gaze urging me to fess up.
“Fine,” I respond and shut my eyes for a brief moment. “I had a little help. But before I tell you who helped me, you need to promise you won’t get ticked off.”
“Go on.”
“No,” I refute, set down my fork, and hold out my pinkie finger toward Luca. “Pinkie promise first that you won’t get pissed.”
“Christ,” he mutters, but he goes along with it, intertwining his pinkie with mine and making good on the promise.
“Your agent Adele helped me.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he questions, and Lou just follows our conversation like he’s watching a tennis match, his head moving back and forth between the two of us.
“But,” I add pointedly. “In her defense, I kind of sort of maybe lied about being a budding actress to get an appointment with her. And it’s not like she gave me the GPS coordinates of your cabin. She told me the freaking town and that was it. I had to figure out the rest by myself.”
“I’m guessing that’s where fucking Earl came in.”
“Yep.” I nod and pop a piece of steak into my mouth.
Lou chuckles and shakes his head. “Sounds like it was quite the adventure to track him down.”
Near-death experiences.
Being yelled at by a naked lumberjack.
Yeah. It’s been a fucking adventure.
I snort. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“But why exactly did you—?” Lou starts to ask, but Luca answers before he can finish.
“She wants me to read a damn screenplay for the producer she works for.”
Lou smirks. “I’m sure that went over like a hooker singing in the Sunday choir.”
I nod and giggle. “Oh, it went about as well as you’d expect with this guy.”
“And then,” Luca adds. “I had to save her ass from drowning in the river, and during a rare moment of weakness for me given her condition, she strong-armed herself on to this hiking trip.”
“Sounds like you’re a determined little thing,” Lou says, his eyes bright with amusement. “Who do you work for?”
“Serena Koontz.”
Lou nods approvingly. “She’s one hell of a producer.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
“And what does your job entail?”
“I’m her PA, but I’m hoping that in the near future, I’ll be a little more than that. I’m actually hoping to follow in her footsteps and become a producer.”
“Lofty goals.”
“Well, my momma always told me to dream big, and my granny made sure I had the tools.”
Lou smiles. “Well, if it’s any help, I think you’re going about it the right way. Starting from the bottom, learning from the best, and working your way up.”
“Thank you,” I respond. “I just hope it’s all eventually going to lead me to where I want to end up.”
“It will,” he says. “You just gotta take it one day at a time, little darlin’.”
“Oh, determination and persistence are not her problems,” Luca chimes in with a snort.
“Have you read it yet, then?” Lou challenges, and I take the opportunity to jump in.
“No. He’s supposed to read the first five pages, though.”
“Five pages. That hardly gives you a feel for the story, Lucky.” Lou chuckles. “I think you need to stop being stubborn and just read it. All of it. Maybe it’ll surprise you.”
“Yeah. What Lou said,” I agree with a smirk, and Luca just shakes his head and takes another bite of steak.
“I’ll start with the five pages and see where it goes.”
“So, you two worked on a movie together, right?” I ask. “Is that how you became friends?”
“Oh, I’m not friends with him. He’s just my errand boy.”
“Watch yourself, old man.” Luca points his fork at him, and Lou chuckles.
“As you seem to already know, I played Luca’s father in Agent Zero, and that’s where our friendship started. Not too long after that, I retired from Hollywood, built myself this cabin out here in the woods, and me and my wife Shirley settled down to enjoy the rest of our lives together in peace and quiet and nature.”
Before I can ask where his wife is, he adds, “Shirley passed two years ago. So now, it’s just me out here.”
My heart drops. “I’m so sorry.”
“Me too, darlin’. Me too,” he says wistfully. “She adored this bastard right here, and when he decided to leave LA and move out here, we helped him out a little.”
“Helped me out a lot,” Luca corrects. “If it weren’t for Lou and Shirley, I wouldn’t have known where to start.”
“But how did you know this was where you wanted to settle?”
Luca shrugs. “I don’t know. I just knew. I knew