15. Sierra
SIERRA
“ X said Kaiden’s pants got a little roughed up on set yesterday,” Paisley explained. I could hear giggling in the background of the call. “He needs them patched before they shoot this afternoon.”
“Do we have any of that fabric left?” I asked.
“Yeah, I just found some on the shelf.”
“Okay, why don’t you go ahead and get a patch cut, and I’ll take a look when I get in.
I just pulled into the parking lot,” I said, grabbing my bag from the passenger seat as I tucked the phone between my ear and shoulder.
Finn had some errands to run before work, so he’d suggested we arrive separately, which meant I’d been spared another ride in the evil-mobile.
“Sounds good,” Paisley said. “See you in a bit.”
I hung up and hurried through the building to the costume shop.
Now that filming was in full swing, we’d transitioned from making the costumes into costume maintenance, which entailed alterations and adjustments, wardrobe supervision, and on-set coordination.
I spent most of my days on the sidelines of X’s sets, prepared to problem-solve any wardrobe malfunctions.
“Morning,” I called, walking into the shop to find Ro, Trin, and Paisley giggling over something at the ironing station. Carter shot me a sympathetic smile from behind the industrial sewing machine. What the hell was that about?
“What’s going on?” I said, immediately on edge. I didn’t have time to deal with any shenanigans. I narrowed my eyes as Ro all but skipped toward me.
Ro took my hand. “It’ll be fine,” she said. “Come with me.” She guided me into my office and closed the door. “First of all, I apologize in advance.”
“For what?” I asked, wary, setting my bag down on my desk. I really didn’t like this. I crossed my arms, leaning against the front of my desk.
“Just promise to keep an open mind.”
An uncomfortable shiver zipped up my spine. “If someone doesn’t tell me what’s going on, I’m going to scream.”
“Screaming is unnecessary,” she assured me. “Finn’s just been working on something to prepare you for your upcoming breakfast date.”
“So I don’t butcher that like the last interview?” I muttered.
“Well, yes,” Ro said, not unkindly. She offered me a soft smile. “Finn just figured you’d probably refuse if he suggested it, so he asked me to do the honors.”
“Oh boy.”
“It’s actually really thoughtful,” Ro said. “He was kind of sweet about the whole thing. I get why you like him. ”
“I don’t like him,” I said automatically, even though it wasn’t entirely true anymore.
How could I not like—at least a little—the guy who’d thrown himself into harm’s way to protect me from the crashing light on set the other day?
I couldn’t stop remembering the feeling of his arms wrapped around me as we hit the ground.
“No, you just have sex dreams about him,” Ro teased.
Sex dreams that had increased in number and intensity to an alarming degree since he’d cradled me against his chest so snugly.
Since I knew what it felt like to be held by him.
I shivered and flushed with heat simultaneously.
“Exactly,” I said, forcing the word out.
“Two totally different things. Anyway, what’s going on? ”
Ro handed me the papers she’d been holding.
“A script?” The title read: A brEAKFAST FOR TWO.
“This is an outline for your breakfast date,” Ro explained.
“He had the date scripted?” My lips curled back in horror.
Was he really that convinced I was going to screw this up?
I know I hadn’t exactly been selling this fake engagement all that well, but I was sure we could manage to sit across from each other in a café long enough for some hired tabloid goon to snap a photo without me ruining everything.
“His brother’s fiancée whipped it up,” Ro explained. “You know she works on End in Fire ? I wonder if she can introduce me to the guy who plays Cade. I just want to see if his abs are real. And possibly lick them. Anyway,” Ro sang, “You both need to be ready to rehearse in an hour.”
“Rehearse?” I laughed. “Absolutely not. I have costumes to fix.”
“And you have a very capable team to handle that for you,” Ro said .
A mixture of annoyance and some other confused feeling twisted up inside me. “I’m not going on pre-pretend dates with Finn.”
“The two of you dating is kind of what this whole fake engagement hinges on,” Ro said.
“Yes, well, I’m not rehearsing for them.” How awkward. Pretending to be engaged was one thing, but having to do a dry run of the date? This was getting ridiculous.
“We’ve all established what a bad liar you are,” Ro said. “Which is why you need the practice. We’re not aiming for Oscar-worthy here, but judging by what I’ve heard of that first interview Jillian did, things were a little awkward and stilted.”
“Because Finn was freaking me out with the Prince Charming act!” I insisted.
“Well, then you both need the practice,” she said. “To seem more natural together.”
I rubbed my temples. I really didn’t have time for this.
“C’mon,” Ro said. “You can do this! We’ll make the masses fall for you and Finn, get everyone talking about Every Day , and then we can stomp Trey’s war movie into the ground.”
I wanted that to happen. Very much. But this was never going to work.
“Don’t worry,” Ro said. “I’m going to be there the whole time you’re rehearsing, making sure you’re comfortable with everything, just like a good director should.”
I honestly didn’t know if having Ro there was going to make this experience better or worse. Having Finn there to watch me crash and burn without an audience already sounded mortifying enough. “Fine,” I sighed. “I’ll do the rehearsal. ”
“Great!” Ro said. “Now let’s run over your lines.”
The practice fake date, as Ro was now calling it, was set up on a tiny soundstage I must have walked past a thousand times since I’d started at Hart of Gold.
“Hey,” I said, walking into the space. Finn was already there, barking orders at two set dressers who’d decorated the space to look like Le Café du Soleil, the trendy little joint down the street where we planned to actually have our date.
Cast and crew frequented the place when they were sick of the coffee at craft services. And their French toast was to die for.
“Hey,” Finn said. “You ready?”
“Well, I was supposed to be fixing pants for X.”
He waved away a napkin the set dresser set down. “Paisley’s got that covered.”
“How do you know?” I said.
“Because I stopped by the costume shop first thing and told them they’d have to hold the fort down for a couple hours.”
He did ? “I don’t need you ordering my assistants around.” I was more than capable of delegating my own work.
“I wasn’t ordering anyone. I was checking to see if this could be accommodated this morning without turning everything upside down. As much as we need to do this, I also need this movie to be properly costumed.”
I crossed my arms, glancing down at the food the set dressers placed on the small bistro-style table between us. A wave of something warm and delicious hit me. “Is this real?” I asked, pointing down at the French toast on my plate.
“You were running late this morning,” he said, shrugging. “I figured you didn’t actually have time to eat breakfast.”
My stomach flip-flopped, though not just with hunger.
“Okay, are we ready to do this?” Ro called, walking in behind us along with the camera operator. Because apparently we needed to be able to watch the footage back to analyze later. I tried not to grimace at the thought of watching myself.
“Ground rules,” Ro called. “Remember, for this date, we want it to be all smiles and laughs and then turn a little flirty toward the end. Finn’s going to reach out and tuck a piece of your hair back behind your ear, and Sierra, that’ll be your cue to lean into the touch.”
My chest tightened uncomfortably.
“Places!” Ro said.
Dammit, this was really happening. I looked toward the exit sign gauging whether I could sprint fast enough out the door and back to my office where I could barricade myself inside.
“You won’t make it,” Finn said and my eyes snapped to his.
“What?”
He tilted his head toward the door. “I run faster than you and will catch you before you make it halfway.”
I stared at him for a beat hoping he couldn’t tell that I liked the idea of being chased and captured by him as if I was some sort of princess running from the evil prince. Hot damn, who knew I had a capture kink?
“Fine. ”
“Fine?”
I nodded. “Yep, let’s get this over with.”
I tried to push that fantasy out of my mind knowing full well that I’d be revisiting it later when I didn’t have a camera capturing my every expression for all to see.