Page 126 of A Lucky Shot

The screenplay hadn’t been touched since he’d graduated law school. Longer even than Sirius Darker had sat unfinished. Josh pulled out Cass’s fan art, leafing through her portfolio. Vibrant, kinetic colour danced across the pages. He could see it all, through her eyes.

A layer of dust covered his keyboard. A phone number and call me Chloe xoxo scrawled onto the notepad beside it.

Chloe? Oh. Right. The friend of Stephen’s cousin who’d stayed at his condo. He crumpled the paper and tossed it in recycling before booting up his desktop.

He opened the document and began writing.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CASS

Cass inhaled the cinnamon-and-chocolate scented steam from the mocha she clutched her in her bare hands. A Chinook, the warm breeze that blew over Calgary on lucky winter days, had brought up the temperatures enough that some of the hardier souls on set wore tee shirts.

Good news for Dawson, whose traveller suit had been bunched around his waist to bare his impressive torso to the elements all day.

Cass reminded herself to bring smelling salts for Bex tomorrow.

She’d been expecting the call. She just didn’t think it would come so fast. When Terry scheduled reshoots for the following week, she was needed on set right away. Dawson had cut the few pounds of body fat he had, and his suit needed refitting.

No sense in asking if they were sure they needed her. They would. While her wardrobe assistant was good, it needed to be perfect.

Which meant she’d have to see Josh. A fierce yearning had ripped through her chest, and she had cried at her sewing machine for an hour.

“Looking good, Dawson!” Brynne waved cheerfully after Josh yelled cut, and Dawson trotted back to where his robe slung over the back of his chair. He shoved his arms through the fluffy sleeves and blew out a breath. Josh glowered into the monitor, avoiding where Dawson wrapped the robe’s belt tightly around his torso.

“I hope he’s got what he needs,” he said, shivering. “I’m nearly hypothermic here.”

“Having a single digit body fat percentage doesn’t let you hold a lot of heat.” Cass hoisted up a smile and held out her mocha. “Want a sip?”

“Cassidy, I haven’t had sugar since Mrs. Westwood said I needed to do this stupid shirtless scene and I can’t have anything delicious until I’m sure we’re done.”

Cass withdrew her offer and stared at Josh. His eyes narrowed as he bent over the monitors, jacket riding up his torso at the back, and the dimples at the base of his spine showed up against his golden skin. She couldn’t tell from here, but she was positive he would be covered in goosebumps. He hated being cold. His black hair fell in shaggy waves over his ears, and she longed to feel those strands brushing over her cheek.

Her heart bruised itself against her ribs, and she forced her gaze into her lap.

“Sorry, Big D, I don’t want to tempt you,” she said with a small smile.

Dawson turned his nearly famous baby blue eyes on her, searching her face. “I think that ship has sailed. Your eyes melt me like chocolate and your lips look like strawberries and you smell like flowers …” His voice trailed off into a mortified whisper. “I am so sorry. That was completely uncalled for. I don’t suppose you’d blame that on me being really hungry, would you?”

Cass looked up at the big man and tried to ignore the twinge in her chest. Libby said he looked interested. This more than confirmed it. Maybe she should. Maybe trying to date assholes to forget someone didn’t work, and what she needed to do was date someone lovely. Here was someone who was nice, sweet, and open about how he felt about her. Anyone would be a fool not to at least see what could happen.

“Do you want to go out with me?” Cass blurted out.

“I don’t want to pry,” he said, and turned a scrutinizing look at her, “but I didn’t think you were exactly available.”

She looked over at Josh, who had locked eyes with her from across the set. Her breath lodged in her throat, like a hand squeezing to hold the words in. She was a free woman. Nothing stopping her back from seeing if she could make something work here.

Cass shook her head firmly. “I’m not,” she whispered, and cleared her throat. She tore her gaze away from Josh and pressed a thin smile at Dawson. “I mean, I’m not looking to jump into anything serious, but I think you’re sweet, and we get along, and,” she tried to smile, “maybe we can do something fun?”

His grin lit up his face. “I’ve been trying to work up the courage to ask you out for months, and then I thought there was something going on with … But if that’s not the case, then, I’m honoured if you’ll take a chance on me. Next Thursday? I actually have a couple ideas, if you’ll let me?”

After the train wreck of the last several months, taking a chance on a sweet guy like Dawson barely seemed like a chance at all.

Steady. Reliable. No surprises.

Cass swallowed and blinked her eyes clear. “It’s a date.”

If there was a ranking of backyard weddings, Jill and Alex’s had to top the list.

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