Page 87 of Take Hold of Me

I speak the truth about my surprise. “I did not know you were going to be doing this movie, too.”

“Yeah, I got the call a couple of days ago. Something about the producers wanting to take advantage of our prior relationship and feed into the tabloid rumors going on. Of course, I always enjoy spending time with you.” He winks and runs his hands through his hair, a grin tipping his lips. One that used to make me drop my panties. Now they firmly remain in place.

He rubs a lock of my hair between his fingers. He pitches his voice lower. “Have you missed me?”

I step back and reclaim my hair as my own. “Actually, I have moved on. I have a boyfriend now.” I look around but cannot find Wills. “He is here somewhere.”

His eyebrows go up. “Really? I can’t wait to meet him.” Shrugging, Rinaldo holds up his script. “I know we had to go our separate ways, and I’m sorry for how the tabloids are exploiting us right now, but let’s try to have some fun with this. Are you ready to run our lines? I think we should practice.”

“I was just given these change pages and have not had time to read through all of them yet.”

Rinaldo nods. “Why don’t we go over them while we wait for the crew to be ready for us?”

Looking around, many people flutter about the set. They all look like they are doing something important with cameras, microphones, lighting. No one pays us much attention, so I guess we will not be filming for a while. And I do need to know what to expect.

“Sounds like a good idea.”

His eyes light up as his hand reaches out for mine. Without thought, I put mine in his and we walk over to an area with better lighting. Face-to-face, we begin to go over the dialogue.

Not many words have changed from my original script. Rinaldo and I fall into a good rhythm and we almost sound like normal people talking rather than two people reading off a piece of paper.

Things are feeling natural. Until I flip to the final page.

RINALDO: “Running into you here, of all places” [motion toward the coffeehouse] “reminds me of who we were before publicity took hold of us.”

EMILIE: “Oui. I remember. We used to go out without cameras. When it was just you and me.” [place hand on his chest]

RINALDO: “We were so good together.”

EMILIE: [cast eyes downward, then slowly trail them up to his eyes] “Maybe we could try again?”

RINALDO: [smiles] “Things are so different now. The paparazzi are everywhere.”

EMILIE: “I don’t care. Let them watch us.”

I stumble over the second word. “Donut. Doont. Dont.”

Rinaldo laughs for real, a deep throaty sound. Which causes me to giggle, my hand covering my face.

“You still can’t do contractions, can you Emmie?” He wipes the corners of his eyes.

I shake my head. “My mouth simply cannot form the sounds.”

“Remember the time,” he bends over, hands on his thighs. No need for me to respond, I know exactly what he is talking about. I join in his laughter.

After a minute, he stands. “Thanks, Emmie. I needed that laugh. God, we had some good times.”

“We did laugh a lot.”

Wills crosses my line of vision and my smile falls away.Wills. My bottom lip comes between my teeth. I catch his eyes—blazing blue—and smile at him, motioning for him to come over. He heads our way with the lithe grace of a panther. I swallow over my trepidation.

“Rinaldo, I would like to introduce you to Wills Sumner, my boyfriend. Wills, this is Rinaldo García.”No further description needed.

Wills extends his hand to my co-star. “Rinaldo.” His voice is hard, unlike any tone I have heard him use before. Is he …jealous? He has absolutely no reason to be.

Rinaldo clasps the offered hand with ease, a smile still tugging at his full lips. “Nice to meet you.” The handshake lasts an inordinate amount of time.

I place my hand on my boyfriend’s forearm, the muscles tighter than a brick, and take a deep breath. “Apparently the producers made a last-minute substitution of actors with the change pages.” Wills drops his hand and looks at me. “Most of my lines are the same, though.”

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