I slowly pulled back to stare up at him. "I think they know I'm not Lottie," I whispered, staring sincerely at him. "I think they know and they just don't care."
Sam reached up and touched my hair. He stared at me so tenderly that I almost didn't even hear him when he said the next lines. "Lottie told you it wasn't great over here. That's why she wanted to leave."
I shrugged, just like I had practiced. "Well, the life I left wasn't great either."
"Oh, no?"
"No," I said. "I was scared to death to go to California."
He stared at me. "I didn't want you to go to California either."
I would have just melted if a guy who looked like Sam held me and said that to me in real life. I was melting as it was.
"I just hope you like it here," he added.
He reached over and moved the pan off the fire because the eggs were finished.
"Right now, I'm feeling really thankful I stayed."
Sam stared at me. He looked me over, and then he slowly started moving in to kiss me. I moved toward him also. I kept approaching him until our lips were almost touching, but Katherine came into the room, and Sam pulled back abruptly and stepped away from me.
He said his lines to Katherine while my back was turned. My ears were ringing, and I listened closely as they spoke and then he followed her out of the room. Alex yelled for us to stop theaction, and he came into the kitchen area, clapping as he came near me. Sam and Katherine came back into the kitchen, and so did everyone else, gathering around when Alex walked up to us.
"That was amazing, guys, much better, Sam. I like that positioning so much, thank you. Ty, pause slightly longer before you say that the life you left wasn't that great." I nodded at him. "I think that's all I need with cameras for today. We'll run it through a few more times and then call it. Cam and Judd might need to work some other things out with you once I'm done, but I'm happy with how you looked on that one, and how your lines went."
Alex wrapped up with us within a half-hour, and then Cameron and Judd spent another hour with us, going over other details about the scene in preparation for the filming.
No one ever made us kiss each other.
We did the scene several times, and not once did Sam come back into the room and kiss me. Alex had just mentioned that he would be doing it tomorrow, and they positioned us for the cameras, but we never kissed. I wondered why Natalie had even been there.
I found that I was disappointed about not kissing Sam at rehearsal, and I knew that was ridiculous. I had cleared things up with Alex, and I would be doing it soon enough. It felt a little weird to be looking forward to it, but I was glad I had told the truth, and we were on track to perform the scene as it was written.
Once Cameron and Judd were finished with us, we had the rest of the afternoon off. I spent an hour with my sister, and we ate dinner together. She hadn't been there for our rehearsal, and I told her that I had come clean with Alex and the others about my breakup.
After dinner, my sister went to hang out in the horse barn, and I decided to tag along with her. I ended up talking to Josh,a guy who worked there, and he took me into one of the cow barns with him. We had been on the ranch for weeks, and I saw the cows all the time, but I never went into any of the barns. I hadn't been in one since a trip we had taken to the ranch as tourists, and that was a year before the filming ever started. It was interesting to listen to Josh talk about ranching, and he was easy to talk to.
I followed Josh around as he tended to a couple of chores. I asked him questions some of the time, and some of the time we were quiet. It was a nice time to clear my mind since I had been so nervous with the egg scene today. We got back in the ATV and headed back to the horse barn.
We ran into Sam on the way. He was on the path, and I had seen him from a ways off as he was walking toward us. He looked us over with interest as he approached and came to a stop near him.
"What are you guys doing?" he asked.
"Going back to the horse barn," Josh answered.
"Josh had to help his dad with the cows, and I went with him over there," I explained. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going walking." Sam paused and looked back and forth from Josh to me and then settled on me. "Do you want to come? Either of you?" he added.
"I'm about to head home for the night," Josh said.
Sam stayed focused on me. I thought of his name, and I remembered earlier at rehearsal when Cameron had been referring to him as Samuel. She did it several times, and it seemed like she was being extra familiar with him because of it. I felt jealous at the memory, and I wanted to hang out with him long enough to ask him if he was close to her.
"Sure," I said with a casual shrug. "I'm up for some walking."
Josh didn't think twice about it when I got out of the ATV and stayed on the path with Sam. I thanked him and waved at him as he drove away.
Chapter 11
