Page 9 of Rebel Romeo

“I’m fine,” Nolan says. “It’s just a little splinter.”

“I’m so sorry,” I repeat, standing up. “I was… I was trying something.”

It’s a lame excuse. I know it. Nolan knows it. And Holden knows it, too.

Holden sighs and without looking at me, steps back as Maggie and a couple other people race up the stage with a first-aid kit in hand.

I follow him by backing up. They definitely don’t need my help in this.

I feel horrible. What sort of novice idiot shoves her acting partner without him being ready for it?

I scan the room and Missy is still in her seat. She’s the only person who hasn’t gotten up to check on Nolan.

It’s dark in the audience and I convince myself that I’m not seeing the smirk that I think I do on her face.

Up until Missy arrived, I’d been doing so well. Even with all the curveballs. Even with my dad.

But right now it feels like I’m back at square one, and Holden’s disappointed glare confirms as much.

I look back to Nolan just in time for him to catch my eye and give me a soft smile and a quick wink. His way of letting me know he’s okay and no hard feelings. But it doesn’t make me feel much better.

Especially not when Holden takes my elbow and guides me offstage into the wings. “Kate, come with me.”

Kate.

Not Katherine.

Kate.

Funny how him calling me by my full name used to be such a trigger for me… now I look forward to it. It’s like a little hit of dopamine every time he calls me Katherine. Like our own secret language of praise and intimacy.

“What the hell was that?” Holden asks once we’re out of sight and earshot of everyone else.

“Like I said, I was trying something.” I do my best to hold firm; to stick with my story. I can’t let him know how much he and Missy are affecting me.

But just like every other moment, Holden knows me. He knows me better than I even know myself most days. And the undercurrent of tension and anxiety is palpable within me.

“You can’t do this,” he cautions, raking his hands through his hair. With a pause, he goes to touch his grandfather’s spinner ring, his nervous tick, but it’s no longer there on his finger.

It’s on Missy’s.

And we both go still as the moment washes over us.

Tension knots in my shoulders and even though I do my best to release my breath slowly, it comes out as an impulsive huff. “Fine. I won’t improvise my blocking. Happy now?”

“That’s not what I mean. You can’t let Missy’s presence throw you off like that again. It showed. It showed too much. Between that and you being late to rehearsal?—”

“I was late because I stepped out to take that call that your dad told me to go outside and take! How was I supposed to know you had finished the meeting and were beginning rehearsal? Maggie could have come and gotten me.”

“That’s not the point! You can’t put me in a bad situation like that. I can’t treat you differently because we’ve…” His words fade and with a cough, he tries again. “Because we have history.”

He’s not wrong. And it pisses me off to no end. “I’m not expecting any special treatment,” I grind out through my clenched jaw.

Aren’t I, though? I was planning to ask for a couple days off to visit my dad in the hospital before this little kerfuffle happened. Does that fall into the ‘special treatment’ category?

My stomach churns and somehow, impossibly, I’m both hot and cold all at once.

“Kate?” Holden’s voice may sound concerned and his eyes may hold pity, but I can hardly see either with the tunnel vision closing in around me.

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