A Humble Heart
Page 8

“You’ve just made my day!” she said, logging onto her computer. Edward watched with great interest as she pressed her finger onto a little piece of glass set on the laptop.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s a fingerprint scan. That and a password allow me to gain access to the computer,” she said. After a moment she looked up at him. “Okay, pick a name for our main character.”
“I didn’t think of one,” he said uneasily. He watched as Dana’s brows came together. She looked over at Amy expectantly.
“He likes the name Shea,” Amy said.
“Amy, I swear if you don’t cut that out I’m going to-”
“What?” she asked, perking up. “I have job security, brother dearest,” she said smugly.
He ground his teeth. One day, very soon he would get her back. “Edward, if this is going to work you can’t hold back. Whatever you’re thinking I need to know,” Dana said encouragingly.
“Fine, I like the name Shea,” Edward said, turning his attention to Dana.
“Okay, let’s talk about our story. When you were thinking up this idea what did you picture?” she asked him.
The encouraging smile she gave him made him relax. She wasn’t judging him, wasn’t expecting him to meet certain expectations. She really wanted to know what he thought. They began talking about what they wanted to do. She warned him not to settle into a plot, to allow the story to tell itself. He stopped himself from smiling. This was one of her secrets and she was sharing it with him.
A pager went off. Amy took it off her belt and looked at it. “They want both of you on set now,” Amy said.
They both sighed and laughed when they saw their shared expressions. Dana closed her laptop and placed it in her bag and put it over her shoulder before Edward could help her with it.
“So, you must be excited,” Edward noted.
Dana smiled. “I’ve always hoped this book would make it to the big screen. I never really expected it to come true.”
He was stunned by her attitude. She was laid back. There was nothing arrogant about this woman. She had millions of fans around the world and it didn’t seem to affect her at all. She was definitely handling fame better than he was.
For the last two years he had slowly receded from public life. He hung out with only his friends from his old life, half of them anyway. The other half wanted nothing to do with him. His family was his sanctuary. They provided him with a calm he found nowhere else.
“Dana?” the director said, walking towards them.
“My name is Andrew. I’m the director. Why don’t you come with me, you’ll get a better view,” he said, smiling. Dana nodded. Andrew looked at him. “Make-up's ready for you on set. We’re just waiting for you.” He gestured for Dana to walk in front of him. Edward stopped short when he saw Andrew checking out Dana’s ass. He shook his head and went to the set. A beautiful woman like that on a Hollywood set was going to be a target for a lot of egos.
Dana walked to a chair with her name printed on it. Not too shabby, she thought. She sat down and waited for her book come to life. She watched as a beautiful woman, someone who should be modeling for playboy, walked over to her.
“Hi, Dana, right?” the young woman asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m Jennifer. I dropped by so I could say hello and talk to you about my character if you have a few minutes after Edward shoots this scene,” she said.
“Yes, of course.” Dana said, willing to do whatever it took to make her characters come to life.
Jennifer smiled and walked off to a large group of people waiting for her. Interesting, she had her own entourage. She found it more interesting that Edward didn’t. She knew he was more famous. Jennifer was new to acting and seemed to love the attention. Edward didn’t.
“Ghosts?” Edward chuckled, immediately grabbing Dana’s attention.
She realized they were shooting the first scene. She watched nervously as they worked through the first scene several times. Each time she found herself on the edge of her seat gripping the arms of her chair. Something was wrong…something she hadn't realized until this moment.
Watching Edward act she realized he was Christian. She made Christian for Edward and never realized it. Edward was who she thought about when she wrote Christian, an easy going guy who was kind and generous. “Oh my God,” she whispered to herself.
“Shhhh,” someone hissed.
She bit her lip as she watched the scene to continue to unfold. Every now and then she would look around and wonder if anyone else had noticed that Edward was doing a perfect job of playing Christian and figured out why. It would be really awkward if that ever came out.
***********
“Don’t kill me!”
Dana and Edward looked up from the computer screen. She frowned as she spotted her assistant standing in the doorway holding an ice pack to her face. Then she looked at the clock and groaned inwardly.
She’d been waiting for Jennifer to grace her with her presence for three hours. The actress made a big deal about getting together so Dana had asked Deana to watch the kids for a little while longer.
It wasn’t a complete waste of time. Edward had turned out to be eager to start their work. So far they’d finished the prologue and the first chapter. It was going a lot faster then she thought it would.
Dana looked back up to catch the first sign of recognition filter over her assistant's face. She gasped, pointed and squeaked loudly.
“Damn!” Edward said as he cupped his ears.
Mid-squeak Deana suddenly broke off, closing her eyes and wincing as she pressed the ice pack to her mouth.
Dana jumped out of her chair and walked over to Deana. “What’s wrong?”
Deana held up a hand and shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Mommy,” a tiny voice said.
“No, it’s okay, sweetie,” Deana said, wincing. “It was my own fault, Dana. I was showing Elizabeth the proper way to eat a jaw breaker.”
“Oh no….”
Deana nodded. “I broke a tooth.”
Dana took Deana’s hand into hers and gave it a squeeze. “Do you need me to take you to the dentist?”
“No, I need to drop the midgets off, though. If it’s okay?” she shot a half-worried, half-worshipping look in Edward’s direction.
“Of course. You’re hurt, Deana. So, we’re done.”
“Are you sure?” Deana asked nervously. Dana knew the woman’s work history. Deana was still terrified at the thought of going back to her old job where she'd been treated poorly.
Dana pulled her into a hug. “You’re part of this family. Don’t ever worry about it,” she whispered into Deana’s ear.
Deana nodded and sniffled. “Thank you, Dana.” She took a deep breath and turned around. “Alright, guys, get in here and behave yourselves. Auntie Deana will see you guys tomorrow.”
**********
Edward watched curiously. All day Dana had gone out of her way to treat everyone like a good friend. She never once raised her voice to anyone. He was curious to find out if this was an act or not. There were so many fake people in Hollywood after all, but after seeing her with her assistant he knew without a doubt that she was the real deal.
His brows shot up when he saw two of the cutest kids shyly walk into the trailer. The little girl with her slightly curly honey blonde hair and deep blue eyes was without a doubt the prettiest little girl he’d ever seen. She sent him a shy smile, blushed, and stared at the floor, but that wasn’t what shocked him.
A little boy, a toddler perhaps and cute as hell, stepped into the trailer, taking his mother’s hand into his and smiled devilishly towards him. Edward blinked, once, twice and then again as he studied the boy. Holy hell…..this was eerie. The little boy looked just like him. Correction the little boy looked exactly the way he did when he was a toddler. Amy was going to go into hysterics when she caught a glimpse of this kid.
Dana talked to Deana for another minute before the woman left, but not before she wiggled her fingers at him and grinned, then winced. He watched as Dana knelt down in front of her children and said hello. She gave them each a warm smile, hug, and a kiss before turning her attention back to him.