by Cecilia Gray
She hadn’t come this far to give up.
“Who is she?” Kat heard from behind her.
Kat stiffened. Izzy’s voice was unmistakable with that slight catch at the back of her throat like she was getting over a cold.
“Who?” she heard Ben reply. “The redhead with Josh? Get this—she’s his personal assistant.”
Kat didn’t dare turn around. Josh was no help as he threw back another drink.
“Ha,” Izzy said. “I didn’t realize we were supposed to drag in our personal assistants.”
Kat felt as though she were breathing underwater. Izzy was talking about her. About her.
Then Izzy said, “Is her hair color natural? It’s gorgeous. I wish they could have given me that color when I did Trainwreck.”
Kat broke into a smile just as Josh scowled. “Don’t be fooled,” he said.
“By what?” Kat said liltingly. “Her great taste?”
“Izzy is all flash and no substance, trust me.” He looked over her head and smiled, and for a moment Kat was dazzled by the dimple in his cheek and his shining eyes. “Hey, Izzy, c’mere.”
Kat could hardly believe it when Izzy sauntered up to them. She felt out-toothed by Josh and Izzy and their perfect smiling wattage.
“Izzy, this is Kat. She’s a classmate.”
“At your girly boarding school?” Izzy asked, her blue eyes teasing. Then she turned to Kat. “Josh was telling me about it. It sounds so cool. The idea of a boarding school for all girls is totally something I would have been into. When I was younger, that is.”
Izzy’s dig stung, and Kat felt the need to defend the Academy. “We used to be all-girls but we take boys now.” She awkwardly returned Izzy’s half-hug as the actress leaned into her. “It’s called the Jane Austen Academy.”
“I love, love, love Austen.” Izzy clapped each time she said love. “I keep telling my agent he’s got to get me in period films. The costume? The dialogue? How everything is unsaid and between the lines? They’ve never done a major motion picture release of Persuasion—can you believe it?”
“I know! I’d love to play…actually…well…” Kat blushed. “I’d love any role. I want to be an actress, too.”
Josh scowled.
“Do you?” Izzy ran her gaze from Kat’s toes to her head and back. “Do you just want it, or do you actually do something about it?”
Kat’s spine snapped strong at the challenge. “I’ve been doing school plays since forever. I’ve been the lead in our last five plays and am due to be the lead in our spring production.”
Izzy gave her an approving nod. “Then you are an actor, Kat.”
Kat thought the tips of her toes would lift off the ground—she felt high. Izzy Engel had just called her an actor. And she’d said it with the right amount of authority. Act-or.
Not even Fanny said it quite like that.
“Thank you,” she said appreciatively. “I love the work.”
“Work doesn’t mean we can’t have fun, though,” Izzy said. “We should all be dancing! This is supposed to be a set party.”
“No one else is dancing,” Kat noted.
“They’re waiting to follow our lead. You in, Wickham?”
Josh shrugged. “Sure.”
“We just need a partner for Kat.” Izzy craned her head over the crowd. “Henry! Hey, Henry!”
“No, no, no,” Kat began.
Izzy cupped both her hands around her mouth. “Hen-ry!”
Kat felt faint as he looked up from his conversation with a crew member, smiled bemusedly at Izzy, and walked over, his eyes locked on Kat. She cringed, waiting for the inevitable embarrassing denouncement.
CRAZED KAT MORLEY STALKS TOM TRENTON’S SON.
“Kat needs a dance partner,” Izzy said.
Henry raised his eyebrows. “Does she?” He bowed low, mockingly. He took off his tartan cap then set it back on his head with a flourish. “My lady?”
“Er…”
Henry grabbed her hand and pulled her into the middle of the canvas tent. “Excuse me.” He cupped his other hand around his mouth. “Attention, please.”
“What are you doing?” Kat whispered. She studied the expectant eyes that stared at them over the rims of their champagne glasses.
