“Can I ask you just one question about Sea…?” Tammy started.
“I knew it! I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist!” Pete laughed. “What is it about this freakin’ movie that’s like crack for you women?”
“I’ve been trying to figure that one out myself,” Ryan admitted. He looked at me and smiled.
“Don’t look at me! I have no idea,” I defended.
“Yeah, you didn’t even know who Charles was!” Tammy laughed as she pointed at me.
Ryan was still grinning as his eyes locked on mine.
“I still don’t know who Charles is,” I admitted.
“I’ll tell you what it is - all women love dangerous bad boys and that’s what the movie is about,” Tammy stated.
“Yeah, I guess there’s something sexy about some guy who wants to kill you,” Ryan muttered.
I gathered that was not the first time he said those words out loud just by his body language.
“Hey Marie, get me another beer or I’ll kill you,” Gary muttered. Marie smacked him hard in the arm.
“What? I’m just trying to be sexy for you!” he pointed out, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
“What’s your question, Tammy?” Ryan asked, still laughing from Gary’s remark.
“I was wondering if the one scene from book two, where Charles finds Gwen bleeding in the cave, is going to be in the movie?”
Marie moved to the edge of her chair. She obviously wanted to know the answer to that one too.
“Yes. It’s a pretty significant scene. We’ve already filmed it,” Ryan answered.
Marie and Tammy looked like they were going to explode from excitement. Pete was shaking his head; he thought the whole conversation was absurd.
“Oh Pete, you don’t understand. Charles finds Gwen barely alive in a cave after she’d been shot. And he’s supposed to kill her too, but instead he takes his shirt off and wraps it around her to stop the bleeding. And then she looks at him and begs him to kill her so the pain would stop, but he says he loves her too much to let her die…” Tammy gushed like she was going to cry.
“And?” Pete asked. “Does she die?”
“Of course not! He,” she pointed at Ryan, “saves her.”
I glanced at Ryan; he was sitting forward in his chair with his head bowed. He appeared to be slightly uncomfortable with the conversation.
I leaned over to him, wrapped my arm around the back of his chair, and whispered in my worst British accent, “I see you’ve managed to get your shirt off.”
Ryan looked over at me and laughed lightly. “It’s a rock monster; it doesn’t have any vulnerable spots,” he replied. He grinned widely and leaned even closer to me, bumping his arm into mine.
Everyone else in the room was oblivious to our movie line references. It was like we had our own secret language.
“And what about…” Tammy started again but I cut her off with a wave of my hand.
“Please, Tammy,” I pleaded while Ryan and I were still leaned close to each other. “Don’t bug him.”
Ryan quickly ran his finger under my chin, apparently pleased that I defended him. It felt like my skin burst into flames when he touched me.
“How long until you guys are finished here?” Pete interjected quickly.
“We’ll be here for another six weeks and then we have a break around Thanksgiving,” Ryan replied as he playfully kicked the back of my foot.
His little tap made me smile.
“Cal, I understand you’re married to KellyAnn Gael, is that right?” Tammy asked.
“Yes. We just had our sixth wedding anniversary.” Cal nodded proudly.
“Is your wife here in Rhode Island with you?” Tammy continued.
“Not yet, but she’s flying in on Saturday with our daughter, Cami. I just found a house for us to rent nearby.”
“I remember watching your wife when she was on Just Neighbors. I loved that show! How old is your daughter?” Tammy asked.
“She’s almost four - and quite a handful,” Cal said. “I miss them.”
“It must be hard when you’re away from your family. But it’s nice that she’s coming out here to see you,” Tammy said.
“Yeah, it’s hard, but we make sure that the time and space that we’re apart doesn’t divide us,” Cal said as he looked at Ryan and me.
With no one the wiser, Ryan stretched his leg and rested his foot so it was touching mine. As much as I wanted to move my foot, I couldn’t. Why did he have to smell so damn good? I took a deep breath to clear out the haze he caused in my brain, straightened up in my chair, and moved my foot away.