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“Nothing big,” Audrie said.
Hope stopped sweeping and looked at her. “You’re not fooling me. Something happened. You wouldn’t have left the set early otherwise. Are you upset they replaced you?”
Audrie shook her head. She hadn’t told her sister about Landon. Not that she didn’t want to. She’d been nearly bursting at the seams to share the news with Hope, especially after they’d kissed. But she’d been so busy on set, she’d barely seen her little sister. Poppy knew more about what was going on than Hope, and that wasn’t saying much.
“There was a guy,” Audrie said.
“Landon,” Hope blurted as she continued to sweep.
Audrie just stared at her. “You knew about Landon?”
“Ms. Bosley was just talking about him. I assumed that was the guy by the way you reacted to the mention of his name. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Audrie said, “No, I may as well tell you the story now and get it out.”
“So, you were seeing him?” Hope grabbed her dustpan and began pushing the pile of hair into it. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant sight to watch, but Audrie found herself staring, if only to keep herself focused.
“Sort of,” Audrie said. “It didn’t really get far. We were spending a lot of time together, but then he told his brother that he wasn’t interested in me. That I was just a girl with a crush.”
Okay, so maybe he hadn’t said that exactly. That was the underlying meaning of what he’d said, though.
“The jerk.” Hope stopped sweeping and stared at Audrie. “I’m going to tell him off. It doesn’t matter anyway, since you won’t be going back to the set, but he’ll be here in town for the next couple of months.”
Audrie shrugged. “I doubt he’ll come this way very often, but there’s always the risk I’ll run into him somewhere.”
Hope winced. “Good point. We have to figure out a way to get revenge.”
A laugh escaped Audrie’s lips at that. Her sister was always ready to go to bat for her. She was petite but feisty. There’d been a few occasions over the years that Hope had given a piece of her mind, going on a tirade against someone who had wronged Audrie. Audrie would do the same for Hope. Her personality was just a little more reserved.
A click right behind Audrie caused her to spin around in her chair at the same time the bell above the door chimed. Poppy was standing there, the storm door closing behind her. She looked around, assessing the situation before letting her stare land on Audrie.
“You just left,” Poppy said. “You didn’t even finish out the day.”
Audrie could say the same for Poppy, since she was standing here now rather than finishing out the day on the set. But it was okay for Poppy. As a location scout, her job that week had mostly been as the liaison for the state. Her boss had sent her down here to make sure everything went smoothly, hoping Sugar Cookie Productions would decide to keep coming back to the state for their movies, since Corbin wasn’t the only town that turned cold early in the year.
“It looked like they had everything under control,” Audrie shrugged. “Luann was pretty happy that she gets to start early.”
“Luann?” Hope asked.
Oh, that was right. It would take a while to update Hope on everything that had been going on during the two weeks Audrie had spent mostly on set.
Audrie turned to face her sister. “Luann is the hairstylist they hired.”
“She’s one of those annoyingly perky people,” Poppy said.
The words were meant to show support for Audrie, she was sure, but she didn’t want Poppy to badmouth a woman who seemed to be very nice. It wasn’t her fault. She was coming into a situation where feelings were hurt. She seemed to have no clue what was even going on.
“I’m not upset about that,” Audrie said. “I knew my work on set was only temporary. It’s for the best, anyway. I need to be here with my customers. Rearranging appointments so Hope could take my clients and cramming what I could in between helping out on set…well, it all was a bit much.”
“Plus, you need to get away from that guy.” Hope had set the broom and dustpan back in its standby bin, and she turned to face the two of them, crossing her arms over her chest. “Sounds like he’s a grade-A jerk.”
“He’s a good guy,” Poppy said. “But he’s still a guy. And guys stink at expressing when they’re in love with someone.”
In love with someone. Those words snapped Audrie’s head up. Her mind knew Poppy was just saying what she thought Audrie needed to hear, but her heart wanted to believe she knew something Audrie didn’t.
“Anyone can see it.” Poppy shrugged. “Besides, I heard him say those very words after you walked out.”
“He said he was in love with someone?” Audrie asked.
