The three walked back to camp while Ryan ran around their legs, laughing and chasing frogs. Thomas laughed when the boy caught one and proudly showed it to Cassidy. She screamed, then laughed nervously as she stepped out from behind his mother.
“What is it?” Brenna asked. Ryan obligingly shoved it at her. She backed up abruptly, tripped, and fell over.
Cassidy’s laughter was musical as she watched Brenna, on her hands and knees, wrap Ryan in a rolling bear hug. Her body protected Ryan’s as they rolled over and over on the ground. Brenna looked so natural, laughing, open, and playful, it must have been a game she played with her own sons when they were small. Coming to rest, she tickled the five-year-old as he rested on her stomach. When she got back on her feet, letting Ryan scamper ahead, she had wood chips and leaves in her hair, and her damp arms were spattered with dirt.
“I think I’d better take another quick dive,” Brenna said ruefully. “You two go on ahead. I’ll be there in a few minutes to help you dismantle the tent, Cass.”
“All right.”
Thomas stepped forward. “No problem, Mom. Take your time. I’ve got the tent.”
Hands on her hips, she scrutinized him. Finally she nodded. “All right.”
Thomas looked to Cassidy and said, “Come on. I bet we can have most of the packing done before she gets there.” He jogged the rest of the way to the camp, Cassidy easily keeping up with him.
Everything was tucked into their packs, and the campsite returned to its unocŹcupied state. The fire pits were raked over and doused again with spring water. FireŹwood they had cut but not used was stacked neatly at the edge of the large clearing for the next campers. Brenna surveyed the empty campsite as she adjusted the balŹance of her backpack.
“Ready to go?”
She looked over her shoulder at Mike. “It was a successful weekend, wasn’t it?”
“Everyone had a lot of fun,” he confirmed. “Thanks again for arranging this.”
“My pleasure,” she assured him, patting his shoulder.
He nodded, then raised his voice to address the whole group. “All right, everyŹone, move out!”
It was after five in the afternoon when they reached the parking lot at the botŹtom of the trail and loaded everything into the waiting vehicles. Brenna waved as the last vehicle drove off, then walked to the Mountaineer.
Through the rear window she saw Thomas and Cassidy talking. James and Ryan were already dozing, each head resting against an opposite side window. She opened her door and pulled out her keys. “Well, another weekend’s come and gone,” she said with a melancholy smile.
“Been the most amazing time.” Cassidy smiled at Brenna, then apparently decided that might be too much and looked back to Thomas. “Right?”
“Definitely,” Thomas replied, sitting back and securing his belt.
Definitely, Brenna echoed silently as she put the car in gear and started home.
Chapter 23
“Cameron, sit down!” Victor pulled the man back into his seat and looked toward the sole female in the room, who had spoken very little. They had called this meeting to address the specific story arc for the current episode. Will had pushed until he got the meeting, but they had decided only the key players needed to be there. He still wondered how Rich Paulson had entered the side area. Victor wished again he had taken this meeting up in the executive building where he could close doors. “Cassidy, do you have something to say?”
She looked from Will Chapman to Cameron Palassis and then to Victor Branch. “You seemed to have decided everything,” she said.
“What do you want?” Will demanded. “C’mon.”
She bit her lip, then sighed. “No, this is about what you want, Will. I’m just a convenience.”
“You can soften Hanssen with this,” he countered.
“This guts her character,” she snapped. “She is not a mushball romantic. She certainly wouldn’t sleep with Raycreek just because they’re stuck together tempoŹrarily in a screwed-up timeline.”
“Would you rather have Jakes?”
In her anger, Cassidy didn’t check her words. “She kisses better than you do, I bet!”
Will Chapman sat down, never taking his eyes from Cassidy’s face. His gaze narrowed, searching. Cassidy stood to leave.
Branch put out a conciliatory hand. “Please sit. We’ve got to have something to shoot. Here.” He passed her a script. “Read it over. If you see any merit in it, we’ll rewrite it with any slant you like. Otherwise, we’ll toss it and go with our back-up when shooting starts again in January.”
