Blessed Fate (36 page)

I managed to keep it together through most of our set. Normally, there's a rise and fall to the set list to keep the energy level going. Knowing I was teetering on the edge of falling apart, Jon reworked the set list with Trav so we started high and just kept getting higher. When I almost lost it during
If You Only Knew
, Colton was by my side. He had been my rock for the past thirty-six hours.

After listening to the guys pick apart our entire show while they thought I was sleeping, I opened my eyes. "Hey," I said softly. When I started rubbing my eyes, the guys all started laughing at me. "What?" I snapped.

Colton kissed my forehead as he slid from the bench. "You might want to go take care of your face," he chuckled. "You didn't take off your makeup when you got on the bus. You kinda look like a murderous clown right now."

Tech week is affectionately dubbed "Hell Week" by theater companies everywhere with good reason. It doesn't matter how well everything has gone from casting through rehearsals; everything that can go wrong will in the last week before a show opens. Carly Turner knew everything was going too smoothly with the latest production at the small theater on 42nd Street.

"Turner, get out here," bellowed the stage manager. "Do you see the problem? How are we supposed to open in three days like this?" he shouted, flailing his arms towards the ceiling.

Weaving her way through set pieces, trying to avoid moving anything off its mark, Carly assessed the cause of Dax's current freak out. Yes, this was definitely a problem but Carly had no clue what he expected her to do about the two dark light rigs hanging above the stage. She wasn't a lighting tech; she was a gofer working on the show because she was desperate for experience.

Carly nodded. "Yes Dax, I see the problem. What, exactly, are you hoping I will do about it?" Dax Jameson was the one person she wasn't going to miss when this show closed. She'd worked with difficult stage managers before, but there was something about this one that made her skin crawl.

"I don't know, just get the damned lights working." Dax moaned as he stormed off the stage leaving Carly alone to solve the latest in a long line of hell week problems.

By the time Carly reached the control room, one of the junior lighting techs was leaning against the door frame waiting for her. "Here," he said, flicking a business card at her. "You're gonna to have to call ETS. Cheapskates around here keep putting off fixing shit until it's too late. Now we have three days to get the work done. Accounting office is gonna love that."

"Thanks, Clark," she said, giving him a peck on the cheek. "You're a lifesaver."

Grabbing her purse, Carly ducked out the back door into the alley. If she had to sit on hold, she was going to do it while getting some fresh air. And by fresh air, she meant she was going to enjoy a cigarette while surrounded by the smell of rotting garbage from the deli next door.

Just her luck, less than halfway through her cigarette, the hold music stopped. "ETS, this is Adam. How can I help you?" His voice was deep and rich, the type of voice that made Carly go a little bit weak in the knees.

"Hey, Adam. This is Carly with Schumann Theater in New York. I'm hoping you can help me. We're supposed to open in three days and we have a dark stage."

"Well, that would pose a problem." He laughed, instantly putting Carly on edge. It was easy to see the humor in the situation from behind a desk wherever the hell he was. From where she sat, there was nothing funny about it whatsoever.

Adam started running through a script of troubleshooting questions that Carly didn't have answers to.
Why isn't someone from lighting making this damn call.
Beyond knowing the end result of the problem, Carly was clueless.

She crushed her cigarette against the side of the building on her way inside and ran to the booth. "Here, you talk to him." Carly snapped at Clark as she shoved the phone into his chest. After assuring the ETS rep that they had already gone through the entire process and still couldn't get the lights to work, he handed the phone back to Carly.

"Told you so. They're going to send someone out. But we're going to be dark for tonight's rehearsal. He said their tech will meet someone here at eight tomorrow morning." Clark laughed. "I feel bad for whatever sap draws the short straw on that one."

Carly already knew who was going to get stuck opening the doors for the techs. No way in hell would Dax get out of bed before noon when he could tell Carly to come in early.

The morning commute was Carly's least favorite part of the day. Even more than normal, everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere and common courtesy was non-existent. She could feel judgmental eyes boring down on her as she followed the fashion-forward pedestrian current in her cut-off denim shorts and bright orange oversized t-shirt slouching off one shoulder. There was no point in trying to look good when you were going to spend most of the day painting and cleaning.

The only comfort to be had from coming in so early was that she had a few hours before Dax would grace her with his presence. That almost made it worth the anxiety she felt over being the first person in the building. Ever since
Phantom of the Opera,
Carly was terrified at the thought of being alone in the theater Yes, it was irrational, but she had yet to find a way to combat the fear.

Moving the set was normally a job tackled when there were at least two people working. Too much could go wrong trying to do it alone. Unfortunately, no one thought to move the cumbersome pieces last night and they would need to be moved before the contractor could do his job. Carly cursed her irrational fears as she tripped, shoving the roof of a building directly into one of the heavy, velvet curtains.

