Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“You’re overreacting.”
I stumbled back at that word. “Wow. No, this is overreacting, Maddox.” I pushed him lightly in the chest. “We’re done.”
His jaw dropped open. “What?”
“I can’t be with someone who judges every move I make. Who would rather degrade the biggest break of my life than be excited for me.”
“Josie,” he said, his voice cracking, “please, come on. That’s not what I meant at all. Of course I’ll support you if this is what you want.”
I laughed. “But you didn’t care if I wanted it. You were too busy tearing it down.”
“I thought we were having a discussion about this.”
“For someone who knows me better than anyone else in the world,” I said softly, “you don’t seem to know me at all.”
Maddox’s mouth opened and closed in shock at my words. And then I pushed my way back through the stage door. The men in the alley were long gone. And I dropped onto my heels and let the tears fall. The roller coaster of a night finally taking me out until I could barely breathe over the pain of losing everything.
A tear fell on the white cardstock of Henrick’s business card, blurring the G in his last name. I was going to go to that audition. I was going to meet Martin Harper. And I was going to fucking get that part. I’d prove who I was to the entire world. No one would be able to go anywhere without knowing my name. Only then would I be able to wipe this terrible night from the fires of my life.
PART III
16
SAVANNAH
PRESENT
“Cassie, we’ll figure this out together,” Martin Harper said to me on the set of the Academy movie.
The lights were focused on us. Maddox’s incredible visual effects were on the two-hundred-and-seventy-degree screens surrounding us, which displayed the setting, as if we were really standing in Faerie, the world in which Academy took place.
My hand went to Martin’s chest. I looked up into his impossibly green eyes. “I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”
Tears welled in my eyes. I could bring them forth with hardly a blink. It was one of the reasons I’d aced the first audition for the show. I’d managed to bring on actual waterworks while opposite Martin. I’d been cast into the lead a week later.
“We can,” Martin said.
Then, he dipped his head down, and his lips brushed across mine. They were shockingly familiar. We’d kissed on-screen hundreds of times over the years. Kissed even more times off-screen, tucked away in each other’s trailers, lost in each other at our Malibu home, on vacations in between seasons. But this kiss was not in the script. It shouldn’t have been there at all.
I pushed him away from me, stumbling backward a step. “What the fuck, Marty?”
“Cut!” Jimmy called.
“I was in the moment,” Martin said.
“What, like you’re a fucking method actor?” I snapped.
Martin stepped back, hurt.
Jimmy strode over in exasperation. This was the third time in the last week that Martin had gone off script because he was ‘in the moment.’ “Marty, Josie, what is going on?”
“He kissed me again, Jimmy! It’s not in the script. Fucking figure this shit out.”
“Josie!” Martin cried, just as infuriated with me.
But I stomped off the set before I could listen to his drivel. I passed an irritated Maddox and slumped into my seat. Someone immediately began touching up my makeup. I reached for my water bottle, trying to calm my racing heart.
“Marty, Marty, Marty,” Jimmy said, and then I tuned out the oncoming rant.
A throat cleared next to me, and Maddox appeared at my side, computer in hand. His eyes were focused on the screen. I had no idea what he was doing. Some sort of manipulation of the background that would appear on the screen. His tech skills were way beyond me.
“Yes?” I ground out.
We hadn’t spoken since last weekend when I’d gone to Gran’s house. Since then, we’d seen each other and nodded hello. Perfectly pleasant. But truly, it was hard to pretend that I didn’t care about him. And working fourteen-to-sixteen-hour days right now with him always on set was driving me bonkers.
Mars should be in town any minute, which meant we’d be together all weekend. And I still didn’t know how to act around him.
“That was some kiss,” he said with a smirk on his lips.
“Don’t even.”
“You called him a method actor.” Maddox could barely hold back the laughter. I saw it in his expression. The twinkling of his eyes as he imagined Martin fucking Harper method acting.
I deflated. A laugh left my lips. “God, I can’t believe I said that.”
“You weren’t wrong. He should stick to the script. It’s driving Jimmy nuts.”
“It’s driving me nuts.”
“I can tell.”
I nodded and met his dark gaze. “Any word from Mars?”
“Yeah. She’s on her way. Derek wanted to go home first and see his folks. She’s dropping him off and then driving out here.”