Page 37 of Every Star that Shines

“I just got a call from Amber, and . . .” She sighed. “We have a problem. And I don’t know how to fix it.”

“What’s the problem?” He tried to remember what Amber was supposed to be tackling this week that might have gone awry, but realized it could have been any of the tasks she’d been assigned, even if they weren’t due for weeks. The woman might be abrasive, but she was certainly efficient.

“Amber. More specifically, what I’m going to do about her. This is getting out of hand.” Her voice trembled slightly.

A surge of anger pulsed through him. What had Amber done?

“What did she say to you?”

Delanie sighed. “It’s stupid. I should be able to handle this. But when I called her about Celeste coming in early to the next rehearsal so we could work the Punch and Judy scene beats with just her and Grayson, she insisted Celeste didn’t need the extra practise and their family was already committing enough time to this production, and if Grayson couldn’t get his act together during regularly scheduled rehearsals, Celeste shouldn’t need to sacrifice to prop him up. Oh, and that if I actually knew what I was doing, the kids wouldn’t need the extra time in the first place.” Her voice broke on the last sentence.

Caleb’s ears grew hot. The nerve of that woman!

“Where does she get off?” he blurted before he could stop himself.

“Pardon?” Delanie sounded startled.

He drew a deep breath, annoyed that he’d let Amber irk him into losing his temper. When he could speak more calmly, he said, “Sorry about that. You know her comments aren’t actually about you, right?”

“Um, yeah. At least, my brain does.”

He heard the tremble in her voice, but the iron underneath was even stronger. He smiled grimly. At least Delanie wasn’t letting Amber rattle her too much.

“As I see it, you have a few options. One, you could talk to her about how her behaviour is affecting not only you and the production team, but also Celeste’s future chances of development and true success, and hope she smartens up and things start going better from here on out.”

“But she’s at least ten years older than me! She should know better than this.”

“She absolutely should,” Caleb agreed. “But unfortunately, there isn’t necessarily a direct correlation between becoming an adult and getting your puppies together.”

Delanie gave an amused snort. “Getting your what?”

Caleb chuckled, his heart slowing down. “It’s the phrase Monica and I started using when Emma was born. Sounds nicer than the original.”

“I’ll give you that.” Delanie paused. “What was option two?”

“Continue to let her childish behaviour cause problems for the team and potentially ruin Celeste’s potential as a capable future adult because no one ever told her mom the damage she’s doing.”

“Is there an option three?”

He sighed. “Ask their family to step back from the production.”

“So avoid the actual conflict by shutting her out, which I’m sure would go about as smoothly as a ride up the Chin during spring. That sounds almost as bad as the first two. Besides, then we’d lose our sound guy too.”

He smirked at her reference to a local logging road that was famous for being little more than a glorified deer trail, and worse maintained. So she hasn’t forgotten everything about the Peace Country.

“I never said they were fun options.”

“Thanks,” she said dryly. At least she sounded calmer.

“Do you want me to talk to her?” he offered reluctantly.

“You would do that?” She sounded truly surprised.

“Of course.”

Confronting Amber sounded about as fun as screwing his hand to a board. But if this was something he could do to help Delanie, he would.

“No,” she said heavily. “I’ll do it. I’m the director. It’s my responsibility. Thanks, though. It means a lot that you offered.”

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