"Hello?" A deep voice resonated from backstage.

"Out here," she shouted, still wrestling to pull the set piece out of the curtain without causing any damage Dax would make her fix later. She blew a stray hair away from her eyes as the lighting contractor rounded the corner.

The broad shoulders and angled jaw were all new but there was no mistaking the icy blue eyes looking down at her. "Adam?"

"Carly Turner? What are the odds..."

When did he get so tall?
Carly shook the thoughts out of her head. There was definitely a rule about drooling over your best friend's little brother.

"Well, I think they're probably long enough that there's no point in buying a lottery ticket tonight,"
Oh god
,
did I just compare seeing Adam to winning the lottery?

"What in the hell are these?" Adam laughed, twirling the long blond pigtails that fell in front of her shoulders. The child-like hair restraints didn't seem like as good of an idea as they had this morning. Carly felt her glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose. Pushing them back to her face using a knuckle, she looked away. This was, without a doubt, the least put-together Carly had been in a long time and Adam happened to be here to see it.

Her cheeks heated under his critical gaze. "I'm not really going for the high glamor look when I'm moving set pieces." She was flustered. It wasn't a condition Carly was used to which put her even more on edge.

"That's good because you're off the mark if that's what you were trying to achieve." He grabbed his tool bag from the ground and moved to the front of the stage. "Hey Carly, it's a good look on you." When he threw a quick smile over his shoulder, Carly noticed he still had the chip in his front tooth that he'd had since they kids. What others might see as an imperfection added character to his All-American good looks. Carly had to fight the warmth she felt inside from that single glance.

Nice recovery.

"Let's go..." This time she did roll her eyes since he couldn't see her. She hoped the awkwardness would recede once he was working. She needed to focus on her checklist, not Julia's kid brother.

Even though she told herself she would disappear after showing him the light rigs, she lingered on the stage watching him work. "Are you going to be able to get it working?"

"That's the plan." He jumped off the stage heading to the control room. The way his jeans stretched over his thighs with every movement was jarring. She wanted to touch him to see if the denim was as worn and soft as it looked. There should be rules that kid brothers aren't allowed to grow up into sexy men.

Without Dax's constant interruptions Carly quickly got the prop tables set for the first act. By the time he sauntered in she had everything ready to go for the evening's rehearsal and Adam had located the problem. They sat side-by-side with their feet hanging over the edge of the stage while Adam waited for a vendor to return his phone call.

"Am I paying you to sit on your ass," Dax snapped, throwing his purse on the floor. She didn't care what fancy name Dax tried to give it, the brown leather bag was, without doubt, his purse.

Adam raised one eyebrow causing Carly to stifle a laugh. Dax was in a foul mood this morning and she wasn't about to give him ammunition. "My list is done and he's waiting on a part. It's either sit here talking or sit here in silence. I decided to be personable and keep him company." She stood and reached a hand out to help Adam up. "Now that you're here, I'm going next door to grab something to eat. I'll be back." Carly reached out her hand to help Adam up from his seat.

Dax narrowed his eyes, "Where's he going?"

Just a few more weeks.
"He got here right after me so I figure he might be hungry too. Plus, I'm not leaving him here with you. No one should be subjected to your mood. Seriously, you need to take a Valium or something before you start scaring the cast."

Now it was Adam choking back his laughter. She nodded to him and then motioned to the back door. "Let's go."

"That was impressive. I don't remember you being so mouthy." Adam chuckled as he opened the door. As soon as they were outside, he threw an arm over his nose and mouth. "Damn, did something die back here?"

Carly shrugged. "You get used to it," she lied. There was no way to get used to the smell of rancid meat and rotting fruit but there was also no way to change it. It was part of the reality of trying to make it big in New York. Even the shiniest dreams tarnish over time.

Carly led Adam to one of her favorite spots a few blocks away. Carly filed into the grill line. "I'll grab us a sandwich to split. You get sodas and chips," she instructed. When they had been walking to the deli, Carly worried that it would be weird having lunch with Julia's little brother. Instead, it felt completely natural, like they'd been doing it for years. Even more surprising, Adam pulled a Cherry Coke from the cooler and a bag of Cheddar and Sour Cream Ruffles. Somehow, he knew what she wanted.
Was that a lucky guess or does he somehow remember my lifelong addictions?

Adam was the first person from home she'd seen in six years. Her friends from Wisconsin were all so busy with their own lives that it never worked to meet up and Gran Turner, Carly's didn't fly and couldn't sit for long car trips. It was nice to be sitting across from someone who understood her. As much as she tried to fit into the New York lifestyle, there were some Midwestern quirks so ingrained in her personality she'd never get rid of them and her city friends couldn't understand them.