Page 23 of He's The Reason Why

Christmas at Belhurst would be a lot of fun if the movie premiere didn’t interfere. She’d have to ask Tamar if she knew thepremiere date because there was no way she would miss the red carpet. She’d been picturing that moment for over two years.

Another unheard voice mail taunted her. She was actually surprised Della hadn’t left a dozen or more after how this morning had gone.

“She probably wants to psyche me out. Make me think she’s backing off so she can pounce later,” she told her phone.

She eyed the voice memo like it was a snake in tall weeds. Then she sighed and hit Play.

“Pipsqueak, pick up the phone. I know you’re avoiding me.”

Piper hit Pause. “No, I’m not avoiding you, I’m busy. I have a life, you know.”

She shook her head at how ridiculous that was and hit Play again.

“I’m sorry, my timing sucks. It really does, I know that. Look, I’m not going to push you or anything.”

Piper barked out a laugh at that. Della wouldn’t know hownotto push. It was a foreign concept to her.

“I’m not going to even bring it up again, so there’s no need to keep ditching my calls. Let me take you out to breakfast Sunday to make up for it. We can grab Mattie and go to The Flower Pot. Wait, no we can’t. Mattie’s heading to the island this weekend. Anyways, we can do something just the two of us. I want to hear all about your first week in actual production. What’s it like? Is Blake Ryan as ridiculously hot as he looks on screen? Call me back. Let me know about Sunday.”

“Della, Della, Della.”

Piper leaned back and closed her eyes. She loved her sisters. But she didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to deal with Della today, and judging by how the day had gone, she wouldn’t have it for the next three months.

She put the phone down and pulled out the script. There hadn’t been enough time to really analyze what her charactershould be feeling, though she’d done her best to figure it out on the fly with a lot of prodding from Blake.

She already knew what the first two scenes should be. She flipped ahead to the third and fourth. Jewel and Jesse were being chased by minions of the evil sorcerer until they were deep in the forest, where they had to cross the raging river. They had a fight over exactly how to do that, of course, with his magic compass providing snide commentary and her magic map insisting they go in what they both thought was the wrong direction.

The next three scenes were basically more of the same, with mounting tension along the way as they got closer to the dragon’s lair.

What emotions went along with all that?

She tried to picture the scenes, but all her tired brain would show her was the smirk on Blake’s face. He made her so…so…she’d never met someone who had irritated her so much so quickly. It had taken Della years of constant living to tie her into knots like that.

An alert buzzed on her phone announcing an incoming face chat with her agent, Neil Calahan. She’d expected his call thirty minutes ago. The man had an uncanny ability to sense when a gig ended, and he always wanted details because, as he put it, it takes a lot of underwater action to move the duck.

She hit Accept, and his face popped up on the screen. He looked pleased with himself and extremely smug about something.

“Hey, Neil. What’s up?”

“I’m at your gate. Buzz me in? I have gossip, and I have drunken noodles from Pailin.” He singsonged the name of the restaurant to emphasize the temptation. “And if that’s not enough, I also have red velvet banana pudding from Magnolia.”

Her mouth instantly salivated at the mention of her favorite comfort foods. “Did you bring spring rolls?”

He tsked. “Of course. What kind of friend do you take me for?”

“It was silly of me. How could I ever doubt you.” She grinned. “Point me at the gate.”

The gate guard, Romi, former Israeli military turned bodyguard and head of security, raised a dark eyebrow. “You want me to let in this horrible person who just gave me a dozen cookies? I told him I cannot be bribed but he insisted you would say yes.”

Piper laughed. “Yes, let him through. I hope he brought you the double chocolate chip. If he didn’t, feel free to send him back out.”

From off-screen, she heard Neil protest, “As if I would bring anything less.”

Romi wrinkled her nose, then broke into a smile. “He knew better than to show up without double chocolate. Next time, I would like to try the macadamia nut explosion. I hear good things about that one.”

“Anything for you, my sweet desert rose.” Neil spun the phone around so Piper could see his face. “Be right in.”

He clicked off.

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