“Asshole,” he muttered.
“Love you too, bro,” I said, eating another. Then to Rory, I said, “Thanks for the tip.”
She gave me a wave, and Ryan told her to eat.
She told him not to boss her, but, bro, I understood his bossiness. I mean, hell, here I was tossing cash down on the counter and taking food over to Mads to make sure she ate too.
Ryan and I used to be free-range chicken… just roaming around, answering to nobody but ourselves. And now just look at us.
Two tiny women trying to run us around.
And what were we doing? Feeding them so they had the energy to do it. This was some messed-up shit.
But damn, if my stomach didn’t flutter as I pointed my Wrangler in the direction of the theater building, knowing I was going to see her again.
The building looked like an old, dramatic castle, so perfect for theater. It actually seemed a little creepy against the backdrop of the night sky with cold fall air swirling around. The building itself was made of light-colored limestone and pitched roofing. What gave it more of a castle-like feel were the several tall, Gothic-style round towers.
Spread out around the massive building was a green lawn with mature trees. I drove right past the front of the building, bypassing the sidewalk and wide limestone stairs that led up to the massive dark-wood door.
Following the road, I drove around toward the back where I knew the auditorium was located. A wall of thick glass doors allowed light from the inside to spill out over the sidewalk, proving the theory that the cast was inside rehearsing.
I’d never been to one of Westbrooks’s theater productions. I was too busy swimming, and when I wasn’t in the pool, I was thinking about it. Or trying to keep up with my business management courses. Honestly, I wasn’t much of a book guy. Or a school guy. But I couldn’t just swim at Westbrook. I had to take classes too. And since my dad had his nose in a bunch of businesses, I figured learning to manage some would be good. A career in swimming was hard to come by, hard to keep, and something that didn’t last forever.
Just because I had my pick of which of his businesses I could walk into and take over didn’t mean I had to be an asshole about it. The least I could do was earn the right to be there with education and not just my last name.
To be honest, though, bro… I can call you bro, right? Putting on a monkey suit and bossing people around all day seemed kinda tiring. Still, I wasn’t going to half-ass it.
I didn’t half-ass anything.
Which was exactly why I was pulling open the wide glass doors leading into the lobby of the impressive auditorium.
It was a big place with the capability of holding an impressive-sized audience. Just because I never came around to watch the productions here didn’t mean other people didn’t. Hell, some of the most famous celebs in Hollywood came out of Westbrook. Most recently, the actor who was dominating the box office with his action roles.
There’d also been that one actress years ago that people still talked about. The next Marilyn Monroe, they called her. She polarized Hollywood the minute she stepped in front of a camera, but her success was cut short when she died tragically. In true American fashion, though, her death only made her more famous.
Last I heard, they were gonna make a movie about her life and use this campus for some of the shots.
My stomach growled aggressively, reminding me it had been empty too long, and vanished my drifting thoughts. Balancing the bag of takeout and the cup holder in one hand, I tugged open a heavy door leading into the auditorium.
It was dark where I entered. The seating above me created an overhang, shadowing the space where the doors led inside. Long rows of seats stretched out in front of me, all upholstered in the school color of ivy green.
All the wood was polished walnut, and the three stories stretched up to a coffered ceiling that glowed with warm lighting.
Sweeping past the grandiose of it all, I looked directly to the massive stage that sat front and center. Light-colored fabric draped above it, framing out the wide space to make it feel a bit more intimate.
I expected to find an entire cast milling about, noise, and a space humming with energy. I wouldn’t have been surprised by brighter lights and music.
There was none of that.
Instead, there was a heavy moroseness dallying in the air with a certain hint of frustration. I probably wouldn’t have cared much if my girl wasn’t standing in the middle of it all. If I couldn’t practically see the invisible currents snaking around the room attach themselves to her ankles to slowly climb up her leg…
She was wearing one of those cute little skirts again.
Did the girl even own pants?
All that leg…
Focus, Jamie.
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep. The more I give to thee—” Her voice was strong enough to carry into the back of the auditorium where I remained rooted in the shadows yet soft enough to impart emotion—
“Stop!” a man bellowed, the sharp demand followed quickly by the loud slap of a rolled-up set of papers smacking into the back of the seat in front of him.
Tearing my eyes from Madison, I glanced at one of the front rows to whom I assumed was the director.
“You can do better than that, Madison!” he insisted, rising to his feet. The rolled-up script in his hand waved in her direction. “You’re desperately in love. It’s your first taste of the true emotion, and it has taken over your body and soul. Convince me. Make me believe!”
I glanced toward Mads, whose shoulders dipped just a fraction beneath her gray sweater.
What the fuck did he just say to her? Oh, hell noes.
That man must have been on some damn good drugs to think he could just insult her like that. I started forward, about to let him know my fist was about to give him a one-way trip into rehab, but then my feet stalled when Mads spoke up.
“I mean, come on!” she snapped. “She’s a thirteen-year-old girl. Practically a child. She doesn’t even know about love as boundless as the sea. And even if she did, Romeo?” She scoffed.
“Hey,” a man I’d barely even realized was there admonished, taking a step toward her. He had light-brown hair styled up like he spent too much time looking in the mirror (or you know didn’t wear a rubber swim cap most of the day) and was wearing jeans and a polo.
I didn’t like him.
Mads slid him a look. “No offense. You play a great Romeo,” she offered, turning back to the director. “He forgets all about his broken heart the minute he lays eyes on Juliet. Not only that, but he’s blinded by rage and kills her cousin.”
I mean, when she put it that way… My girl had a point.
“You are taking this too personally,” the director told her, leaving his row of seating. “You may not believe Juliet is in love, but she believes it, and that is all that matters.”
As he ascended the stairs toward the actors, he went on. “It is not your job to judge their love, only to portray it so the audience can feel it.”
“Well, it’s hard to portray something I don’t feel,” she muttered. “I understand this play is basically iconic, but couldn’t we have done something a little less… toxic?”
The director made a strained sound. “People love classics. They love star-crossed lovers. Tragic endings of true love ripped apart—”