Page 20 of Rush

His girls.

The woman with the clipboard misinterpreted his hesitation. “I’ll show your family where they can sit and watch.”

His family. Fuck if he didn’t like the sound of that just as much.

“Oh, I’m not—”

Linc threw an arm around Nora’s shoulders, shocking her into silence. He gave the woman a large smile. “Lead the way.”

At guest seating, he squatted down to Sophie’s level. “You be a good girl for Nora, okay?” When she agreed, he kissed her forehead and stood, giving Nora a wink at her still bewildered expression before sauntering off.

He was waylaid by the director on his way to wardrobe.

“Mr. Scott! Good to have you. You’re right on time.”

That was a lie, he was twenty minutes late, but he figured the guy didn’t think it a good idea to piss off the talent untilafterthe commercial was made. Linc took the man’s hand, giving it a firm shake. “Happy to be here.”

“I know you were given a script last week, but do you have any questions before we start?”

The commercial was pretty straight forward. Suited up in his uniform, he was to run into the shot, rip off his helmet, and pick up the popular energy drink from the sideline bench before saying his line and then taking a long drink. “Nope, I’m good.”

“Great.” He gave Linc a smile and thumped him on the shoulder. “Go get changed and I’llmeet you on the field.” The dude actually used air quotes on the last bit.

Hours later, the filming had been far from straight forward. He wasn’t breathing heavy enough when first running on screen or he was panting too much while saying his line. He wasn’t taking a long enough drink or he was chugging too excessively. Hell, he even had to change the inflection of his tone six times and the director still wasn’t happy.

“Cut!Cut!”

Linc came to a stop giving the dude an exasperated look. What the fuck now?

“Linc, your shoe’s untied.”

Linc looked down and sure enough his lace had come loose. He tossed his helmet down—maybe a bit more aggressively than he’d intended—then knelt to tie his shoe before standing back up, hands on his hips.

“Maybe this would be a good time to take thirty for lunch,” the director said, eyeing Linc warily.

Halle-fuckin-lujah. Linc didn’t need to be told twice. Snagging his helmet from the ground, he made his way to where Nora and Sophie sat.

They both beamed at him as he approached, but it was, of course, Nora who spoke. “It’s very exciting to watch you work.”

He threw her a wry smile. “Liar.”

She burst out laughing. “Okay, you caught me,” she admitted after recovering herself. “It’s boring as hell.”

Linc ran a hand over his head pondering his moral dilemma. He hated to see them go but hated even more that they were bored. “You guys should head out and I’ll meet you back at the hotel.”

“I hate to desert you.”

He caught her forlorn glance toward the exit of the lot and laughed, “Go on. Get out of here. God only knows how much longer this is going to take. I’ll text the driver and tell him to take you wherever you want to go.”

She looked up at him with her beautiful, bright-green eyes, hesitating before saying, “Well, only if you’re sure.”

“Positive.”

With that reassurance she couldn’t stand from her chair fast enough.

Once Nora and Sophie headed off, Linc pulled his phone out to text the driver. It was then a fragment of conversation reached his ears.

“…fine ass.”

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