Page 71 of Guarding the Singer

PART IX

For a few days, Selene was living a charmed life, so much so that she was starting to look around behind doors, searching for trouble. The mishaps that she'd learned about had scared her to within an inch of her life, but once they'd discovered her dressing room at Lincoln Center torn to shreds, nothing had happened.

Nothing.

On set, she was struggling to be present and now since she knew what might have happened, that was her constant fear.

Thank goodness she hadn't had many scenes to film. Sitting in her new dressing room, located in the make-up trailer, Selene was reading through herscript, trying to make sure she had her lines ready and her blocking memorized.

It wasn't anyone else's fault that she was struggling.

"Hey."

She jumped at the word, almost launching herself out of her chair.

"Oh my god, girl! What's wrong?"

Selene almost burst into tears she was so relieved.

"Cali!"

"Of course it's me!" She rushed right up to Selene and hugged her tight. "Oh my god, you look so beautiful!"

Selene shook her head, dashing the back of her hands against her cheeks to stop the tears from falling. "I look like hell!"

Selene sat back in her chair with Cali's help and before she could melt off more of her makeup off, Cali started to blot her face with tissues.

"Oh, honey." Cali was rubbing her back. "What's going on?"

Selene lifted her gaze and met Cali's and tears threatened to fall again. "Would it make sense if I said, I have no idea?"

Cali blew out a breath and then gave Selene an infectious smile.

"I totally get why Hotstuff called me."

Selene sat up and widened her eyes at her friend. "Will called you?"

Cali raised a brow at her. "Will?" She grinned and it almost looked like an impish expression. "What does he call you? Baby? Sweetie? Honey bear?"

"Sel." Just saying it brought the memory of his voice into her thoughts. "He calls me Sel. And Beautiful."

"Oh boy." Cali fanned herself with her hand. "Swoon!"

"It's crazy, right? I spend that one day with him in DC. Then almost two years of texts, some calls? I thought that we'd kind of... I don't know."

Cali's expression softened. "I know how much you thought about him and if I'm any judge of people, he was thinking of you, too. This whole thing on set? I would be freaking out if I didn't know Hotstuff and his friends were on the case. Boy howdy, you really lucked out on the bodyguard lottery."

Lottery?

Selene laughed silently, her shoulders rising and falling. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss on Cali's cheek. "I'm so glad you're here."

"That makes two of us." She gestured at the script. "What's going on today?"

Selene held it out to her. "You can read the scene if you like."

Cali took the script out of her hands and read a few of the lines silently to herself.

Then she looked up and waggled her eyebrows. "Oh, this is cool."