Page 60 of A Lucky Shot

“She’s also sensitive and funny and the kindest person I know.”

This was why he kept his mouth shut. “She is all of those things.”

“She deserves happiness, and I’m so grateful you are helping her figure out how to stop falling for fuckboys who don’t have her best interest at heart. I would hate for her to get hurt again by another insensitive asshole. I mean, neither of us want that, right?”

Josh twisted his lips. “No. We don’t.”

“So glad we are on the same page.” Libby crossed her arms and turned her attention to where Cass fidgeted on the apple box. “And do we think Brynne will look just as gorgeous when she finally gets out of her trailer and into the scene?”

“No. I mean, yes.” He scowled at the monitor.“It’s Brynne. She’ll look fine.”

“She always does,” Dawson said absently, walking over from where he’d been watching the blocking with his eyes trained on Cass. “I want to get in there with her.”

“Not necessary,” Josh started, but Dawson was already stepping into position beside her, his usual affable charm erased by his character’s angular rigidity.

The blue light transformed Dawson into a Nordic god. Pale and cold beside Cass’s otherworldly aura. The two of them looked perfectly matched. Her leaning, now relaxed against the ship’s console, and him reflecting her energy back at her. Dawson leaned in to murmur something into her ear, and the smile that lit her face made the lights fade around her. Cass pressed her lips together the way she always did when she was trying not to laugh and turned to raise an eyebrow at Josh.

“You getting what you need here, Hoss?” she called over in a terrible imitation of Dawson’s drawl, still fighting her smile, and Dawson broke character to bark a laugh.

“They look really good together,” Libby said. “Do we want to block out the scene where Dawson moves in to kiss her?”

“We’ll wait for Brynne,” Josh said quickly. He shifted his gaze to Brynne’s trailer door. Fuck her process. She needed to get her ass out here.

“Are you sure? Could save us some time.”

“Positive. It might make Cass uncomfortable,”

Libby sucked in air through her teeth. “Is that what you are worried about?”

The diva in question chose that moment to untomb herself from her trailer. “Are we blocking?”

Fucking finally. Josh clapped his hands together. “Excellent. Great. We’re ready. Let’s go.”

Dawson held out his hand to help Cass down from the apple box, still smiling from whatever he had said to her moments before. Cass adjusted a final wardrobe flaw on Dawson’s suit, invisible from where Josh and Libby were stationed, and made her way over.

“Do you know if Dawson’s trainer is on set today?” When Libby shrugged, Cass wrinkled her nose, giving him a once over. “He’s busting out of his suit. Unless he’s planning on launching the ship into space himself, he can probably skip a week or two in the gym.”

Josh narrowed his eyes. His lead actor’s suit did look snug. There was no reason Dawson’s character needed to be built like a brick shithouse, even if he was trying to model Dr. Donovan Rykoff after Dr. Alex Campbell.

“He is looking extra beefy,” Libby said with a gleeful look at Josh, bumping him with her hip on the way out, leaving to supervise her team.

Since when was his director of lighting the biggest pain in his ass? He ran his fingers through his hair, fighting the urge to flip her off, and ground his teeth together. “Hey Siri. Take a note. Tell Dawson’s trainer to lay off the bench press.”

Out of the washed blue light, Cass looked human again. She just shrugged. “Don’t worry about continuity. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve made last-minute adjustments like that. Once, I had to lay behind a sheet holding the edges of the actress’s dress together during reshoots because she’d had to put on weight for a new role.”

Why did she have to bring up laying down and bedclothes in the same sentence? Josh turned his frown to where Dawson and Brynne stood with heads together, their faces tight in concentration, and adopted a teasing tone. “You’re a picky woman.”

“What do you mean?” she asked in surprise.

“Your most recent slot of dates. You didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about them.”

Cass’s shoulders rose with a deep breath, and she turned to him with her brightest smile. “Oh, those? Those weren’t bad, just boring.”

“If you ask for spicier matches, you’ll get them.” Josh forced a benign expression on his face.

“Okay,” Cass said, eyes wary. “But not, like, too spicy, right? No sex dungeons or base jumping dates?”

“Unless they post it in their profile, I won’t know if they have sex dungeons, will I?”

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