Page 34 of A Lucky Shot

“It’s different this time.”

There was no her and Josh to forget about. She could ignore him leaning over her sketches, the warmth radiating off his body and the scent of sandalwood and citrus wrapping around her. Watching his lithe fingers trace the storyboards, like they had traced the curve of her hip as they lay in bed in a post-sex-frenzied haze.

Cass shook herself. “Why are we talking about me and my nonexistent issues? I’m not the only one who needs to worry about proximity. Aren’t you worried about working with Stephen?”

Libby sucked in her cheeks and stirred her coffee, the ice cubes clinking in the tall glass. “That was a long time ago. We were kids.”

They’d been more like new adults than kids, but still, as far as amicable breakups went, Libby and Stephen hadn’t spoken since he’d moved to Vancouver. From the way they’d been stealing glances at each other over lighting rigs, Cass figured she might not be the only one with sparks flying.

“Have you two talked yet?”

Libby shrugged, face blank. “What’s there to talk about? He lives there. I live here. He’s happy there, and I’m not leaving.”

If Libby could see through Cass’s inability to put a romantic encounter in the past, Cass knew Stephen leaving Libby was a wound that never healed.

“Let’s make a pact,” Cass said briskly. “We’ll keep each other from getting into trouble until this thing wraps, then we’ll grab Jill and try to convince Raina to go on another vacation.”

“Okay. No trouble,” Libby agreed. “Unless we really want it.”

The mass email invite said the engagement party would be casual. Showing up two hours late wasn’t the coolest move, but Cass had told Jill she and Libby might be late if their meetings ran long again. One week until filming, and Josh had been growing increasingly twitchy. He hadn’t gone on any of the sociopathic rants Karl had warned her of yet, but from the sounds of it, those might be coming.

Voices and music poured through the front door of Jill and Alex’s bungalow as they let themselves into the party already in full swing. Libby dropped a couple bottles of wine on the kitchen counter, walking past people Cass vaguely recognized as players from Jill’s softball team and a mix of guys from Alex’s rugby team. A few people from Jill’s work lounged around the dining room table with drinks in hand. Libby joined a group of kids running dizzy circles around the coffee table. After a hug with Rachel and Omar, Cass continued through the house until she found her friends on the back deck, cuddled on a single chair.

“Congratulations!” Cass said for the seventeenth time. She leaned in for a hug and kissed them both on the cheek, already wishing she had worn a lighter top for the early summer evening. “Any dates planned yet?”

“Tried to convince her we should do it this afternoon before everyone came over,” Alex said, an easy grin on his face.

Jill landed an affectionate punch on his shoulder. “I want to plan something perfect for us.”

“Whatever makes you happy,” Alex said, beaming at her. “You becoming my wife is all I need.”

They just looked so … at peace. A prickle worked its way up Cass’s throat. To be a priority, to know her happiness was important to someone? That was the dream. “Whatever you two decide will be perfect.”

Jill and Alex turned to greet another friend as Libby sauntered out with a grubby toddler perched on her hip, chubby fingers pulling at her hair.

“I just heard Dan and Marta have number two on the way. Poor woman is upstairs puking. Little Olivia is going to be a big sister already,” she said, shifting the little girl to her other hip. She gave Cass a careful look. “That’s exciting, right?”

So, Dan was having another baby. She was happy for him. Really. She and Dan only dated a while, and they hadn’t been exclusive. Not like he’d wanted to be. He had never introduced her to his family, or any of his friends. Honestly, she’d met more of his friends since meeting Jill and coming along to parties where Alex and Dan played on the same rugby team.

That first meeting was weird, with Jill innocently introducing Cass to Marta and her squirming daughter, Dan coughing awkwardly beside her like he hadn’t told Cass he didn’t want anything serious for a long time. By Cass’s admittedly lax math skills, that long time translated into a month before the things he wanted had changed.

Now, he had a beautiful girlfriend he was devoted to and a daughter he was wild for, with a second baby on the way.

Good for him.

It wasn’t envy—she didn’t want to be with someone who didn’t want to be with her, and lord knew she didn’t want to be saddled with two kids—but what was it about her that made men pull hard U-turns when it came to commitment?

Right. Her superpower.

Cass covered her wince with a tight smile. “Yeah, so exciting.”

“I told you. Tyrant.”

Karl tucked a boom mic under his arm, the crew shuffling around as Josh bellowed yet another set of conflicting instructions at the grips. Rehearsals that morning hadn’t been enough, and Dawson James, the film’s lead actor, was trying—and failing—to soak up the crossfire.

It was weird to see Josh like this. However briefly she’d known Josh the hookup, Josh the director was a completely different person. Then he had been charismatic, argumentative, and demanding; Josh the director was still argumentative and demanding, but the charisma was absent. And he was alienating his team before they’d even shot a minute of film.

She’d joked he liked it when she told him what she thought. No time like the present to test that theory.

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