Free Crashing Into Love by Melissa Foster Page B

silently cheered her on.
    Fiona spotted Zane approaching Trish. He and Jake looked so much alike that she did a double take. Zane’s dark hair was cropped short, and his square jaw sported about five days’ worth of scruff. He was well built, though narrower through the chest and arms than Jake. While Jake walked with purpose, Zane walked with an air of knowing he was being watched. She hadn’t seen Jake since she’d arrived in LA, but she knew from Trish’s script that Zane had a scene where he climbed the side of the interior of the cave and then fell into a pool of what the script stated as muck . She was fairly certain that the man who kept checking his shoes for dirt wasn’t about to get his hands dirty by climbing up the wall, much less fall into a pit of muck.
    “Cut!” an authoritative voice boomed through the set.
    There was a flourish of activity and urgent commands as people ran onto the set. Fiona watched, totally clueless as to what she was supposed to do. Should she see if Trish needed anything? Should she offer her water? One woman primped Trish’s hair while another pressed a makeup pad to her cheeks and forehead.
    “Relax. They’re just getting ready for the stuntman to come on set.” Patch stood beside Fiona with a clipboard in his hands and a headset connected to his ear.
    She shouldn’t feel like her heart stopped beating or her lungs collapsed at the thought of Jake showing up. He was the reason she was there, after all. But she had no control over her emotions when it came to Jake.
    “Oh,” was all she could manage. She heard Jake’s voice before she saw him approaching out of her peripheral vision as he patted Patch on the back.
    “Good to see you, Pat—”
    Apparently, he had about the same reaction to Fiona as she did to him. Jake’s brows sank into a confused slash. He stopped walking, which worried Fiona. He couldn’t hold up the scene, and everyone was turning, watching. Waiting.
    Oh God, this was a very bad idea.
    She hadn’t thought it through well enough. He was staring at her with an expression she couldn’t decipher. He was either mad, confused, or something in between, but one thing was for sure. He wasn’t smiling.
    “Jake Braden, Fiona Steele. She’s Trish’s assistant.” Patch motioned to Fiona.
    “H-hi.” At least she sounded starstruck instead of lovestruck. She looked self-consciously down at her shorts and Geologists Dig It T-shirt. Maybe she should have dressed sexier, but she’d never had to dress sexy to get Jake’s attention, and when she’d gotten dressed that morning, she was confident that it wouldn’t take the right clothes to win him over. That eventually he’d look at her and be unable to resist the electricity flaring between them.
    Jake gave a curt, silent nod, then crossed the set to where the hustle and bustle was happening. The women who were primping Trish ran to Jake. He was dressed identical to Zane, and it took a minute for Fiona to realize that was on purpose. Duh . Her mind really wasn’t working.
    “He’s just stressed, but he’s a really good guy.” Patch elbowed her, pulling her out of her Jake-induced stupor. “Don’t take that personally.”
    She breathed deeply. She could do this. It was just like watching a movie. That’s all. A movie with the man she adored who was about to fall fifty feet into a pool of muck.
    Trish caught her eye, flashed a big smile, and waved. Fiona managed to give her a thumbs-up before they started filming again. If she didn’t want to make a fool of herself, she was going to have to buck up and put on her own performance.
    “Oh, no big deal. I actually know Jake. We…grew up together.” There, see? She could act like a normal person, not a woman hoping to strip away her angry ex-boyfriend’s suit of armor.
    “Really? So you’re from Colorado?” Patch asked.
    “Yeah.”
    Someone yelled “Set!” which Fiona knew meant that they were ready to film. The procession of commands that came