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“Not necessarily.” The woman’s emerald eyes sparkled as she glanced over at the two men busily putting the last pieces of the balcony together.
Instinctively, Erika’s eyes fell on Jay. Realizing the woman’s intentions, she swiftly intervened with an edge of panic in her voice. “I don’t think—“
”Garrett! Could we have a moment of your time?” Carnie called, and had Erika exhaling a sigh of relief. Garrett. Of course. Why would she instantly think it would be Jay?
Stepping over the main base of the balcony, he shoved his hands into his trousers and approached them. “What can I do for you?”
“We need a stand-in.”
“Sorry?”
“Someone to play Ryan’s part while he’s absent.”
Garrett looked uncomfortable as his eyes shifted to Erika then back to Carnie. “Ah, I’m not—I mean, I can’t—I don’t know—“
Carnie grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the center of the stage. “No need to worry, I’m not expecting you to know anything. You can do a cold read.”
“A what?”
“You know, read your lines directly from the script.” She gave his arm a reassuring pat. “No need to look so frightened. There isn’t that many.”
“Still, maybe Jay should—“
Erika moved quickly and grabbed Garrett’s other arm offering him one of her bright and reassuring smiles. “You’ll be fine, Garrett.”
Behind them, Jay chuckled and Erika shot him a menacing look. “That won’t help, Jay Colby!”
He put his hands up in mock surrender, and then tucked his head low as he returned to his work, but Erika saw the grin still playing about his lips. She did her best to ignore him. As she did for the entire run through of the play. He seemed to be having a lot of amusement at poor Garrett’s expense.
It was obvious the shy Colby was very uncomfortable in his part of the play, in particular the few speaking lines he had, which consisted mostly of declarations of love. He stuttered, read them wrong, twisted words incoherently, and spent the majority of the time rubbing the back of his neck in self-consciousness. All at Jay’s immense enjoyment. Erika would have gladly kicked him.
When they finally wrapped up, Carnie’s wide green eyes offered Garrett a friendly smile while she patted his back. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Worse,” Jay flippantly said, shooting a grin at his brother who only glowered in return.
“Are we done?” Garrett looked pleadingly upon the woman.
She nodded and Erika stepped forward to grip his hand. “Thank you, Garrett. I thought you were wonderful.” This last part accompanied by shooting a scowl at Jay.
“Yes.” Jay clutched his chest over his heart in a dramatic move. “Very romantic.”
“Shut up,” Garrett snarled beneath his breath and Erika would have gladly reiterated those sentiments exactly.
“Jay, if you’re quite done tormenting Garrett,” Carnie said, defusing any snide comment Erika might have made. “Could the two of you please take the balcony down to harbor hill?”
“No problem,” he said, his mouth still quivering with humor.
Erika frowned heavily at him and hoped he would glance over to catch her look of disapproval, but his attention was fully on his task.
“When Ryan returns, we’ll have a quick run through with his lines. Just to make sure he’s memorized them.”
Erika nodded, and then collected her things before leaving the theatre without giving Jay another glance. The man was perplexing. One minute she thought she was beginning to soften to his harsh personality, the next it made her bristle with exasperation.
Brushing any more thoughts of Jay aside, she headed home, veering off path to turn down the steep decline toward the harbor. Many vessels lined the port, including a grand four-mast schooner, but it was not the Francesca. She sighed with disappointment, and then headed home.
The situation there wasn’t improving either. Her grandfather’s dark mood was beginning to rub off onto Fiona, who was snapping at Erika more than usual. So she decided to hide away in her bedroom for most of the afternoon where a clear view of the harbor could be seen from her window.
At the supper hour, she was relieved when her grandfather chose to remain at the table and hoped he was finally coming around. She attempted small talk, but he apparently found more interest in the newspaper than her. Erika wondered how much longer she could take of him giving her the cold shoulder.
