by Kasie West
“It’s our family timeline,” Donavan said as I joined him on the couch.
“You two were adorable kids.”
“Are you saying we aren’t adorable anymore?” He smiled over at me and then plunked his empty plate onto the coffee table, where both of his feet now rested as well. The home version of Donavan was very relaxed. It was nice.
“I’m offended too,” Kennedy said, sitting on the other side of Donavan.
“You’re both super adorable.” I wedged myself into the corner of the couch and pulled my legs up under me. “You were just cuter two to ten years ago.”
“Didn’t I tell you she was rude?” Donavan said to Kennedy.
“No,” Kennedy said. “You actually told me she was nicer than you expected her to be.”
I gasped and backhanded Donavan across the chest.
He grabbed at his chest as if I’d hurt him.
“You should take that as a compliment,” Kennedy said. “Most people don’t get that glowing of a review.”
“So a critic of people too?” I settled more into the corner, sliding my legs out from under me so they now took up the space between me and Donavan.
He shook his head. “No ganging up on me, you two.”
“You ready for awesomeness?” Kennedy asked.
“Are we starting right with Lacey’s episodes or the beginning of the season?” Donavan asked.
“Right with Lacey’s, of course,” Kennedy said in a duh voice.
“Of course,” I agreed with a wink at him.
His brows shot down with that response for some reason. “Okay, push play.”
The theme song for the show sang out.
Donavan reached over and rested his hand on my ankle. I pretended not to feel it, even though every nerve up my leg sung. The episode started, and I kept my eyes glued to the television. Instead of moving his hand back to his lap, he kept it there.
When I came on the screen, I could feel both Donavan’s and Kennedy’s eyes shift between the television and me a couple of times, obviously curious about how I’d react. Or maybe they were just comparing the on-screen version of me to the real one. I was just trying to get through this. I was trying to sit here long enough to convince the room I was fine so that I could leave without an inquisition. Donavan’s hand, still on my ankle, wasn’t helping.
I heard a distant buzzing from the other room and I realized, with great relief, that it was my phone. “My phone is ringing,” I said, moving my feet to the floor. “It’s probably my dad.”
“Do you want me to pause it?” Kennedy asked.
“No, that’s okay. I’ve seen it before.” I gave her a smirk, and she laughed.
By the time I reached it, my phone was still again. With my phone now charged, I saw three missed calls from my dad.
I took a deep breath and called my dad back.
“Where are you?” was how he answered.
“At a friend’s.”
“Lacey, this is information you need to tell me before it happens.”
“I’m sorry, it was a last-minute decision. I’ll come home now.”
“Good.”
We hung up, and I leaned against the counter for a moment, letting myself just breathe. Then I unplugged my phone from the charger and turned. Donavan stood in the passage between the kitchen and living room.
I jumped, my hand flying to my chest. Then I laughed. “You scared me.”
“Why are you doing that?”
“Doing what?” I asked.
He took a few steps into the kitchen. “Why are you putting on an ‘everything is fine’ face?”
I kind of hated that he knew I was doing this. I thought I was a better actress than that. “Because everything is fine. I’m feeling better. I need to go.” I held up my phone. “That was my dad.” I took off the hoodie I wore, walked it to Donavan, then poked my head into the living room. “I have to go, Kennedy! It was nice to meet you.”
She jumped up and ran into the kitchen. “It was so nice to meet you too! You need to come back and finish watching this with us. Please.”
I nodded once. “I will.”
She gave me a quick hug, then ran back into the living room.
Donavan smiled a little. “You made her life.”
“She made mine.” I walked back through his house and to the front door, where I turned around, feeling him behind me. “You don’t have to walk me out.”
“Lacey, what happened? What did I do?”
“Nothing. I just don’t want you to feel some sort of obligation toward me.”
“Obligation?”
“Can we just talk tomorrow? I’m so tired.” The smile I had been doing such a good job of keeping on my face slid off, and with it, my shoulders slumped.
“Yes, we can,” he said, and opened the door for me. Despite what I had said, he walked me out. When I saw my car, sitting in his driveway, I remembered he had driven it here.
“Your car,” I said. “Is it at school? I can take you to go get it. Yes, let me do that.”
“It’s okay. My mom can drop me off at school tomorrow on her way to work. I’ll get it then.”
“Okay . . . are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Okay.” I took several steps toward my car when Donavan grabbed my hand and gave it a gentle tug, turning me back toward him.
“Things will look better in the morning.”
I nodded.
He kissed my forehead, again. Even though I wanted to melt into the comfort of it, I was beginning to think that was his pity move. He felt sorry for me. It was the same thing he’d done earlier. And after, I was the one who’d kissed him. Then he’d apologized for it. I turned back toward my car and took several more steps before irritation took over. I turned around. “I don’t need your pity,” I said. There. That made me feel better, getting that out of my head.