She pursed her lips, knowing as well as anyone what rearranging shooting could do in collateral damage to production values. “There has to be something we can do.”
Will shrugged, his expression smug. “For the record, I like it as-is.”
Cassidy’s anger sparked again. Did he want the series to crash and burn? She turned and yelled at him, surprising everyone. “I won’t crawl into that gutter with you!”
“It’s not in a gutter, it’s in an alley,” Chapman retorted.
Can I even act like that with him? Cassidy wondered. She recalled lying with Brenna in their tent, leaning against a tree caressing her body, kissing her… She had done kissing scenes before, even onscreen lovemaking, but she had at least genuŹinely liked those men as friends. Chapman was making that impossible.
She realized she had to do something if she did not want to be at the center of another fight. She returned to her seat. “Can we take it more slowly, at least? Could I meet with another writer? Talk about it some more?”
Victor nodded. “I’ll tell Paul to come over.”
“Today?”
He nodded. “All right. Today.”
She stood. “Are we finished?”
Victor stopped her as she reached the door. “Could you send in Bren? We’ve got
the drafts of January’s scripts. If we need to make changes and move things up, we’ll want to be sure to get them done now.”
Cassidy nodded. “Sure. I’ll see if I can find her.”
Rich Paulson followed Cassidy as she walked away. Though present at the meeting, he had remained silent. He spoke when they were out of earshot. “Cass?”
“Yes?”
“I’d just like to say I agree with the changes you want.”
“The writing is best when it’s about all of us…working as a team.” She paused. “Why would only two team members go into such a situation anyway? Jakes would never allow that.”
“She is usually much more proactive than this script suggests,” Rich agreed.
“I want to put some ideas together for fixing this episode, Rich. Would you help me?”
“Anything I can do,” he assured her. “Where to?”
“Not just yet. I have to find Brenna first.” She rolled the script in her hands and looked back over her shoulder at him. “Would you meet me in my trailer after lunch?”
“Sure.”
He looked pleased. She smiled at him warmly, then patted his shoulder. “Thanks again.” He nodded, and she walked away through the rest of the soundstage.
“Rich?”
“Brenna?” He turned around and found Brenna Lanigan walking up behind him. “Victor wants you in the script meeting.”
“Thanks.” She looked past him. “Was that Cassidy?”
“Yeah, her meeting went badly.” Brenna nodded as if she had surmised as much. He wondered if she had seen the script. “The idea of Hanssen having sex didn’t go over so well.”
“Sex? With who?”
Okay, so she hasn’t read the script. “Apparently, Cameron wrote Hanssen into a sex scene with Raycreek in order to satisfy something Will asked for.”
“That’s absurd! What are we saying if we do that? This is supposed to be a famŹily show!”
“That’s what Cassidy said,” Rich replied, clearly surprised. “If she can’t get a rewrite done quickly, the January script gets moved up into that produc
tion slot.” He gestured back to the conference room set. “That’s why Victor wants to see you.”
“Right. Thanks.” Brenna spun on her heel and strode over to the conference room, leaving him standing alone and still a little befuddled.
Cassidy walked through the sets toward the back of the lot and the haven of her trailer. She passed the speakeasy set, still up from the previous episode. Stepping carefully around the equipment, she acknowledged nods from some of the engineers as they filmed a short business scene. She stopped, her attention caught by the closeŹness of Rachelle and Sean.
You wouldn’t know they were just friends. Rachelle and Sean were married, not to each other, and yet their scenes exuded love and support, even now, during some simple “business”.
She relaxed, enjoying the opportunity to watch others work, letting her own thoughts quiet, absorbed by Rachelle and Sean’s easy friendship which was becoming so much more under the hot camera lights.
