Lovescenes

She’d gone too far. She knew it as soon as the torrent of angry words had stopped. Cade’s eyes had darkened and locked on hers. His mouth was a thin line as he reached for his wallet and got to his feet..

‘I don’t have to listen to this,’ he growled. ‘I thought you and I could reach some sort of agreement, but I see that’s impossible. I’ll tell Crawford it’s not going to work out. There’s still time to replace...’

There it was, Shannon thought, her heart thudding into gear. The bastard was going to have her dumped. It was almost a relief to have it in the open.

‘Not so fast,’ she said, fighting to control her voice. ‘I have a contract. My union will support me.’

He gave a bitter laugh and sat down in the booth. ‘‘Crawford was wrong, that’s all. It was that damned kiss...’

‘I’m glad you admitted it. It was so meaningless—but nobody wanted to hear that. You took me by surprise, for starters. I didn’t have time to prepare.’

‘You don’t prepare for passion, Padgett. It’s not like going to the dentist, for

God’s sake!’

‘We’re not talking about passion,’ she said. ‘We’re talking about acting. I should have had time to get into character. I...’

Cade’s eyebrows rose. ‘What the hell did getting into character have to do with that kiss? You’re a woman and I’m a man. Don’t you know that?’

‘Of course I know that!’ she snapped. ‘That’s just the point. If you knew anything about acting, you’d understand.’

‘I understand, Padgett. I kissed you...’

‘God, you’re insufferable! Of course you kissed me! That’s what messed everything up in the first place. Don’t you get it? You kissed Shannon Padgett, not the char­acter I play in All Our Tomorrows. And it was Shannon Padgett who responded, not her. That’s why there were sparks, or chemistry, or whatever it was that...’

Her eyes widened with shock, and the angry words caught in her throat. No, she thought, no—please, tell me I didn’t say that—but a quick look at Cade’s face told her she had, indeed, said that she hadn’t even let herself acknowledge until this second. He looked like a cat who’d been served a dish of bird pudding.

‘So,’ he said softly, ‘Crawford was right.’

‘No, no he wasn’t. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.’

His eyes darkened and a crooked smile tugged at his mouth. ‘It’s too late, Padgett. I heard every word. Something happened when I kissed you.’

Shannon shook her head. ‘That’s not true,’ she in­sisted. Her throat was dry and she could hear her heart pounding in a crazy rhythm. All she wanted to do was look away from him, but his eyes were suddenly deep pools drawing her under.

‘Don’t lie to me,’ he said softly.

She swallowed drily. ‘Look, you just said you were going to have Crawford replace me.. Maybe it’s for the best. Maybe I won’t even fight it...’

Cade looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. ‘I never said that. What I said was it wasn’t too late for him to replace me. I’ll do the guest walk-on I originally signed for, and you and Tony or whoever can...’ An expression of such surprise and relief spread across her face that Cade stared at her in amazement. ‘Jesus, did you really think I’d try to muscle you out?’

. ‘Yes,’ she said softly. ‘It happens all the time. Just last week, Rima Dalton took away my best scene. She had them rewrite it for her. And once in summer stock at Provincetown...’

Cade leaned across the table and touched her hand. ‘You really weren’t thinking very clearly, Padgett. Crawford wouldn’t ditch you. Don’t forget, he only de­cided to change my part after he saw us together.’ She raised her head sharply and he smiled. ‘That’s just a statement of fact. I’ve already said I was sorry. And I really didn’t mean to embarrass you—it was just that you made me angry as hell.’

‘Of course you wanted to embarrass me,’ she said. ‘You wanted to get even.’

‘No, I...’ Cade sighed and then he nodded agreement. ‘OK, maybe. But only after you’d made me feel even more unsure of myself than I already felt.’

‘Come on. You, insecure? I saw you perform in front of a zillion people. You had them eating out of the palm of your hand.’

‘I break out in a nervous sweat before every perform­ance,’ Cade said, flashing her a quick, almost embar­rassed smile. ‘Besides, all I could think of that day on the Tomorrows set was that I was surrounded by real actors, not amateurs like me.’ That same vulnerable look that seemed to reach directly into her soul was back in his indigo eyes. ‘I don’t know why I let Jerry talk me into thinking I could act. He insisted it would be OK, that you and I would be—that we’d make a good team. But I’m no actor. I’m just a musician.’

Shannon took a deep breath. ‘You did a good job with that reading in the workshop,’ she said quietly.

His eyes lit with pleasure. ‘Yeah, that seemed to go pretty well, didn’t it? But a fast reading in class isn’t the same as doing a four-month stint in front of a TV camera.’

‘Four months?’ she said slowly. ‘But they told me I would be killed off in another couple of weeks.’