Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Riley awoke the following morning still feeling blissful about the magical evening she’d had at Auntie Athena’s.
Harrison and Stryker had hung out for a while, and she’d met some new friends, too. Iris, Lana, and the other ladies who all made up the wife/girlfriend group of the Daddy Guard were so nice! Overall, it was just wonderful to finally have friends like her.
But the person she was thinking about the most was him.
Briggs.
She’d only seen him another minute or two as the night wore on. He’d come inside and told everyone goodbye, and they’d exchanged a few pleasantries, but that was it. Still, she just couldn’t get him off her mind.
Lying in bed, Riley replayed every moment she’d spent with Briggs. It didn’t take very long, so she kept repeating the memories.
Sitting up as a thought hit her, she grabbed her stuffed bear, sat it in front of her, and spoke to the plush toy.
“Auntie Athena invited me to go with her and the other Littles to the big playground today. If I went over there, I’d at least get to see Briggs for a minute.
” The white bear with a big red heart on its stomach just looked back at her.
“And my call time is early this morning. I only have one scene to film. I bet I can make it to Auntie’s in plenty of time! ”
Excited, she hopped out of bed, ran to her bathroom, and readied for the day. There wasn’t much to do, since the folks in the makeup trailer would take care of everything to get her ready for the scene.
She skipped breakfast, choosing just to get something from craft services on set. So, less than thirty minutes later, she was driving through Burbank on her way to the studio.
Houses, businesses, and apartment complexes passed by outside her window. It wasn’t an overly ritzy area. Nothing like Beverly Hills or even those giant mansions in the mountains.
Riley was doing okay for herself. It would be tone-deaf to complain!
But she wasn’t top-tier Hollywood yet. A lot of people didn’t realize that most actors, unless they’re the huge household names, aren’t just rolling in the cash.
In the business, one paid ten percent of their paycheck to their agent, then another ten to their talent manager, if they had one (Riley did not), and of course there were taxes.
When you factor in that the average mid-range actor made $84,000 a year, it wasn’t all glitz and glamour like many outside the business perceived it to be.
Riley was making more than that, though, and living her dream, so she wasn’t about to complain. But her house wasn’t anything spectacular. Nothing like an opulent palace. It was just a good, spacious home in the suburbs.
As she drove, she smiled at the mixture of trees. With the ocean on one side of L.A. and the mountains on the other, the greenery was a mixture of palm trees and evergreens and other trees that would look more at home in a Western movie than the beach.
Arriving at the studio, she showed her credentials to the guard at the gate, though there wasn’t any reason to because he instantly recognized her and waved her on.
The Taylor Swift song coming over her car’s speakers ended midway through, replaced by a beeping. The car’s screen told her it was Rita calling.
Oh what fun.
Riley rolled her eyes and accepted the call. “Hey, Rita. I’m due on set in just a minute. What’s up?”
“Are you in your own car?”
What a greeting. Rita wasn’t one for small talk.
“Yeah. Why?”
“I told you to use a driver.”
Riley sighed, rolled her eyes a second time, and then thought of explaining that a driver would cost way too much money. Instead, she said, “Well, I like my own car and my house is just a few miles away. It’s all good.”
She could hear the irritation in Rita’s voice when she spoke again, but at least she dropped the subject of the driver. “Hey, we have a big opportunity. Are you free tomorrow night?”
Instead of giving a direct answer, Riley asked a question of her own. “What’s up?”
“Big party. Lots of heavy-hitters. At the Polo Lounge.”
Riley scrunched her face as she thought it over. While she’d rather go to her new favorite place, Auntie Athena’s nursery, it was important to be seen around town. She wanted her career to take off; she just wasn’t so sure she wanted Rita along for the ride.
They were stuck together for now.
“I can make it.”
“Good. There’s more to it, but I’ll fill you in on the deets later.”
Riley tried not to laugh. Rita loved to use words like deets, even though it really didn’t save her all that much time from just saying details. But whatever.
“And, like I said, this is the Polo Lounge,” Rita continued. "So old Hollywood type glamor stuff. I want you wearing Zac Posen. I’ll send you over a few dresses. Just pick which one you want and my assistant will send the others back. Gotta run, babe.”