“For those who don’t know me,” he began, and the crowd tittered at his modesty. “I’m Henry Trenton, resident psycho killer at your service. Most of you think of me as Tom Trenton’s son. I’ve been on what feels like a hundred movie sets, and I can already tell there is something special about this one.”
While the crew clapped at his words, energy thrummed through Kat’s body as gazes shifted to her. She shook out her fingers and shifted her weight from foot to foot.
“I’d like to offer a toast to everyone, for making this what is sure to be the best set experience ever.”
Everyone lifted their glasses in the air as they clapped louder and faster. Someone in the back whistled through his teeth. Kat studied Henry again from the corner of her eye. Despite his being lanky, lean, and goofy—despite Josh saying he made weird acting choices, believable given he went around giving girls hard hats—she couldn’t deny there was something about him. Something that made her shoulders snap to attention.
“And now…” Henry caught her gaze, smiled, and held out his hand. “A show.”
She stared at his open palm, her skin abuzz. Every pair of eyes under the white tent was on her. Which was just how she liked things.
A show.
She was onstage again. She was at home. She knew exactly what she had to do.
She reached out and rested her fingers lightly in his hand. He made a gesture and music blared through the speakers—a jazzy swing number she recognized immediately: “Sing, Sing, Sing.”
He yanked her close. She collided with his chest as he rested a hand at her waist.
“Do you swing?” he asked against her ear.
“Do you lead?” she countered, bracing her back.
He grinned, pulled her around, and spun her. Kat kicked her legs to the side, bent back into a dip, and met Henry step for step through the fast-paced song. The surrounding crowd clapped louder and louder, spurring them on.
Henry split and combined moves, pulling her behind him, beneath his leg, and around him. He flung her like a yo-yo, and she went breathless as she was pushed, pulled, and yanked through the routine.
The drumbeat reached a crescendo as he led her in a series of dizzying spins, and with the final clash of cymbals, he spun her out to bow for the crowd, which went wild with whistles and catcalls.
Kat breathed hard as she bowed to one corner of the room then the next. She caught sight of Izzy, who studied her with a frown and tight eyes, but the expression quickly lit up with a huge smile as she waved at Kat, who waved back.
Another song struck up, and couples filled the dance floor.
Henry grinned, breathing hard. “Another round?” he asked between gulps of air.
She tried to catch her own breath. “I could use some water, actually.”
“Oh, thank god. Me, too,” he confessed, tucking her hand into his for a second before releasing her.
She brushed her hair out of her face, where it clung with sweat. “You know those scenes in movies where the couple dances all night?”
“And their hair and makeup are perfect?” he asked wryly.
“Yes! I don’t know how they do it.”
“Great hair, makeup, and wardrobe teams,” he quipped as he led her back to the long table of refreshments, which was being restocked by the girl she’d seen serving breakfast earlier. She was the only one wearing a tank top, denim shorts, and flip-flops in the cold desert night, and Kat couldn’t stop staring at her lip ring. There were a few kids on campus with tattoos and piercings. She’d always wanted one but had to keep herself a blank slate for her character. Still, she wouldn’t mind something that was all hers.
“Thanks, Megan,” Henry said as she handed him a bottle of water. “Do y
ou know Kat?”
Both girls shook their heads so he introduced them, and the next thing Kat knew, he was introducing her to the entire crew. Ceecee, the hair and makeup girl, as well as her two sisters who did wardrobe. Ben and the other production lackeys, who were doing double duty as script supervisors. The set director and juicers who rigged up the sets and lights.
Kat tried to remember everyone’s names, and she must have shaken three dozen hands before Henry finally brought them back to the refreshments table. He leaned against it with his feet crossed.
“I’m so sorry,” she said as she leaned up against the table next to him.
“That you’re not wearing your new hat? You should be.” He knocked the top of her head twice as though it were a door. “You’re hazardous.”
“Ow!” she snapped, pushing his hand away and rubbing the tender spot at the back of her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“I feel dizzy.” She rolled her eyes into the back of her head.
