“Be right back.”
She jumped off the bed. Where did she leave her coat? She ran out of the bedroom. It was lying in a mound on the sofa. She turned it upside down, trying to get her hand in the right pocket. Pennies flew everywhere, but she left her poker winnings where they lay. Finally she found what she was looking for and turned back to the bedroom.
“What’s the matter?” Daniel stood in the doorway. “Are you all right?”
She smiled and sauntered past him into the bedroom. “Oh, yeah.”
He followed her back into the bedroom. “Roxy?”
She dropped a handful of colorful condom packages onto the mattress. “I came prepared.”
There’s more to life than playing make believe.
The Role of a Lifetime
? 2008 Jennifer Shirk
Sandra Moyer has a good reason to distrust actors. She was once married to one who left her and her child. However, she’s desperate for publicity to help her struggling preschool. Hollywood playboy Ben Capshaw’s request to access her classes to prepare for a role is an offer she can’t refuse.
Sandra second guesses herself on that decision until she sees Ben in action with the children. Her apprehension turns to wonder, and then to feelings she’d thought were closed off forever. Yet how can she trust that what she’s seeing is real?
As a boy, Ben learned that acting was the answer to everything. The role he’s up for now will enhance his career and, he’s sure, secure his happiness. But spending time with Sandra and her daughter stirs up emotions that—for once—aren’t pretend.
Ben’s ready for a lifetime role as husband and father—if he can convince Sandra not to typecast him.
Enjoy the following excerpt for The Role of a Lifetime:
Ben had the nerve to pop his head in her office exactly two hours later. “Uh, do you mind if I wait in here while the parents pick up the kids?”
Still angry with him—and herself—Sandra didn’t bother to look up from writing at her desk. “You mean hide in here while the parents pick up their kids?”
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I mean hide,” he said with a trace of defeat.
She finally put her pen down and lifted her head. Ben was doing one heck of a personal repentant show for her, hovering in the doorway with wide eyes and his hands folded. She practically saw the halo hovering over his golden-brown head. “Okay,” she said. “Then no, I don’t mind.”
“Great. Thanks, Sandals.”
She looked at him sharply as he stepped in. Five seconds had barely gone by and he already had her back on the defensive. “That I do mind. My name is Sandra—not Sandals.”
“Yeah, I didn’t figure you for a nickname type of woman,” he agreed, looking pleased with himself.
“Good.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned back against her door. “Ah, but you need to loosen up. That’s why I’m going to call you Sandals.”
“You know, typically a nickname is shorter than the given name.”
“Is it?” he asked in mock seriousness. “Oh. Well, tell you what, you can call me…”
She waited several beats, thinking of more than a few unkind examples. “I can call you what?” she finally asked.
“That’s it.” He shot her his bone-melting smile. “You can just call me. Anytime.”
She rolled her eyes, refusing to give in to the smile that threatened. “That sounds like a line from one of your movies.”
He shot her a triumphant look. “Ah, ha! I knew you were a fan.”
“Please. Don’t flatter yourself. I just meant that it sounds like a very generic line from a very generic movie,” she lied.
“Ouch.” He played wounded and made a show of sticking in and taking out a pretend knife from his gut.
She’d seen better performances by him.
“You know, it’s okay to admit the truth,” he told her. “It means you’re human.”
“I know I’m human, thank you very much.”
He chuckled. “Okay, if it makes you feel better, I’ll give you a truth. That’ll show you I can be human too.”
“I doubt one piece of trivia will accomplish that enormous feat.”
“Come on,” he cajoled, undaunted by her attitude. “It’ll pass the time while we wait for the kids to be picked up.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean, like that twenty-questions game?”