Canon
The Disney dude is good.
But I did give him someone amazing to work with.
God, Neevah is even better than I’d thought she would be. Her performance so far is a whole-ass I told you so to Law Stone and every Galaxy Studio exec who doubted me when I cast her. She and Trey do have great chemistry, so I’m sure they’ll take credit for casting him. I really don’t give a damn who gets credit. I just want this movie to fulfill and exceed its potential. And so far, it seems like it will.
Looking at the dailies on my laptop, I scrub back a little in the scene when Dessi and Cal first meet at the Savoy and she’s teaching him to dance. I freeze the frame of Neevah’s face lifted to the light, her smile coy and teasing. She smiled just like this at me on the balcony at the Halloween party. I’ve thrown up road blocks in my head so I don’t think about that night too much—so I don’t think about her too much.
“Whatcha doin’?”
I slam my laptop closed and swing my chair around to face Jill. “Sneaking up on me?”
“It only feels like sneaking up if you’re doing something you don’t want me to know about.” She sits down. “Watching dailies? Lemme see.”
I hesitate because when I open the laptop, she’ll know that I was looking at Neevah, and the last thing I want is Jill teasing me about having a damn crush on our lead actress. Reluctantly, I open the laptop.
“She really is fantastic, isn’t she?” Jill crosses an ankle over her knee. “Her skin. Her eyes. God, the woman says more with her eyes than most do all day talking. The camera loves her.”
I don’t bother answering, but scrub back in the footage. “You wanted to look at the Lafayette scene again?”
“Already did. They emailed me the dailies, too. I got what I needed to see.”
“Great.”
A tornado of blonde curls hurtles through the video village door toward us, touching down in Jill’s lap.
“Mommy, guess what?” Sienna, Jill’s four-year-old daughter, asks.
“What?” Jill pushes back the wild curls.
“I had a popsicle. Look!” She pokes out her tongue, showing off a bright shade of blue.
“Nice! Where’d you get it?”
“They had them for lunch, and Kimmy said I can have one.” She holds up a wilted popsicle. “I brought one for you, too.”
“Oh, thank you, baby,” Jill says, accepting the drippy offering. “And where’s Kimmy now?”
“Here I am. Sorry.” Kimmy, one of our PAs, walks in, her usual perky ponytail limp and barely hanging on. “I turned my head for one second, and she was gone.”
“She’s a handful, aren’t you, Sin?” Jill asks her daughter.
“I am.” She nods enthusiastically and climbs from Jill’s lap to mine. “Are you coming to Thanksgiving dinner, Uncle Canon?”
Technically I’m her godfather, but who could correct her when she looks at me like this?
“Not this year, Sin,” I tell her. “But thank you for thinking about me.”
“But will you be by yourself?” she asks, a frown dipping her blonde brows.
“I hope so.” I laugh. “Maybe I’ll come by on Friday after Thanksgiving. How’s that sound?”
“Come on, Sin. Mommy’s working.” Kimmy shoots Jill an apologetic look.
“It’s fine,” Jill assures her. “Okay, baby. Run on and I’ll see you in a little bit. I need to look at one thing with Uncle Canon.”
“Did Seth have anything to do with her?” I ask as they exit the tent. “She looks exactly like you in every way.”