Page 30 of He's The Reason Why

He returned her glare with interest. He had never, in his entire career, half-assed a project. “We can’t—” His throat stuck. He tried to clear it, but the gravel dug in and refused to budge. He resorted to a semi-whisper instead of the firm retort he wanted. “We can’t keep doing this. Wehaveto move forward.”

She closed her eyes and appeared to be counting under her breath. When she spoke, she sounded tired for the first time since he’d met her. “Go home, Blake. Stop talking. I’ll see you Monday.”

“I’m not coming in on Monday,” he said with absolute conviction. “I don’t care if you send your flying monkeys to get me, I’m not setting foot in this studio.”

“My flying…” She flushed. “I thought you wanted to be done with this.”

“I do.” He leaned in. “Believe me. But I’m busy Monday.”

Her hands curled into claws like she was thinking about strangling him. “Fine. Tuesday.”

Piper crossed to the door, then paused.

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “You know, when you told me how horrible my read was, I didn’t argue with you. I listened to what you said. I took your advice, and I worked on it until I did it better. You’d think you could do me the same courtesy. I can’t sing this duet by myself.”

She pushed open the door and walked out without another look back.

His anger collapsed in her wake. The sudden silence in the room drove home her point more effectively than anything she’d said or done, and he was left feeling about two inches tall.

He thought about going after her, but it wouldn’t do any good.

What would he say? He was trying to hold the character in his head, but she kept knocking him out of it every time she said “start over.”

He might be good, but she created vocal magic, and he knew the difference.

If his performance wasn’t up to her standards, well, her standards were just…dammit.

He was making excuses. Reasonable, easy-to-understand, justifiable excuses.

Deep down, he knew he could do better. He just didn’t know how.

The fact that she was right poked a nerve. So did the fact that shehadlistened to his advice. She’d done short read-throughs every day with him, and she’d improved so much he almost couldn’t believe she’d been that stilted on her first day.

“Blake?” Jeanette said over the intercom. “Are you two going to dinner? Should I come back later?”

Jeanette was in her early twenties and had the stamina and bright-eyed enthusiasm of someone who was new to the business.

He gave her a tired smile. “No. We’re calling it quits for theday, and we’re taking tomorrow and Monday off. We’ll see you Tuesday, okay?”

“Sounds good.” Jeanette clicked off, paused, then clicked back on. “Just so you know, I thought you were great today.”

Her hopeful smile lifted his mood a little. “Thanks, J. You’ve been awesome hanging out here with us this whole time.”

“It’s what I’m here for.” Jeanette gave him a quizzical look. “Hey, are you okay? You don’t sound so good.”

He pointed at his throat. “A little overworked, I think.” It came out barely above a whisper.

“Oh. Yeah, you should rest your voice. That’s the money maker.” Jeanette gave him a thumbs-up. “See you Tuesday.”

He gave her a wave, then pulled his phone out of his back pocket and tapped out a quick text to Marshall.Where R U

On set. Never leaving. May die here,Marshall sent back.

Today was the last day of shooting for Marshall’s current project,The Other Man. The rom-com featured his friend as the lead, alongside Ciara Rodriquez and Zach Martin. Blake had worked with both before, and he’d wanted to stop by and say hi, but that idea had slipped to the back burner whenScorchedand Piper had taken over his life.

He could go home, put his feet up, sit in silence, and rest his voice like Piper told him to do, or he could go check in with Marshall and follow up on the latest script changes and maybe sort out a few scheduling details.

It wasn’t a tough call.

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