Chapter 15
By the time they broke for lunch, Jordan texted an apology and left the set. Kayla couldn't blame him: it was cold enough under the lights, and he had a dog to think about. She texted back to say she hoped she'd see him later, just before Cyril called her over.
Murder, her owl offered as her stomach clenched and her shoulders stiffened.
I'll get back to you on that, she promised. But the director, not quite meeting her eyes, muttered, "Sorry, I've behaved poorly."
After a moment of wondering if that was it, Kayla accepted the apology as graciously as she could. Cyril relaxed a bit, and Kayla went to grab a bite to eat, murmuring, I wonder if the studio called and read him the riot act last night, to her owl.
The owl went off on a series of outraged, threatening hoots and wing-spreads, making itself large and alarming in her mind, then ended with the sense of a query, as if asking whether that qualified as a 'riot act'.
It was hard to keep from grinning, or speaking out loud.
That's exactly what reading the riot act sounds like, yep.
The owl fluffed its feathers and settled, feeling smug. He deserved it. Or murder.
Let's have lunch instead of murder.
FOOD! Crunchy mice? her owl asked hopefully.
…how about some crunchy potato chips instead?
A resigned sigh met the suggestion. Clearly potato chips just weren't the same as a nice crunchy mouse. Which was hard to argue with, if Kayla thought about it.
Less fun to chase, too, her owl said sadly. Potato chips don't skitter.
They do if you spill them, Kayla said absently. But tell you what, on my next day off we'll go for a nice long hunt.
With our mate?
Maybe, but he probably won't want any mice.
Humans, her owl said with profound disappointment.
Kayla giggled, got a few potato chips, and went back to work for the rest of the day feeling light and cheerful.
Milo was a great scene partner, though Kayla found herself comparing his square-jawed beauty to Jordan's longer, more-slender face, and finding the actor to come up wanting.
She'd never wanted to wrap up filming early before, but the fact that she was only in Virtue for a couple of weeks made her want to hurry through work so she could spend the evening hours with Jordan.
She'd told him she was sure he'd work around it somehow, but they'd both been being silly, pretending they were the characters in her romantic comedy.
The truth was, working around a career like hers was difficult.
She had no intention of staying in Virtue, no matter how vibrant her hometown had become.
But that was a problem for later, Kayla told herself fiercely.
Right now she wanted to enjoy the moment, and when it came time to tell Jordan about fate… well, she'd see what happened then.
It'll work out, her owl said airily. Fate always does.
"I know, but…"
"Hm? Did you say something?" Milo glanced over at her, flawlessly handsome under the bright lights, and yet all Kayla could think was that she'd rather be with Jordan.
"Nope, nothing important," she assured her costar, but her thoughts drifted right back to the gorgeous ball player she'd recognized as her mate.
I know fate means it'll work out, she said to her owl, or at least, I know fate means it's supposed to work out, but…
I think the reality of making it work is a lot harder than the fairy-tale ease that stories about fated mates always seem to make it out to be.
Her mind filled with a feathery shrug. It'll work out.
There was clearly no point in discussing her worries with the owl.
And it wasn't even that Kayla disbelieved the big bird: she just didn't see how it would work out.
Even telling Jordan about fated mates didn't seem like the thing that would magically make it all happen smoothly.
Life had more hiccups and bumps than that.
But that didn't matter for now, she promised herself.
They had a couple of weeks ahead of them, even if their time together would be squeezed in around her job.
And if the moment was right, she would tell him about fate, even though it seemed like a kind of pressure she didn't want to bring to the beginnings of a new relationship.
It was enough that she was sure about him.
Jordan could come to his own conclusions in his own time.
The owl rolled its huge golden eyes, but didn't actually say anything.
Kayla, amused and grateful, made it through the last scenes for the day and checked the schedule for the morning.
They only had half a day left of outdoors scenes, which was good, because the real snow was melting under the stage lights, and the real market needed to open just a few hours after they finished filming.
