"I'll put you in my phone as 'J,'" Kayla said. "I don't think I can get away from set again today, but maybe dinner tomorrow? Especially if you don't mind eating really late?"
"I'll be at your beck and call," Jordan promised, then sat back in the booth to watch the most mysterious, beautiful woman he'd ever met hurry out the door.
Chapter 7
For somebody who was supposed to be pretty good at performing, Kayla guessed she needed a script, too, because she was doing aterriblejob of acting like Virtue was a totally normal town. She'd learned all the rules of staying safe as a shifter as a kid, obviously, but even so, she had somehow assumed that she wasn't supposed to shift in public becausestrangersmight be around, not other Virtue locals. She felt almost as if her own world had been completely turned upside-down, and she wasn't even the one who was going to have to come to terms with the fact the town she'd grown up in really did have a huge secret.
Whoooo cares,her owl muttered.Our mate won't mind.
He won't mind I'm a shifter,Kayla agreed.But that doesn't mean he won't mind finding out his whole life has been a lie!
The owl turned a long, slow-blinking look on her, and Kayla mumbled, "All right, maybe I'm being alittledramatic," aloud.
"But drama looks good on you, darling," her costar caroled from nearby. "Where have you been, Kayla? Cyril is gnawing through his arm bone with impatience to get the next scene in the can."
"I have not been gone two hours," Kayla said firmly as Anderson waltzed to her side and drew patterns in the snow with the toe of his boot. "And you never get anything right on the first take."
"Perfection can't be rushed, darling. Cyril, however, can, especially if he thinks his leading lady is off having a good time without him. You've never said, Kayla. Whatdidgo wrong between you two?"
"He slept with my younger co-star and for some reason was very upset when I immediately broke up with him," Kayla said dryly.
Anderson paused in his swishing snow around. "Oh. Well, no wonder he's bitter. He lost the most beautiful woman in Hollywood over a foolish littleaventure." His French accent on the final word was flawless, but then his eyes lit with curiosity. "Did you go have lunch with that very handsome local man? Was it revenge lunch?"
Kayla snorted, amused and flattered without believing a word of Anderson's flirtations. "I did, yes, and God, no, it wasn't revenge lunch, what are you talking about? I'm not the one who's mad about a four-year-old breakup. And I'm afraid you're still not Jordan's type."
"Just give me a chance, darling." Anderson brushed his efforts at charming her away and scowled gently across the town square toward the enormous playground, where their six-year-old co-star was engaged in a game of tag with some local kids. "All right, we're filming with that little monster next. Iamsorry about your hair, Kayla."
"You're even sorrier that they rewrote the whole front half of the script because of it and you had to learn a bunch of new lines."
"Well, yes. Ah, here come our minders." Anderson waved as Kayla's assistant, Trina, and his own, Orrin, laid eyes on theirstar charges and began marching across the snow to fetch them. "You'll want to see Ruth before we film, your makeup is all askew. I'll want all the details later, darling."
He strode off ahead of Kayla, ignoring her, "The details are I was drinking hot chocolate!" She let him head their assistants off at the pass, waving her acknowledgement and that she was on the way, and followed in his footsteps while she thought about the changes that had been made to the script. It kind ofwasfunnier for her to start the story with the terrible haircut, though Kayla certainly wished she hadn't re-met Jordan Rhodes while looking like a lawn mower had attacked her head.
Fated mates don't care,the owl promised, and Kayla smiled and nodded.
I know. Still.Before they could discuss it any more, Trina came running up, breathlessly apologetic. "I'm so sorry, but Cyril is in amood. He says you're not taking the schedule seriously enough, and we all know it's nonsense, but he's yelling at, well, everybody?—"
Kayla's nostrils flared. "I'm going to have a talk with that man right now. Maria's still at the playground, right? I don't want her in the middle of any of this."
Trina's gaze darted that direction and she nodded. "Nicole's with her and I've got Nic on radio for when they need to come back for filming. The next scene is with her, but Cyril will make her cry, with the way he's acting."
"He's not going to make anybody cry," Kayla said firmly. "I might makehimcry, but nobody else is going to be in tears today." She stalked past Trina toward the distant director, who was shouting at a grip about the placement of a light on top of a ladder. The grip, who looked about nineteen, was taking the scolding stoically, but Kayla could see the quiver in his jaw as she approached.
"Jim, right?" she said to the kid, who did a full-body startle at the star knowing his name. He nodded, and she tilted her head, indicating he should go anywhere but here. "I need a word with the director."
Still wide-eyed with surprise, the grip took his chance and scuttled away as Kayla rounded on Cyril. "First off, this is a union set," she snapped. "You'd better not be telling the grips to move the electrical equipment. That kid is a trainee and he's probably afraid to tell you he's not allowed to touch the lights, but you know better and I'm already half a minute from firing you, so don't youdarepush me, Cyril."
Her ex curled his lip. "You can't fire me,darling,you?—"
"I'm a producer on this film, or did you conveniently forget that?" Kayla snapped. "Owl Maze Productions is mine, and so is this film."
Cyril managed to curdle and flush at the same time, his cheeks going patchy white as dark red flared along his jaw. Evidently hehadforgotten Kayla was a producer on the movie, which was almost reasonable. She had only set up her production company a year earlier, and this was only the second film she'd helped make with it. Still, as the director, he ought to know who the hell was paying his salary.
Kayla kept her gaze locked on Cyril, and dropped her voice. "I amdonehaving problems with you on this set, Cyril. We broke up literally years ago, and it was entirely your fault. Don't think I'm not grateful," she added with a toothy smile. "I'd have hated to waste more time on you. But you will be professional on this set or you will be gone, do you understand me?"
Her owl whispered,Murder, as Kayla glared at Cyril. Since that was the energy she wanted to project, Kayla didn't argue. Cyril flushed redder, anger overtaking his initial shock. "You can't threaten me. You're a second-rate movie star?—"
"And you're directing second-rate movies," Kayla said, still toothily. "It's not a great look to be fired from a B-grade romcom, Cyril. If you can't handle that, nobody's going to think you can handle anything bigger. You'll stop yelling at grips, you'll be kind to poor little Maria?—"
