Page 84 of One Happy Summer

But I don’t, I get to work and after filming for a few hours, we take a break while Jason goes through what’s been shot to make sure he has all he needs. If he has, then there’s just one more scene to film and we’ll be done. My time in Florida will be over.

I’ll leave this state behind, and Briggs too. It’ll be a fresh start. On to wherever life takes me next. And that’s South Dakota for our next shoot. Which, to be honest, doesn’t sound all that exciting.

I walk over to craft services to get some water and possibly a snack, when one of the assistants, Jan, approaches me.

“Hey, Presley, there’s some guy at security asking to talk to you,” she says. “Do you want me to get rid of him? He says he knows you.” She looks down at a scrap of paper in her hands. “His name is Briggs Gatsby Dalton. He said you’d only know him by his full name.”

“What?” I say, my eyes immediately tearing up. I grab the paper from her and read the handwritten words. “It’s Gatsby?” I look at Jan, who gives me a confused shrug.

Could it be? His middle name is Gatsby? I never even thought of that as an option. But yet, that’s what it is. I just know it.

“What should I tell security?” Jan asks.

I don’t even answer her. I just take off running, pulling the blonde wig off my head as I go, and the cap as well. There’s nothing I can do about the armor, and I’m sure I look ridiculous right now, but I don’t care.

“Briggs!” I shout when I see him standing there, just outside the guard’s station. I run toward him, passing security, and stop right in front of him.

“Hi,” he says, his lips—his beautiful lips—pulled up into a smile.

“Your middle name is Gatsby,” I say, my words breathy from running.

He nods. “It is.”

“I love it,” I tell him.

“Well, you and my mom have something in common, then. I used to hate it, but now I think I kind of love it, too.” He takes a step toward me, and I take one toward him.

“You’re here,” I say, and then furrow my brow. “How did you find me?”

“Scout,” he says, chuckling.

“You came all the way here to tell me your middle name?”

He looks me in the eyes, a smile on his face. “That, and I also wanted to tell you I love you.”

I blink, rapidly. The tears are back again. Makeup and hair are going to hate me today.

“You love me?” I ask him.

He nods, moving even closer. “I’m not sure what got into me yesterday when you came to see me, but it was the wrong choice and I’d like to try this thing with you and see where it goes.”

I’m struggling for words right now, still not believing he’s here, standing in front of me.

“I’m prepared to use the daft prick line fromNotting Hillif necessary,” he says.

I laugh amidst the tears streaming down my face. “You don’t need to,” I say. “Because I love you too, Briggs Gatsby Dalton.”

And then he’s kissing me; his hands are in my hair and then on my face, and this stupid armor I’m wearing is a ridiculous barrier, but I don’t care. Briggs is here. Briggs Gatsby Dalton is here, and he loves me and I love him.

The beginning of this summer started out as possibly one of the worst in my entire life, but it’s somehow morphed into my best summer ever, and I have the man who currently has his arms wrapped around me, his lips moving against mine, to thank for it.

I know we’ll have some things to work through, different sorts of barriers in our way, but after we’ve kissed properly and we walk hand in hand back onto the set, I know I’ll do whatever it takes to make it work, whatever I have to do.

Because he’s worth it.

Briggs

The next couple ofmonths go like this: I visit Presley as much as I can while she filmsCosmic Fury, and we go to a few places in the United States I’ve never seen before. Places like the Badlands in South Dakota, with its unique rock formations and barren expanses, and White Sands National Park in New Mexico, where the endless white sands will end up looking like a desolate, icy planet in post-production.

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