Me:What BOY???
Kallum with a K:They were preparing for some mid-term economics presentation. Like little baby corporate lawyers. It was very cute. Also, in case you forgot, Mrs.K is still Maddie’s actual parent, and she said it was okay.
Kallum with a K:Also, remember what you were like when you were seventeen?
I scowled at my phone. I did remember what I was like when I was seventeen. That’s why I was worried!
Kallum with a K:So if you’re done being a schmuck about your sister having an active social life...
I ground my teeth. God, I wished I were home. Home, where I could keep an eye on everyone and have everything running the way it should, with no random teenage boys ping-ponging around my sister.
Me:It’s fine. I’m fine. How’s Mom?
When I’d talked to her earlier today, she’d mentioned that a pharmacy delay had meant she hadn’t been able to get one of her new medications yet. Transitioning between meds and dosages already required some real choreography, and this was the kind of thing that could send the entire chemical dance off-kilter.
Kallum with a K:She’s fine, Nolan. You know I’d be the first to tell you if Mrs.K needed you home.
I had to concede that was true. While he loved his own mom with a fierce devotion, there would always be a special place in his heart for the stage mom who’d fed little Kallum all the fruit snacks he’d wanted.
Me:Thank you again.
Kallum with a K:Stop stressing out. You’re gone only a couple more weeks. It’s going to be fine.
Right. Only two more weeks.
It was going to be fine.
“I guess all those music videos paid off,” Gretchen said the next day as I trotted up to her and Pearl on my horse, which was named One Hundred Percent That Horse.
“Oh come on,” I said, making One Hundred Percent That Horse do a perfectly executed circle. “This is just natural talent! I rode a horse in only two music videos!” And two summers of riding camp, but I didn’t mention that part.
Gretchen scoffed right as my phone buzzed in my ducal jacket pocket. She glanced down at a page that Cammy the PA was handing her, and I took advantage of her inattention to slip my phone out of my jacket and glance quickly at the screen. I wasn’ttechnicallysupposed to have my phone on set, but it was silenced, and it’s not like I was using it to write skeevy DMs or anything. I just needed to be available for Maddie and Mom.
Mads:hey can you call me
Okay, maybe not that available.
Me:shooting a scene real fast, call you once I’m done, promise
I put my phone back in my pocket in time to see Bee walking from the manor house, a thick winter jacket and snow boots paired with her present-day Felicity costume, her hairpinned up and set beneath a snug-fitting cap, presumably to keep her waves camera-ready for later in the day. Her green eyes were like summer amid all this snow.
In case she hadn’t seen it the first time, I had One Hundred Percent That Horse do another circle.
“Stop showing off,” Gretchen said, and That Horse and I chuffed at the same time.
“I’m not showing off.”
“You are a little,” Bee said in her signature husky voice, stopping next to Gretchen. “Um, that’s close enough,” she said as I stopped the horse in front of them.
“You don’t like horses?” I asked.
“I don’t like being kicked in the head,” Bee clarified, wariness narrowing her eyes as she regarded That Horse as it tossed its head. “Or flung to the ground like a rag doll.”
“A horse would never do that,” Pearl soothed. “They can sense a resonant soul.”
“And,” Gretchen cut in firmly, “a horse on this set would never do that because we don’t use dangerous horses. You’ll see when you meet yours.”
“Mine?” Bee asked, the wary look not leaving her face.
