Page 80 of Stone Promises

She nods sadly. “Well, you can’t blame a girl for trying. I’m glad you’re happy, Thad.”

The stern knock on the door tells us we can’t wait any longer. I get up and head across the room. “Thanks. You’ll find someone to be happy with too, Courtney. See you on set?”

“Yeah. See you on set.” I walk through the door, but she calls me back. “Thad!” She throws something at me and I catch it before it pelts me in the head. “Don’t eat any onions today, okay?”

I look at the spearmint gum she threw at me and laugh. Then I smile back at her before walking away. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

~ ~ ~

It’s been a long day. The first day of filming usually is. All the bugs are getting worked out. Mallory has been getting quite an education watching everything. She’s been careful to be nothing more than a fly on the wall, taking great precautions not to be seen nor heard while still getting to hang out with me as much as possible. Which has been maybe ten minutes outside of lunchtime. Noreen and Hayden are on set today but don’t have as busy a schedule as Courtney and I do, so they’ve been keeping Mal company.

I take a moment to be with her while they are setting up for our kissing scene. Our stand-ins are being used to make sure the lighting is good. I take a stick of gum from my pocket and pop it in my mouth. Mal watches my every move.

She sighs. “I think I’d prefer if you just have pizza breath.”

I laugh. I pull her into a corner of the room. I tuck my body over hers and lean into her. “It’s just acting, Mallory. You’re the one who gets therealme.” I kiss her long and hard so she knows every word is true.

“Places!” I hear called out behind me.

Mal smiles, popping the gum she just stole from my mouth. “Go do your job,” she says. “I’ll keep this for you until later.”

Our set has been made to look like an old cabin we’ve found to hole up in. We’ve used all the resources in it and Courtney and I have a fight over whether to stay or find someplace new. Then Hayden’s character comes barging through the door. He’s my enemy and he’s been following us to try and figure out where the safe zone is so he can rob it. We have to hide in a closet and that’s where we kiss. I give the performance of my life. Hell, we might even end up winning best kiss of the year.

When the scene is over, I find Mal sitting outside the set on a curb. We’ve wrapped for the day so I’ve been cleared to leave. I sit down next to her, both of us silent.

“You didn’t have to make it look so darn real,” she pouts. “I mean, it was . . . wow, it was—”

“I know it was. I did it on purpose.” She looks at me with confused eyes. “Do you want to know why?” I ask.

She nods.

“I only wanted to have to kiss her one time, Mal. I didn’t want my lips on her any longer than necessary. So when I closed my eyes, I pretended she was you because you are the only person I ever want to be kissing. I knew that if I looked like I do when I kiss you, it would look incredible. Because every kiss with you is just that. So, yeah, I made it a good one. But in doing so, I made sure it was theonlyone.”

She slips her hand around my elbow and leans her head into my shoulder. “Thank you,” she says, relieved. “Now can you go wash that woman off of you so I can havemyturn?”

~ ~ ~

We finally get a day off with a week of filming under our belt. As it so happens, Julian is in town staying with Ana this week. He was able to come on set for a day and hang out with Mal. I felt bad there wasn’t more interesting filming for him to watch, it was mostly re-shoots of stuff they wanted changed.

Today I’m making up for a lot of lost time. Mallory and I picked up Megan and her friend, Alyssa, and then headed to my parents’ place on the coast to meet Julian, Ana, Hayden, and Noreen for a beach day. Their house in Santa Monica has several hundred feet of coastline, with a long wooden stairway weaving down from their house through the rocks that line the dunes. It’s a lot of fucking steps. One hundred and five of them. I’ve counted them more times than I can remember. And Megan navigated them all. She’s a freaking rock star.

When we first moved out here, I was sixteen and Kyle was fifteen. It was pretty much a dream house for kids. My parents gave Kyle and me the guest house above the garage, so it was like we had our own little apartment. Hell, it’s paradise here. And the only reason I moved out when I turned eighteen was that I had started using and didn’t want my family to see everything that went along with it. I was a stupid shit.

I’m amused by Megan’s friend, Alyssa, as she tries her best not to get all fangirl around me. Usually when I hang out with Megan, it’s just us. Or now, us and Mal. But I didn’t want her to feel left out today with all the couples, so I asked her to bring a friend. I see Alyssa trying to discreetly take a picture of me, so I get up and walk over to her. “Alyssa, how about having Megan take a picture of us?”

“Oh, my gosh, really?” she says, blushing.

“Sure. And I don’t think the others would mind being in a few either.”

Hayden, Ana, Noreen and I spend the next few minutes posing with Alyssa so she gets her pictures.

“That was very nice of you,” Mallory says when I lie down on the towel next to hers.

“Sometimes I find it best to just get it all out of the way so we can try and have a normal day.”

“Well, you just made that girl’s year,” she says.

I give her an incredulous look. “If that’s true, it would be kind of sad.”

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