Page 30 of Wrapped in You

Sophie tilted her head. Was he opening up to her? Why would he do that?

And what did she feel about it?

"I mean, I'm not a native Californian," Derek hurried to add. His eyes burned into hers. "I'm a small-town guy. Or I was."

Sophie was too captivated to speak. She bit her lower lip and tried to imagine Derek as he once had been—a man from a small town with buckets of dreams.

Maybe I would have turned evil if I'd lost someone I'd loved, too.

Well, Jeremy did break up with me pretty harshly. That didn't turn me "evil."

It did alienate me from ideas of love, though.

Suddenly, the crowd parted, and Cara breezed through, buttoning her peacoat and looking at Derek with a strange gleam in her eyes. She was frightened, Sophie realized. She wouldn't trust Derek again for a while. Maybe she never would again.

"Hey," she said as she approached him.

Derek raised his plate of pancakes. "Hey. You have to try these."

Cara looked down at the pancakes as though they might bite her. "Maybe later. Can we talk in your trailer?"

"Sure," Derek said. He then glanced back at Sophie as though he wanted to say something else. He muttered, "Thanks," then sped off, guiding Cara past the sound guys and cameras to the trailer into which he'd disappeared yesterday.

A sharp blast of cold wind went through the set. Sophie zipped her coat all the way to her chin and crossed her arms over her chest. For a moment, she closed her eyes and filled her lungs. But when she opened them again, she found Jeremy peering at her curiously from between two cameras. The minute she spotted him, he raised a hand to wave.

But already, more cast and crew members lined up at the catering table for pancakes and syrup. Sophie busied herself in her job, praying that Jeremy's watchful eyes would move elsewhere.

Throughout the chaos of the morning, Sophie made more than four hundred pancakes and sent Randy to the grocery store for more syrup twice.

Lunch was even crazier than breakfast.

"I can't believe these people are still hungry after the pancakes," Randy grumbled.

But Sophie just laughed. "We work in catering. It's up to us to serve these people till they're full!"

"I don't think it's possible for them to be full," Randy groaned.

Luckily, Fiona and Piper swung by during the lunch rush to give Randy and Sophie much-needed assistance. It was such a panicked time of sandwich-making and soup-pouring and coffee-making and snack-fetching that Sophie nearly missed Derek and Cara when they swung by for theirs. Again, Derek's eyes seemed so tender and soft, and he caught Sophie's gaze for a split second longer than normal. A shiver went down Sophie's spine.

Cara interrupted Sophie's daydream. "You still up for a drink after work today?"

Sophie turned to look at Cara with surprise. She'd forgotten Cara had asked to buy her a thank-you drink over the phone.

"That sounds great," Sophie said. "I have to take everything back to headquarters after we finish today, but I'll be ready after that."

Derek glanced from Cara to Sophie and back again, as though he wasn't sure what to make of their budding friendship.

"Hey, Derek?" The assistant director hurried over, touching his headpiece. "We have an issue."

Derek and Cara excused themselves and went with the assistant director to put out another metaphorical fire.

"Soph?"

Sophie nearly jumped out of her skin. She hadn't realized Randy was right behind her. Laughing, she said, "What's up?" and touched her hair nervously.

"Remember, we have to talk about the Christmas Festival today," Randy said.

Sophie snapped her fingers. Did I really let myself forget about the Christmas Festival?

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