‘You can?
?t. He’s still on the road with the Shepherd play.’
‘Damn, I forgot.’ He took the script from her. ‘What the hell, I’ll do the best I can. It’s my problem, not yours.’
‘I admit it’s a bad scene, but we’ll manage. Stop worrying.’
‘I wish I had your confidence.’ Cade’s shoulders slumped. ‘I suppose you’ve got a million appointments to keep, right? I mean, I guess you don’t have time to waste time, cheering me up..’
He looked terrified. She felt awful for him.
‘That’s all right,’ she said gently. ‘I’m not in any particular rush.’
“You mean, you haven’t got any appointments today?’
‘No,’ she said without thinking, ‘none at...’ The words caught in her throat as a triumphant grin flashed across his face. ‘Now, Cade...’
‘Gotcha fair and square, Padgett. You’ve had something or other to keep you busy every day for the past week.’
‘I have a crowded schedule.’
‘Yeah, I know. If there were twenty-five hours in a day, you’d be busy twenty-six of them. Day and night classes, night and day appointments...’
‘I can’t help that.’
‘Busy, busy, busy. Except for today.’
‘Of course I’m busy today—I’ve got to work on my part.’
‘Amazing,’ he said softly. ‘So do I.’
‘Cade. Listen, okay? There’s no benefit to our practicing together.’
‘Oh, absolutely right,’ he agreed solemnly. ‘What possible use could there be if two people who are going to play a scene together studied it together?’
‘All each of us has to do is memorize some lines,’ she said helplessly. ‘There’s nothing much to that.’
‘Right. We wouldn’t want to risk finding some way to get the damned lines make some kind of sense. It’s much better to handle this separately.’
‘You’re making it sound silly.’
‘Silly? No way. Just let me in on Monday’s game plan, okay? Shall we both blow our lines, or are you going to come up with something brilliant while I come on the set and do a stand-up comedy routine?’ He waggled his eyebrows and raised an imaginary cigar to his mouth. ‘A funny thing happened to me on the way to the cemetery,’ he said.
Shannon felt her lips twitch..
‘A young lady asked me to make love to her on a coffin and I told her she didn’t have a ghost of a chance.’
‘Stop that. Look, all you have to do is say the lines straight.’
‘ “I love you when you wear sexy black stock certificates, Alana...’”
A laugh burst from her lips.
‘Stop that! It’ll be fine.’
‘No, it won’t. And I don’t want you to feel guilty when I get laughed off the set. It won’t be your fault. Just because you turned me down when I pleaded for help...’
Shannon rolled her eyes. ‘Honestly, Cade—‘