Page 53 of The Boss I Can't Stand
“Merle happens to be an excellent conversationalist.”
“Sure,” he snorted, “if you like the strong, silent type.”
“Maybe I do,” I said, arching a brow in his direction. “What more could a girl want besides a great listener and fiberglass abs?”
Finn smirked. “He loses his head a little too much for my taste.”
“You just have to know how to adjust the head,” I said, watching the muscle in his jaw twitch. “You have to be delicate. Use two hands. Squeeze just right so he doesn’tpopoff. It’s not rocket science, but you do have to know what you’re doing.”
Finn’s arm shot out, stopping me from passing through the door. His gaze held mine, those hazel eyes as piercing as ever. What were we even talking about?
A shiver trickled down my spine as he stared me down like he was thinking about hauling me close and kissing me.For real. Not one of our staged kisses, but the breathless, desperate kiss I’d been wanting for weeks.
“Maybe it should be a costume fiasco,” I said, my voice thready. “Our first meeting.”
“Like what?” he murmured, his breath ghosting across my cheek.
“You tore your pants, and I had to sew you back up?”
He scoffed, rolling his eyes. “We arenotgoing with that story.”
“Sierra!”
I whirled around to find Paisley racing down the hall toward us. She didn’t need to say anything as she skidded to a stop, breathing heavily, her face a mask of horror. I knew just by her expression that disaster had struck. I started running toward the costume shop, hearing the heavy tread of Finn’s footsteps echoing behind me as my thoughts spun through worst-case scenarios.
“What happened?” I demanded the moment we all burst through the door.
My eyes darted from Shaw, slumped down and sobbing at the base of the industrial washer, her head in her hands. Shaw lifted her head, her face caked with tears and mascara lines. But I couldn’t focus on her when I saw Trin and Carter pull shreds of material from the machine.
My heart lobbed so hard against my chest I winced.
“Oh no,” I said under my breath. “No, no,no.”
“I’m sorry!” Shaw cried.
Even in scraggly, wet pieces, I recognized the color and the fabric. This was Shaw’s party sequence dress. The one we still neededbecause X hadn’t finished shooting those scenes. The one that was now utterly and unfixably ruined.
The world had been yanked out from under me. As I stumbled back, hand over my mouth to cover my shock, I collided with a sturdy chest. It was Finn. His hand landed on my shoulder, steadying me. The touch was grounding, making me feel just the tiniest bit more stable, despite the horror churning inside me.
“Shit,” Finn said, his voice barely above a whisper.
I trembled with spikes of adrenaline. How the hell would I fix this? “What happened?” I finally managed to croak again.
Silence echoed through the room, everyone looking awkwardly at each other. Finally, Paisley started talking. “After the shoot today, Shaw realized she’d gotten ink on one of the sleeves. Wanting to be helpful, she tossed the dress into the machine. By the time we realized what was happening…It was too late.”
I stepped forward, taking a shred of fabric from Trin, stretching it out against my palm. I had the ridiculous urge to apologize to it—the poor dress that I was supposed to keep safe.
“I’m so sorry,” Shaw blubbered again. I stared down at her. Lord, she was even beautiful when she cried.
“Can it be fixed?” Finn asked from behind me.
I wanted to say it was fine. No big deal. Easily resolved. But there wasn’t a scrap of salvageable fabric left. We were so,soscrewed.
“Sierra?” Finn said sharply, his voice cutting through the din of panic in my mind. “Can it be fixed?”
I shook my head, turning to him. “To redo it correctly would take days of work, and we’re shooting the rest of these scenestomorrow!” X had already shot half the footage. So the replacement dress wouldhave to beexactlythe same because reshoots would be timely and costly.
“We need the exact same fabric to make an identical dress, and I don’t have an inch left!” That one bolt had been all we’d been able to find. I pressed my hand to my belly, feeling sick.
