‘Why didn’t you prepare earlier in the evening?’
He narrowed his eyes at her, irritated. ‘Because as soon as I finished for the day, Dad called and I had him on the phone fretting for almost two hours about party preparations.’ He drank some of his beer. ‘Regardless of that, I shouldn’t take it out on you.’
‘No, you shouldn’t.’ Her voice softened. ‘Then again, I shouldn’t have been so snarky.’
Callum thought how things often played out this way with his only sibling. One goading the other, then a little bickering and finally quickly moving past it and forgetting they had ever squabbled. He wondered if it was their subconscious way of releasing irritation after a difficult time.
‘It’s fine.’ Wanting to change the subject, he said, ‘I think you’re going to love the manor house. It’s beautiful and the grounds are spectacular with perfectly mowed lawns, colourful borders and huge trees. I’m so glad we’re all going to stay there together, apart from Mum and Barry, even though most of us have our own homes here, but it’ll be extra fun being in the same place for a week.’ He thought about their dad’s fiancée Betsy, and their stepdad, Barry.
‘Yes, and we both know that since Dad and Betsy can’t be in the same house as Mum and Barry for too long without one of them falling out with the other, that works out well. I think they’ll be fine for the party because they both love Grandad, but not for twenty-four hours, let alone a week.’
Callum agreed, but now wished he hadn’t been so quick to offer his flat to his mother and stepfather. He was shattered after weeks with little time off and still needed to freshen the place up and change the bedding to get the flat ready for their arrival. It had been the sensible thing to do though, and his mum had been happy to accept his offer.
‘I can’t believe you found this manor house for us,’ Erin said. ‘I looked it up online but could only find a couple of old photos.’
‘That’s because the owners are very private and only occasionally rent out the place, and then only do it through an exclusive rental company.’
‘How did you find it then?’
‘Through Lettie Torel. She knows the owner of the agency and put me in touch with her.’
‘Wow, talk about having friends in all the right places,’ Erin said.
He smiled at his sister. ‘Apparently the owners are going away for a few weeks and offered it to us for a slightly lower rate than they usually charge because the previous booking cancelled too late for them to find anyone else. It’s got a cottage in the grounds too.’ He didn’t add that Riley was already staying there and would be for at least the next two weeks with his PA, because he doubted Erin could refrain from finding a way to introduce herself to him.
‘I’m looking forward to seeing it,’ she said. ‘And I can’t wait to stay there. What’s it called again?’
‘Beauvoir Manor.’
She beamed at him. ‘It even sounds impressive. It’s probably good that we’re holding the party at a private place away from other people in case our lot get noisy.’
‘Which they’re bound to do,’ he said, hoping the cottage where Tasha and Riley would be staying was far enough away for the sound of his family having fun not to carry that far.
He supposed he would find out soon enough when they moved in. Callum groaned inwardly and hoped he wasn’t going to have to spend the next week apologising and trying to make up for any issues with Tasha or Riley.
6
TASHA
Tasha grimaced as she heard Riley swear at the woman playing his love interest in the series. Yet again he was directing focus away from his own laziness learning his lines to the debut actress’s brief hesitation before replying to what he’d just said. No one would have noticed, Tasha seethed, certain even Riley wouldn’t have done if he hadn’t needed someone to blame for how badly today’s filming was going. Again.
It hadn’t taken him long to forget how much he needed this series to work, or how desperately he needed to do all he could to save what little respect he had left in the business.
‘That’s enough, Riley,’ the director snapped. He turned to the pink-faced actress. ‘We’ll go one more time. And Ruby, if you could speak your line as soon as Riley has finished speaking, that should do it.’
‘Yes,’ Riley sneered. ‘The conversation is supposed to be punchy, not drawn out.’
One of these days someone was going to stand up to Riley, Tasha thought, hoping she wouldn’t have too long to wait for that to happen.
‘Right, let’s do this, then we can call it a day.’ The director gave Ruby a sympathetic smile.
Unable to stand another moment of Riley’s bullying, Tasha walked off set back to the dressing room to tidy up, ready for them to make a hasty exit. This was her first time on the island and she loved it. Well, she’d loved what she had managed to see of the place, being at Riley’s beck and call twenty-four-seven. She might not like the idea of leaving her job but she wasn’t sure how long she could stand working for him.
It wasn’t only her that felt this way about him. The tension among the rest of the cast and most of the crew was palpable and increasing by the day, and the delay in completing filming was costing the production more each day. Tasha sensed an undeniable undercurrent whenever she was on set and had a horrible feeling something bad was about to happen.
Then again, she wasn’t ready to admit that her parents’ reservations about her leaving her role as a PA to the chairman of the bank to take the position working for Riley had been valid. Her argument with them the night she had broken the news of her resignation and why she was leaving the bank had caused the strain between them and, as much as it saddened her, she hated to admit she might have been a little too hasty to drop everything to chase a dream.
No, she decided. That wasn’t true. It might be an ordeal working for Riley sometimes but she loved travelling with him, being on film and TV sets and watching the creative process. She even enjoyed helping him learn his lines, though he could be lazy and often wanted to put off doing them until the last minute.