“Kat? Kat!” As her body rolled forward in a faint, he caught her, swearing. “Kat, hold on. I’ll get you to the medic van…” His voice fell away as she burst out laughing.
He blinked down at her, surprised, and soon the twinkle returned to his eyes. “Good one, good one. You had me. Where is the hat I gave you, anyway?”
“It’s in the trailer. Didn’t quite go with the outfit or the hairstyle.”
He scooted a bit closer, so their shoulders touched. “I’ll have to find you another hat.”
“I’m not really a hat person.” Kat’s hair was difficult enough to deal with given its constant desire to curl and knot.
“Oh, we’re all hat people,” he said. “We just don’t know it.”
The crowd erupted in a whoop and Kat glanced back at the dance floor where Josh was twirling Izzy.
“How do you know Josh?” Henry asked as he watched the couple steal the attention of the entire crowd.
“He goes to my school.” She twisted open her bottle and sucked the water down, grateful the conversation was veering into more normal territory.
“That Jane Austen Academy, right? It sounds like a cool place.”
“It’s more than that,” Kat said. “It’s like home. They have an amazing drama department and put on two full productions every year, one in fall and one in the spring.”
“Lemme guess…you’re the lead in every play. You seem the type.”
She set the empty water bottle down on the table. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing.” He shrugged, a tilt to his lips. “We’re both that type. We go for what we want.”
We? He thought of her as his equal? As much as she wanted to be, she didn’t feel even close. Kat thought about being an extra, about how Fanny was drifting further away from her, about how she seemed to be letting it happen. “Sometimes I go after what I want. Sometimes I don’t.”
“So, Kat.” Henry grinned, taking another swig. “What is it that you want?”
She looked up at him. She didn’t know if it was the glittery lights of the tent or if she was still flushed from the dance, but looking up at Henry Trenton was giving her the shivers.
“I want…” She shook herself, swallowing. “I want your dad’s career.”
“Ah, yeah.” He turned away and dug his hips harder back into the table. “The paparazzi, the isolation.”
“The great roles, the power to decide your next project,” Kat countered.
“A publicist crafting your every word.” He crossed his arms. “Media specialists analyzing every interview. Everything you say being taken out of context.”
“Everything has a price,” Kat said.
“You think your privacy, your freedom, is worth it?”
“Don’t you?”
Henry looked down at his canvas sneakers. “I don’t know yet. That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I know I don’t want a stranger telling me I have to vacation in Macau instead of Hawaii for my image. Or that I have to order a coffee instead of a cappuccino because it makes me seem more manly.”
“Who hates on cappuccinos?” she teased.
“I’m a hot-chocolate-with-whipped-cream person, myself,” Henry said. “You paying? I’m free tomorrow.”
Kat’s mouth dropped open—was he asking her on a date? And making her pay for it?
At the sound of someone shouting her name, Kat and Henry both looked up. Izzy and Josh were winding their way toward the refreshment table.
“What did you guys think?” Izzy asked, breathing a little hard.
“You both looked amazing,” Kat said.
“I know, right?” Izzy clapped to herself. “No one expects me to be a good dancer because they just think of me as an amazing actor, but I work really hard at singing and dancing, too. I don’t just want to be known for one thing.”
“You weren’t bad yourself, Kat.” Josh ruffled her bangs as she swatted his hand. What was he doing?
“Not bad?” Izzy said with a smack to Josh’s shoulder. “Kat, you were fantab. Total stage presence.”
“You should probably turn in, though,” Josh said.
Kat narrowed her eyes at him. Did he think he was her dad or something?
“We should set an example for the crew,” he went on. “They won’t turn in unless we do.”
Henry snorted. “Half this crew has been in the business longer than all of us combined. I’m sure they can manage themselves.”
Josh stared at Henry, who stared back. The air between them charged sharply. When had this happened? Did they not like each other?
