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“Go ahead and take it.” Callie indicated her sauce-smeared hands and the wadded-up napkins. “I’m going to get some more napkins and see if maybe I can take a shower.”
With a grin, she headed toward the food booths. Jake wiped his hand as best he could and dug out his phone. His jaw tensed. “Hey, Rich. Did you get my message this—”
“Where the hell have you been?” his agent barked. “I’ve been trying to reach you since yesterday. Never mind, I don’t care. How’s it going? Never mind, I don’t care. Big news, man. Huge, fucking Titanic-sized news.”
He paused for dramatic effect. Jake tightened his grip on the phone.
“The studio gave in!” Richard crowed. “They agreed to your quote increase, all the bonuses, and…are you sitting down?…thegross points, man. We are sitting on a fucking gold mine. You gotta get back down here and signnow.”
Callie was wiping her hands and talking to the kid working the pizza booth. He said something that made her laugh, and her long ponytail swung back and forth. Jake slid his gaze over her shorts that revealed her long, slim legs. The denim cupped and flattered her heart-shaped ass. Swallowing hard, he swept his stare upward to the knot of her pink shirt at her slim waist.
“Jake.”Richard’s snapping voice broke his attention. “Did you hear me?”
“Yeah.” He crumpled a napkin in his fist. “Thanks for doing all that work. Did you get my message about the script and Marina’s character? I won’t have Petra killed off at all, much less in that way.”
“Fine, fine, we’ll talk about all that. I’ll set up some phone calls and meetings. How fast can you get back here?”
“Not sure. I’ll let you know.”
“Dude, what’s the problem? Take the jet. You can be out of that shithole in an hour.”
“I’ll call you later.” Jake ended the call and stuffed his phone back into his pocket. He tossed the napkin toward a trashcan and missed. He stood to pick it up and throw it away.
“Here.” Callie returned, extending a fresh stack of napkins. “How did you get sauce in your hair?”
She ran her fingers over a lock of his hair, a move he barely felt yet one that kicked his pulse up. Just being near her accelerated everything inside him.
She drew her eyebrows together. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He stood, twining his fingers with hers, and started to walk toward the beach.
“Oh, no.” Callie tugged him to a halt. “Tell me what’s wrong. You’re a great actor, but this is life, not a movie set.”
That was the problem. This wasreal.
“The call was from my agent.” He turned to face her, hating the fear of what she’d think but also needing her level-headed response. “He wanted to tell me about theFatal Glory 7negotiations. The studio agreed to everything we asked for.”
“Oh, Jake.” Callie’s eyes widened, and her hand tightened around his. “That’s incredible. Congratulations.”
He shook his head, his spine tensing. “Thanks, but…uh, this is going to sound stupid, but…I don’t think I want to do anotherFatal Glorymovie. Not even with those terms.”
“Why not?” Creases lined her forehead. “Do you not like doing them?”
“I loveFatal Glory.” An unexpected tightness constricted his throat. “The directors, the writers, my costars, the crew…they were fantastic. The whole franchise has been phenomenal, and the fact that I got to be a part of it…it’s like I got struck by lightning in the best possible way, you know? Why would I want to give that up?”
She studied him, her gaze steady. “Why would you?”
“For one, the story was supposed to end with the last movie.” He pulled his hand from hers and strode to the railing overlooking the beach. “But the studio wants to keep cashing in, so they green-lighted another one. Unfortunately they also hired a new director and screenwriters who are changing the entire concept of whatFatal Gloryis about.”
“How?”
“They’re turning it into a farcical space cowboy saga, even though the movies have always been set in the real world with no hint of anything supernatural or extraterrestrial,” Jake explained. “And for four movies, there’s been a romantic storyline between Blaze and a British spy, Petra, who eventually becomes his partner. In the last movie, they finally got married. That was the happy ending, one they’d fought hard for. Now the director and writers want to kill Petra off in the first five minutes ofFatal Glory 7so Blaze can fall in love with an alien princess from the planet Zorg.”
“Oh, dear.”
“Yeah.” A humorless laugh scraped his throat. “Did I mention it’s afarce?”
“What has the studio said about all that?”
