“I couldn’t even tell you a movie she’s been in.” Shirley waved a hand to dismiss her. “But I can tell you whose pants I want to be—”
“Mom…” Prudence warned.
“Oh, goodness that tuxedo fits him well.” LuAnne sighed. “The pants really are perfectly tailored and hug his tight little—”
“Mom!” Prudence and Annabelle exclaimed in unison, although Prudence did offer up silent thanks for the change of subject.
Prudence tried to show indifference as the night wore on. The amount of tequila she’d had was not helping. In her tipsy state she processed Greyson with Samantha differently each time the camera showed them. Laughing, whispering to each other, her hand laying possessively on his thigh.
“They really are a handsome couple,” she commented, slightly slurring, at about the three-hour mark and the three-hundredth time they were shown. She was now in the acceptance stage.
“Handsome?” Devlin questioned. “I’m sorry, did you just call them ‘handsome’?”
“You know what I mean. They look good together.”
“She’s a little too nondescript for my tastes,” Shirley said. “She’s just like every other blonde actress out there. There are at least ten other women dressed the same. Same hair, same tan, same boobs.”
Annabelle squinted at the screen, her head slightly bobbing left and right. “Their boobsarethe same!”
“And what about you, Annabelle. What ever happened to you and…Mark, no…Matt?” her mother asked seamlessly as though they had been discussing Annabelle’s love life this whole time.
“Mom. I told you. He liked to smell my feet.”
“Everyone has their eccentricities, dear.”
“Someone who builds miniature models of everything is eccentric. Someone who smells feet is borderline certifiable.”
“Well, everyone has something, and if you exclude everything you’ll never find the one. Your father—”
Prudence mercifully cut her off. “Hold on! Grey’s award is up next!”
Chapter Five
“And the winner of the Verity Award for Lead Actor in a motion picture, drama, is…Greyson Atwood!”
Greyson sat dumbfounded in his seat. Samantha tugged at his arm trying to get him to stand.Well, shit. Shaking his head and pulling himself up from his chair, he buttoned the jacket of his tailored tux—he did have to get it let out an inch after all. Samantha went in for the kiss, obviously expecting a public display of affection despite only having met him once for lunch and their limo ride over here. Since then, the entirety of their interactions had consisted of him being asked to stand to the side so they could get solo pictures of her.
Greyson dodged her pucker and instead she landed a very awkward cheek kiss.Well, that’s going to be talked about tomorrow. After he pulled away and started up to the stage, shaking hands and getting pats on the back along the way, he couldn’t help thinking, for the hundredth time, that he wished Prudence was there.
Standing on the stage, he peered into the crowd.
“Not bad for an action star,” he joked, holding the award up. Getting the laugh he’d hoped he would, he continued thanking all the requisite business insiders, conveniently leaving his date out, which would also be talked about. “Thanks to Prudence and Annabelle, and, of course, my brother, Gabe. Hi, Mom and Dad!” Surprisingly, tears formed in Greyson’s eyes, and he quickly turned to exit the stage, almost running over the show’s ambassador on the way.
His was one of the last awards of the night, so thankfully he didn’t have to sit with Samantha for long. Every time the camera panned over to them, she’d whisper nonsense in his ear then laugh, try to take his hand or rest her hand on his thigh—very high on his thigh. He tried to shake it off and focus on the fact that he’d just won a major award. He didn’t want to embarrass her any more after very publicly dodging her kiss. Thankfully, the closing music began, and the crew started running around the stage, a sure signal that the TV broadcast was over. Samantha stood, smiling as she pulled him up from his seat for the second time that night.
“This is so great, Greyson! It’s just the publicity we need for our movie,” Samantha said, either oblivious to his rejection, or her need to be in the spotlight outweighed that embarrassment. Possibly both.
Greyson had been scanning the theater but drew his attention back to Samantha at those words. “Our movie? We haven’t agreed on anything, let alone read a script.”
“Oh, silly, it’s a figure of speech.”
“Is it?” Greyson asked, leading her to the exit.
“You know,ourmovie,ourlimo,ourseats,ourlives. I’m being literal.”
“I don’t think that means what you think it means, Samantha.”
She shook her head, climbing into the limo. “You know what I’m trying to say. We’ll have plenty of time after this to relax and go over the finer details. Once Nadia gets the final script to us, we can hole up together and go over it. Really make it a character study.”
