Page 42 of Rags's Awakening
Uneasy dread crept through Casey, the same way it did whenever she went into Curtis’s shop.
For a few seconds the silence in the room was thick, then Raven cleared her throat. “On a lighter note, the last rehearsal was the best we’ve had.” Her dark eyes sparkled. “This is one of our better plays. Simon is a great director, which is essential.”
“He’s directed several plays that have done very well. He was written up in theDenver Postfor a production he directed when I was an intern at the Denver theatre complex. I don’t know him very well, but he seems to be really good at his job,” Casey said.
“He’s brilliant, but a bit odd, which goes with the territory, I suppose.” Raven laughed as she continued, “He’s also handsome and loves to flirt, but if a woman gets a little aggressive, he shuts down. Who knows what’s up with that.”
“He gets a lot of attention from the women, though,” Lena said. “Clara has a huge crush on him.”
“Clara? I didn’t know that,” Casey said.I bet Rags wouldn’t like that one bit.
“Yeah, it’s sort of cute,” Lena said.
“Is Simon interested in her?” Casey asked.
“I don’t know,” Lena replied.
“Like I said, he loves to flirt with the women,” Raven said. “I’m sure he’s flattered that a pretty young woman like Clara would be interested in him.”
Casey laughed. “He’s not that old, Raven. I’d say thirty-eight or so. Definitely not forty.”
“Clara’s a baby compared to that,” Raven huffed.
“She’s not that young. We’re about the same age, twenty-seven,” Lena said, glancing at the wall clock. “I better get going. I have a lot of work waiting on my desk.”
“I better go too. The stage is calling me.” Raven tossed the end of her scarf over her shoulder in her usual dramatic way.
Casey smiled. “I have all these budgets,”—she pointed to a stack of papers in the file box on her desk—“to finish up. Not an exciting day for me.”
Lena and Raven laughed, then walked out of the office.
When their footsteps faded, the quiet rushed back in.
Casey sat at her desk, opened a spreadsheet, and got to work. A couple of hours later, she realized she’d typed the same figures several times and couldn’t remember doing it. Cussing under her breath, she fixed the numbers, but murders and motorcycles kept flooding her head.I need to stop thinking about these murders. And I have to stop thinking about Rags. It’s obvious he’s mad about the way things ended at Blue’s Belly. Which is what I want. I don’t want to get involved with a biker.She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to ease the ache.But he sure knows how to kiss… Damn him.
She pushed away from the desk. She needed to move, to get out of her head for a few minutes. Locking her office door, she headed down the hallway.
Inside, the theatre smelled faintly of sawdust, old velvet, and cooling stage paint. Voices echoed somewhere backstage. The sounds of early prep washed over her: a ladder clanking, the shuffle of actors warming up on stage, the low hum of the light board powering on. She looked around and spotted Jacob crouched over a panel with a screwdriver. He glanced back over his shoulder, his face brightening.
“Hey! Good to see you on my turf,” he said, hopping to his feet. “Everything okay?”
“I’m fine.” She managed a smile. “Just tired. I needed to stretch my legs and get away from spreadsheets.”
Jacob stepped a little closer than she expected, concern tightening his features. “You sure? You look… I don’t know, off.”
“I’m fine,” she repeated, softer. “Really. I just needed a break.”
He nodded, but his eyes lingered longer than she liked, warm and too searching. “If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m around.”
“I know, but I’m good,” she said gently. “Thanks.”
He gave a small shrug and refocused on the lighting console. “You shouldn’t let this job run you into the ground. You work harder than anyone here.”
“Occupational hazard, and no lectures, okay?” she said lightly.
He grinned. “We’ve had this conversation, what, fifty times over the years?”
She laughed. “More like a hundred.”
