Page 29 of Outside the Lines
“Yeah.” I could. That was easy. But the fact that it wasn’t on the plans or the photos meant there’d been a larger fuckup along the line. “But if it’s not on mine, it’s not on the full-scale set they’ve been filming with.”
“Oh.” Lydia stared at the screen. “Shit.”
Exactly. “I need to make a phone call.” I wandered back out into the shop and over to the model to recheck the plans. They were the correct ones for the season and episode we were shooting. No rune. Both relief and horror ran through me. IknewI hadn’t fucked up, but I’d kinda hoped I had, because this was worse. Anna wouldnotbe happy. I knew some of the schedule, and I was pretty sure they’d been filming on the full-sized set for a while now. Someone would get chewed out. Badly.
Fuck. I had no choice, though. A continuity error like that wassuperbad. Better to raise the flag now than let the mistake get all the way to post. How they fixed it wasn’t my job to figure out. But calling it in? That was. I scrolled through my contacts and found the number for the production manager.
His gruff voice answered on the other end. “Yeah?”
“Hey, it’s Ian Meyers. I’m working on the sacred grove miniature.”
“Yeah. You nearly done?” Papers were shuffled in the background.
“Getting there. But, um. I noticed something. And I think it might be a problem.”
Silence. Probably because he knew if there was a problem with my set, I’d fix it and not bother calling. “What is it?”
“There’s no rune on the altar.”
More silence. I cleared my throat. “During the mid-season finale last season, there was.”
The sound that came out of my phone was one long hiss of a word. “Shit!” That was followed by “Fuck.” Then he sighed. “Keep working on your set. I’ll check this out and get back to you.”
The line went dead before I could say anything else. I didn’t take it personally. He was pretty damn busy and I’d dropped one hell of an issue into his lap. But it was done. I let out a breath before plunking myself down on my chair to drink the rest of my coffee. After all, I still had a set to complete, with or without a rune.
Lydia Derry’s fan art may have savedWolf’s Landingfrom a whole lot of egg on our faces.
I was mounting a few of the smaller items to the set when I heard Simon’s unmistakable voice murmur through the store, then Lydia’s. Couldn’t make out the words, but I knew he was heading my direction from the thumps on the carpet before he appeared.
“You bought me coffee? And a mug?” He held the bright blue travel mug up.
“The barista told me you like your coffee hot, and well, those paper cups wouldn’t cut it.”
“You didn’t have to.” He turned something on the top, took a sip, and it was almost as nice as watching him come under me. “Oh.” It came out as a delighted sigh. “That’sgood.”
“Worth every penny.”
He chuckled. “I think I can make sure you get your money’s worth from me.”
Bet he could. I still wanted to bend Simon over a piece of furniture and had no doubt he’d let me. It dawned on me that I could probably have him about anyway I wanted to. The expression on my face must have been something else, because Simon’s breath caught. He set down the mug on the table, took my face in his hands, and kissed me hard. I gripped his arms, mostly to keep from falling over. Simon was sex on ice when he kissed like there was nothing in the world but us.
“Later.” He spoke against my lips. “I’ll pay later.”
“Yeah, you will.” I stole a kiss back and bit his lip in the process.
He groaned. “Gotta open the store.”
And I had to get back to working on the set. We broke apart, both breathless. I wanted to say something else to keep him here for another moment, but my phone blared out the theme fromThe Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and I jumped. That was Anna’s ring. “Shit.” I grabbed the cell and answered. “This is Ian.”
“I don’t know whether to thank you or kill you,” Anna said, “but the altar rune was a good catch.”
Simon stood next to me, his curiosity making him damn sexy. Unfair. “Is it going to be much of an issue?” I asked.
A sigh from the other end. I could almost see her brushing strands of her hair out of the way. “We’re reshooting a few scenes. For the others, we’ll do CGI in post. Going forward, the rune will be there, so make sure it’s on your set.”
“Will do. But I’ll need to swing by to pick up some photos.”
Simon fiddled with his coffee.
