“We’re not a couple,” they said in unison.
“But you’ve known each other long enough for it to be an advantage,” Margaux said.
They looked at each other and shrugged, Shane moving to the couch to sit next to Brian.
After a few heated rounds, Lilah excused herself to the kitchen to start preparing dessert. To her surprise, Walt offered his help, and the two of them set about cutting and serving the spiced apple cake Natalie had made.
“What do you think about them?” Walt asked quietly, nodding his head over toward the living room. Lilah followed his gaze across the island to see Brian, sitting cross-legged on the floor, back against the couch, as Margaux rested her knees on either side of his shoulders, trying to French-braid his hair, both of them giggling at her sloppy, haphazard progress.
“What do you mean?” Lilah asked, carefully transferring aslice of cake onto the paper plates they’d bought. “I…like them?”
“There’s been some talk about spinning them off. Rosie and Ryder. Their storyline has been testing well. We might do a backdoor pilot later in the season, see how it goes over. If nothing else, it’ll give you and Shane a break for a week.”
“Oh. Huh,” Lilah said, her eyes drifting back to the two of them. It was hard to deny they played well off each other. “I think it’s a great idea. Would you run it?”
Walt shook his head. “I’d executive produce, but we’ve been talking about setting Polly up as showrunner. She’s grown so much over the past few years. Plus, she really knows how to write for the two of them.”
“Wow,” Lilah said. “That’s so exciting. And then whoever from the crew doesn’t have a new job yet…”
“They’d probably come over, too, yeah.” Walt stuck a corkscrew in a new bottle of wine. “Not to be indelicate, but…you don’t know about anything going on between them, do you?”
Lilah glanced back to them automatically. “No? Not that I’ve heard, anyway. I think they’re just friends.”
“Good. That’s good. I mean, this show wouldn’t be what it is without you and Shane, obviously, but itwouldbe nice not to go through a repeat performance of your greatest hits, if we can avoid it. Don’t want to deal with one of them trying to break their contract and shut the whole thing down after the first season, right?”
Lilah did a double take that probably bordered on cartoonish, unsure if she’d heard him right. “What?Ididn’t…Shane tried to quit?”
Walt’s brow creased deeply. “You didn’t know?”
She wiped her hands on a dish towel, thinking back to that nightmarish summer after they’d broken up, whether anyonehad said anything to her then. “Is that why we got those raises before season two? But why wouldn’t they just give it to him, if he was the one who wanted to leave? Why did I get one, too?”
She’d questioned it at the time, but even her former agent hadn’t seemed to know. As unknowns, their initial contracts had been for union minimum, and they weren’t up for renegotiation until the end of season five. Her agent had brushed it off, telling her it was probably a reflection of the show’s increased budget after its surprise success. Even back then it had sounded fishy that they would give her more money without her having to fight for it, but she chose not to push further, feeling ungrateful for looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Walt shrugged, pulling the cork out with a grimace. “Couldn’t say. That was all before my time. You’d have to ask him.”
He went into the living room to get a head count on coffee, and Lilah leaned against the counter, other hand on her hip, staring at Shane with what must have been a perturbed expression. As if he felt it, he glanced over at her. When he turned back a second later, he had a look on his face like they’d shared a private joke.
If only she knew what it was.
19
When the sun went down, Shane built a fire in the fireplace and sprawled on the couch in front of it, intending to just shut his eyes for a moment, lulled by the murmurs of laughter and chatter around him.
When he opened them again, the fire was still crackling, but the room was quiet apart from the soft turning of pages. He craned his neck to see Lilah curled up in one of the armchairs, reading. She looked up at the noise of his shuffling, her lips quirking in a half smile.
“How was your nap, Grandpa?”
“I’m on a lot of painkillers, okay?” he grumbled, the throb in his ribs alerting him they’d worn off. “Is everyone else gone?”
“Mm-hmm,” she said, turning another page without breaking eye contact.
They were alone, then. Again.
It seemed like they were pushing their luck, this many times without incident. It felt inevitable that things would eventually explode, one way or another.
With great effort, he swung his legs over the side of the couch. “Did I sleep through all the cleanup?”
“Iknewyou were faking to get out of doing the dishes.” Her eyes glinted with good-natured mischief.
