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“No dances,” she replied, without missing a beat. “The last time I worked the pole I pulled a tendon.”
Even Paul cracked a smile, and all the women laughed except Jade, but Bram had the feeling life weighed too heavily on her to take anything lightly. Lance immediately grew solemn in support of his wife. What a dick.
As everyone else cleared the table, Jade demanded Chaz make a second pot of mint tea because the first wasn’t hot enough. He was getting the idea that Jade preferred directing her humanitarian instincts to the world at large while ignoring the people waiting on her. Eventually Georgie, still doing the chipper act, herded them into the living room and assigned seats, giving Bram the armchair by the fireplace. She pointed Rory toward the couch next to him and arranged the others in a fashion that might have made sense to her but not to anyone else. He wished like hell she’d consulted him before she began playing her little parlor games.
And then Aaron came in with a pile of scripts, and it all became clear.
Georgie handed the first script to him. “Surprise, honey.”
He gazed down at the cover. It was Tree House. What did she think she was doing?
“Some of you may have heard by now that Bram has optioned Sarah Carter’s Tree House.”
That caused more than a few heads to shoot up.
Georgie’s hand dropped to his shoulder. “But as far as I know, he’s never heard it read, so this afternoon I had Aaron make copies for us. With all this amazing talent in one place, I think we should give our host a treat, don’t you?”
All this amazing talent in one place…And Rory Keene sitting next to him. Georgie had thrown the dice. She didn’t want him to give up, even after the conversation she’d overheard. She’d arranged the ultimate audition for him.
And then he woke up.
She wasn’t doing this for him. She was doing it for herself.
He saw exactly how she hoped this would play out. She knew Rory would snap up his option the moment it expired, and she intended to use tonight as a private audition to get the inside track on Helene.
A ballsy plan, he thought bitterly, even though it wouldn’t work. Georgie didn’t have it in her to play that part. She dug her fingers into his shoulder. “Honey, if you don’t mind, I’ll play casting director.”
He had to hand it to her. She was doing exactly what he’d have done under the circumstances. So why did he feel so disappointed?
Because he was the selfish jerk, not her.
She began passing out scripts. “Bram, you’ll read Danny Grimes, of course. Dad, why don’t you take Frank, Danny’s dying father? Lance, you’re Ken, the abusive next-door neighbor. Playing the bad guy will be such a nice change for you. Jade, you read Marcie, Ken’s doormat wife.”
The most thankless role.
She held a script out to Laura. “Call on your inner child and read Izzy, their five-year-old. And Meg, you read Natalie, the home care nurse who’s Danny’s love interest, but don’t get any ideas.”
“I’m not an actress.”
“Pretend.”
He couldn’t blame Georgie for wanting a shot at Helene. It was the kind of role that turned careers around. But Helene needed an actress like Jade, who’d cut her teeth on strong characters. Even in a cold read, Jade would be fantastic, something Georgie knew as well as he did, which was why she’d assigned Marcie to her.
Georgie took a straight chair at the opposite end of the living room. “Aaron’s agreed to pick up the slack with the leftover male characters. I’ll read the action and handle the female leftovers.”
Helene was hardly a leftover. His confusion turned to shock as Georgie handed Rory a script. “You never get to have any fun. You read Helene.”
“Me?”
“Try out your acting chops,” she said with a bright smile.
“I don’t think I have any.”
“Who cares? This is just for fun.”
He didn’t get it. Why had she chickened out? He could come up with only one explanation, and something like panic tripped through him. She was giving him the audition instead of taking it for herself.
Damn it! He hadn’t asked for this. She must have decided Rory would be more invested in the project if she read such a key part. Or, even more disturbing, maybe she wanted to keep the spotlight focused on him, instead of herself. Whatever her logic, Little Miss Scooter Brown was once again flying around sprinkling her goddamned fairy dust.
