Page 113 of He's The Reason Why

“And you like her.” She said it so matter-of-factly he couldn’t deny it.

He more than liked her. He couldn’t get enough of her. “Yes. Like I said. She’s nice.”

“So what’s the problem?”

He took a sip of wine. “There’s no problem.”

Mom huffed in exasperation. “There are frown lines in between your eyes and when I walked in you were staring wistfully out the window. It’s Christmas Eve. It’s the perfect night to spill your guts to your mother.”

She shut her computer and waited expectantly.

He wanted to be with Piper right now so much his feet itched to walk out the door and go to her.

“I miss her, and I shouldn’t.” The words came out with surprising intensity, like the pressure had been building up for weeks. “It’s a distraction.”

“What’s wrong with a little distraction?” He could hear the fondness in his mother’s voice.

“I don’t have time for it.” He took another long drink of wine and rubbed the back of his neck. “I start shooting in less than three weeks. I’m already over budget, and it feels like we’re behind schedule when we haven’t even started.”

She laughed. “Welcome to the dark side of directing, son. We have cookies and T-shirts.”

He paced over to the bar and put the wine glass down. “Set design for the buddy scene isn’t going to be done until after we’re scheduled to shoot it. We have twenty more people on the crew than I planned on. Post is telling me if I don’t finish by March, they won’t have time to get it wrapped before the drop date, and I still don’t have a lead girl.”

There was more, but he clamped his mouth shut. It wasn’t helping to spit out his to-do list. He’d just said the most important thing on it, anyway. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew what the real problem was.

He just didn’t want to admit it out loud to his mother.

Mom watched him with calm eyes. “Son, this is what it feels like to be in charge. You’ll get used to it, I promise. But don’t let a temporary problem get in the way of what’s really important.”

He gave her a quizzical look.

“Relationships. Family. Friends.Lovers.” She gave him a frank stare. “Why haven’t you cast the female lead?”

He could see where she was going like an oncoming train, and he was determined to derail her. “Scheduling conflicts. Pregnancy. No time to learn lines. Tons of bad matches. Nobody’s been right for the part, that’s all. It’s fine. I’ll get it done.”

“Nobody? Really?” She drew out the word. “Not even a certain adorable brunette with a dimple that could slay dragons?”

There it was. The suggestion he’d known was coming because Marshall had said the same thing. “We can’t cast Piper.”

“Why the hell not? She has that country-girl-next-door vibe that can’t be manufactured or faked. It’s a natural, ingrained, wholesome quality that’s hard to find in LA so why the hell wouldn’t you grab onto it?”

“I’ll tell you what I told Marshall. We’ve spent a lot of time together lately, and I’m too close to her. It wouldn’t be right.”

“What do you mean?” She scrunched up her face like she was trying to solve a particularly difficult math equation. “It wouldn’t be right because what, you think you can’t be friends with your actors?”

“Sure. I try to be friendly with everyone on set. This is more than that.”

“Ah. Youlikeher.” She gave him a questioning look. “Sweetheart, do you love this girl?”

“No. I don’t know. Maybe.” He ran his fingers through his hair, all the frustration bubbling up and over. “I keep picturing her in my life, and I like the way it looks. The way it feels.”

Mom tilted her head, and a soft smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “Have you told her that?”

“Of course not.”

“Why not?”

“We were working together. Then she left town for the holidays. She’s at some inn in upstate New York with her sisters.”

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