“My . . . what?” he asked, eyes narrowing.
“You said you don’t date actresses.”
“I don’t.”
“But you’re fine kissing them?”
“No, I mean, yes. Not them, you. I’m fine kissing you.” He raked his hand through his hair as if he didn’t mean what he said at all. As if he was frustrated with himself.
“You don’t need to kiss me because you feel sorry for me,” I said.
“You think I just go around kissing girls I feel sorry for?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“Good, because girls don’t like that. Me included.”
“I don’t feel sorry for you.”
I groaned at the sky. “Of course you do.”
He closed the space that I’d created between us, took my face in his hands, and kissed me. My breath seemed to be sucked from my body, and my lips stung. I shouldn’t have, but I answered back, grabbing on to his shoulders and pressing myself against him. Why did this have to feel so good? I pushed him away, panting for breath.
He lowered his voice. “Lacey, listen, I feel bad about what’s happening to you, but this is definitely not pity.”
“Isn’t it? Because that’s what it feels like. I feel like some problem you’re trying to solve.”
His jaw tightened. “I’m not an actor. I don’t kiss people unless I mean it.”
I gasped. “Well, at least when I kiss people for real, I don’t pretend like it meant nothing.”
He looked up as though trying to piece together the meaning of those words. I was about to turn and walk away when he said, “My sister? Is this about what I said to my sister?”
“No . . . maybe.”
“My sister is your biggest fan. She’d mean well, but she’d post it all over online if her brother was dating Lacey Barnes. I didn’t think you needed that complication right now. And besides, I didn’t hear you rush to tell her there was something between us either.”
“I was about to.”
He went still. “You were?”
All the anger and ir
ritation I felt seemed to seep out of my body. I leaned into him, putting my forehead against his chest. His hands moved up and down my back. “I’m sorry,” I said.
“For what?”
“You’re right. I’m not okay. I’m a mess right now. Maybe it isn’t a good time to start . . . whatever this is. There’s too much negativity.”
He nodded. “I understand. I don’t want to be another complication in your life right now.”
“You aren’t. You won’t be. I just need to sort everything out.”
He wrapped me up in his arms, holding me. I could feel the pulse in his neck against my temple.
“Will you kiss my forehead again?” I asked.
He chuckled a little. “Are you mocking me?”
“Not at all.”
He pressed his lips to my forehead and I closed my eyes. There was something so sweet about this gesture. Something beyond passion, beyond lust, it felt like he cared, like he truly cared.
He pulled back, and I met his eyes. “Thank you for today. You made it bearable.” With that, I got in my car and left to face my dad.
Thirty-One
I slid my key into the lock at home, but my dad swung open the door before I even had to turn it.
I took several steps into the room before I saw Leah sitting on the couch. “Hi.”
“Hi, Lacey.”
I hadn’t talked to her since the firing, and I still felt bad. “I’m sorry he fired you.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not your fault. Remy and me . . . well, I’m sure you know by now.”
“I heard.” I went to the kitchen and filled a glass with water.
“Why the disappearing act today?” Dad asked.
“I just . . . I needed to get off set.”
“You need to tell me these things. How am I supposed to feel when I show up and you aren’t there and nobody knows where you are?”
“I don’t know. Worried . . . I guess.”
“You guess?”
“I mean you could just not show up, then it would’ve been fine. I would’ve been home by curfew.”
“That’s not how it works, Lacey.”
“Believe me, I know.”
“You’re not helping your case here,” Dad said.
“If I apologize, can I go to bed?”
“Not with that attitude.”
I glanced over his shoulder to Leah. “By the way, that missing zombie section. It was in Amanda’s trailer. Maybe if you tell Remy, you can get your job back.” Then I looked at my dad. “I will text you my every move from now on.”
I walked into my bedroom and did something I hadn’t done in years, I slammed the door.
Thirty minutes later there was a soft knock on my door. “Dad, I don’t want to talk right now.”
“It’s Leah.”
I didn’t want to talk to anyone, but at least I wasn’t angry with her. “Come in.”
She opened the door and sat in the chair at my small desk. “So Amanda took it?”
“I found it in her trailer.”
“I’m sorry, Lacey. I know you two were friends.”
I sat up and leaned against the wall. “If you want to go in and talk to Remy, I’ll tell him where I found it.”
She shook her head before I even finished the sentence. “No, I don’t. I already have another job lined up. It’s not me I’m worried about.”
“You don’t need to worry about me. Now that I know it’s her, I’ll watch my back.”
“I’m more worried about your future.”
“Did my dad send you in here to tell me to do my homework and go to college?”
She laughed a little. “No. And even if he asked me to, I wouldn’t tell you that. I mean, you should definitely do your homework and graduate from high school. But you’re an amazing actress, Lacey, you’re getting a lot of experience if this is what you want to do with your life.”
