Lucky Star: A Hollywood Love Story by Rebecca Norinne Caudill Read Free Book Online Page A

she’d hand-delivered the package that contained the recording and my bio and headshot to Broderick’s office, she told me to stay calm, wait it out, and try not to freak the fuck out. When she hadn’t received a response for several days afterward, I’d given up all hope of getting a call back.
    Which was why I was confused when my phone buzzed in my pocket, alerting me to an incoming call, and I saw her name and flash across the screen.
    “I should take this,” I said, stepping out of the room and putting the phone to my ear.
    “Hey Julie, what’s up?”
    Not one for polite pleasantries, she jumped straight to the point of her call. “I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”
    My stomach sank. I could guess the bad news. “Why don’t you give me the good news first, since I could use it right about now.”
    “You’re in.”
    “What?”
    “ The Ties That Bind . You’re in the home stretch, kid.”
    No fucking way.
    “Not only did your performance earn you an official meeting with Broderick Johnson and his team from Gramalkin, but you’re one of only three actors being considered for the role. You have nothing to worry about though because you are Xander St. John.”
    No fucking way .
    She laughed. “And before you say it, yes fucking way.”
    Julie had once told me she didn’t drink or do drugs and that it was these calls that gave her a high. I totally understood why. Being able to deliver news of this magnitude who had been struggling would feel amazing.
    I tried not to get too excited though. “I’ve been here before Julie. I don’t want to count my chickens before they’re hatched.” You’d think having grown up on a farm and having witnessed the literal interpretation of that idiom, it would have been one I lived by, but time and again it was easy to get my hopes up when news like this came in. “This isn’t the first time it was down to me and some other guy, only for him to land the role instead.”
    “That’s true, but you can’t think that way. You’re talented and you’re still relatively young. Besides, Jeremy Renner didn’t make it big until he was 37 and he’s Hawkeye now, goddamnit. Fucking Hawkeye, Cameron!”
    I laughed along with her, let her enthusiasm wash over me, because yeah, a Marvel comic book hero was pretty bad ass. Quickly my mood sobered. I wasn’t up for a role in a Marvel of DC Comics movie and probably never would be. I’d once read for a recurring part on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a Hydra mercenary but hadn’t gotten it. Julie told me afterward the casting director had liked my intensity but said I was “too pretty to play a bad guy.”. I’d heard that often enough these last couple of years that I’d almost asked Mike to break my nose. Almost, but not quite. Because shit, that would have hurt like a motherfucker and I wasn’t ready to suffer quite that much for “my art.” Besides, I liked my face as it was just fine.
    “So anyway kid,” Julie continued, using the nickname she’d given me even though she was only five years older, “I know you’re flying out to Ohio soon, but I need you back in L.A. the day after tomorrow for a sit down with Broderick.”
    “Shit,” I muttered. “I’m already here but I fly back to L.A. in three days.”
    “That’s not going to work.”
    Fuck, it really wasn’t. “I’ll have to get creative with my route back, but I’ll make it work. Go ahead and confirm the meeting.”
    “I already did,” she answered with supreme confidence. “I knew you’d drop everything for this so I didn’t even hesitate.”
    Shit. I was going to have to drop everything. I’d had one main goal in making this trip home, but I’d also wanted to spend some time relaxing with my family. My oldest brother Chris lived in Cleveland Heights and I’d had it in my head to hit up our favorite brewery before heading back to California. I’d have to table those plans until my next visit, whenever that might