With that in mind, I did a quick search online while I drank my coffee. I didn’t care about carrying Maddie on my payroll, but we might be reaching the point where it’d just be easier if I helped her get another job. Her office experience back in Indiana, combined with a reference from me, should land her an interview for just about any job she wanted.
When I spotted an open positions posting from the agency I’d used when I hired Paul and Sarah, I fired off an email to my contact there to see about getting Maddie in for a meetingwith them. It was a solution I should’ve come up with sooner, but she’d been so insistent on wanting to find a job herself that I hadn’t put much thought into helping her beyond giving her a temporary position with my team.
With that done, I headed out. It didn’t take me long to make it to the meeting since it was at a private social club not too far from my house. The lunch itself was low-key, the kind of thing that happened on this patio overlooking the ocean all the time. It was an exclusive spot, designed for the echelon of the industry. Membership was hard to come by, with a stricter vetting process than their other locations. This made it coveted by studio execs and A-list celebrities.
We were seated at a quiet corner table overlooking the water, talking through a potential action project that could be my next big franchise move. The conversation flowed easily, with location ideas and a few laughs about past stunts gone wrong, since I was known for preferring roles that gave me the chance to do a few of my own.
I kept one ear on the business and the other on making sure the vibe stayed relaxed. Maddie sat quietly beside me, taking notes on a pad of paper without drawing attention to herself. She’d complained about not being able to use her phone while she was at the table, but the restrictions were one of the things I liked most about this place.
But she did her job, even reminding me of a scheduling conflict when the producers started pushing dates. She was efficient, professional, and stayed in the background exactly the way a good assistant should.
I felt a quiet satisfaction watching her work. It felt good to give her purpose after everything she’d been through.
One of the producers leaned back, swirling his iced tea. “So, Hudson, we’re thinking of an early spring start if we lock thescript. You still good with the physical commitment? We’d need you in the gym six days a week for the fight choreography.”
“Absolutely.” I grinned. “You know I live for that stuff. Just make sure the stunt coordinator doesn’t try to kill me on day one again.”
The table laughed, and Maddie made a quick note, probably to block out gym time in my calendar.
My mind drifted to Serena. She looked so tired this morning. I hoped whatever Avery needed hadn’t taken up so much time that Serena didn’t get the chance to rest.
My agent leaned forward. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The quote is good, but I’d like to see more detail on the backend percentage and the box-office bonus. Hudson is worth every cent you’ll pay in the end. You’ll fill those seats with his name alone.”
“Now, John. It’s not like we’re lowballing you here,” one of the execs murmured.
I zoned out while John haggled with them. He was damn good at his job, so I had the utmost confidence he’d finagle them into the best possible deal.
When the check came, I signed it without a second thought, still riding the easy energy of the meeting. Tom, the head honcho at the studio, joked, “With what John wants us to pay you, I guess I won’t argue too much about being the one who should pay.”
John clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll just get you to pay a rental fee for his private jet to make up for it.”
Maddie fell into step beside me as we headed toward the exit, but her heel caught on a hand-woven rug. She stumbled forward with a little yelp. I reached out and put my hand on her lower back to steady her, keeping her upright until she regained her footing.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, thanks.” She laughed, her cheeks a little pink as she straightened her blouse. “These heels can be a killer.”
I didn’t think anything of it until an hour later. Back at the Malibu house, Maddie was gathering her things to run some quick errands for me—picking up dry-cleaning and a few things from the store.
She glanced at her phone and froze. “Oh no.”
“Is traffic that bad?” I asked, assuming she’d put the address for the cleaners in her maps app and was still surprised by how long it could take to go five miles in Malibu.
“I wish, but I think I might’ve messed up again.” At my stunned look, she rushed to add, “It’s not my fault this time. Like at all. See.”
She turned the screen toward me. Someone had gotten a photo of us from inside the social club, which shouldn’t have been possible. Even worse, it had been taken at the exact moment I’d steadied Maddie so she didn’t fall on her ass. The shot showed my hand resting on her lower back, her head tilted back like she was looking up at me.
The caption on the biggest gossip site was the worst kind of clickbait.
Hudson Holt’s mystery woman? Action star spotted getting cozy with assistant while girlfriend Serena Watts keeps low profile after recent red-carpet drama.
I stared at the photo, annoyance flaring first, quickly followed by worry. The last thing Serena needed right now was a headline that made it look like I was cozying up to someone else while she was still dealing with the fallout from the dress fiasco.
I was just being a decent human being, but the media loved twisting innocent moments into scandals. Serena wouldunderstand when I explained, though. She knew what the vultures were like.
“Don’t worry about it.” I handed the phone back to her. “It’s bullshit tabloid crap. They twist everything. I’ll explain to Serena.”
Maddie looked relieved, her shoulders relaxing. “Thanks, Hudson. I really didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
