AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, ya, I will. But I thought if you work out some ideas with me tonight, I’ll know better what to say to her tomorrow.” She pulls me into a side hug. “Please, please?”
There’s no way I’m going to weasel my way out of this, so I open my laptop and click on the file for the shooting script. “Which scene?”
“Oh, shoots and pickles,” she says. “My script is on set. I want to write our notes in it.” Niks tugs at my sleeve. “Let’s work out there. Easier for me to become Nieve.” She must sense my reluctance but doesn’t back down. “Come on. They’ve all gone. No one is here to bother us.”
“They’ve all gone”must include Jack.
Niks chatters and complains about everything from costumes to her call time in the morning on our way to the sound stage. Just before we enter the dark cavern where the world ofThe Chieftain’s Soncomes alive, Niks squeezes my arm. “Stop here, my lovely.” She checks the hallway to make sure we are alone.
“What’s up, Niks?”
She takes a deep breath. “I have caused you pain, and I am sorry for it.”
Oh, God.This is about Jack. I do not want to hear apologies or confessions of feelings for the man I love. “You’re mistaken. Let’s go get your script.”
Niks shakes her head. “Jack is my person here on this show and in this new crazy world that is so strange to me. I feel so many times like a fool not knowing about what is the right way to act and be professional. Jack explains these things. He protects me in every way.”
I want to shut her out before my worst fears about her feelings for Jack are proven true. I strain to paste a neutral expression on my face. When Niks cups my cheek and gives me a gentle look, I know I didn’t pull it off.
“You understand because you protect Jack by keeping the secret of you two the way he protects my secret. We both love him. It’s not an easy thing to find such loyalty these days.”
We both love him. She might as well have knocked me to the ground and started kicking. I pull away from her. “Please, talk to Danna about the script. I need to go.”
She captures my arm. “Jack says I can trust you.”
As much as I’m dying to run away from this conversation, the sudden worry lines on Niks’s gorgeous face keep me rooted in the hallway. She takes a series of quick breaths as she prepares to lay the secret between Jack and her at my feet.
“I am in love, like you.”
Hearing her admit it is worse than my most painful imaginings. I stare at the carpet to avoid seeing the look in her eyes for Jack that also lives in mine.
“She is my world, but—”
She? At first, I assume Niks is faulty with her pronouns, but when my head snaps up, I find a beautiful, dreamy look on her face. “With the show so new, Marisa and I agreed it is not the time or anyone’s business to share our relationship. We keep it in the family for now.” She takes both my hands. “You and Jack are family, yes?”
Wow. I will never underestimate Niks’s acting. I try to wrap my head around the promise Jack made to keep her truth safe from those who might use it against her. Niks is in love, but not with Jack, with Marisa, her so-called assistant that keeps an extremely low profile. Marisa, who picked tipsy Niks up from Jack’s house the night of the driving range. Instead of punching my heart from my chest, the secret between Jack and Niks makes me feel protective of her, and to love him even more.
“Now that True Time and Meg want Jack and I to play at being lovers, it is best Marisa and I stay quiet for a while longer. It’s not a game I agree with, but I chose this business of games. Playing it is right for my career today, yes?”
A flood of compassion nearly chokes me, not only for Niks, but also for Marisa. What has Niks’s significant other been going through, having to watch the woman she loves plastered all over Jack O’Leary this whole time?
“I am sorry to put this burden on you like I have on Jack, but he says okay. Is it okay, Gillian?”
I pull Niks into a hug. “Of course, it’s okay. You and Marisa can trust me.”
Niks wipes a tear of relief. “It is painful to lie about the person who fills you with joy.”
“Believe me, I completely understand.” I never dreamed Niks Tellefson and I would have so much in common. “I would really love to meet Marisa.”
She opens the door to the sound stages. “Yes, yes very soon.” It’s so quiet, I hear the horses blow and stamp from the distant stables.
Every thought in my head screamsJack, and it takes Herculean restraint not to call out his name until we find each other in the dark studio, if he’s still here. “Niks, I really need to see Jack. Can we meet in the morning to talk about the lines?” There is no way I will put together a cohesive thought about anything but Jack.
“I will be quick.” Niks leads us toward the Donal Cam bedroom set. This woman has just let me into her truth. She called me family. I’ll at least hear her out about this script dilemma before bolting to find Jack.
My heart races. How will I find Jack? Niks! She knows where his company house is. The line of flats wearing a string of hot set banners block the scenery. Even after this revelation of Niks’s life, I’m not eager to sit on the bed where Jack pretends to make love to her.
“We can’t go on set,” I say, pointing to the nearest large yellow hot setsign with its red block letters.
