The ringleader skidded to a stop a few feet away from Jordan, and with unmistakable enthusiasm but genuine polite caution, said, "Hello! Is your dog friendly?" The other kids, mostly about to swarm Barney, stopped suddenly at the little boy's question, as if reminded that they were probably supposed to ask something like that, too.
Jordan grinned at them. "Yes, he is. This is Barney. He's a Border Collie."
"Hi, Barney! I'm Noah." Noah, who was about nine and blue-eyed, pulled his mitten off and put the back of his hand down below Barney's chin so the dog could sniff at his fingers. Onlyafter Barney had sniffed did Noah rub the underside of his chin, then the top of the dog's head.
Jordan's eyebrows rose. "That was very good. Most dogs don't like things?—"
"—coming at them from above their heads," Noah said in a world-weary tone. "I know, I know, my mom's told me one hundredmilliontimes. Be gentle and slow!" he told another of the kids, who slowed down abruptly and then looked a little like he wondered why he was listening to Noah.
A woman in a big jacket came up behind the little group of kids, calling, "Maria? Maria, honey, we're supposed to be on set in a few minutes," as one of the girls squealed in delight as Barney licked her hand. She was a cutie, all big blue eyes and dark hair, a lot like Kayla, though her entire face turned down in a frown as the woman spoke. The woman said, "Just one more minute with the dog," then waved at someone approaching them.
Jordan turned to see Kayla striding across the snow toward them. His heart leaped, but the little girl, following his gaze, melted into a puddle of regret and mumbled, "Uh oh."
Kayla waved, calling, "Hi Nic, hi Maria," and smiled as she reached them.
Maria, still a small blob of sorrow and still mumbling, said, "I'mverysorry about your hair, Miss Kayla," in what sounded like an oft-repeated apology.
"If the wig had been better secured, it wouldn't have happened," Kayla said with a sigh as she hugged the little girl's shoulders against her hip. "You were just very strong and very fast. Jordan! Oh! Hi!"
"Hi again. So This is the stylist you went to for your avant-garde haircut?"
Maria drew dark little eyebrows down at him, clearly suspecting she was being made fun of, but Jordan, grinning,crouched and whispered, "I knew Kayla when she wasn't much older than you, and I have to tell you, she wore hairstyles like this alotback then."
Just inside his line of vision, he could see Kayla wrinkle up her face in despair before she hid it behind her hand and mumbled, "I'm afraid he's right, Maria. I definitely had bangs this short on purpose at least once. Oh, God, you remember my entire goth phase, don't you," she said to Jordan, who tilted his grin up at her.
"Was that where you cut your bangs to the hairline and the rest of it with a razor and dyed chunks of it really dark blue?"
"He remembers," Kayla moaned, and the woman with Maria—Nic, apparently—laughed.
"Seriously? I thought you were always poised and perfect."
"I wish. I was a tiny round goth with—oh, no, I dyed the bangsgreen, do you remember?"
"I'd forgotten that! That was actually better than when you grew the bangs out and cut them to match your eyebrow line, though."
"It was supposed to be awidow's peak," Kayla groaned. "Like a Dracula…oh, never mind. It wasn't a good look, anyway." She smiled ruefully at Maria. "So don't worry about the hair, okay, honey? I've done worse to myself. I mean, also don't grab wigs off anybody's head again, but don't worry about it. And honestly, the rewrites to the script have made it funnier, so it's all okay. Anyway, Cyril's taking the rest of the afternoon off?—"
Whoever 'Cyril' was, apparently he wasn't the kind of person who was supposed to take the rest of the day off. Even little Maria, who couldn't have been much more than six, looked shocked, and Nic frowned like she hadn't understood what Kayla had said. "Cyrilis taking the afternoon off?"
"We had a little discussion," Kayla said lightly. "He needed some time to think about it."
Nic's gaze darted to Maria and back to Kayla, clearly understanding a lot more than Jordan did, although he could at least pick up on the fact that Kayla was being casual about a serious situation so the little girl didn't get stressed out about it. After a moment, Nic nodded and in a bright tone said, "Well, looks like you've got the afternoon free, then, Maria. Do you want to take a break, or?—"
By the time she got that far into the sentence, Maria had let out an unholy yell and gone running back to the playground. A couple of the other kids followed her, though Noah stayed with the dog, who was now leaning heavily into the little boy's ear-rubbing hands. "Well," Nic said again, now amused. "I guess that answers that question. I better keep an eye on her, but it was nice to meet you and your dog, uh, Barney's Human."
Jordan laughed. "I'm Jordan. Nice to meet you, too."
"Nicole, for future reference," Nic said with a quick smile, then waved and followed Maria at a considerably more sedate pace.
Jordan turned to Kayla, eyebrows rising. "So who's Cyril?"
"The director," Kayla said dryly.
His eyebrows were almost as high as they could go anyway, but they tried to go higher. "Thedirectortook the afternoon off? Is that, uh, normal?"
"No." She gave him a tight smile. "Neither is the star threatening to fire him. It's been what, half an hour since we saw each other? A lot's happened since then. But hey, I'm free for dinner tonight!"
Jordan opened his mouth and shut it again a couple of times. "…good? I mean, definitely good, obviously, but…do you want to talk about it?"
