Page 20 of Shooting for his Heart
“Yeah, we have to make sure the movie is scary enough,” Nick explained.
“It’s good to have professionals helping…” Vonnie chimed in. “Hi, I’m Vonnie.” She introduced herself to Marshae with an extended hand.
“I’m Shae.” My sister returned her greeting.
“Hey, boys. I hear you’re the ones that make sure these movies are a hit,” Vonnie said, turning her attention to the boys.
“I do! I’m Evan.”
“Hey, Evan. It’s so nice to meet you,” Vonnie said, shaking his hand.
Evan grinned. “I like your red hair.”
“I like your hair too. She’s pretty… Ain’t she, Unc? You should be in a movie,” Nick noted before I had the chance to respond.
“Thank you. Aren’t you two charming? I know you didn’t get your good manners from your dad. They must have come from your mommy,” Vonnie said, giving Marshae a surprisingly warm smile.
Why didn’t she ever look at me like that?
“I hope that means you think I’m cute. Does charming mean cute?” Nick asked, ignoring half of what Vonnie said. I was so flustered I couldn’t respond.
“Boys, come on. Stop flirting so we can get breakfast,” Marshae interrupted the exchange with a laugh.
“They really are handsome boys.” Vonnie turned her smile to me.
“Thank you. I think they get that from me.” I shrugged with a slight grin.
“Possibly…” She lifted her shoulders before following Gia’s lead out of the tent.
It was good that the boys were on set with me. However, I had to admit that I would miss Gia and Vonnie’s company. Certainly, I’d miss one more than the other. I would get attached to having her around if I weren’t careful, so the boys were a welcomed distraction to the current red-headed one I was already battling. I had to make sure that I kept my priorities in check so this film could be my best one yet. I had no time—although I was indeed interested—to mix business with pleasure.
It was onlyeight in the morning, but Gia and I had been at it for hours. The hardest part of the day was the first couple of hours when we worked with the team to get the cast ready for the start of the day. We were inundated with makeup and repairing outfits from the previous day’s events.
It was a good thing that I was pretty handy with a sewing machine, but the teams carried the bulk of the workload. The crew doing the makeup was masterful at replicating the looks I gave them. After three hours on the set, I was beat. I was more than grateful to come up for air and get some breakfast in my stomach.
The vanilla yogurt bowl I picked up was chockfull of dried fruit and granola. I’d added a drizzle of honey to the top tosweeten it just a bit more. Since it would be a few hours before we went to lunch, I’d gotten some sausage and eggs to make sure I had enough protein in my system to carry me through a busy day.
“I wasn’t aware that Marshawn had children,” I mentioned, trying to sound as casual as possible.
The side-eye Gia gave me showed that my attempt to be coy as I pried wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped.
“That’s because he doesn’t. Those are his nephews. You didn’t hear one of them call him Unc?”
“Well, who was the woman? She was pretty.”
“One of his sisters. For someone who continues to claim not to have a crush on the director, you sure ask a lot of questions.”
“Is there something wrong with wanting to get to know my coworkers?”
She smirked. “Not at all.”
“You know what? To hell with you. Yes, the man is fine. Am I so wrong for noticing? I’m not blind.”
“Noticing isn’t the problem. It’s the way you keep pretendingnotto notice that’s throwing me for a loop. If I catch y’all stealing glances at each other like we’re in a teenage sitcom, I’m going to smash y’all’s lips together,” Gia threatened.
“Stealing glances? Girl, please. If I wanted the man, I would already be riding his face into the sunset.”
“So, now, I’m supposed to be blind too?” She rolled her eyes.
