Page 31 of He's The Reason Why

Forty-five minutes later he pounded on Marshall’s trailer door twice, then let himself in.

The place was cozy and comfortable, with light wood floors, white walls, and two red sofas facing each other with a walkway down the middle. A large TV with a game system attached mounted above one, a picture window above the other. There wasa kitchenette with a fridge, microwave, sink, and bar, and a large bathroom/closet/dressing room at the back.

“About time.” Marshall paused the basketball game he was playing and glanced up. “Why are you wearing your psychopath smile?”

Blake worked his jaw to ease the muscles. “I have a psychopath smile?”

“Yeah. The bottom half of your face looks happy but your eyes say you want to murder someone. What’s up?”

Blake collapsed onto the sofa next to Marshall with a sigh of relief. He hadn’t realized just how tense he’d been until right this second. “Piper. Bellamy.”

“What did she do now?” Marshall peered at him suspiciously. “Why do you sound like you’ve been gargling shards of glass?”

“Because that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing.” He fished another lozenge out of his pocket. “I’m trapped in musical boot camp and she’s the drill sergeant. The woman just doesn’t know when to quit.”

“Oh really. Sounds familiar. Pretty sure I’ve heard this song before.” Marshall unpaused the game and guided his player down the court. “At least she’s a sexy drill sergeant.”

“She comes across all nice with her soft little Southern drawl and those puppy dog eyes, until she gets you behind a microphone and turns into Mussolini. She’s a dictator with a nice…voice.”

Marshall took a shot and missed. “Sure you weren’t going to say ass?”

“We don’t have time to beat these songs to death. I’m trying to keep my cool but it’s not easy.” Just thinking about the last conversation with Piper brought all the irritation he’d felt bubbling back to the surface. “I swear she’s doing this on purpose. It’s sadistic.”

Marshall kicked his feet up on the coffee table and leanedback. “You think you have it bad. Try having to do a love scene with a woman you slept with once and then never called.”

“Wasn’t that over two years ago?” Blake remembered Marshall and Ciara working onIt Takes Two. It was a rom-com with several up-close-and-personal scenes, which often led to a little side action. It was hard to separate the on-screen from the off sometimes, but he could have told her it wouldn’t last. His friend wasn’t the settling-down type. “Surely she’s over it by now.”

Marshall grimaced. “She’s got a long memory, man. A long, long,longmemory.”

“Did you apologize? Girls like that.”

“Yeah, of course. Didn’t help. Get this.” His friend shifted on the couch so they were semi-facing each other. “The first love scene, I go in for the kiss and she turns her head to the side and bites my ear. I yelp in surprise, then she grabs my face and kind of does one of those kiss-bite combo deals. The director loved it, but look at this. She drew blood and everything.”

Marshall pointed to his ear lobe, where Blake could see a small, fresh scab. “The director keeps saying how great our chemistry is, but I’m telling you it’s not sexual. It’s homicidal.”

“Told you it’s a bad idea to get mixed up with a co-lead. It always ends badly. Just look at my parents. Besides, my situation is a lot worse. We’ve been in that studio for five days straight. Five. Days. And after making us sing the song for the thousandth time, Piper accusedmeof not working hard enough. Me.”

“I can see how you would find that as painful as losing a piece of flesh off your ear.” Marshall looked unimpressed. “Did I mention that Ciara is sleeping with Zach? He’s playing my best friend, so she sees him as my competition or something. She’s across the way doing him right now for spite.”

“Piper said I didn’t put any heart into the song.” That comment had been out of line. He picked up the game controllerto distract himself. “I’mallheart. I know my character inside and out. IamJesse.”

“Every time I’m close enough to Ciara, she whispers critiques about my lovemaking skills. We only did it once, but according to her I’m the worst lay she’s ever had.” Marshall snorted. “No chance of that.”

Blake unpaused the game, ran the digital player down the court, and scored. Fake crowd noise cheered him on.

“It’s not right that you play pretend basketball as good as you do the real thing,” Marshall said.

“Practice, man. That’s all it is.” Blake went up and down the court twice before he said what was really on his mind. “She asked me if it was the best I could do.”

Marshall whistled. “Damn. She sure found your button.”

“Yeah.” His throat tickled. He handed the controller back to Marshall and dug out another lozenge. At this rate, he’d go through the entire box in an hour. “These things taste like being punched in the face.”

Marshall peered at them. “They aren’t drugs, are they?”

“Piper gave them to me for my throat. Probably part of her plan to torture me.” He passed the box to Marshall.

“Throat lozenges for the serious singer.” He snorted a laugh and looked up. “Sure you should be eating these?”

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