When Jeremy pulled Luria from her chair and they danced around the empty set, Cassidy felt her heart moving with them. This was what she had felt burgeoning between Brenna and herself this weekend. Too much not to move with it. Too much coursing energy not to try to grasp it, hold it, caress it. Caress her…
“Cut!”
Startled by the director’s loud voice as the Victrola’s music cut to silence, Cassidy straightened quickly, embarrassed to be caught daydreaming.
Spotting her light coloring against the dark backdrop, Sean waved at her. “Hey, Cass.”
“Cassidy?” Rachelle, who had started to walk off in the other direction, turned around. “How was your weekend?”
“Nice,” she supplied. “I’ve found a new hobby.”
“Yeah? What is it?” Sean asked.
“Rock climbing.”
Rachelle grinned and patted her shoulder. “That’s great. I’ve never done it, but I like skydiving. Same thrill, I bet.”
“Probably. I might have to ask Thomas.”
“Thomas?”
“Brenna’s oldest son Thomas was the co-leader on the climb.”
“That’s cool. So what’d Brenna do while you were climbing?”
“She was right there.”
Sean shook his head in disbelief. “No kidding?”
Cassidy smiled. “Nope. She actually beat Thomas to the top in a challenge climb.”
“That doesn’t sound like Bren.”
“Well, it was,” a husky, amused voice intervened.
Rachelle spun. “Bren.”
Brenna walked up to the group with a smile on her face. “Yes. Hi. On a break?”
“Yup,” Rachelle said. “Did I hear right? You were rock climbing this weekend?”
“I’ve enjoyed rock climbing for about five years. When my son wanted to learn, he needed a partner. I nominated myself. A mother’s work is never done.”
Sean chuckled. “Man, oh man. That just boggles.”
“Why?” He had the good grace to look sheepish. “Sean!” she waved her hand dismissively, “don’t answer that. I don’t want you to say what you’re thinking.”
“What was I thinking? You’re fit as a fiddle.”
“I’m flattered,” she said with obvious irony. She looked at Cassidy. “Can I talk to you for a minute? I just got out of my meeting with Branch.”
Cassidy nodded. “Let’s go find someplace quiet.” She looked at Rachelle and Sean. “Catch you later, all right?”
“Yeah,” Rachelle said. “See ya.”
Cassidy led the way outside. “My trailer okay?”
“Sure.” Brenna followed her up the steps. “Are you all right?” she asked when they were inside. “They want to move up the January shoot.” She sat down on the couch and Cassidy moved next to her. “I agree, by the way, about the sex.”
“They insisted Raycreek be the love interest.”
“I guessed.”
“What should I do?”
“They gave you permission for a rewrite. So you make some changes soften the blow to Hanssen’s character, make it more logical.”
“I want to toss the whole damn thing,” Cassidy said derisively. “It’s all about
clashing egos, not about the show.”
Brenna shook her head. “I know.” She reached for Cassidy’s hand and found the script rolled up in her fist. Gently she eased it out. “This it?” Cassidy nodded. “Why don’t we see what’s salvageable?”
Hands freed, Cassidy put them on Brenna’s shoulders. “How was your night?” she asked, changing the subject.
“I was very happy for a mattress,” Brenna mused, closing her eyes as Cassidy’s fingers began a soothing massage over her neck. “I’m so sore.” She reached up and grasped the distracting digits. “You’d better stop.” When Cassidy nuzzled her hair, Brenna pulled away.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m just not sure yet.”
“You seemed sure yesterday.”
“I know,” Brenna acknowledged. “It was like another world out there.”
Cassidy nodded. “I felt it, too.” She let her hands fall away from Brenna’s shoulŹders. She could not keep her hands completely off her, however, and found her finŹgers lingering against the slight hips. “So…was it just time and place?”
Brenna lifted her chin and looked at Cassidy seriously. “My son is infatuated with you.”
“Thomas?” Cassidy nodded. “Yes, I noticed.”
“I don’t think I can stomach competing with my own son.”
Cassidy chuckled softly. “There’s no competition. He’s sixteen.”
