The last thing he remembered was that he’d used gasoline from the toolshed when he’d had trouble lighting the grill.
He’d awakened in a hospital days later, his right side raw with fourth-degree burns that blanketed him in a pain so red and vile that all the narcotics in the world couldn’t dull it. It had been his fault. All his fault. But Kelsey blamed herself, and now she was just as scarred as he was.
He’ddone that to her. Wounded her heart. And now he carried that guilt, along with his scars.
Beside him, Beverly sat stiffly, her fingers twined together in her lap, and her attention on Holt instead of Griffin.
“I knew you’d be pleased about Deaver,” Holt told Beverly. “He was thrilled when he heard you were already attached.” His brow furrowed as he squinted at her. “You are still attached, right?”
“Don’t even joke around,” she said. “You know I am. I practically hogtied Griff and refused to leave him alone until he let me stake my claim as Angelique.”
“You hardly had to twist my arm,” Griff reminded her when she turned to face him once again, her bright, earnest expression reminding him of their first meeting.
“What happened?” Evie asked.
“Only me making a complete ass of myself,” Beverly said. “It was a few months ago in spring, and my agent called to tell me about this incredible script that she wasn’t supposed to have. Sorry about that,” she added as an aside to Griff.
“All things considered, I’m gonna say it wasn’t a problem. Van’s friends with Evelyn Dodge,” he explained to Evie. “And Evelyn is Beverly's agent.”
“Van was so excited about the script when he read the first draft,” Beverly said, picking up the story, "that he slipped it to Evelyn without asking Griffin."
“Evelyn liked what she read," Griffin continued, "and she thought that Beverly would be perfect for the role of Angelique. So she shot a copy of the first draft to Bev." He sighed and shook his head. "It's probably a good thing she didn't tell me, because I would've completely freaked and told her not to do it. The idea of landing Beverly Martin would have intimidated the hell out of me, and I would have held back the script until it was polished to within an inch of its life.”
“Are you kidding?” Bev leaned sideways to casually shoulder bump him. “It was brilliant, and I went nuts over it. I actually read it in my car in Evelyn’s driveway. I didn’t intend to, but I decided to peek and see if it really was as special as she said. I read it twice, then marched back to her door, pounded until she let me in, and told her I’d do whatever it took to get the role.”
Evie laughed. “Did she know you were out there in her driveway?”
“Not a clue. She’d pulled me aside at a small cocktail party she was throwing. By the time I went back to the door, everyone had gone home, and I caught her in sweatpants and no makeup. She wasn’t going to let me in—I called her cell phone from her front porch—but when I told her I had to have the role, she ushered me in and we connived.”
Griffin’s brows rose. “Connived?”
“Well, you know I came back to Austin and made a point of meeting you at The Fix. But have I ever mentioned that I’d planned on staying in LA through the summer?”
He leaned toward her. “What? No. Why?”
“No particular reason. A friend was heading to London and offered me his place, and Chris said he’d teach me to sail.” She shrugged. “But then I realized that coming home to Austin made a whole lot more sense.”
“Chris,” Griffin repeated. “You mean Deaver. Your director.”
She nodded. “Yeah, we became pretty close during the shoot. Like I said, he’s a great guy. You’ll like him.”
Not jealous, Griff reminded himself. Really not jealous.
He sucked in a breath. “So instead of staying in LA with him, you came to Austin for me.”
Crap. Had he truly said that out loud?
Thankfully, the words seemed to roll right off Bev, although when Griff caught Holt’s eye, he thought the other man’s expression seemed a little too knowing.
“I did,” she said, then focused her attention on Evie again. “Turns out that the studio that produced Suburban Love Story is also producing Griff’s web series. And it’s based in Austin.”
Griffin had moved to Austin about two years ago, partly to get away from the LA grind and that city’s obsession with appearance. He'd been making a name as a voice actor, but any type of acting in Los Angeles required meetings, public appearances, and just generally being seen. While he loved the work, he much preferred to stay in his cave writing his popular podcast and recording the episodes.
So when the Austin company had optioned the podcast for a web series, it made sense to make the move to Texas.
Now, his web series was up and running and hugely successful. He hadn't been convinced that something on the Internet could really be monetized, but he'd been proven wrong when he'd seen the first check. The process of converting the podcast to a web series had also made him realize how much he enjoyed the writing process, and that was when he’d started to focus on Hidden Justice, a script he’d outlined almost entirely at The Fix.
“I wondered how you knew to find me at The Fix,” he told Beverly.