Page 5 of Two Is Better Than One

"Thank you for being here," I called to him as I walked away.

He glanced my way. "You're welcome," he said before returning to talk to Brooks.

I had all sorts of feelings in that moment.

I was affected by this man. I usually didn't second-guess myself and get all self-conscious and regret what type of impression I made on people. I had grown out of that. I did some bad interviews early on in my career, and I learned how to keep my guard up when I first met people. It had been a long time since I felt like I made a terrible first impression, and for some reason, I really regretted this one. I just couldn't let go of it that night. Maybe it was the military thing or maybe it was Casey Morgan's perfect face, but I wholeheartedly regretted the bad first encounter.

Chapter 3

Summer

Three days later

I came out of my hotel room that morning feeling tired but excited. It was day one of shooting for me. I was supposed to be there at noon to start shooting at 2pm. I knew we had to leave the hotel at eleven-thirty to get there on time. It was still early, so I talked my sister into going to the rooftop pool with me. It was a gorgeous day, and we found a spot in the shade.

An hour quickly passed. For the last twenty minutes, my sister had been reading a book for work, and I was reading one for fun. Allie closed her laptop and sat up on her chair. "I need to use the restroom," she said, excusing herself.

I nodded, and she walked away. Just when she was out of earshot, Brooks leaned over to speak to me. He leaned out of the shade of his umbrella and shielded his face from the sun.

"Your sister asked me if she could go to an art gallery tomorrow, and I didn't know what to tell her."

"Tell her she can go," I said, like there was no question.

"No, I mean, I need to be with you on set, and we really need Casey with us."

"I don't want her to go alone. Can't she go to the art thing later? After I get off?"

"It's a certain thing she wants to go to, and it's at noon," he said. "She wants to go alone."

"Don't let her," I said.

"I'm trying, but she thinks she's got it under control."

I should've known that Allie wouldn't tell me if she was planning on venturing out alone. She was a quiet person, and I was scared to death of her getting stolen by someone. If someone tried to overtake her, she wouldn't be able to fight them off. I knew she was a grown woman, but I didn't trust society at large to leave my baby sister (by eight minutes) alone.

"Can you please see if you can hire someone to go with her?" I asked, worrying. "Just for tomorrow?"

"I can try. I'm working on your new guy, but he's not available for another week."

"Who is it?"

"He's the one I was telling you about. He's with a company out here. He's not going to be permanent, but he'll get us by for the rest of the time in Miami. His name is JP."

"When does he… " I was about to ask when this man named JP would be starting, but I spotted Casey Morgan who had just come outside to the pool area. "What's he doing here?" I asked Brooks.

He was with a woman, and both of them had been to the dressing room and were suited up to get in the pool. They stopped at a table, and I looked at Brooks.

"He told me he was getting here early to use the pool," Brooks said. "He asked if this was okay."

"Did he tell you he was bringing a date?" I asked.

"He didn't actually. I didn't know."

Several things crossed my mind in that moment, and at the forefront were my feelings of jealousy. I had gotten to know Casey during the last few days and I liked him. He was all business and in complete control, but he was also sarcastic, dry-witted, and hilarious. I liked his personality, and his abs were completely chiseled out of…

"Oh, wow, so that's what we're doing?" I said, acting fed up and looking away from Casey as he stashed his shirt to the side and turned, flexing his gloriously crafted mid-section. He was comically good-looking, and I laughed sarcastically, staring at Brooks.

"What do you mean? The guy is taking his shirt off. Are you upset with that?" Brooks looked at his own fairly-toned chest, wondering what was so bad about having your shirt off at a pool.

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