Sandcastle Beach (Matchmaker Bay #3) - Jenny Holiday Page 0,83

he always did, Huh? But invariably, once he stopped trying so hard and sat back and let the language and the spectacle wash over him, something would click in his mind. He’d find himself understanding what was happening before him—and invested in it.

The main couple was great—they were young and earnest, as the roles seemed to call for. Easily manipulated. Law rolled his eyes as the dude let himself get talked into believing his fiancée had been untrue. But the villain doing the manipulating was a force of nature. He was a teacher from an arts school in London who’d appeared in lots of Maya’s summer shows. He was evil but funny—Maya played him for laughs with his mannerisms and costumes.

But the stars of the show were Maya and Holden. Their characters purported to hate each other, but everyone could see they didn’t. Watching their cluelessness—they were easily manipulated, too—give way to realization was hilarious.

Maya’s performance was no surprise. Even though she always said she was a director first and an actor second, she was great at pretty much every role she attempted. He heard other people in town talking about how she lost herself in a role. How you’d forget it was Maya you were watching. That wasn’t the case for him. He was always aware, somewhere pretty close to the top of his consciousness, that he was watching her. The Maya-ness never faded. If anything, it intensified. There’s Maya playing Lady Macbeth, say, or, Wow, Maya can really belt it out as Mary Poppins. But at the same time, paradoxically, it never detracted from his ability to get swept up in the story.

Holden was also killing it. His cheerful, somewhat self-impressed demeanor allowed him to inhabit the role of Benedick, who shared those traits. And then, sometimes, Holden would bust out these pop-star dance moves that would have the whole place roaring with laughter.

But even as Law recognized how well cast Holden was, and how good a job he was doing, something wasn’t sitting right. Something heavy and bitter was accumulating in Law’s gut as Benedick and Beatrice bantered. He wasn’t sure if it was possible to fake that kind of chemistry, even for talented actors. He thought back to Maya and Holden goofing around at the bar the other night, and then, suddenly, in each other’s arms dancing.

But then he thought of asking Maya if she’d really been thinking of someone else that time she’d kissed him and of her looking him right in the eye and saying, No.

Man, he was so confused.

There was a standing ovation at the end, a long one. He slipped out before it was over.

Chapter Sixteen

Maya was distracted as everyone swirled around congratulating her and each other. Her brain was glitching on the night’s best piece of news: the box office take was thirteen grand.

Thirteen grand.

That was twice as much as she’d ever made on a single show.

She had expenses on that, of course, but thirteen grand was better than her most optimistic imaginings.

“Hey, boss!”

She turned and was nearly flattened by a tackle-hug from her secret weapon.

“You were great, Holden.” He really had been. Everything she had seen in him when she’d first imagined casting him had come through beautifully. And more to the point, his name had drawn the crowd of her dreams.

“Did you notice I made up a line when I forgot?”

“I did.” She stifled a giggle. “I was there.” Standing right in front of him, panicking and praying that he’d right the ship. And he had. After responding to her “Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner” with “Fair Beatrice, I find I am not hungry,” she had been able to adjust her next line on the fly and they’d gotten back on track. “You handled it beautifully.”

He stuck his arm out. “May I escort you to the bar, fair Beatrice?”

The party was fun, and good for her ego, too, as everyone came up to fawn over her. But she couldn’t help wishing she had a fast-forward button so she could go upstairs for the football match. She’d avoided checking the score all day so she could preserve the surprise.

She kept looking around for Ben. He was here, obviously, but they hadn’t interacted yet. She wanted to tell him not to tell her the outcome of the match.

Holden bought her a glass of wine, her first. She’d been so thirsty when she arrived that she’d guzzled a couple glasses of water. “Heyyyy, boss.