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“It sounds like he’s got a lot of friends.”
“But no one who’s going to hold him.”
Gavin was quiet for a moment as though thinking about what he should say next. “Your mother is wrong about this, isn’t she? You truly care for the man.”
She was starting to think she might be in love with him and that the situation was utterly hopeless. “I do.”
“Your mom thinks once you get to work, you’ll forget about him. You’ll get all into character and forget you’re crazy about the deputy.”
She snorted at the thought. “My mom thinks I’m a way better actress than I am. I know you tried to teach me all the Stella Adler and Stanislavski stuff, but it never took. I’m not the actress who stays in character and you know it.”
“Yes, I think that’s more Ally’s style,” he mused. “She’s actually quite good. I wish your mother would see how hungry she is.”
“She’s getting Ally auditions.”
“All the wrong ones,” Gavin countered. “She’s trying to push Ally as some bright, innocent ingenue. She should be looking at indie projects with teeth. Quirky characters. Her insistence that Ally should play likable characters is wrong. She should play to type.”
Well, at least Gavin was honest. “Mom is doing what she thinks is best.”
“Is that what you’re doing?”
“What does that mean?” Brynn asked.
“It means I’ve watched you for the last couple of years and you’re not happy, honey.” He turned her way, giving her what she liked to think of as his dad look. It was the earnest expression he got on his face whenever he wanted her to talk about something she didn’t want to talk about.
He’d had that expression on his face when she’d been seventeen and scared of a director who told her he couldn’t wait until she was legal. The director had a countdown to her eighteenth birthday put up on the set. As a joke, of course. It had been creepy and she’d been deeply uncomfortable.
Gavin had been the one to take care of the problem. She wasn’t sure he could take care of the problem now, though, since she wasn’t truly sure what the problem was.
“I have a life most people dream about,” she began.
“That’s because most people don’t understand what it entails,” Gavin replied. “They see you and think you have all the money in the world and not a single care. Of course, that’s not true. You’re human. You have problems. But I worry you’ve been in this lifestyle so long that you don’t know what you want anymore, and meeting that man was a turning point for you.”
“I think meeting Major has definitely made me wonder if I’m missing something. We have a connection I haven’t felt before. Being in this town has made me consider slowing down.” Back in LA, it felt like every moment of the day was scheduled. When she was on set, every minute absolutely was scheduled. It had been years since she’d had more than a handful of days off, much less time to sit and think without worrying about what was coming next. “Since the press left, it’s been nice. People here mostly treat me like anyone else. It’s a refreshing change.”
Even her mom had calmed down after she’d agreed to pick a script. She was waiting on the contracts and was due to be on set outside of Atlanta for a romantic comedy a few days after she wrapped this film. She was playing the best friend, and it looked like a fun role.
So why wasn’t she looking forward to it?
She only had a few more weeks here, and starting Monday, every one of them would be spent working. No more sitting on the dock watching the water. No more early mornings hanging out with Seraphina in the kitchen. No more walking Duke around the town square and grabbing an iced tea before joining the Wednesday morning yoga class.
“You seem to fit in well around here,” Gavin remarked.
“So do you,” she pointed out. “I’ve heard they asked you to lead the yoga class this Wednesday.”
A grin crossed his face. “The yoga ladies are lovely. I’m excited to help lead them through one of my routines. I like this place enormously, but I’ll also leave it because I know where I belong.”
“In LA?”
“On the road,” he corrected. “I belong on set, in a theater, or on a soundstage. It’s what I’ve always wanted, and despite the drawbacks, it’s still what I want. I’ve come to understand that I won’t ever be Laurence Olivier or Marlon Brando. I’ll always be viewed as a journeyman actor, but the work is good. The work fills my soul. I have to ask you a hard question and you don’t have to answer me now.”
She knew exactly what he was going to ask. “I don’t know. I don’t think it fills mine. I worry you’re right. I’ve been in it for so long that it would be weird to be out of the business. It’s all I know.”
