the others and quickly pulled Bob backstage, I presumed to exchange a few harsh words. I shot Iggy a concerned expression, which he returned, and then tried to get on with showing Alicia her final moves.
Jacob and Bob returned a few minutes later, with Bob looking suitably shamefaced. It was as we were running through the last of the choreography for the scene that I noticed Bob get up from his seat.
His grey complexion concerned me, so I left Alicia and went to see if he was all right. Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished, and when I reached him, he pushed me violently out of the way, mumbling that he was going to be sick. I slipped and would’ve fallen if it weren’t for Damon.
He moved fast, catching me in his arms before I hit the floor. I sucked in a breath, my chest heaving as I stared up at him.
“Close call,” he said, frowning as he stared down at me. I nodded, unable to find my voice for a second. His quick reflexes were impressive.
“You okay, Rose?” he asked, his mouth caressing my name. I swallowed and tried to ignore how nice his arms felt around me, how good he smelled this close.
“I’m fine. Thank you. I might’ve been out of action if you hadn’t been so quick on the mark.”
His lips firmed, and a moment passed between us before he pulled me upright. My chest brushed against his forearm, and I shivered at the contact before stepping away from him.
“Did I just see what I think I did?” came Jacob’s shrill voice. Both Damon and I turned to look at the director, his expression furious. He didn’t wait for us to confirm that Bob had pushed me, but simply straightened his spine and strode after him.
“Shit,” I whispered, biting my lip in worry as I watched him go. “I hope Bob doesn’t get fired over this.”
Damon’s firm hand gripped my shoulder, and he stared down at me, his eyes sincere. “He’s out of sorts and probably will be for a long time. Maybe it’s for the best.”
I glanced away, my gut churning, because I knew what it was like to be Bob, too heart-broken to care about life’s priorities anymore. Sure, what had happened with Blake was nothing like having your wife of twenty years leave you for another man, but I dunno, I still felt a kinship towards him. All my life I’d been so eager to love, which seemed to attract the wrong sort of attention and inevitably left me lovesick and alone. Perhaps it was because I knew how it felt that allowed me to empathise with Bob.
Maybe Damon had never had his heart broken. Maybe that was why he didn’t understand Bob like I did.
“We’d better get back to work,” I said curtly before returning to Alicia. I didn’t look at him directly, but I felt him watching me leave.
***
Later that day I felt bad about being so short with Damon. After being told by an assistant that he’d gone inside his dressing room a little while ago, I decided to seek him out. I’d ask if he’d like to begin our private dance lessons tomorrow evening. See if he was up for it.
When I reached his dressing room, I found the door slightly ajar, and before entering I could hear voices coming from within. Recognising one of them as Alicia’s, I peeked through the crack in the door and saw her perched in the seat by Damon’s dressing table while he stood off to one side.
“I’ve always wanted to visit Scotland, you know,” she said in the sweet, flirtatious voice she always seemed to use with men. “That’s where you’ve been living all this time, right?”
“Not on the mainland. My home is on the Isle of Skye, where my grandmother was born.”
“Oh, is that where you grew up, too?”
I rolled my eyes. Couldn’t she tell the difference between a Scottish and a Yorkshire accent? As soon as the question entered my head, I realised I was being jealous and possessive of Damon’s friendship. It became clear that I quite liked being the only person he made an effort to talk to, and I didn’t enjoy the idea of being usurped by Alicia.
“No, my mam was Scottish, but she left when she was a teen. A lot of young people leave, wanting something more than the simple island life. She met my dad and settled down close to Sheffield. That’s where I spent