Page 70 of Take It Till You Make It
I give Crispin a significant look. Then turn back to his mom. “If it makes you feel any better, he helped me do the dishes after dinner the other night.”
She lets out a dramatic breath. “It does help to know. Thank you.” She pats Crispin’s cheek. “You are a good boy after all.”
“Mom,” he whines again.
I have to bite my lip because it’s so adorable to see him like that.
Pauline returns to the task she abandoned when she rushed over to give me the hug. “But, no thank you, Arabelle. You and Crispin can just spend some quality time together.”
“Thank you.” I mean, what else can I say?
Shaking his head, Crispin motions for me to follow him and jogs down the steps of the deck to the yard below. As soon as Crispin comes into view, an old yellow lab hefts herself up off a dog bed in a shaded corner of the yard and hobbles to him, wagging her tail the whole time.
I don’t even think he realizes he’s petting her as soon as she makes it to him. It looks like they’ve done this same thing for a million years.
I squat in front of her and scratch her neck. “Who is this beauty?”
“Lady.”
“She’s gorgeous.”
“Best dog in the world.” Crispin squats next to me and rubs her ear until her head tips toward him. Her back leg raises off the ground and starts to flap around. “She loves to have her ears rubbed. It used to make her scratch her belly, but she’s not as flexible as she used to be. Are you, girl?”
She grins at Crispin like he hung the moon. Tongue lolling, rheumy eyes glazed. This girl is in love. And dang if it doesn’t make me like him even more. I’m so screwed.
“You guys want to join us?” Claire asks. The clap of the ball hitting Angel’s glove makes me wince.
I give Lady one last head scratch, and Crispin and I both stand and turn to face her. I shake my head and point to Angel’s glove. “I can’t catch anything like that. I can’t throw either, if I’m being honest.”
Crispin chuckles. “Claire is on her college softball team. I avoid playing catch with her too. Angel has to play if he wants to stay in her good graces.”
Claire rolls her eyes. “Also, he plays on the school’s baseball team.”
“Oh, right.” Crispin hits his forehead. Angel just shakes his head, but I can see he loves being teased by the big star. “Besides, I have to beat Ari at lawn darts first. I kind of promised.”
Now it’s my turn to shake my head at Crispin. But, man, if I don’t love this spunky version of him. I see a little of it on set – especially during lunch, when it’s just Sally, him, and me – but this is like next-level snark. When I feature him on my podcast, I’m going to have to figure out how to draw this out of him. My viewers would go nuts.
He squints at me. “What are you scheming inside that head of yours?”
My eyes pop wide. “Me? Nothing. What makes you think that?”
“Only the smirk and the devilish light in your eyes.” He tips his head, and we walk across the backyard and around to the side yard where the lawn darts are already set up.
I decide to be honest with him. “I like this side of you and was just thinking how I could bring it out of you for an interview for my podcast.”
He spins toward me and leans forward. “I get to be on your podcast?”
I take in his ridiculously excited posture and frown. “You were always going to be on my podcast, just not right away.”
He deflates.
I tip my head. “Why do you want to be on it so bad?”
“I don’t know.” He rubs the back of his neck.
“I’ve been recording like a fiend to get them all done before we finish shooting. Then I’ll be able to play them for a few months after. I won’t have enough to fill all the time from when we wrap and when the movie releases, but it should be pretty close.”
“By then, you should be able to do some from the press junket.”
