Pearl held her chin. “Is it? I’ve been toying with the last page...”
Gretchen took a half step behind Pearl and opened her eyes as wide as they would go as she slid her hand across her neck and then made a heart with her hands.
“No!” I shouted, slowly putting the pieces together.
Pearl jumped with a delighted, yet alarmed squeal, like she loved for the universe to surprise her.
Gretchen wound her hand in a quick circle, encouraging me to continue.
“I love the last page,” Winnie blurted.
“Yes,” I said firmly, looking at Winnie as I nodded along with her. “We both do. We were just talking about it last night, how the last page is the best part. It’s the shining beacon of the whole script! It’s your magnum opus.”
Gretchen held a hand up to let me know I could slow my roll a bit.
“Oh,” Pearl said, her voice just a little smug. “Well, if you insist.”
“Are we making some fake sex or what?” Jack called from the other side of the barn where my glossy red sleigh was parked.
I turned to Winnie as we walked to the admittedly amazing sleigh. “Did you do your research, Baker?”
She bit down on that plump bottom lip of hers. “I guess I can’t use the dog ate my homework excuse for this one, huh?”
I wanted to ask more questions—like a lot more—but we were already at the gilded steps leading up into the sleigh and Winnie was being helped in by Jack.
Once we were both seated, Jack stood on one side of us and Gretchen on the other.
“All right, you two,” Jack said, “this shoot is a three-week quickie, and we’ve got lots of ground to cover, but if either of you feel like you need a time-out, we will slow this whole machine to a grinding halt.”
Gretchen cleared her throat. “‘It’s no trouble’ is what I think Jack meant. So yes, we have a chaotic schedule and time is money, but not at the expense of your comfort with the more intimate scenes.”
“Right, right, right,” Jack said. “So we’re going to take it from the top. You two just met up at the Tipsy Antler after finding each other on the hookup app Jingle Bells. Kallum, you swiped on Winnie after having a sweet little love-at-first-sight moment in the town square. Winnie, you’ve exhausted all your options in this tiny little town and even your rescued reindeer are getting their own happily ever afters. Plus you’re both, like, horny as fuck.” He turns to Gretchen. “Did I miss anything?”
She nodded once. “‘Horny as fuck’ just about covers it.”
“Horny AF,” Winnie whispered. “Got it.”
“We’ll be talking you through it as we go,” Gretchen reassured Winnie. “The sexy bits will have music going over it, so we’ll be able to coach you out loud.”
Gretchen and Jack then retreated to their posts and it was just me and Winnie. The intimate scenes had a pretty bare-bones crew, so it was a little too easy for my brain to think that it really was only the two of us.
“Quiet on set!” someone called.
A short guy with a ponytail stepped out in front of the camera with the clapboard.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Gretchen called as the guy moved back behind the camera.
Winnie inhaled deeply and then let it all out as she sat up and pushed her chest out, transforming into the perky andearnest reindeer conservationist she was meant to play. “You’re not from around here,” she said.
I stretched my arm out behind her like we’d rehearsed. “Do I stand out that much in Cypress Valley?”
Winnie giggled. “You’d stand out anywhere.” She turned to me and our lips were close enough to touch.
“I’ve spent my whole life on the nice list,” I tell her. “But you make me want to do very naughty things.”
“Show me,” she said in a breathy voice. “I’m a visual learner.”
That was my cue! Operation Horny AF was a go. I curved the arm I’d slung over her shoulders so that my hand could cradle the back of her head as we pressed our mouths together. It took every ounce of brain power to remind my body that this was a job and that we were just two posable dolls breathing into each other’s mouths. Without tongue. Definitely without tongue.
