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“Exactly.” Leo grinned and moved on to Sky’s part. “Sam, Sky is panicking. He brought her here, and she’s no longer safe. The only goal is to get out before something terrible happens, like the love of his life getting injured. So, when you throw her over your shoulder, put some pep in your step to jog off the stage.”
“You got it, boss.” Sam saluted him.
“Okay. Let’s do this, from the top of the salsa dancing.” Leo clapped his hands together, and everyone took their positions. He was all too aware of Moreno silently observing from the front row, but for the time being, Leo tuned him out. There was no use in overanalyzing his approach to appease Moreno. The execution of this particular scene would prove his talent and his ability to lead, and he would run it into the ground until it was perfect.
Fourteen
PIPER
Fake fighting was a workout, and more a mental one than anything else, but the one arm Piper had used to repeatedly mimic punching Miranda felt like a limp noodle. It was probably why Leo’s arms looked so strong in comparison. She got a long, hard look at the way his black shirt stretched over his chest every five seconds as he pointed and shuffled all the actors around the stage.
In fact, when Piper and Sam discovered that it wasn’t the easiest thing to toss someone over a shoulder, she had gotten an entire show. After several failed tosses and subsequent fits of laughter between her and Sam, Leo gave them better instructions by tossing all six feet and two inches of Sam over his shoulder like he weighed nothing. At first, Piper thought Leo was going to test it out on her, but when he stepped in her direction, he scanned her from head to foot and then sidestepped her to get to Sam. Because he was very committed to the role, Sam thrashed around on Leo’s shoulder as if he were Sarah Brown herself, which only made Piper fall further into hysterics. Leo gave a short laugh of his own, letting them have their moment of fun before clapping his hands loudly to call order to the chaos.
The older man Piper now knew as Alejandro Moreno had been sitting quietly in the front row of the theatre the entire rehearsal. Originally, it had unnerved her, but she relaxed as rehearsal continued, and focused more on Leo’s direction rather than waiting for any commentary from the elusive director. Even so, she kept trying to remember the name of the one movie she knew that he’d directed. It was set in the Regency era, and she distinctly remembered watching it when she was younger. At fourteen, Piper hadn’t particularly loved watching a graphic sex scene while sitting beside her parents on the couch. Her dad had tried to cover her face with a pillow to block out the nudity, while her mom had laughed about his “sudden modesty,” making some flirty joke that had her dad turning a deep shade of red. At the time, Piper was an embarrassed teenager, mortified that her parents had anything to do with sex. Now, she’d give anything to see her mom make her dad blush and to hear her dad call her mom ‘sweetheart’ or ‘Pay’ again. Her father would probably be just as uncomfortable as, if not more uncomfortable than, her Uncle Walker was about the idea of Piper fooling around with anyone. People always assumed she had gotten her propensity to blush from her mother along with most of her looks, but the blushing had come directly from Cole Hartrick, along with his clumsy balance.
When Leo finally called it quits on rehearsal, they had the fight scene mostly blocked out. Piper had to remember to focus on cheating out several times since she wasn’t used to angling her body for an audience to see, but she hoped at some point that it would become second nature. Then again, walking was supposed to be second nature, and she had already failed miserably at that today.
“All right, and now, a few words from our sponsor,” Leo said, diplomatically passing the torch to Moreno.
“Ha.” Moreno shook his head with a chuckle and waved Leo off when he attempted to hand him the clipboard. “Great work today.” He turned to Piper, and she swallowed in anticipation. “And Piper, it’s a pleasure to have you on board. I think Leo chose well.”
“Thank you,” Piper mumbled, folding her arms over her chest. Compliments always made her uncomfortable. They directed the attention where she didn’t want it: onto her. That was why playing a character felt so freeing. Everything was about what Sarah Brown would do, not what Piper would. Sarah Brown could drink and not be subjected to generational alcoholism. Sarah Brown could fall in love and come out on top.
“And Diaz,” Moreno turned to Leo, who stood straighter. He was the picture of calm, but Piper could sense something else underneath it all: the same fear that had made him so desperate for her to join the show in the first place. “Fantastic work today.”
Leo’s mouth twitched, and his shoulders relaxed a bit before he gave a short nod. “Thank you, sir.”
Moreno then turned his body and projected his voice to the rest of the cast. “As some of you know, my wife, Quinn—” Some of the cast members cheered, and Moreno’s face transformed into a grin. Piper looked around in confusion as Moreno continued to speak.
“His wife is Quinn German.” Sam leaned over to whisper in her ear.
“You probably know her. She’s wicked talented and a major A-lister,” Wes chimed in from behind her.
“They met on the set of The Promenade,” Emma added from her right. The movie name Piper couldn’t remember earlier filled in the gaps of her memory.
“The one with the…?” Piper whispered, trailing off.
“Extremely hot sex scene that made me question everything I know about myself?” Emma asked. “Yep, that’s the one.”
“Emma,” Moreno called out in an authoritative teacher voice, and Emma turned back to the front. “So glad you could all fill Piper in on how wonderful intimacy coordinators are, but if you could pay attention for two seconds, you’re going to want to listen to the rest of my speech.”
Emma, Sam, and Wes all adopted identical guilty facial expressions, and Emma muttered “sorry” under her breath.
“Perfect.” Moreno clapped his hands together, the same way Leo had when he was pivoting a scene earlier, Piper noticed. “I’ll start by saying this is top secret information, and if you leak this to the tabloids, there will be hell to pay.” Moreno paused for effect, then gave a curt nod when he saw everyone bobbing their heads back at him. “Quinn and I are having another baby.”
The stage erupted in cheers for what felt like the hundredth time that day, and Piper clapped with them, smiling at the group’s earnest enthusiasm. They celebrated anything and everything worth celebrating. They laughed together. They collectively got annoyed when they weren’t nailing something. She could see how easy it was to get sucked into the culture.
“Thank you, thank you.” Moreno lifted his hands and motioned for them to calm down. “Three years ago, I took this job to teach, but I also took it to be closer to my family while my kids are still young. This will be our third child, and I have my wife’s permission to tell you all that when she’s pregnant, she gets very ill. She has gestational diabetes and is at extreme risk for preeclampsia since she had it with our son.” The room went completely still. “On that front, we are fortunate to have the best medical professionals working with her to keep her healthy, but when it comes to our family, my wife and I agreed that I would need to be around more often to help take care of our kids and her during the pregnancy, which is why I will be taking a step back from this show.”
A collective gasp rang out on the stage, and Piper had no idea why, but her instant reaction was to look at Leo, who wore a worried expression. “I will still be here, and I’ll still be teaching, but I’ll be here a lot less. I’m demoting myself to assistant director,” Moreno said.
“Then who’s going to direct?” Sam asked.
“Ah, good question, Sam.” Moreno’s face split into a wide smile. “Today was a test run, and I’m happy to announce that your new director is as devoted, if not more devoted to the role than I am.” He turned to Leo, whose mouth gaped as he blinked up at the professor. “From here on out, Mr. Diaz will be taking up the position.”
Piper knew where Moreno’s speech was headed partway through and thought when he eventually got to the kicker, it would fill her with impending doom. But it didn’t. It might have been partially attributed to the fact that the entire cast was shouting and jumping around in excitement, but it was also because she had been there for the last several hours and had witnessed how deserving Leo was of the job. She wasn’t petty enough to say he wasn’t good at directing, because he was. Leo, on the other hand, looked as though someone had hit him over the head with a frying pan.
“Congratulations, Diaz. The floor is yours.” Moreno gestured for Leo to take over, and Piper watched him hike up the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows before he cleared his throat.