“It is.”
“Good.” She clasped her hands and let out a breath. “I read that article.”
I sighed. That article was never going to go away. “That’s what you’re worried about? Do you think people won’t like me because of it?”
“It’s not that. You need to be less concerned about what the public thinks and more concerned about what Remy thinks. You need to talk to him.”
“I should tell him I didn’t do those things? That Amanda did?”
“Maybe. But you really need to convince him that you are a professional. He is the one other directors will call when deciding whether to give you a job. He is the one who might have a role come across his desk in the future and think you would be perfect for it. He will play a part in your career, and you have to make sure that article, that the drama on set, isn’t making him think twice about your abilities.”
“You’re right.”
“I know.”
“Thank you . . . for that advice.”
“You’re welcome.” She stood but stopped. “Can I give you one more tiny piece of advice?”
“Yes.”
“Take everything your dad says and put it through the ‘I’m extremely worried about my daughter who I love so much’ filter.”
“He’s being unreasonable.”
“I know. It’s partially my fault because I’ve told him way too many horror stories. So forgive me for that. But it’s also that you’re growing up. That’s hard for parents.”
“I’ll try to apply that filter, but he needs to apply a couple filters of his own.”
She smiled. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
As I approached Remy’s trailer the next day I heard loud voices coming from inside. I stopped and waited. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but after a few minutes the door was flung open and Aaron came storming out.
When he saw me, the scowl dropped off his face and his eyes went to the gravel that made up the parking lot.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Fine,” he mumbled, and kept walking.
This might not have been good timing after a fight with his son, but I pressed forward. I knocked on the wall outside Remy’s trailer because Aaron had left the door open. Remy sat at a desk flipping through what looked like some revisions on the script because the pages were blue. He looked as stressed as I felt. He glanced up with the knock and dropped the pages to the desk when he saw me. He beckoned me in with a wave of his hand. “Lacey, come in. You’re my third visitor already this morning.”
It was early. Before first call. I wasn’t on the call sheet today, but I knew I couldn’t put this off. I stepped into his trailer, leaving the door open. “Third?”
“Faith, my son, and you.”
“Faith was here? Did it have to do with me?”
He waved his hand. “No. It was nothing. What can I do for you?”
“Did you read the article about me online?”
“I did.”
“They’re talking about your movie. That’s good, right?”
A toothy grin spread across his face. “No publicity is bad publicity? Is that the angle you’re going with?”
“And sticking to,” I said.
He let out a surprised laugh. “I’m remembering why we hired you. You’re spunky. I had forgotten in all your greenness.”
“I know I’m green. But I wanted to talk to you about the fact that someone is setting me up.” I hadn’t convinced myself I was going to use Amanda’s name yet. I just wanted him to know I was professional. That I hadn’t actually done all those things.
“Setting you up?”
“Someone is trying to make me look bad.”
His expression that had softened with my speech went hard again. “Lacey, I don’t need drama on my set.”
Okay, so he didn’t want to hear it; he thought I was being immature and paranoid. I would only sound more immature if I insisted I was right. That was fine. I knew who was setting me up, and I would make sure she knew I wasn’t going anywhere. “You’re right. I’m done wit
h drama. I’m here to work. I just wanted you to know that.”
“I’m happy to hear it.”
Thirty-Two
I left Remy’s trailer and headed for my own. Amanda must have seen me out her window as I walked by because she came flying out the door. “Lacey!” She gave me a hug. “Don’t you love it up here? I used to camp with my family all the time. We should have a campfire tonight in the trees and tell ghost stories.”
I stood frozen to my spot, still not sure what I wanted to say to her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing. I’m just . . . tired.”
“You have another day off though. Lucky.” She paused, seeming to realize what she just said. “Wait, if you have today off, why did you drive all the way up here?”
“I needed to talk to Remy about you, actually.” I wasn’t one to hold things in. I knew this about myself.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I know what you did. What you took. I’m still trying to figure out why though.” A thought occurred to me. “Was it for Grant? To help him out? Were you trying to get rid of me? Hoping someone better would be put in my spot?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I found what you took. You might as well come clean.” Maybe this wasn’t the place for this discussion with the security guards behind us and crew members walking by.
“Found what?”
She’d probably moved it by now, but I pointed to her trailer. “I’ll show you.”
“Okay.” She held her hand out to the side, inviting me to lead the way.
I marched up the two metal steps and to the small kitchen, where I yanked open the drawer half expecting it to be gone. She had followed behind me and stood looking over my shoulder. We both saw it at the same time, the unassuming red plastic case sitting there.
“What the—” She lifted it out of the drawer and immediately opened it as if to verify what it was. “I did not put this here.”
