Page 23 of Smartasses
“And I’ve never been wrong.”
“So what’s the bottom line? Were you able to alleviate Allyson’s concerns?”
Nervous? Him? Fuck yes.
“You don’t pay me fifteen percent because I’m shitty at my job,” Byron shot back. “I’m cautiously optimistic this hasn’t thrown your audition in the garbage disposal, but if anything else pops up, and your cover gets blown, she’s going to pull back. She does not want the movie to be a media circus. She’s not looking for a movie star for this part; she wants an actor. If you can’t pull this off, she’ll never believe you can’t pull off carrying this movie.” His brother paused, then continued, a thick ribbon of worry winding through his words. “Just don’t get distracted and lose sight of what’s at stake here. You want to make this career pivot that will change everything? You’ve got to commit. Eye on the prize.”
“Any other clichés you want to throw my way?” Carter asked, desperate to change the mood from edge-of-the-world-disaster to the usual things-are-fucked-but-we’ll-be-okay.
“Yeah.” Byron chuckled. “You owe me, brother.”
“Always.”
Per usual, Byron ended the call without a goodbye. Chewing over the situation, Carter pocketed his headphones and made his way over to where Aubrey stood with two sets of flippers and snorkels.
“Everything okay?” she asked, cocking her head to one side.
“Yeah, just some work stuff.” He reached over and snuck in another quick kiss. “You ready to go see some fish?”
She grinned up at him. “I’m always up for fun.”
And she had been since he first spotted her stealing her best friend’s pants. It was something he’d forgotten about in the always-on world of Hollywood. Even a day off wasn’t a day off because it was always about being seen in order to position himself in the best light for the next role. Shit, even this trip was just a fake. It wasn’t a vacation; it was work. But with Aubrey, it didn’t feel that way. Everything felt right, and that wasn’t something he was ready to give up when they finally docked back in New York.
Standing in the ocean nearly elbow to elbow with the thirty members of a singles support group while wearing a snorkel mask did not seem like the best place to tell Carter about her thirst account. Still, not telling him while they were out having fun and he kept smiling at her was like walking around with pebbles in her shoes.
Straightening her shoulders, she tried to stand solid even as the current was tugging her this way and that on the sandy bottom. “Carter, I have to tell you something.”
He looked past her shoulder and grimaced. “Is it about that guy peeing off the rocks?”
“What?” She whipped around to look in the direction he’d motioned toward because he had to be joking.
Nope.
He was not.
A man in a T-shirt that said “Ride Me All The Way Home” had a coconut shell with a polka-dotted tropical drink umbrella in one hand and his dick in the other. The spray was as strong as one of those Cupid fountains if the water had been turned on full blast. It was both appalling and impressive at the same time.
“He must have been holding that for a while,” Carter said.
“I’m not feeling the snorkel thing anymore.” Yeah, there was no getting past the fact that she was standing in that same ocean where the dude was peeing. “You wanna grab some food instead?”
“Sure.”
They held hands as they wound their way through the tightly packed maze of chaise lounges toward the buffet under a pavilion. About a million kinds of food were all brought from the ship’s kitchens. They each grabbed a plate and started down the line.
“Going home after this is going to wreck me,” Aubrey said as she filled her plate. Comfort eating? Her? Absolutely. “There’s no way microwaved seafood lasagna will ever taste the same as the fresh stuff.”
“You don’t cook?”
“Not unless forced.” She followed Carter to a table with two open seats at an otherwise crowded table. “Believe me, I was the last person anyone ever expected to take over Gran’s bakery.”
“Who does the cooking there?”
“Ben, but he’d rather eat his own toes than deal with anything business or front-of-the-house related.” People were definitely not Ben’s thing. Leave him alone to create magic in the kitchen, and all was good. Force him to talk to someone, and it was like the man forgot every single bit of the manners his mama had taught him. Surly didn’t even begin to cover it.
Carter’s jaw tensed. “So you two make a good team.”
“We make it work.”
