“She hasn’t met him?” Holly laced her arm through Casey’s, turning her back on Eric. “He’s a sweetheart. You’ll love him. Todd!”
She pulled Casey toward the front row of the theater, where a man sat slumped in a seat. He looked up as they arrived, his eyes half-lidded under the salt-and-pepper hair lying over his forehead.
“This is Casey…” Holly looked at her.
“Smith,” Casey said.
Todd raised his chin a fraction in greeting.
“Todd!” Holly huffed, and rolled her eyes. “This is Todd Nolan. Never mind him. He’s glad to have you here, too. Believe me.”
Todd regarded Holly with disgust, but tempered it once he realized Casey was watching him. Something resembling a smile appeared momentarily on his face, but was gone just as quickly.
“And this is Leila.” Eric gestured toward a young woman, who tore her adoring gaze from him long enough to acknowledge Casey briefly.
Casey looked questioningly at Eric, and he responded with barely disguised, almost desperate, tolerance and frustration.
Holly’s grip on Casey’s arm tightened, and Casey looked up to see Thomas and the woman headed in their direction. Becca trailed behind.
“Thanks for coming by,” Holly said to the woman. “It was good to see you again.”
The woman pursed her lips and looked Casey up and down. “Hmphf.” With that, she turned and stomped from the theater.
Holly’s hand dropped from Casey’s arm and she took a step away. “Well, thank God she’s gone.”
Thomas transferred his gaze from the departing woman to Casey. He obviously wasn’t convinced he’d gotten the better deal.
“Okay, people,” he said. “We have a play to rehearse. Does she have a script?” He jerked a thumb at Casey, not looking at her anymore.
Becca handed Casey a book, her mouth twitching. Casey wasn’t sure if it was suppressed laughter or discomfort, but whichever it was, Becca didn’t meet her eyes.
“We’re going to go through from beginning to end,” Thomas said. “To get a feel for…Casey…and so she can see what we’ve done. The scenes we’ve worked, we’ll act out. The ones we haven’t, we’ll just read. Go.”
Becca jumped onto the stage to set the furniture for Scene One, and Aaron swung his feet up, helping Becca move the folding lawn chair into position. Todd eased himself from his front row seat and strode to the side of the stage to ascend the stairs. Casey watched him, open-mouthed.
From Todd’s slouched position in the theater she’d had no sense of his true form. But now, as she watched him position himself in the chair—as Orsino, the Duke of Illyria and her character’s love interest—she couldn’t help but be impressed. Over six feet tall and fit, he moved with a sense of ease. Almost lethargy. Charismatic, maybe not. But good-looking? Absolutely.
A muffled laugh interrupted her thoughts, and she turned to find Eric at her side, Leila close beside him. “He looks good, doesn’t he?”
Casey shrugged, embarrassed at being caught staring.
“The problem,” Eric said into her ear, “is when he opens his mouth.”
And just then, he did.
“If music be… the food… of love, play… on; Give me excess of it…, that surfeiting…, The appetite may sicken…, and so die.”
Casey covered her mouth with her hand in the hopes of smothering the laugh wanting to come out.
Eric nodded. “Kind of makes you want to go to sleep, doesn’t it?”
Casey spoke through her fingers. “And after only one line.”
“It’s been a problem at the bank,” Eric said. “Where he works. People nod off in the middle of securing a loan. They wake up wondering what papers they’ve signed while they’ve been asleep.”
A giggle escaped Casey’s lips, and Thomas glared over at them. Casey bit her cheeks as Todd continued droning along. Aaron, as Curio, tried to put some life into the scene, and Jack bounced on as Valentine, but Todd’s underwhelming aura overtook the stage.
The scene, only two pages, was enough to give Casey the urge to launch into calisthenics, but it was time for her to read. She stood, looking for whoever was to be the Captain.
No one stood with her.
“Where’s Lonnie?” Thomas’ voice hummed with tension.
Becca jumped up. “I’m sorry. With that actress showing up I forgot to—”
“Call him!”
“Okay. Sorry. Sorry.” She pulled out her cell phone and punched in a number from her contact sheet.
Eric stood. “I’ll read with Casey.”
Thomas glared at him. “We’ll see what Lonnie says first. She should be reading with the actor who’s actually doing the part.”
“Okay. Just trying to be helpful.”
From the other side of Eric, Leila studied Casey with narrowed eyes. Casey smiled at her, but the girl didn’t return the compliment, turning away with a huff.
They all waited, listening partly to Holly voicing that it was so disrespectful of their time for Lonnie to be late, and partly to the disjointed half-conversation Becca was having.
Becca hung up. “He’s in Columbus.”
“Columbus?” Thomas’ face went red. “What’s he doing there?”
“Um…shopping?”
“Shopping!”
Eric burst out laughing, and Casey was tempted to join him, except for her worry that Thomas was about to bust a vein.
“I told you he wasn’t dependable,” Holly said. “That he’d have other priorities.”
Thomas’ voice was even and measured. “Does he plan on honoring us with his presence tomorrow evening, Becca?”
“Yes. He said he’ll be back in plenty of time for tomorrow’s rehearsal.”
“Oh, well good. I’m so glad he’s thinking of us.” He straightened the papers on his lap. “Eric, if you would be so good as to read Lonnie’s parts this evening.”
Eric stood quietly beside Casey.
“Well, do it!” Thomas waved a hand.
They read through the scene, Casey enjoying the interplay with Eric, and the cast continued on, Leila performing the part of Maria, and Eric filling in where necessary, in-between his scenes as Feste the Fool. Soon it was time for Holly’s first scene, and Eric caught Casey’s eye. She watched with anticipation as Holly made her way to the stage.
Eric began the scene, Feste engaging Olivia in conversation. Moving smoothly through his speech, he ended with the greeting, “God bless thee, lady!”
Instead of answering with the simple, Take the fool away, the script called for, Holly paused, took a deep breath, threw out her chest, and pointed off-stage, her face averted. “Take. The Fool. Away!” She punctuated this by swinging her arm back to her body and snapping open a fan, hiding half of her face.
“Do you not hear, fellows?” Eric answered, as Feste. “Take away the lady.”
Casey bent over double in her seat, her hands over her face as she held in the guffaw threatening to explode from her mouth.
“Go. To,” Holly said. “You’re a DRY fool. I’ll NO MORE of you. Besides. You grow. DIShonest.”
Eric cleared his throat. “Two faults, Madonna, that drink and counsel will amend.”
Casey snorted through her fingers, then made a show of pulling a tissue from her bag and blowing her nose. For the next few pages she kept her face in her script, desperately searching for her next scene, to renew her acquaintance with it. Unfortunately, her next appearance was in the latter part of that very section, and she would have to read with Holly.
Casey glanced around, thinking that for sure Death would get a kick out of her predicament. But the theater’s seats remained empty.
Her lines approaching, Casey went to the side of the stage. If she read from her seat, she was a lost cause. Her only hope of avoiding an embarrassing and potentially violent scene was to lose herself in blocking. She waited for her cue line, took a deep breath, admonished herself to be as professional as possible under the circumstances, and stepped onto the stage.
“The honorable lady of the house,” she said. “Which is she?”
How she made it through the line—and the rest of the scene—was a small miracle, but before she knew it she was back in the seats, watching Aaron and Jack plot their characters’ wicked schemes.