“It doesn’t need to.” I internally cringe just thinking about it. “All the die-hard fans know the story. They’re just waiting to see if I do Riley justice.”
“Did you?” Luke quirks his brow and Amelia gasps.
“Luke!” she responds before I can. “Don’t ask her that. Of course she did.”
“Hayley?” he questions me again, tilting his head as he waits for an answer.
Amelia groans but it’s all good because “I nailed it,” I say confidently. I did all I can do.
“Then you have nothing to worry about.”
Easier said than done.
“Can we watch it?” Amelia asks with pride. “I’ve been dying to see how it all turned out.”
She came to a few of my shoot days to watch, but seeing us run through a scene over and over versus seeing the finished product is completely different. And I’m just as excited as she is.
“Let’s do it.Afterour swim.”
Luke brings his tablet out when we’ve finished in the pool, and I wrap the towel around myself as he finds the clip, my emotions a mix of excitement and intrigue.
“Are you ready?” he asks when Amelia’s finished changing Juliet, and they both sit down beside me.
“So ready,” Amelia says, but when Luke laughs, we realize he was talking to me.
“I was born for this.”
I hold my breath as the clip begins, starting with a close-up of me and Evan—Riley and Patrick—our eyes locked as the camera pans out to reveal his hand clenched around my neck, a knife by his side.
A stick snaps from behind him and he spins around, giving me the chance to disappear.
The second clip opens with an angel on top of a mountain, wings flapping in the wind. It’s hard to tell if it’s male or female until the camera zooms in and around to reveal Evan—Patrick—with his hands clenched in his hair, his expression pained.
A montage of ten or so moments comes next, all various stages of Riley and Patrick’s relationship before it cuts back to me, racing through the streets as night falls. Turning the corner, I’m met with a flash of something evil before the screen goes blank and the words “coming soon” take over the darkness.
The clip ends and I finally breathe.
“Wow.” Amelia’s eyes flash to mine, but for the first time, I have nothing to say.
All I can do is repeat her word back to her. “Wow.”
“That’s some chemistry.”
“Maybe on the screen, but in real life…not so much.”
“Oh. You went there?”
“Of course she did,” Luke cuts in. “It’s Evan Rider. EvenI’dgo there.”
“Actually, I didn’t go there. And you’re in luck; I think he’d prefer you.” Luke’s right though. If the opportunity had presented itself, I definitely would have slept with him. That man isfinewith a capital F. But it wasn’t meant to be and that’s probably for the best. We would have had a few awkward scenes to film after the fact.
“I should probably avoid actors I’m working with. The last thing I want is to find myself in a situation where the producers overhear we’ve hooked up and decide it would be good publicity if we faked a relationship. I’ve heard of that happening before.”
“A fake relationship? Surely that’s a myth?” Luke scrunches his nose as though the idea disgusts him.
“Didn’t you fake a marriage?” I bite my tongue in amusement.
“It wasneverfake, thank you. Despite what Amelia wanted to believe.”
