Page 39 of A Lucky Shot

“With the savings Cass has brought in on her design changes, the budget can handle the extra expense.” Probably. Stephen hired Terry, and Josh trusted Stephen. And Cass trusted them both. “You can figure it out.”

“Okay,” Terry said doubtfully. They wiped a hand over their face as if to scrub off the pained expression and bent over to crunch numbers or count beans or wrangle whatever math needed to happen.

“She seems to have your number.”

Josh broke off his stare from where Cass was busy unstrapping Dawson from his suit. “What?”

“Cass.” Stephen flicked through various screens, not looking up. “She got you to figure out a problem without you yelling at anyone.”

Almost no yelling. He’d still have to apologize to Brynne for biting her head off.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “She did.”

Terry looked up from their tablet. “We can do it, but we’ll have to push the scene to mid-January. No cost overruns, but I have to book it now.” Their finger hovered over a button, hoofing at the cement floors like a bull ready to break into the ring.

She was right again. Terry was a magician. “Do it.”

Hell, that might even get them finished early. And he’d be back in Vancouver just after Christmas. The shoot would be over before he knew it.

If it wasn’t for her, he still might have his head shoved up his ass. He might have gotten here by himself, but she’d saved him time and embarrassment. Still his good luck charm.

“Hey, Bex?” Josh snagged the PA as she walked by. “Can you tell Cass I need her?”

Now he was upgrading from orders to requests. Assholery, under control.

Cass avoided his eyes until she drew level with him, looking somewhere over his shoulder. “Bex said you needed something?”

“Yeah. I need to say thanks.”

“For what?”

“The solution you conjured out of thin air that’s probably going to save my ass? Terry and Stephen said they can make it work. Thanks.”

“Oh, sure, no problem,” she said, inching backwards.

Josh squinted at her. “Are you avoiding me?”

“No!” she stammered. “I’m just busy. With stuff.”

Busy with stuff? Cass looked like she’d rather disappear behind the green screen than be having this conversation, and his stomach tightened as he realized why.

Blousy top, pleather pants? Platform loafers? That outfit looked more than familiar.

“You wore that yesterday.”

Cass crossed her arms as if trying to hide the offending repeat clothes. “So?”

“I’ve never seen you wear the same thing twice.”

“Why are you memorizing my outfits?”

He hitched up a smirk instead of the scowl that threatened to cross his features at the thought of her with someone else. Which she was free to do. “I make it a point to observe beautiful women.”

She rolled her eyes, a spot of pink appearing high on her cheeks.

“Someone didn’t go home last night.” He leaned back in his chair, then grinned in triumph as she snapped her head up. That was as good an admission as anything. He continued, “Not a boyfriend, though. You’d have makeup and hair stuff and clothes at his place if it was serious.” The thought was oddly comforting. “But not a one-night stand either, because you’d probably have left his place afterwards and gone straight home.”

“I don’t do one-night stands,” she said, already looking like she wanted to take back her words.

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