“Melody.” Skye interrupted Cara, the look she gave Jerrod speaking volumes. They didn’t like her.
“Ah.” Jerrod’s eyes were less friendly when he asked, “You’re friends?”
“I only met her a couple of times. I was in a jam, and she needed a roommate.”
The other two exchanged a look again.
“Okay, what? What is it about Melody? You guys are starting to make me feel like I’ve moved in with a demon!”
Jerrod curled his lip. “Not far off.”
“She’s not that bad,” Skye reproved. “She’s just… What’s the word…”
“Opportunistic? Selfish? Greedy?” Jerrod sneered.
Skye hummed a sound of agreement.
Cara was curious. “In what way?”
Jerrod looked at Skye and when she shrugged, he said. “One example—she was hired for a small role on a production here last year. No experience, but she was hooking up with the director—the very married director. She flaunted it!” He said the last bit to Skye when she made a slashing motion across her neck. “She was always late, never knew her lines, and eventually most of her performance was cut, but…” Jerrod smirked. “She got a lovely vacation to St. Barts out of it and a new line on IMDb. She tried latching on to Brian, but he wasn’t interested. Melody is the type that is always on to bigger and better and only has time for you if there is something in it for her.”
“She had a tough start, Jerrod,” Skye said quietly, sliding her eyes to Cara. “She and Wes both did. It wasn’t easy for them in school.”
“Hmm, but one owns a cybersecurity firm, and the other is still taking freebies for doing nothing.”
Cara was uncomfortable with how the conversation was going. She didn’t know Melody, but she knew how Wes felt about her. This felt disloyal. “I have some phone calls to make. Meet you back at the trailer?” she asked, gathering her trash.
“Don’t mind us,” Skye said, waving her hand. “I’ve never liked Melody. Even when we were young, she took advantage of people. The only one who never saw it was Wes.”
For Wes’s sake, Cara hoped that wasn’t true. Wes was smart and sweet—why would he care so much about someone who everyone else thought was awful?
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Cara spottedLuke stretching at the end of the parking lot and couldn’t help smiling. It didn’t matter that they were just going for a walk in the woods. Luke, like his twin James, approached everything with a completely unnecessary level of competition. Cara had hoped for a pace that would let them to have a conversation. But, if some good old heart-pumping exercise put Luke in a good mood, then it would only help.
She hadn’t anticipated how long her days on set would be. It wasn’t unusual for her to work twelve or more hours. Cara wanted to talk to Luke and James about what Declan thought he’d discovered, but she wanted to do it in person—and this was the first day off she’d had since being hired.
Cara didn’t begin to understand her brothers’ brains or why they seemed to get on each other’s nerves so much. But the not talking had to stop. There was no way she was going to allow her brothers to continue to fracture their family.
Luke gave her a friendly wave as she approached, and she noticed a couple of moms with jogging strollers surreptitiously checking out her older brother, who in turn gave them one of his blinding smiles.
“Really? Even the ones with babies?” She punched him in the arm.
“What? I’m just being friendly.”
“Uh-huh, I don’t think the wink was necessary.”
Luke draped one of his giant arms around her shoulders. “Maybe not to you, but the redhead seemed to like it.”
Cara glanced back over her shoulder, and sure enough, the woman was now openly trying to catch Luke’s eye.
“One of these days your flirting is going to get you in trouble.”
Luke shrugged and, using his arm around her shoulders, tugged her toward the trail disappearing into the woods.
“I’m single and being friendly. I can’t help it if women like to flirt with me.”
“She had a baby.” Cara tried to sound exasperated, but it was almost impossible to stay annoyed in the face of Luke’s good humor.
