. On stage, she’d seemed taller, somehow. She was drama and edge, with studs on her clothes and attitude. She brought the rock to her sisters’ pop, but he was more of a Rat Pack blues fan, so that was all he really knew about her .
Today, she looked like a woman running late for a yoga session, with her hair up in a simple ponytail and downplayed makeup. For the first time, he could see what Marshall found so attractive about her. She was effortlessly cool and surprisingly feminine in basic black.
He’d always had a weakness for girl-next-door types, probably because they were so hard to find in Los Angeles, but it didn’t change the fact that waltzing through the door over thirty minutes late was completely unprofessional.
There were a lot of divas in Hollywood who thought it was okay to waste people’s time. He’d never liked those people much, no matter how great they looked in yoga pants.
“My dear girl, I hope everything is all right.” Tamar hurried to Piper with her arms outstretched. “Was there an accident? I knew something must be wrong, you’re never late.”
Chatter broke out around the room as everyone lost interest in the drama of a late arrival and went back to entertaining themselves.
Piper’s cheeks were red, and she was breathing a little fast, like she’d been running. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m so sorry I’m late, Tamar. I had a little family drama this morning but everything’s fine.”
Paul followed Tamar, his shirt flapping in the breeze in his rush to get to their late-arriving star. “We’re just getting started. Do you need anything?”
Someone let out a long, drawn-out sigh. Blake would bet anything it was Rachel. Like him, she usually showed up early and had even less tolerance than he did for those she thought unprofessional.
“No, thanks,” Piper said in a firm tone. “I’m interrupting. Please, continue.”
Tamar gestured for Piper to sit and addressed the room. “As I was saying, it’s time for introductions. Piper, you’re up first. ”
Piper dropped her bag next to the chair and sat down.
Blake stifled his irritation. She might be late but she was here now and it was time to get things moving. He leaned toward his new costar and whispered, “Name, character, and read the paragraph on page one.”
“Right. Thanks.” Piper nodded and flipped the script in front of her to the first page. “I’m Piper Bellamy, also known as Princess Jewel of Tiranell. My family has a magic map that leads to a stone rumored to provide protection to whoever owns it. The evil sorcerer Malignon has kidnapped my sister, Elaine, to force me into using the map to find the stone, which I will exchange for my sister’s life. I’ll do anything to save my sister. I’m loyal and fiercely determined, but my map is difficult to read, and I have no idea how to defeat the dragon who guards the stone.”
She turned to Blake. “And you are?”
He smiled at her, then addressed the room. “I’m Blake Ryan, but feel free to call me Jesse. My kingdom of Carenth has suffered from attacks by strange flying beasts who have been eating all of our crops and killing our animals. I’m also on a quest to locate the protection stone. I have no idea where the dragon hides, or what I’ll have to do to get the stone, but I do have a handy talking compass that always points true to help me out.”
His paragraph ended there, but he felt like it wasn’t finished so he ad-libbed a little bit. “I’ll do whatever it takes to save my family and my kingdom, and I can’t wait to slay the evil beast.”
“Hey, if anything, it’ll be me doing the slaying, you insignificant royal worm of a man,” Gina Paige, the woman cast to play the dragon, said in her thick British accent.
She sat opposite him and looked like a queen on her throne as she surveyed the room.
Everyone laughed.
The introductions moved from him to Jeremy Graham, the evil sorcerer, to Rachel Morris, the kidnapped sister, Elaine, and on around the room.
It took over an hour, after which they launched right into the actual read.
The first few minutes of the movie focused on setting up the relationship between the sisters. Rachel, who’d been doing table reads since she was a teenager, threw herself into her character so well that it might have been the actual voice-over.
Piper sounded like she was reciting a dissertation out loud. There was no personality behind her words, no warmth or heart.
Didn’t she know that she was supposed to be getting a feel for the character?
She glanced at him as if sensing his scrutiny. He realized he was frowning at her and looked away. If this was her idea of a performance, they were in serious trouble. She had no feel for the character, no acting skill at all.
There was no way this movie was going to be finished on time.
He slumped into his chair and stared at the script without really seeing it. This had to be the most painful table read he’d ever experienced, and that included the one when he was eight years old and had been forced to listen to adults debate the many different ways to say the word endless.
When Piper reached the last line before the break where a song would be inserted, the atmosphere around him changed. Her voice shifted to something suddenly real.
“Elaine.” Piper drew out the name as she stood up. She shoved her chair out of the way like the frustrated young woman she was supposed to be playing, completely in character. “I don’t want to stay here forever. I want to see the world!”
Blake jerked his head up, startled.
All the longing for adventure was in Piper’s voice and on her face as she reached out to her sister. Suddenly, he could feel the castle walls closing in around them, and he saw Princess Jewel, trapped by a society that demanded she fill a role she wasn’t ready for while denying her everything she truly wanted.
The group sitting along the wall quickly moved into positions around the room, their faces bright with anticipation.
Music started up from speakers in the corners.
Piper sang, “I want adventure and danger and daring. I want heroes and monsters galore. I want to live before I reach twenty. It’s not fair that I’m trapped behind these doors!”
Piper’s voice was filled with all the emotion she’d left out of her spoken dialogue. When she sang, she became that frustrated young woman she was supposed to be.
Blake watched her, stunned, as she danced toward Rachel, took her hands, then whirled away toward a group of background singers. Their voices filled the room as they tried to convince Princess Jewel that duty and family were more important than adventure and excitement.
“Excellent!” Tamar hummed under her breath and tapped her foot.
To Blake’s surprise, it was.
They’d obviously rehearsed this many times. It was pitch-perfect and full of energy, and he couldn’t help but clap along to the beat.
Rachel rushed around the room to intercept Piper. “They can’t make us stay, they can’t turn us away. Together we’ll take on the world!”
Her voice soared through the room. There was a reason Rachel’s career had started on Broadway. She didn’t need microphones to make herself heard, which was why she usually sang solo. Other voices disappeared when Rachel Morris belted out a song.
Piper and Rachel launched into the chorus, but instead of disappearing, Piper’s voice rose into a harmony that wrapped around Rachel’s contralto and merged until the two formed one uplifted sound that brought the room to their feet.
When the song finished, everyone cheered like they were at opening night. It was a feel-good, take-on-the-world kind of song, and they’d nailed it.
If they could get her to act half as well as she could sing, maybe this movie would not only get done on time, it would be a hit.