Page 31 of By The Book
“Look, you want to make some easy money?”
Given her current life situation? “Depends on what I have to do.”
The woman grinned. “Oh, honey, trust me, that won’t be a problem.”
“But—”
“You single?” the woman asked with barely suppressed impatience.
“Yes, why?”
“Perfect. Come on, we have to get you to makeup and wardrobe.”
“My mom’s going to be in the movie?” Tommy asked.
The woman stared up at Tommy and then looked at Claire’s smaller frame. “Mom?”
“Yes,” Claire said.
The woman sighed and rolled her eyes, her hand tightening on Claire’s hand. “Some people get all the good genes. Let’s go.”
Thirty minutes later, Claire emerged from wardrobe in a chic black sleeveless dress with thigh-high slits up both sides. Oversized earrings completed the dazzling look, and someone handed her six-inch heels she thankfully didn’t have to wear because they filmed on sand.
Her blond hair had been pulled into an elegant knot, with long tendrils framing her face, and her lips were coated with dark red lipstick that popped with her carefully lined eyes.
She didn’t remember wearing this much makeup since her high school prom, but the artist assured her it was required due to the lighting and gist of the scene.
She carried the prop heels in her hand, and then the headset-wearing woman who’d come to the craft service whisked her toward yet another tent. Inside she found none other than Oliver Beck standing beside— “Denz? Is thatyou?”
He’d been transformed. Makeup had taken a turn at him as well, it seemed, and his normally clean-shaven face now had a beard attached. They’d dressed him in a black T-shirt and black slacks, making him look like a mob enforcer given the abundant muscles revealed by the short sleeves.
“Ms. Simmons, I’m Oliver Beck. Thank you for agreeing to be the last-minute fill-in.”
“I’m not sure I agreed as much as I was commandeered.”
“Same,” Denz mused, staring at her.
“You two know each other?” Oliver asked, shifting his attention between them.
Denz quickly filled Oliver in on how while Claire stood frozen as the awestruck fangirl she was.
“Well, that is a coincidence,” Oliver said. “It’s nice to meet you, Claire.”
“L-likewise.”
“So here’s the scene and why you two are perfect. Denz is basically playing himself, a bodyguard. He’s caught up to his runaway princess, and she’s convinced him to give her a brief taste of freedom before she has to return to her duties. Away from everyone else, they’ve fallen in love, and the scene you’re about to do is the goodbye kiss before her family takes her away.”
Kiss?
Claire glanced at Denz and then back at Oliver Beck, aware of the flush rising up her neck into her cheeks. “Shouldn’t the actual actors be doing this?”
Oliver Beck’s handsome face twisted into a grimace. “Yes, but both have come down with a stomach bug, so now we’re improvising due to the schedule. It won’t be a close-up and”—he turned and waved a hand at the headset-wearing woman who’d found Claire in the van—“we’ve matched you up really well, I think,” he said, taking the sheet of paper the woman handed him and passing it on to Claire. It was a photograph of the actors.
“I’m… You mean I’m the stand-in forher?”
Everyone chuckled at Claire’s question and the utter disbelief in her tone.
“You don’t see the resemblance?” Oliver asked, his gaze twinkling.
