“It’s my sister’s favorite Christmas movie, so it’s been part of the holiday rotation forever. I’m Myles by the way.” He smiled at her, and Piper felt a pleasant flutter in her belly.
Nerves? This guy was making her nervous? Holy crap, when was the last time that had happened?
“Piper.”
“So are you new or part of the Old Guard?” Myles asked. At her questioning look, he said, “I was chatting with Charlotte earlier. She mentioned a lot of the people coming out tonight were long-running players in WCT productions.”
“Oh, well, yes. I grew up in this theater. I’ve been acting since elementary school.”
“Not surprised. I figure you’re a shoe-in for Betty.”
Piper was inclined to agree, but it wasn’t the kind of thing you said out loud. It was both rude and bad luck. “What about you? I know you’re new in town.”
His brows lifted. “Do I have a sign?”
She grinned. “You’re either new in town or you have the best immune system this side of Jackson.”
“Huh?”
“I’m a nurse. If you’d lived in Wishful any real length of time, you’d have eventually rotated through my clinic. Everyone does.”
“Oh.” He gave a self-deprecatory laugh. “Yeah, guilty as charged. I’ve only been here about two and a half weeks. Still finding my footing in the community.”
There’d been no ring on his finger during the reading, but some people might’ve taken it off to stay in character. She wasn’t about to come right out and ask.
“Are you new to theater?”
“I am. This is, in fact, my first audition ever.”
Piper felt a pang of disappointment. He’d done well, no question, but for this show they needed the absolute best of the best, and that meant an actor with more experience. Too bad. She’d have enjoyed playing Betty to his Bob.
As the second quartet finished the reading, Nate hollered for her to come back out as part of a new group. She shot Myles a flirtatious smile. “Duty calls. Welcome to Wishful, Myles. I hope to see you around.”
“Count on it,” he called after her.
She held in the instinctive fist pump and took her place on stage.
~*~
He’d won the lead. Myles was reasonably sure no one was more shocked about it than him. His whim had just claimed his nights and weekends for the next three months. But given those nights and weekends would be spent playing opposite the lovely Piper Parish, he couldn’t find much reason to complain. He’d wanted to get to know her. Hell, as Bob to her Betty, he’d even get to kiss her. Were stage kisses different from real kisses? He didn’t know. But, he looked forward to learning.
The auditorium was full of cast, crew, and musicians, all overflowing with an infectious, effervescent optimism. The general mood made him feel like whistling a tune and executing a little dance step as he strode up the center aisle toward the stage. Not that he really knew any dance steps outside the waltz, foxtrot, cha cha, and swing, and he wasn’t sure how much he’d retained since eighth grade. Cotillion didn’t exactly prepare one for this brand of choreography. But as Bob, he didn’t have that much dancing to do. That was all on Tucker McGee. He and Tyler were already executing some kind of complicated dance move on one side of the stage.
Piper strode out from one of the wings. Stage right, Myles reminded himself. Part of doing this was learning the right lingo. He headed up on stage via the orchestra pit stairs, trying to decide whether to shoot for nonchalance or I’m-a-newb-please-help-me-navigate-unfamiliar-waters.
She looked up as he approached and whatever clever thing he might’ve said bled right out of his brain.
“Hi.” Oh brilliant, Stewart. Way to impress the girl.
“So you survived auditions,” she said. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks. It was…unexpected. But I’m excited. Glad to be here. Hopefully you can share your greater experience and keep me from mucking anything up.”
But Piper wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. Silence fell around them. Myles looked around for the reason, thinking maybe Nate had come in and the actors were going automatically silent out of respect or something. Across the stage, Tyler had stopped, having obviously just come out of a turn. She stared at something in the back of the auditorium. As the silence stretched out, more of the cast seemed to follow her example. Myles looked toward the back, seeing a guy standing just inside the lobby doors. He seemed suspended, waiting for something. The waves of tension between the newcomer and Tyler were almost strong enough to push Myles back a step. This had to be the heartbreaker Charlotte told him about.
The floorboards of the stage popped, and the tableau unfroze.
Finding out the details about what the hell was going on seemed like a good excuse to keep talking to Piper. Before he could make an attempt, Nate requested an attention grabber on the piano. The pianist banged out a little riff, calling rehearsal to order.