Page 109 of The Backup Bride Proposal

“Right,” the actress said. “Because you couldn’t be here for me. You never have been before. Why start now?”

She started to walk away but Kane grabbed her wrist. “That’s not true and you know it.”

“And, cut,” Alexis said. The actress threw her arms around Kane, who lifted her up and swung her around.

Then recognition hit. That was Everly Sloane, the actress Mae had been standing in for.

The woman was the same height and build as Mae, with the same dark hair. From the back she and Mae could almost be twins. No wonder they had asked her to be a backup for Everly.

They were obviously busy and had a lot of scenes to catch up on, so Mae turned to leave.

“Mae!”

She stopped, pivoted and put on a smile as Kane—along with Everly—made his way toward her.

“Sorry to disturb the filming. They didn’t tell me I wasn’t needed.”

“It’s okay. And I’m sorry about that. Everly flew in yesterday and surprised all of us by showing up on set this morning. Everly Sloane, this is Mae Wallace. Mae has been working as your stand-in for some scenes while we were waiting on you.”

Everly smiled brightly and shook Mae’s hand. “Thanks so much for doing that, Mae. I put the whole production in a bind while I finished up my last movie. I’m so glad they could count on you to help out.”

“Me, too. And it was fun. I’m not in the movie business so it was kind of a blast. I’m very happy you’re here, though, so I can get back to my other job.”

“Mae works for the wedding business here,” Kane said.

“Oh, wow,” Everly said. “You’ve really been doubling up. I’m sorry we took up so much of your time on my account.”

“It’s fine. It wasn’t a lot.”

“Well, I still feel like I owe you.” She paused, then said, “Oh, we should have dinner. We’ll even let Kane come along.”

Mae didn’t know what to say, so she looked at Kane, who grinned.

“Sounds great,” he said. “Mae?”

She shrugged. “Sure. Thanks.”

“Awesome. Let me get your number and I’ll text you about a time.”

They exchanged numbers, and then Mae excused herself to head back to work.

Okay, that was weird. Everly was super friendly. Was that genuine? She had no idea. She supposed she’d find out tonight.

In the meantime, she had work to do.

••••••

Kane had agreat day of filming. It was awesome having Everly there. They had always worked well together, and she was always prepared, just like him, so they knocked out four scenes in perfect takes, which made Alexis super happy, especially since they were behind schedule due to Everly’s late arrival.

The first thing she had done was apologize to the cast and crew for her delayed arrival and promised she’d work fast and make up the time. After she and Kane had worked their scenes, she did a couple more scenes with other actors.

The one thing Kane had always known about Everly was that she worked hard. They’d be caught up in no time.

Everly had texted both him and Mae after she finished filming to say she was ready to eat if they were, so Kane told her they could meet and pick up Mae. Mae texted back to let them know she was ready anytime.

“I am so hungry,” Everly said, climbing into the front seat of his car. He hadn’t had a chance to tell Everly about his relationship with Mae, and asking her to sit in the back seat seemed rude, so he let it go, figuring Mae wouldn’t care.

He pulled up in front of the main house.

---