Skye pushed back from the table. “Yeah, I think I’ll pass this time. But good luck with that.”
seventeen
The dull throbbing in Mia’s ankle awakened her. The sun had shifted, giving way to indirect lighting. She peeked at her foot. The cold pack was gone, and someone had covered her with a quilt.
Levi. Her lips softened into a smile as a warm, fuzzy feeling flooded through her.
A phone rang in the lobby, and she heard Levi’s low voice as he answered the call, even though the pocket doors between the rooms were closed. She recalled the way he’d carried her down the trail this morning. It seemed almost like a dream now. But the throbbing in her ankle assured her it was not.
What was she going to do if it didn’t heal in time for filming? There was no way she was passing up this role.
She reached for her own phone, checking the texts that had come in. She responded to Ana Maria’s first, then others from Brooke and Nolan. There was apparently a Where’s Mia? meme going around that mimicked the old Where’s Waldo game. They were also having a little fun with the acronym for “missing in action.” #MIA was apparently trending. These people needed to get lives.
She ignored the other texts, mostly from seemingly concerned acquaintances. It was hard to know which of them were genuine and which were prodding for gossip they could share with their friends or, worse, the media. The world she came from wasn’t exactly an authentic one. Was it any wonder she had trust issues? This place she’d landed in, Bluebell, seemed to have authentic people in spades—and she’d only met a few of them.
She closed her eyes and focused on Levi’s deep voice. He was apparently still on that phone call. A customer or something more personal? He hadn’t said anything about a current girlfriend, but then she’d only asked if he’d left one behind in Denver.
That was the last thing she should be dwelling on. She needed something else to keep her occupied, or the next few days were going to drag. There was always her grandmother’s journal. And if she had to lie low for a while, she had the ideal situation for it: a quiet inn, a flexible schedule, and abundant help.
The door slid open, and Levi appeared. “You’re awake. Let me get that cold pack for you.”
He returned in a couple minutes with a fresh glass of lemonade as well. “How’s the ankle feeling?”
“Better. The painkillers helped.”
He set the cold pack on her ankle and met her gaze. “How’s that?”
The soft lighting made the most of his features, deepening his eyes to the color of the ocean. She’d seen worse-looking men in starring roles. “You have a face for film, you know.”
He gave a half smile that only proved her point. “No thanks.”
She’d been thinking that since they’d met, but she hadn’t meant to tell him. “Painkillers make me a little loopy.”
He tucked the blanket around her foot, then sat on the coffee table opposite her. “And sleepy, apparently.”
“That too. Have you ever done any acting?”
“Not unless you count my third-grade portrayal of Abraham Lincoln.”
Her lips twitched as she envisioned him in a tall black hat with a fake beard. “I’ll bet you were a real cutie. You probably had all the little girls wrapped around your finger.”
“Nah,” he said. “They were most impressed with my mad math skills.”
“What were you like as a kid? Was your upbringing as wonderful as I’m imagining?”
“Sure, it was pretty great. What was I like? I don’t know, I guess a lot like I am now. Just shorter and with less body hair.”
She smiled lazily. “The oldest child is often a natural leader. They tend to be independent achievers. I study these things for roles I play.”
“I’d say that’s a pretty accurate assessment. My sisters would add ‘uptight’ and ‘bossy.’”
“See, that’s what wrong with being an only child—no one to boss around.”
“Was it lonely, being an only—when you weren’t playing with make-believe siblings?”
“Sometimes. Yes, often, actually.”
“No neighborhood kids to pal around with?”
