“Becky, what is your job around here?”
She swallowed.“Make up?”
“Right,” he said, levelling her with a look that made Marissa shiver just to witness.She didn’t ever want to be the subject of one of those looks.“So why are you hassling the talent?”
Becky’s face had turned beet red and Marissa was blushing in sympathy for her.“No, I’m not, I mean, I’m sorry,” she threw Marissa a desperate look.“I didn’t mean to hassle her.I-I’m just glad she’s back, that’s all.I’m a fan.”
A fan.Ha.That was a laugh.
Joel continued to regard Becky with a stony look and folded his arms across his chest.“Can you finish up?”
Becky used make-up remover to clean the smudge of mascara, but her fingers trembled too much to reapply it.The girl took a deep breath and blew it out with her lips pursed, like she was doing yoga breathing.Marissa picked up the wand and leaned toward the mirror, putting it on herself.She held her eyes wide so it wouldn’t smudge and turned back to the make up artist.“What else?”
“Um...lips.”Becky fumbled for her lip pencil, darting a glance up at Joel, who still glowered at her.
“Hey, I’ll be right out, okay?”Marissa said, realizing if Joel didn’t leave, her make up would take twice as long.
He nodded once, gave Becky one more look and left the room.
Becky finished the look without meeting her eye.Tension hung between them like heavy clouds.Marissa couldn’t think of anything to diffuse it.She really didn’t want to be treated like crap by her make up artist, but she also didn’t want her shaking in fear or hating her now.
“Okay, you’re good to go,” Becky said.
“Thanks,” she muttered and bolted for the door of her trailer.
Joel literally stood outside it, waiting.Her heart leaped.For some reason, she thought things would be the same as before on the set.She hadn’t expected Joel to let everyone see they had a relationship—whatever that relationship may be.It turned her gooey inside to be acknowledged publicly by him—Joel Sutherland, A-list movie star.But no—it wasn’t just the public acknowledgement that had her swooning.It was the way he continued to dote on her.
After their night in Vegas, she’d begged him not to give her another enema, since her lip had improved.He had prescribed exercise instead and invited her to do Crossfit with him.
“Uh, Crossfit kills me.I mean, literally.I throw up from the exertion.Does a dance class count?”
He’d grinned at her.“Sure, you can take a dance class for your exercise.”
To her absolute shock, he had not only taken her to dance class—after they dropped her car off to have the roof mechanism fixed—but he had sat and watched the entire thing.She’d been almost giddy from the attention.Dance had always been her greatest love—she’d been a competitive dancer growing up, but her mom had pushed her into acting, since that’s where the money was to be had.
She showed off for Joel, hitting her triple pirouettes and tilts and nailing the contemporary combination at the end.His presence had fueled an energy in the entire class—every dancer treating it like an audition, doing her best for the famous movie star in the waiting room.Of course, she was famous, too, but she came to dance.The students there knew that and gave her a respectful amount of space.
She remembered Naomi, a girl on her dance team growing up.Naomi’s parents—both her mom and her dad—had sat and watched every single dance class, every rehearsal, every performance.Marissa and the other dancers had hated her for it.She just seemed so much morelovedthan the rest of them.Marissa’s mother, despite offering every bit of criticism of her performances, never stayed to watch classes or rehearsals.She had always been too busy getting her hair done, dating the next prospective stepfather or shopping with Bev.And she’d considered dance a necessary skill, but nothing worth pursuing seriously.
After the dance class, she’d rushed, like a child, into Joel’s arms and he had picked her up, pulling her legs around his waist.
“Great job, Marissa,” he had exclaimed.In her ear, so no one else could hear, he said, “I could tell you did your very best for Daddy.I’m so proud of my little angel.”
She’d turned giddy with the attention, giggling and warm as he lowered her down and offered to take her out for a treat.
Having Joel there yesterday made up for every single one of her mom’s absences.And now here he was, protecting her from her make-up artist and standing protectively outside her trailer, like he wasn’t the biggest name on the set.
He took her hand.“Are you okay?”
She looked back over her shoulder toward her trailer, where Becky was coming out.“Yeah.Totally.Thanks.”
“Okay, so we’re going back to the same scene we stopped on.I know you know the lines this time, so just relax and shine, all right, baby?”
He knew she knew her lines because he’d made her rehearse them all afternoon the previous day.Not that she’d minded one bit.She loved acting with him.
“Do I seem nervous?”she asked.
“I can tell you’re edgy, but that’s my job,” he said, giving her a wink.