“Seventeen,” Brenna corrected. “To his way of thinking, that’s completely grown up.”
“I promise I’ll handle him carefully.” Brenna remained silent, and Cassidy prodded her with concern. “What’s wrong?” She rubbed her thumbs across the tight muscles in Brenna’s lower back.
Brenna groaned appreciatively. “I feel so old right now,” she admitted in a faint voice.
“I don’t care how old you are,” Cassidy assured her. Tucking her leg up on the couch, she drew Brenna back into the cradle of her body as she brought both hands up again to work on the muscles in the stiff shoulders. “I find you incredibly sexy,” she confessed. “I think I’ve thought so for quite a while even if I couldn’t exactly say what it was but the possibility of getting a negative reaction if I even spoke to you scared the hell out of me.”
“And now?” Brenna couldn’t deny how good Cassidy’s touch felt, comforting her in a way she hadn’t experienced in years.
“Knowing you don’t hate me, just my character…I needed to take the chance.”
“I don’t hate Hanssen,” Brenna said uneasily, “and I didn’t hate you. I didn’t want to get to know you, though. I was scared about what Hanssen’s presence implied about Jakes, what you implied about me.” Brenna eased out of Cassidy’s embrace and turned around, holding the long-fingered hands gently away from her body as she spoke with unvarnished honesty. “I am over forty. When Time Trails came along, I’d had just one project in the previous five years that was worth the time I spent on it creatively. Do you know what that meant to me?”
“You are not old,” Cassidy refuted emphatically. “The industry is a bunch of fools.”
Brenna laughed abruptly. “Yeah, but this industry is still where I want to work and where you want to work. Right in the middle of a series run I was just settling into, they snatched the red carpet out from under my feet and put it under yours.”
“I…” Cassidy thought about that time and what Cameron had done for her. “Brenna, I have something”
Brenna had only paused for breath. “You’re what, thirty, right?”
“Thirty-two.”
“When they told me you were joining the cast…” She laughed mirthlessly. “It was two days after my birthday, actually.” Her gaze grew melancholy. “I’d spent the day alone. I’d broken things off with Will, so I wasn’t even dating at the time. Then they tell me you’ve
accepted the job permanently. It was like getting slammed by a torpedo.”
Cassidy’s eyes shimmered with sympathetic tears. “I never meant for anything Cameron did to hurt you. I joined the cast to work with you, you know.” She wiped at her face as Brenna wiped at her own tears. “Right from the beginning, I’ve wanted, needed, to reach out to you. Until you accepted the invitation to Ryan’s party, I thought I had exhausted every means possible. I was so…grateful you came.”
“Shh.” Warm fingertips brushed over her cheeks. “That’s in the past now.” Brenna turned to the script. “Let’s see if we can untangle Hanssen from her little mess, all right?”
“I had a few ideas earlier. Want to hear them?”
Brenna nodded. They rearranged themselves on the couch, Cassidy wrapping herself around Brenna, the script in Brenna’s lap as she rested her hands on Cassidy’s thighs. Flipping to the scene that concerned her most, Cassidy tested dialogue changes while Brenna read along.
Chapter 24
Cassidy turned her face into the setting sun while she waited for someone to answer the doorbell at the Talbot home. God, she thought idly, life is wonderful. She felt warm, exultant, open, and very positive. She and Brenna had worked on script changes for an hour until Rich Paulson knocked on her trailer door. She and Rich had gotten some more good work done after Brenna left. They stopped only when Victor called and said Paul was available in the executive building.
What stuck in her mind, what flowed through her body, though, was the shimŹmering glowing happiness of talking with Brenna. Talking that had become cudŹdling, cuddling that had turned to kissing. The fit of their bodies, Brenna’s hips pressed into her pelvis, had felt so natural and right.
The front door to the Talbot home finally opened. “Oh, hey. Come on in. We’re just about to eat.” Gwen smiled and pulled Cassidy inside. “You’re incredibly early,” she remarked in a low voice.
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