It was late now, but there were both set dressers and actual sellers scurrying around the market, completing the setup for the last scenes tomorrow, which took place inside the market itself.
"You know, the problem with these movies is I always look at the small town side of them and think, 'that seems nicer than the rat race,'" Milo said with a chuckle. "Like, I think my Jeremy should stay with your Rachel and they can live happily ever after in her family's B&B."
"You're not from a small town, are you," Kayla said wryly.
"No, I grew up in Phoenix."
Kayla laughed. "I can't believe you're not complaining about the cold! And trust me, you realize the disadvantage to growing up in a small town when everybody knows everything about your business."
"No, man, I love the snow! I never got any, growing up! And yeah, I guess so, but I don't know, having everybody know your name seems kind of great to me."
"Yeah? You'd give up your burgeoning Hollywood career to come live here with a nice local girl?"
"Uh…" Milo's gaze danced guiltily over the pretty little market centered in the massive town square. "…well…"
"That's what I thought," Kayla said with a smile.
"It's wonderful for the little while that we're filming, but reality would set in pretty quick.
Trust me, that's why I got out of—" She realized Milo might not yet know she was from Virtue, and decided to keep it that way: "—out of my own small town. "
"Yeah, I see your point. All right, I'll see you in the morning.
G'night, Kayla." Milo waved and went off, scuffing his feet through the snow, and Kayla checked the time again.
It was nearly ten p.m., too late to reasonably go over and visit Jordan.
With a sigh, she texted a see you tomorrow?
to him, and a moment later got back a blurry screenshot of one of her own films.
I see you tonight, the accompanying text said, but it's not the same. See you tomorrow.
Jordan was going to know her movies better than Kayla herself did.
Charmed by the thought, she headed for bed happily, and wasn't surprised when Jordan was on set again in the morning, this time with blueberry muffins.
"Just for the record, I didn't have two gallons of blueberries lying around," he whispered to her as the crew crowded around to take his baked offerings. "I had to buy them."
"I'll repay you for your efforts," she murmured back. "Possibly by protecting you from the catering unit."
Jordan's eyes widened in alarm and he glanced around, looking for those he had offended. "Shoot. Is this a faux pas? Am I not supposed to bring food to set?"
Kayla wrinkled her nose apologetically. "You're really not."
"Shhhhhoot. I'll go apologize to the caterer. What's her name?"
"Sylvia. She's a very nice woman, we've worked together on a lot of sets, and she didn't say anything to me yesterday so she's probably not bent out of shape."
Jordan was shaking his head. "No, I mean, I'm glad if she's not, but this is my bad and I definitely need to apologize. And I won't do it again."
"You're a pretty decent guy, aren't you?" Kayla said with a smile. "The catering trailer is over there. I can't decide if you should go bearing muffins of apology or not."
"I'll go, pretending I'm not carrying a basket of muffins," Jordan said wryly. "Back in a minute, unless she murders me."
Kayla's owl perked up as Jordan hurried off. Murder?
I hope not! No murdering the fated mate!
Oh, her owl said. Right.
Kayla chuckled and went into the market with Milo to film a scene where she was charmed by its rustic home-towny-ness, and he was tired and impatient of it all.
They had a brief, awkward encounter with Anderson, who was enjoying himself with the townsfolk until he saw Kayla.
The two men had a short, uncomfortable face-off while Kayla's character got increasingly fed up with both of them, and ended with telling Milo to go home and trying to reach out to Anderson, who wasn't ready to hear it.
She was left alone in the market, bereft and unexpectedly weary from the little confrontation, but her young niece—Maria, the girl who'd accidentally chopped Kayla's real hair off—appeared to comfort her, and in-scene, Kayla brightened, allowing herself to enjoy the market after all.
To her surprise, once Cyril called cut, there was a smattering of applause from the extras.
Except a lot of them weren't extras in the usual sense: they were the people actually running the stalls, and very few of them had ever been this up close to a movie before.
"You're really good!" someone called, and Kayla felt herself blushing.