The line went mercifully dead.
It occurred to Riley that Rita was not only doing the job of an agent, but one of a publicist, too. Maybe that was part of the problem. Perhaps it would be best to tell Rita to focus only on securing auditions and parts, while Riley hired a dedicated publicist to take care of the rest.
She’d give it some more thought later. Right now, she needed to report on set, get to the makeup trailer, and maybe grab a little something to eat too.
The quicker she filmed her scenes, the quicker she’d be at Auntie Athena’s!
It was nearly two o’clock when Riley pulled up to the mansion.
Auntie had given her a code last night, and when she plugged it in the callbox’s keypad, the gate started to roll away.
But the place didn’t have many signs of life, beyond Briggs painting. He was on the other side of the front door today, and he’d made a lot of progress since last night.
Right now, he was using a spray gun, which explained how he was able to cover so much area so quickly.
“Hey!” she called as she approached on the walkway that split the front yard.
But he didn’t seem to hear her over the sprayer’s loud motor.
Not wanting to startle him—and not wanting to get paint in her hair or on her jeans and v-neck t-shirt—Riley hung back and waited, looking around at the grounds.
The pink, yellow, and white flowers planted on either side of the walkway were beautiful, and their scent was refreshing.
A big palm tree to her right in the yard offered a little bit of shade around its immediate vicinity, but it didn’t come close to reaching her.
So the sun continued to beat down. She knew the sun was the sun, no matter where you were.
But it sure seemed a lot brighter in California than it ever had in Arkansas.
She was thinking about home, not even noticing the loud hum of the motor had stopped, when she heard Briggs say, “Hey, you.”
Riley turned around, unable to suppress her giant grin as she drank in the sight of the tall, strong man.
His skin was sun-kissed. Even though he wore long sleeves to no doubt protect him from the harsh rays, his muscles were obvious beneath the fabric.
There was a little bit of paint in his dark hair, but not too much.
Damn. Even sweaty and in the middle of working, he was sexy.
Or maybe because of all that.
“Hi,” Riley managed to say, after a moment of forgetting to speak.
Did he notice? A faint smile was touching his lips. But that could have been about anything.
“I’m afraid Athena, Trevon, and the Littles are all gone. She took them on a field trip to some big indoor playground for cuties like you.”
Does he seriously think I’m cute? Riley wondered. Or is he just being polite?
“Figured I might be too late,” she admitted. “But I thought it was worth a shot. Things took a little longer on set than I expected.”
What she didn’t admit, however, was that she could have called Auntie Athena directly to see where she was. It would have been easy to get the location of the playground and just drive over there herself.
But this gave her a nice excuse to see Briggs again.
“I’m sorry you missed them. Do you want me to find out where they went?” Briggs asked.
No! Riley almost blurted out. But she managed to act a bit more discreet than that, instead shrugging and saying, “How long have they been gone?”
Briggs fished his phone out of his jeans and looked at the clock on the screen. “Almost three hours now.”
“Oh man. It’s okay. By the time I got there they’d probably be finishing up.”
The two stood there looking at one another for a few moments.
“Hey, I’m just stopping for lunch. It’ll take me a minute to wash up, but I was going to hit the closest In & Out and pick up a burger. Have you eaten?”
Riley tried hard not to blush.
You’re a grown woman! And a famous actress! Get ahold of yourself.
“No. I didn’t even get breakfast,” she responded, remembering how busy she’d gotten on set. She’d never visited craft services.
“Well, it’s nothing fancy. But if you want to tag along—”
“I’m in!” she said a bit too loud and enthusiastically.
Briggs grinned. “I better drive. I’d hate to get paint on your car seats.”
Before she could answer, he stepped back, took his long-sleeved shirt off, revealing the black t-shirt he wore beneath it.
For a moment, while he was shedding the top layer and before he could adjust the other one, his washboard abs were visible.
Riley licked her lips but then caught herself, hoping she wasn’t being too obvious in her lust.
But damn. Briggs was super-hot!
“Let me go wash up,” he said.
She nodded, unable to speak, her eyes open wide as she watched him trot up the walkway and disappear through the mansion’s front door.
“Lord have mercy,” she whispered as she began to fan herself with her hand. “Have mercy, please!”