"You didn't move your piece all day," he said. "I know," I said. "I didn't even go look at the board just now when I came in. I went straight to see Candice."
"Why do you have your makeup done? Are you guys starting early tonight?"
"No, I, uh, my makeup's done for the same reason that I didn't come by here this morning and move my piece. I slept in, and I was covering a little shiner I got last night."
He pulled back with a concerned expression and stared at me like he was doing his best to find a shiner. "You have a black eye?"
"Yes." I glanced upward and exposed a red spot of busted blood vessels on my eyeball itself.
He made a pained noise.
"Amelia, what happened?" he said, taking me gently into his arms.
Oh, how I had been waiting for this moment. Sometimes we got the chance to see each other earlier in the day, but not today. I had missed him. That t-shirt. His chest. I might as well havebeen in heaven with how Henry was embracing me with such care.
"Was it Candice?" he asked with solemn determination.
"Can-what? No. It was a girl. A human."
"What girl?"
I let out a long sigh, wondering what in the world I was going to say. Now that I was standing there, face to face with Henry, I realized there was no way I could lie. I had already done enough hiding things for Bailey. I had to come out with it—at least as much of it as would be productive and not just cause harm.
"What happened?" he said. "How did you get hurt?"
"I have a new friend, a girl I met here on-set, and she got into some trouble last night."
I didn't want him to ask who this friend was, so I kept right on talking, not giving him the chance to stop and ask me questions. His big brown eyes stared at me with sweet concern. I just loved him.
"And she called me in the middle of the night last night to go pick her up because she didn’t have a ride."
"You left the ranch last night? Where did you go?"
"Toward Missoula," I said. "Not all the way there, but going that way."
"Why would she call you? You went all the way to Missoula? Was it in the middle of the night?"
I nodded.
"She called you over to Missoula in the middle of the night, and then she gave you a black eye? Who did this?"
"It wasn't her fault," I said, laughing a little. "You know how clumsy I am. Think about the first time we met."
"Well, this doesn't seem like clumsiness. Did you say she headbutted you? What happened? Did you tell her you're not a taxi from now on?"
"No, because you're missing a big part of the story."
"What part of the story?"
"The girl who headbutted me was basically unconscious. The two of them were in trouble. My friend thinks the guys they were hanging out with put something in their drinks when they were out. Well, they didn't succeed with my friend, but the other girl passed out. I got the black eye trying to get that girl into the car."
He pulled back and stared at me thoughtfully.
"Who is this girl, and what kind of person would put you in a situation like this? This is criminal activity. She thinks their drinks got spiked? Why does she put herself in these situations, and why does she think it's okay to call you? Is it one of the extras?"
"Yes, she is an extra," I said, telling the truth about that part. "And it was good that she called me. She had no idea those were bad people when she first went out with them. She's young, and she got herself into a bad situation. I'm proud of her for getting away and calling me. She's been through some stuff lately, and I'm glad she got away before it turned bad."
"Yeah," he said. "But next time, call me, and I'll help you. You could have ended up in trouble. Did you run into the guys who tried to hurt her?"
