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“Hey, I’d like to leave at some point. Let’s go ahead and move this along, sweetheart.” Gavin’s tone is sharp and his eyes are trained on Holly.
Defensiveness swells in my chest like a hot knot. “She’s been on camera for hours. She’s going to take her time and get a drink of water. We’ll start when Holly is good and ready.”
Holly springs to her feet. “That’s okay, I’m ready. I know everyone is anxious to get home. It’s understandable.” She walks quickly toward the set.
“What a martyr, thank you so much,” Gavin mumbles under his breath, but I commit every word to memory.
When he turns to walk toward the set, I catch his arm in my hand and he turns back toward me. “You need to watch yourself.”
He shrugs out of my grasp and rolls his eyes, adjusting his grip on the camera. For a moment, I consider snatching the camera away from him altogether. But that’s something the old me would’ve done. The new me, the one who wants Hudson to trust him with his sister, opts for the high road instead. I can’t resist shooting Gavin a look, but I stay silent as I put my headphones back on.
I clear my throat. “Quiet on the set. In five, four, three…”
“Your sugar cookie town needs a solid foundation to build around because it isn’t as stiff as gingerbread.” Holly holds up two rectangular cookies and uses frosting to stick them together. “I like to think of it as your downtown square. Here in Christmas Town, it’d be the area around Broken Ornament Cat Café. Without it…” Holly stops as the sugar cookie structure crumbles for the third time today. For one heart-stopping moment, she looks like she might cry.
I jump at the chance to take some of the pressure off her. “Cut, take five.”
“Again?” Gavin’s voice is a near shout, and Holly winces at his tone. “Holly, just say the line again. We can edit it in post. You can’t stop every time something happens. We are never getting out of here.”
“Gavin, enough. I’ve got it handled.” My words are a warning through clenched teeth. I turn to Holly, my voice dropping the edge and picking up a gentle tone. “Stick it through to the end this time. You are doing a great job. We’ll take it from the top whenever you’re ready.”
“Ok, right,” she says, clearing her throat and pulling out two new cookies to work with. “You want to make sure your sugar cookie town has—” she starts, but the heavy cookies fall in on themselves again. She falters and her mouth turns down at the corners. “Has structure, because they will fall and look awful if you don’t.”
“Are you kidding me?” Gavin’s voice is a shout, and that’s all it takes to turn me into the old me.
I lose my temper. My headset is already pulled down around my neck as I walk toward him. I lean close to his ear and my words come out from between gritted teeth. I fight to keep my tone even. “Gavin, it’s one thing to stomp around the office and be a total idiot. But if you think I’m going to let you come in here and carry on like this, you’re out of your mind. From now on, you don’t talk to Holly, you don’t look at Holly, you don’t even think about Holly. If you have a problem with anything she does, you can discuss it with me and good luck with that. I don’t make a habit of suffering fools.”
“Listen, I’m happy to leave and let you figure out how to get this one scene done in like a dozen more takes. But unfortunately, I have to be here. So if you could get your girlfriend to perform, so we can all do our jobs, that’d be great.” Gavin repositions his camera.
With that, I’ve had enough. I rip the camera out of Gavin’s hands and walk to the door of the soundstage. “You’re out. Go. We’re done here. We don’t need you to finish this take. Everyone goes home. Holly and I don’t need any of you.”
“What are you doing?” Gavin’s voice is shrill. “We have to finish this tonight.”
“And you are finished, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
I hold the door open and Gavin stares up at me in some kind of showdown. I dare him to stay with my eyes and he seems to get the message loud and clear. After a few choice words murmured in my direction, Gavin walks through the open door.
Gavin lets the door close behind him with a bang and fury courses through me. When I turn to face the room, no one makes eye contact except for Holly. She pushes her way over to me and wraps a cool hand underneath my biceps. Her touch sends a calm through me.
I pull the door back open. “Everyone out.”
The production assistants and photo crew seem frozen, staring at me in shock. Until they realize that I’m not closing this door until every single one of them is on the other side of it. It’s an unprecedented request, but the team complies, filing out without having to be told twice. The open door lets in a gust of freezing night air as they move quickly, single file through it.
Seven
Nathan
When the door closes, she looks up at me with those sparkling doe eyes that pull me out of my fury. “I’m glad he’s gone.”
“Holly, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that. I wasn’t going to stand by and have him make you feel like you aren’t good at this when you are perfect exactly the way you are.” I run my hand down her hair, smoothing it out. “What you need is a fresh start, a chance to do what you do best without the pressure of anyone else around.”
“How are we going to do this without a team?”
“Sweetheart, all we need is me and you. Consider me your videographer, producer, photographer, assistant, hype-man, and official bodyguard from here on out. Oh, and the man who gets to kiss you anytime I want.” I catch her chin in my hand and tilt her face up to mine.
My lips meet hers in a kiss that sears my lips and calms the energy in the room. Being with Holly feels like coming home. I’ll have time to get Hudson to warm up to the idea, but that won’t stop me anymore. It can’t. Her warm embrace is healing me from the inside out.
“You tell me when you’re ready to do this,” I whisper into her ear.
