22. Miles

22

MILES

"Cut!" Shania yelled.

Cameron Wells, who was portraying Lance Corporal Anthony Brown, extended his hand and helped me up off the ground. The scene we'd just shot had several different explosives and multiple stunts. I'd had to dive off a wall onto four stacked mats.

Once I was up on my feet, I patted his arm. "Good job! That was a great take."

"Thanks, man. You too."

I brushed the dust off my pants as I stepped over the staged debris and rubble and entered the video village tent.

"How did it look?" I asked Shania, who was seated in her director's chair.

She glanced over her shoulder. "I think that last take was the one."

"How are we on coverage?" I grabbed my water bottle and took my seat beside her.

"Good, I think." After we watched all the takes, making sure we had enough coverage for edits, Shania turned to me and smiled. "I think we got it. We can move on after lunch."

"Yeah, sounds good," I agreed.

"Okay, we're breaking for lunch!" Carly, the first AD, announced over the radio to all the other departments.

Shania and Chuck, the director of photography, stood and headed out of the tent to the left toward catering, and I turned right toward the trailers.

"You're not getting lunch?" Shania asked.

"No, I've got some work to do."

The truth was, I wanted to try to reach Zoe again. I hadn't spoken to her since she left the production office two weeks ago. A week and a half ago, she'd emailed me about her character having blonde hair instead of brown because she didn't want Kendall, who was playing young Zoe, to dye her hair. At the end of that email, she'd thanked me for the flowers I'd sent, but that was it.

The email was very formal. There was nothing to suggest that we'd shared a very personal experience. It was making me a little crazy. I'd called and messaged her, but between our night shoots, her working twelve-hour shifts, and the time difference on opposite coasts, I hadn't been able to get a hold of her. Either that, or she was deliberately ignoring me. I hoped it was the first.

I just wanted to talk to her and make sure that she was okay. That was all. I mean, yes, I missed her. It didn't help that every spare moment I had, I was watching the videos that Harlan had given me. Every second of downtime I had, I found myself pulling up the clips of her and Austin. I'd been telling myself it was for research purposes, but I was beginning to think it was moving into unhealthy territory.

Today, I had a legitimate reason to speak to her. We'd made a final decision on who to cast as ‘Zoe' and the actress, Rachel Cobb, wanted to know if she could reach out to Zoe, the real Zoe. I needed her okay before I gave Rachel her contact information. Rachel had been Zoe's first choice, so I hoped she would be pleased with the selection.

I walked up the steps to the trailer, and when I stepped inside, I was relieved to find it was empty. The trailer was where Braxton spent ninety percent of her time working, but she must have gone to get lunch. I didn't want an audience on the off chance I did get a hold of Zoe.

As I walked past the mirror, I caught a glimpse of my reflection and noticed that my cheeks were sunken in. Part of that was from the makeup. In the scene we'd just filmed, I had to jump from a burning building, so I had ash on my face. But part of my gaunt appearance was because I hadn't been eating as much as I should have been.

The truth was I had lost my appetite. All I could think about was Zoe. What was she thinking? Was she okay? Did she regret being with me? I hoped that wasn't the case, but all the signs, which were neon and blinking, were pointing in that direction.

She'd ‘liked' my text messages but hadn't actually responded to any of them. And she hadn't returned either of my calls. I knew she was busy, but it had been two weeks.

When she left the offices, she'd kissed me goodbye, but it hadn't felt like it was over. Even though she said it couldn't happen again.

My mind kept going back to the conversation I'd overheard at the pizza parlor on the back deck when she was on the phone. I'd overheard her say the name Elias, and I'd met an Elias at Southern Comfort with Harlan and Dawson. That wasn't the most common name, and this Elias just happened to be a doctor at the hospital where Zoe worked. He was a pediatric heart surgeon. When I asked if he knew Zoe, I saw the look in his eye. There was a moment of rejection, and then he masked it. It was definitely him she'd been talking to.

He was attractive, funny, and a fucking pediatric heart surgeon. He had dimples and tattoos. He was the whole package, and she didn't even want to go to dinner with him. She'd told him she wasn't interested in a relationship.

That really didn't bode well for me.

My pulse was racing as I scrolled through and pressed her name on my contact list. It rang twice before going to voicemail. When that happened, my stomach dropped. That was the nail in the coffin. The other two times I'd called, it had rung the appropriate amount of times before I got her voicemail. This time, she'd seen who was calling and sent me to voicemail.

"Hey, it's Zoe. I'm probably working or sleeping. Leave me a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

The beep sounded, and I tried not to sound as affected as I was by the fact that she was clearly avoiding speaking to me. "Hi, it's Miles. Can you give me a call back? I needed to run something by you. Thanks, bye."

I'd just hung up and set my phone down when Braxton walked in. Her eyes widened when she saw me. "Oh, I didn't realize you guys were wrapped for lunch."

"Yeah."

Her brow creased. "You weren't hungry?"

"No."

She closed the door behind her and sat down across from me. "Okay, what is going on?"

"With what?" I pretended to have no idea what she was talking about.

"You're a good actor, but not that good. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Ever since you watched those auditions with Zoe, you've been…off."

"Off?"

"Not yourself. Distracted. Distant."

"I have a lot on my mind. I'm producing, acting, and co-directing." Those were all excuses that I was sure she'd see right through, but there was no way I was going to cop to telling her that I had feelings for the widow of the man whose life story I had bought the rights to and was portraying.

"Is something going on between you and Zoe?"

If there was one thing that Braxton didn't do, it was beat around the bush. She always got straight to the point. It had been a trait I'd always admired and appreciated until it was directed at me about something I didn't want to face.

I looked her directly in the eye and answered honestly, "No."

She stared at me for a few seconds, then tilted her head to the left. "Do you want there to be?"

Before I could answer, there was a loud knock on the door.

"Come in," I called out.

Carly opened the door.

"Pyro needs to see you. There is a problem with the next setup."

I stood and headed down the steps to see Ezra, the special effects coordinator who was in charge of our pyrotechnics.

Even though I knew Braxton would probably bring the subject up again, I was glad for the momentary reprieve. Whatever I felt for Zoe, whatever we'd shared together, was clearly over. I needed to accept that and move on.

Which was going to be a little difficult considering I was going back to Firefly Island in two weeks and would be playing out her love story on screen. Talk about a plot twist.