His eyes were on the ground, and he had such an unhappy expression on his face she felt a little sorry for him. His life with Courtney and Matt couldn’t be easy. They weren’t that many years apart but he seemed so much younger. How old was he? Twenty-two? Twenty-three?
“Cara,” he started, and then stopped again, and Cara fought the urge to tell him to spit out whatever it was. “I’m sorry about the other day. With my mom and Matt, I mean. I know you have every reason to resent us because…” He trailed off and Cara grit her teeth. He took a deep breath. “But I’m going to be around a lot. Matt, too. And I’d like to be cordial. We were family for a while.”
Cara considered him for a moment. Wouldn’t it be easier if at least two of them could get along? She would still stay away from Courtney and Matt as long as she had a job, but she doubted Trey had anything to do with the displacement of her brother from Bloom Communications.
Cara’s smile was guarded. “I’d like that. What do you do here?”
Trey made a face. “I’m supposed to be working in postproduction.” Her confusion must have shown. “I wouldn’t normally be on the lot, but my mom thinks I should be a presence on set. She thinks it will be good for me to be around people.” He gave a tiny shrug. “And she said she wants me to monitor things when Matt can’t be here. You know how she is.”
Unfortunately, Cara did. “When Matt’s not here? Shouldn’t he be busy running my father’s company?”
Trey flushed, and Cara instantly regretted her sharp tone.
“They’ve hired someone to help him out, so he’ll be back and forth.” Trey’s eyes were on the ground again.
“Never mind,” Cara said.
She shouldn’t be surprised that Matt had already grown tired of playing CEO. Of all the things Matt was, stupid wasn’t one of them. He had to have realized he had no idea what he was doing. All he had cared about, like his mother, was the money and prestige.
Cara’s radio crackled again, and she recognized Skye’s voice asking for her ETA. “I’ve got to go, but I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Enjoy your flowers.”
Cara pushed the pedal down and raced to her car, sticking the flowers in the passenger seat. It was only when she screeched to a stop at the trailer that she realized she’d left the card with the flowers.
“Sorry,” she muttered to Skye. But there was no time for further discussion because the principals arrived to have their makeup done.
The main scene being shot today was a fight scene between Chandler’s character and some extras in a bar. Poor ‘Bob’ appeared to be coping with his PTSD from the war by drinking and brawling. The script wasn’t bad, and the acting was good for the most part. Lia in particular shone. But Cara wasn’t interested in the movie itself.
She was excited because Skye said Cara could help her feather out the edges of fake wounds. They would have a busy day adjusting the makeup as the scene progressed from pre-fight to the immediate aftermath.
Cara was grateful. If she stayed busy, she wouldn’t have time to dwell on what happened the day before—like she had all night. She had alternated between her temperature skyrocketing, as she relived Wes’s touch, and the cold pain in her chest, when she thought about the hateful things they had said.
It wasn’t until after everyone else left the trailer, and she was cleaning their brushes that she had an opportunity to talk to Skye. If Trey and Matt were going to be on the lot, inevitably, she would run into them with her coworkers.
“Sorry it took me so long to get back. I got stopped.”
Skye didn’t look up from where she was putting her makeup away in the precise order she liked. “It’s okay. You got back in time.”
Cara wasn’t sure how to start the conversation, so she blurted out, “Remember when the new buyers came on the soundstage a few days ago?”
Skye stopped what she was doing and leaned against the wall, all ears. “Of course! You said you’d explain, but then we had all those days off, and then there was the drama at the hotel.”
Cara winced. This was not a good look for her.
“I swear, recent events not included, I live a really boring life.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’m serious! I have a little bit of family stuff going on, but that’s all it is. And the other night was just my ass of an ex-boyfriend. He doesn’t even live in Atlanta.”
“Hang on. Back up. That really was your family? The new buyers?”
Cara made a sour face.
“Then why the hell are you working as an assistant? With that kind of money, you could do whatever you want here! Hell, Brian would probably let youbein the movie. This whole industry is about who you know.” Skye tried to hide the bitterness in her voice.
“That’s not how I want to live my life.” The anymore part, she added silently.