“I’m actually pretty tired,” Kat said nervously, trying to diffuse the tension. “It’s been a long day, with the drive and all. See you guys tomorrow.”
“I need to get in a run,” Josh said. He ran a hand over his stomach and backed away. “One of us has to deliver on the shirtless fight scene.”
Kat bit her tongue so she wouldn’t say that Henry delivered just fine in the shirtless department.
Henry, who was smiling bemusedly after Josh’s retreating back, turned to her. “Thanks for the dance. Don’t forget me.”
“What?” Kat’s cheeks ran hot once again.
“Hot chocolate,” he clarified. “You invited me.”
“I’m pretty sure you invited you.” Kat blushed furiously.
He only grinned. “I’m in filming most of the day, so how’s sunset? I’ll pick you up at your trailer.”
“Third one on the left,” Kat said, surprising herself with just the right line at just the right moment.
“I’ll walk you back,” Izzy interjected. She slipped her hand into the crook of Kat’s arm and pulled her toward the trailer. “You should shower before Josh gets back from his run. Rumor has it he takes epic showers.”
“Thanks for the tip.” Kat marveled at herself. She’d just set up a date with Henry and was walking arm in arm with Izzy Engel. Fanny would never believe it. She could hardly believe it.
“Your hair really is amazing,” Izzy said. “A trademark look. Don’t ever change it.”
“Thank you,” Kat said with an uncontrollable grin. “I won’t.”
Izzy deposited Kat at the trailer door and gave her a hug. “See you tomorrow, Kat.”
Kat almost skipped her way up the steps. She could just die. On top of everything else awesome today, no matter what Josh had said, there was still a chance—a shot, a tiny sliver of a possibility—that she could be cast as an extra.
She had to think about this moment, capture it and bury it in her psyche so the next time she had to play a character who was dying of happiness, who was getting everything she wanted, she’d remember that it felt like this.
Kat showered, composed a gushing email to Fanny with every last salacious detail, and snuggled on the couch. She was never going to get to sleep. Her mind ran through every conversation she’d had, every look she’d been given, every nuance of every sentence.
Soon she went from reality to fantasy.
No.
She buried her face in her pillow and squeezed her eyes shut. She would not get distracted from what she really wanted.
To be the star.
Chapter Three
Kat groaned as she was shaken awake. She rubbed her eyes and tried to bury her head deeper into her pillow. After a night of tossing, turning, and trying to avoid the hard lump in the center of the sofa’s mattress, she’d finally fallen asleep what seemed like mere minutes ago.
“Kat, come on!”
She whined and forced open one eye.
Josh stared down at her impatiently. “Are you deaf? Can’t you hear that?”
A moment later, an incessant ringing pierced through her haze. Her hand lashed out to search the end table by the couch arm until she found her phone and shut off the alarm. She glanced at the time: 6:30 AM.
“You set my alarm?” she asked incredulously. “Why are we up so early?” She rubbed her eyes and stretched her hands overhead as her blanket slipped to her lap.
Josh was not only up but dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt, shockingly bright-eyed. “I’m going for a run before rehearsal. I left you a note.”
Kat whipped her head around and found the note on the table by the couch, next to where her phone had been:
Latte. Extra foam. Two packets of sugar.
Iron my two suits.
Lunch at 1. Protein only.
Go through my script and highlight all my funny lines in green, my serious lines in yellow, and my dramatic lines in purple.
Suits? Highlighting his script? Really? Kat sighed. “Where do I bring the latte?” she asked, but Josh had already slipped in his earbuds and run out the door.
“Josh!” She jumped up to chase after him. “Wait! Where do I get all this stuff and where is your script? What is the difference between dramatic and serious, and how am I supposed to get highlighters?”
By the time she slipped on shoes and reached the trailer steps, Josh was long gone. She stared out the door and blew out a breath. On the bright side, she had plenty of time to figure out what to do before he got back from his run.