The Seeds Of A Daisy: The Lily Lockwood Series: Book One (Women's Fiction) by Alison Caiola Read Free Book Online Page B

“How’re you doing, Jamie?” He blushed.
    “Cool, really stoked to start. This is my girlfriend, Lily. Lily, this is Natalie. She plays Cassandra in the film.”
    “Jamie’s leading lady and love interest.” She beamed at me.
    I shook her hand. “Sounds like we have something in common.” The guys laughed. Natalie totally ignored the joke and moved closer to Jamie.
    “Jamie, do you know what time the cars are picking us up for the airport tomorrow morning?” She took a sip of her martini.
    “About six, I think,” he said.
    “Jamie, you live on Pacific Coast Highway, right?” she asked.
    “Yep.” He answered her, but glanced at me.
    “Well—why don’t we take one car—save the film a couple of bucks? We can also go over our lines and get a head start.” She put her hand on his shoulder. Jamie looked uncomfortable. My radar started kicking into high gear.
    “You know, Natalie, that’s way too early for me to talk, much less run lines. We’ll have plenty of time later on.”
    “You’re right; it’s a long plane ride, and a long shoot,” she said.
    Just at that moment, the director of the film, Pete Larson, came over to us, shook hands with the guys, and kissed both Natalie and me. Years ago, he was the assistant director on a film I had starred in, so we were old friends.
    “Hey guys—how’re you all doin’? Congrats on your nomination, Lily. Good work, doll!” he said.
    “What nomination?” Natalie asked.
    “Miss Lily here got an Emmy nod for her role on
St. Joe’s
,” Bobby replied.
    “Oh, I thought you were talking about the Oscars,” she said dismissively.
    Pete ignored her. “I’m going to be rooting for you, for sure. It’s in a few weeks, right?”
    My stomach flipped. “It is,” I replied.
    “Well, we’re gonna do our best to shoot around this guy for a couple of days, so he can go.” He pointed to Jamie. “We’ve already started working it out—that is, if he’s going to be your date. If not, and you want a
really
good looking guy, I can get my tux out of mothballs and you can walk in on my arm!” We all laughed. Pete was at least a head shorter than Jamie and about twice his size.
    “Well, sounds good to me.” I pointed to the other side of the pool. “There’s Theresa over there. Let’s see if
she
thinks it’s a good idea for you to escort me to the Emmys.” Theresa was Pete’s wife. She and my Mom had become really good friends years ago. That’s how Jamie got the first audition. I had Mom talk to Theresa, who talked to her husband. I love Hollywood!
    “Somehow, I don’t think she’d like the idea.” He paused a second. “Unless, of course, she could come, too.”
    “She’ll have to wrestle Daisy to the death for her seat. And as we all know, Daisy can be tough,” I joked.
    “That’s for damn sure!” Jamie agreed. Even though I’d said it first, it annoyed me a little that Jamie agreed so readily.
    Pete put one arm around Jamie’s shoulder and the other around Bobby’s, and said, “Jamie, Bobby, I want you to come over and meet Nick Gallo, the lead stunt guy on the shoot. Make friends with him; he’s gonna make you two look like you actually know what you’re doing. Will you excuse us, lovely ladies?”
    He winked at us and they walked away—leaving me with good old Natalie and her double D’s.
    “You’ve been acting for a long time, right?” she asked.
    “Right, since I was a kid,” I replied.
    “You’re older than Jamie, right?” she asked.
    “Right again.” Where was this going, I wondered?
    “It’s good for him to have an older woman who’s experienced—to teach him the ropes, I mean,” she said innocently. “You know, like Tom Cruise and—shit—what was his first wife’s name?”
    “Mimi Rogers,” I answered. “Natalie, I’m only two years older than Jamie. I certainly wouldn’t consider that to be in the older woman category.” I smiled.
    “Oh, I’m sorry, you looked… I mean, I thought you were much