Page 67 of Doc Hollywood

Clara suppressed a sigh. She didn’t doubt the next big thing actress was smaller than her.

“No. I’ve not met anyone yet, only Lacey and you. Oh, and the security guard.”

“The day or the night guard?”

“I have no idea. It was just before nine am, so I guess the day one,” she hedged.

“I’ve not had the chance to chat with the day guard yet. Tony’s the night guard. He’s a nice guy. I went round to his house for dinner last week. His nonna is a brilliant cook.”

“Do you make friends with everyone?”

“No. Maybe,” he amended. “I travel a lot. It gets lonely if you don’t make a few friends on location.”

“Wouldn’t that be the other actors?” Clara stopped what she was doing, curious to learn more about what made him tick.

“It’s so easy to disappear into the clouds, to get lost in your own importance if you only hang out with other actors. It’s good to get the chance to meet people from different walks of life.”

“That sounds great.” Clara’s voice held her admiration.

“No, don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m a good person. To be honest. I started doing it to improve my acting. At each location, I picked someone who I thought spending time with would help make me a better actor.”

“Oh.”

“Oh indeed. I was such an ass when I first began acting. I was so selfish. I only wanted to look out for number one. For me. I did—well, I did so many things I’m not so proud of now. But getting to know people who aren’t in the business, that’s one of the good things I did.”

Clara’s heart fell; what had she been thinking? Of course, she wasn’t anything special to him. He was literally telling her right now that she was just another normal person that he got to know so he could improve his acting while he played a doctor. One of the hundreds over the years.

Cursing internally, she bent back down to the box she had open so he wouldn’t see the flush rising up her face.

Keeping her voice as neutral as she could, she replied, “That’s great.”

“Tony’s a good guy. We chat most days, and he mentioned that his nonna was a big fan, so it seemed nice to go and visit.”

Clara stamped down her feeling of disappointment and managed to laugh. “And you got food out of it that you weren’t supposed to eat?”

“That was a bonus,” Taylor smirked. “Right, what can I do to help? Can I open the boxes for you? If I empty them onto the bed—“

Clara immediately corrected him. “Operating table.”

“If I empty them onto the operating table and sort them into piles of things that look alike, you can put them all away.” He grabbed a box off the floor without waiting for an answer.

She thought about arguing, but the selfish part of her wanted to spend as much time with Taylor as she could, even if she was just another one of the ‘normal people’ that he had befriended.

“Sure. That would be a big help.”

However, when his gaze locked on hers, her heart skipped a beat. She didn’t think she was imagining the heat in the bright blue eyes that stared back at her, a look that suggested he thought about more than just friendship with her.

She was so confused, so she did what she always did when it came to her feelings; she stuffed them back into a tiny box, shoved them into the back of her mind to worry about some other time, and carried on with the job she was being paid to do.

They worked quickly, occasionally breaking the silence with inconsequential conversation. Taylor told her stories about his mum’s latest antics with the other Hollywood mums. And Clara told him about their latest terrible defeat at the pub quiz; in fact, everyone still talked about the week that Taylor had joined them and asked if he was going to come back again soon.

“Pizza.”

A man’s voice at the theatre doorway nearly had Clara jumping out of her skin, and she dropped the batch of syringes she had been putting away.

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