Page 9 of To the Moon and Back

Carly stole another glance. The really, really hot kind you madeout with before summer ended.

Chapter Three

Over the course of the next week, several things became clear toLauren. Number one: Carly Daniel was single-handedly breathing life into eachscene without much help from Evelyn Tate, who was still holding back, andturning in a stiff interpretation of Mandy. Number two: Carly Daniel wasproving herself to be a total thorn in Lauren’s side. She was chronically lateand had twice now organized the cast into a late-night gathering at the bardown the street, leaving them all slower and hungover the next day. She hadn’tmemorized any of her lines and didn’t seem to care about simple requests likereturning a prop to the prop table when not in use. Number three: she was,conversely, always upbeat, positive, and actually kind of fun to have around.Sigh. Carly Daniel was an interesting problem to have.

“Hey, Lauren?”

“Yep?” Lauren said, looking up from her production binder to seeCarly standing next to her with an anticipatory grin. She had some slightblocking corrections to add to her notes, based on the changes Ethan had madeat that day’s rehearsal, and hadn’t even heard her approach.

Carly slid a strand of hair behind her ear and flashed the dimplethat resided in her right cheek. “I was wondering if you wanted to come outwith us tonight? Everyone’s going to meet at Put Upon Pete’s for mangomartinis. My treat.”

Oh, man, she hated having to shoot people down, but that outingwasn’t in her best interest. She would celebrate with everyone at the closingparty. “Very nice of you, but I have to decline.” The reply was automatic.There was probably a goodDatelinewaiting for her and a warm bowl of popcorn. She looked back down at her binder,prepared to jump back into work.

“Why?”

She glanced back up at Carly. Lauren hadn’t been prepared for thequestion. Did she have to explain herself, include theDatelinebit? Shestared at Carly, who blinked back at her with big, sad blue eyes. Those eyeswere incredibly hard to argue with. It became apparent that this woman wasn’tmoving from her spot until Lauren gave her more.

“It’s been a long week. I need to decompress.”

Carly nodded. “But it’s Saturday. No rehearsal tomorrow. Do it.Come be bad with us.”

She sighed. “I’m not sure it’s always the best idea to fraternizewith the cast. It’s better for a stage manager to keep a professional distancewhen possible.”

“But it’s not possible, because your lead wants to see you minglein a really bad way.” Carly knelt next to Lauren, which showcased the dip ofcleavage down the front of her aqua-blue ribbed tunic. Well, that wascertainly…attention getting. She quickly glanced away out of respect, but hereyes apparently did what they wanted and slowly drifted back. She was going tohell for this. She’d never objectified an actor before. She had more controlthan that! What was happening? “So, what do you say?” Carly asked.

Lauren blinked and opened her mouth to try to answer. Didn’t go sowell.

“What’s happening right now?” Carly furrowed her brow and followedLauren’s gaze, glanced down at her shirt, then slowly back to Lauren witheyebrows raised and an intrigued look on her face. Nope, now it was amusement.“Okay. Okay,” she said quietly, like the cat who’d gleefully found the stash ofcatnip. “I see.”

“What?” Lauren asked, doing her best to play it off. “I don’tthink there’s anything to see.”

“No?” Carly asked.

Lauren shook her head. Her face felt hot, and she reached for herwater bottle, pretending to study the group in conversation across the roomfrom her table. Yep, something important was clearly going on over there thatneeded her attention. She needed to make sure all was well. There could be afist-fight at any moment. Inside, she berated herself for being highlyunprofessional, and weak to boot. No wine gulping for her later. She wasgrounded from the gulp.

“Martinis, then?” Carly asked, standing again.

Lauren glanced back at Carly as if she was an afterthought. “Yeah,I guess I could stop by Pete’s.” What in the world had she just said? Damn it.Yet there had been no other choice but to give Carly what she wanted, or she’dnever go away. In that moment, Lauren was so mortified by her own behavior thatshe desperately needed Carly to walk away and give her a moment to breathe andexperience the unrelenting self-recrimination in peace. Luckily, she did justthat.

Tops of tan breasts were hard to scrub from one’s brain,apparently. Lauren knew firsthand. The fact that Carly had likely come by themby sunbathing topless was an image she probably shouldn’t imagine. Yet she damnwell did, to traitorous response from her body. She spent the rest of rehearsaltrying to stop that image from infiltrating her brain. Failure struck. Hermouth was chronically dry, and her temperature remained warm. Lauren focused onher job as best she could, but one thing was clear. Carly affected her and notalways for the good. She also hadn’t had sex in over seventeen months, so maybethat played in to things a bit. Not like she was counting or anything.

Once everyone had left for the day, Lauren and Trip put the roomback together, moving bits of stand-in rehearsal scenery back to their assignedspots in the room. Though the rehearsal studio belonged entirely to TheMcAllister, so no production except forStarryNightswould use it, it was important to keep the room in topcondition for when they arrived back to work on Monday. “Hey, I’ve got therehearsal report pretty much ready to send. Can you update our end times andprojected daily for Monday?”

“On it,” Trip said. “You going to Pete’s? Carly’s throwing anotherbash. Say yes. She’s a lot of fun.”

“That’s what TMZ says.”

“Don’t be uptight, Lala. You can have fun, too. There’s no law. Ichecked.”

She sighed. “Fine. Nine tonight, right?” She was trying to come upwith some way to get out of this thing. Court TV was back, and they likely hada killer to put on the witness stand. She wouldn’t want to miss crucialtestimony from a killer. She mentally winced at her own line of thinking. God,she’d become boring. A lonely little shut-in.

“She says nine, but no one will be there until ten.”

“Ten? Is she trying to kill me?” she squeaked. “I’m agrandmotherly thing.”

“You’re thirty-one, Lala, and no one’s nanny. Carly Daniel is agirl who knows how to turn it up, and you could use a little of that in yourlife.” He sat on top of the table and did the gesture he did with his handsthat said she had to hear this. “You should have been there Friday night. Sheliterally danced on the bar. It was all over Instagram, and then Perez Hiltonjumped on the bandwagon and ran a story with the photos. Not your typicalMcAllister kind of coverage.”

“Wait. She danced on the bar at Put Upon Pete’s?” Lauren wasn’tsure she’d ever seen anyone dance on the bar at Pete’s. “It’s not really thattype of place.”

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