Page 74 of Love At First Fright
“You’re looking all loved up.” They smirked, handing her a cup of tea.
“I could say the same to you. How’s Jenna doing?”
Lyn spluttered. “Who? The actress? I—I barely know her.”
“That was very convincing,” Rosemary said drily. “Do you want to try that again?”
Lyn grinned. “I guess I’m not good at being subtle. We spent the weekend together, Rosemary, it was so romantic. Give me one more date and I think I’ll fall in love.”
“That’s quick.”
“Oh, I’m sure you of all people know what that’s like.”
Now it was Rosemary’s turn to splutter and flush red. “No I don’t.”
“Sure, sure.” Lyn winked. “Jenna told me about the whole situation, you know. Ellis has himself in a real pickle.”
Rosemary thought back to the phone conversation she’d overheard Ellis having with his agent back in the cottage, and the way Ellis had been so quiet and down afterwards. She knew there was something he wasn’t telling her, something that made him ashamed enough to agree to the scheme, but what?
“Did she say anything about why he does it?” Rosemary asked Lyn carefully, under her breath.
“No, she doesn’t know. But she did say that Brody, their agent, is a real asshole.”
Ellis walked past them, smiling at Rosemary in the way that had his eyes crinkling at the corners, leaving her insides all mushy, and sat down in his makeup chair nearby for a touch-up.
“Will you stay on set once we head to London?” Lyn asked, pulling out their tablet to look at Rosemary’s calendar. “I see you have a few events at bookshops, so I wasn’t sure. But I’ll be around on set anyway doing general PA stuff if you need me.”
“I might pop in now and again, but I’m more here as a spectator. Now that I…well…now that I know the acting and filming are in safe hands, I’m sort of excited just to let it all happen, you know? That way, there’s still an element of mystery for me so I can get excited about seeing the film all edited together.”
“Hmm, I get that,” Lyn said. “What about when the filming is done, what will you do then?”
Rosemary noticed that from his makeup chair, Ellis had stopped chatting to Tania, his makeup artist, mid-sentence. His body had gone still, as if he were waiting to hear what she said.
Whatwouldshe do then? Rosemary could pretend like shehadn’t given it much thought, but the truth was it had been playing on her mind since they’d returned from the cottage.
This thing between her and Ellis was certainly a whirlwind, but that didn’t make it any less real. When she thought about returning to New York, unpacking her boxes from storage into another squeeze of an apartment, going back to her same rounds of the park, looking out at the hustle and bustle that no longer enticed her, it was all grey and uninviting.
She supposed she could stay in Blossom Ridge, but the town would feel too small for her soon enough and she’d spend half her time hiding on the farm so that she didn’t run into people from high school. To them, she’d always be the girl who lost her mom and moved away.
But London? Even the word filled her with a glowing warmth. The city wasn’t new to her, and the idea of living there felt more like a return home than a fresh start. Ellis had asked her to come and stay with him until the end of the shoot. As if they were testing the waters for something serious. The idea of waking up every morning with Ellis, being in the same city as her closest friends, the libraries and bookstores and museums that she loved—it all shimmered in her mind. Almost too good to be true, a dream that might smash if she didn’t handle it gently.
“I don’t know yet,” she said. “I’ll be going back to Georgia to see my dad over the holidays, so I’ll see what happens after that.” She reckoned she sounded absurdly vague, but if Ellis was listening, she didn’t want to spook him by saying she was thinking about moving to London, especially since she hadn’t fully decided. She had to focus on getting her draft written, too; that needed to be her focus right now.
—
The following morning, Rosemary wasawake just beforedawn, pulling on a warm sweater in advance of another morning bird-watching dog walk with Ellis. She opened her door, choking on a scream as Juliet stood outside her door, hands on her hips.
“A line of salt? Really, that is so rude.”
“I nearly ran right through you!” Rosemary gasped.
“Well, that would have been unpleasant for you, wouldn’t it? But not nearly as annoying as it has been forme,having to wait out here for you to wake up.” Juliet grumbled until Rosemary relented and scuffed a break in the salt line, allowing Juliet to step into her room. She was extra glad now that she’d thought to make the salt line, as having Juliet burst into her room in the middle of the night would have scared the living daylights out of her.
Come to think of it, so would walking through her, even by accident. Only once, as a teenager, had Rosemary accidentally walked through a ghost. The shocking cold of it had seized her muscles in a vise and had left her trembling and sucking in air as if she’d just been plunged into an icy lake.
“You left books in my chapel,” Juliet said, as if she were accusing Rosemary of a heinous crime.
“I did.”
