Just To Be With You (The Sullivans #12)

Ian snapped to attention as Tatiana transformed right before his eyes into a furious mother. It didn’t matter that she was only a handful of years older than Serena—two sentences was all it took for him to understand the brittle, prideful character she was playing.

“I’m—” Serena faltered, fought back tears, before winning her own character’s fight for strength. “I’m not a tramp.” She tilted her chin up and faced down Tatiana. “I’m in love.”

“Love.” Tatiana spat the word. “You don’t know one damned thing about love. You think it’s all butterflies and rainbows and groping around in the backseat of that boy’s car.”

“That’s not what it’s like! That’s not what we’re doing.”

“Oh, I know exactly what you’re doing spreading your legs for him, exactly the mistake you’re making. How do you think I ended up with you?”

Serena’s eyes widened as her skin paled. “I knew it. I always knew you thought that.” Her breath shook, her eyes filled with tears that she still wouldn’t let fall. “I was a mistake.”

Tatiana put down the paper she’d been reading from and grinned at the model. “That was great.”

Serena looked stunned for a few moments, not able to pull out of her character as quickly as Tatiana had. “Thanks.” She took a deep breath, blew it out, then finally smiled. “It felt good.”

Genevieve jumped up off the couch and gave her daughter a hug. “What did I tell you, sweetie—you’re magnificent. Simply born to play this part!”

Ian watched as the girl shrank back from the extravagant praise, clearly embarrassed by her mother’s behavior. Tatiana stood and held out a hand to Serena, drawing the model away from her hovering mother.

“Why don’t we do the second scene Smith sent over? If you don’t mind, I’d like to try it on our feet over by the window for a change of pace.”

When Ian listened to them run through it, he realized Tatiana hadn’t actually needed to get them up on their feet or off the couch. She’d done it simply to give Serena some much-needed space to breathe.

Empathy. It was yet another beautiful facet to Tatiana that he couldn’t ignore.

Plus, for the first time, he was able to just sit back and watch her. He couldn’t have done it when they were having dinner at his parents’ house on Friday night, and he definitely hadn’t been able to do it while they were in his office. But now, as he sat in her living room, he finally let himself drink her in.

With the faint sunlight coming in the window behind her, he could see all the different natural blonds and browns and reds in her hair, along with the way pretty color rose in her skin as she ran through the scene. Just more of her unique qualities that sparkled too brightly for him to ignore or deny any longer.

But she’d asked him to pay attention to Serena’s acting, so he forced himself to bring the model into view as well. She was tall, slim yet curvy, with a staggeringly pretty face. One that would probably bring every other man on the planet to his knees, but did nothing whatsoever for Ian. Especially not when she was standing so close to the one woman who had brought him to his knees from the moment he’d spoken to her in the Napa Valley vineyard.

As the two women played out the much longer scene, Ian could see why Smith was producing the film. And no question about it, there was something about the way the model played the daughter. Maybe because it wasn’t too much of a stretch from the relationship Serena seemed to have with her own mother.

Or maybe it was simply that Tatiana was so good she made everyone she worked with look good, too.

He’d seen most of her movies before he’d ever met her, and he’d always been impressed by the way she disappeared into each role, especially when she rarely played the same one from film to film. But, Lord, to watch her from fifteen feet away like this...to say his mind was blown would be a major understatement.

She was, in a word, brilliant. But more than that, she made the transformation from herself into someone else entirely look so effortless. He could feel her joy at doing what she was meant to do, at being exactly what she was meant to be, just as she’d told him in the back of his town two days earlier on the way to lunch with his professor.

When they came to the end of the scene, Tatiana stretched, then shook out both arms. “Phew, that’s a rough role to jump in and out of.”

Serena looked nervous as she stood with her hands twisted in front of her stomach, but Tatiana quickly reached out to her. “You were great. Really great. I’m so glad we got to do this.”

Serena smiled, but now that she was done, it was obvious that her nerves were getting the better of her. Tatiana saw it right away, of course, and said, “Chocolate. That’s exactly what we need now.”

Tatiana hadn’t even made it halfway to her kitchen when Genevieve shot up off the couch and intercepted her. “Oh no, we don’t eat or drink empty calories like that—do we, sweetie?”

Serena gave Tatiana a regretful smile. “It was nice of you to offer, though.”

“Are you going to talk to Smith today?” Serena’s mother asked Tatiana.

Ian was impressed by the way Tatiana, for Serena’s benefit, held in the irritation she had to feel about the incredibly pushy woman. “I’ll need to talk privately with Ian first, but then, yes, I’m planning to give Smith a call.”

Genevieve turned her sharp gaze on him. “Wasn’t my daughter great, Ian?”