“I’m your friend, Lars. I’m tellin’ you two things: One, there’s a wicked, dark side to this Samara character. And two, if you like our Jane, dinna give up on her yet. There’s a lot more goin’ on between those two than you know.”
She patted his arm gently then opened the door. Lars trailed behind her feeling frustrated and confused.
Maggie had no reason to lie to him. She was a trusted family friend. But he couldn’t reconcile the picture she was painting of Samara with the engaging young woman he had met yesterday. And he wasn’t about to base his opinion of her on hearsay, even if the source was trusted and well-intentioned. Maybe, as he had suggested, the cousins used rougher language with each other than either he, or Maggie, was used to. Maybe it only seemed abusive, when it was just part of their family banter.
It still bothered him quite a lot that Jane had broken things off without giving him a chance to weigh in on the decision—his anger toward her was strong and authentic. He’d genuinely liked her snappy retorts and funny observations, pretty green eyes and soft brown curls. Despite how different the cousins were in appearance, he didn’t want Jane any less after meeting Samara. He liked her as much this morning as he had while waking up beside her yesterday morning. Jane had felt organic in his life, like a missing puzzle piece. There was strength and certainty in how easily he had fallen for her; in how comfortable and right and hot it felt being with her, in how possible she felt to him.
But she’d made her feelings clear: She didn’t trust him, she didn’t want him, and her decision to force him from her life had hurt him deeply. If anything, Samara’s enthusiastic attention to him offered a balm to that pain.
Maggie asked what he wanted, and Lars ordered a black coffee with a shot of espresso, leaning with his back up against the bar as the early morning sun streamed into the windows of the Prairie Dawn.
Don’t give up on her yet.
Maggie’s worlds circled round and round in Lars’s head.
He just wished Jane had given him a reason not to.
***
Maybe it’s time to start sayin’ no.
Jane wished she had said a big, old-fashioned “no” to riding with Sara and Lars this morning, but Sara was making a point. She had called the Lindstroms, insisting that she and Jane wanted to ride separately from the rest of her team, which meant that while Mr. Lindstrom drove the rest of the crew in the van, Lars had been forced to pick up Jane and Sara in his truck.
They all had to sit together in the front seat, and Sara spent the entire time pressed up against Lars, asking him about the other celebrities he had met over the years, while Jane busied herself with her phone or stared out the window. It was a singular type of torture to overhear the conversation as Lars told her cousin animated stories, leaving Jane out entirely. The only upswing was that it solidified her decision not to go to Jackson Hole, and even helped fortify her courage to break the news to Sara. Her challenge now was to keep the news to herself for as long as possible so that Sara’s mood on the shoot days wouldn’t be affected.
Let’s just get through Wednesday and Thursday first.
Friday will be here soon enough, and I’ll tell her I won’t be going.
When they got to the Sheepeater Cliffs, Jane jumped out of the truck before Lars even opened his door and watched from a distance as Sara insisted that he show her to her trailer, personally. Lars had looked back at Jane, giving her an inscrutable look, but Jane looked away, heading to the Trend people to get an idea of how they wanted to start the day. She ignored the ache of longing in her heart as she watched Lars walk away with Sara.
You knew how this would go, Jane, and you protected yourself as best you could.
No regrets this time.
***
Shoot days were always heavy on employee casualties.
They started early, ended late, and everyone had to be on their toes, from Sara and her crew to the photographers, stylists and assistants from Trend. Losing focus could mean losing the perfect light, the perfect shot. The pressure to do everything flawlessly was relentless until the day was over, and it was up to Jane to keep Sara’s team on their collective game.
Sebastian was the first to be fired, quickly followed by Margot, then Shanelle. Margot and Shanelle were rehired when Sara realized she couldn’t finish her hair on her own, and she needed to be sewn into one of her outfits. By midday, Sebastian was mopping his sweaty forehead, nervously pacing back and forth in front of Sara’s trailer, and Jane asked herself for the hundredth time why he always wore silk when it didn’t breathe well.
“Sebastian, invest in some linen,” she quipped.
“Very funny, Jane. See how you feel when you’re fired.”
“Oh, I’ve already been fired twice today.”
“JANE! WATER! NOW!” Sara screeched from her trailer.
“But, obviously, it didn’t stick.” She punched Sebastian playfully on a silken arm. “Chin up, pal. She’ll retract it by dinnertime.”
Trend’s stylist, Amy, pulled Jane aside as she approached the Kraft table for a bottle of water. “She going to be ready soon, Jane?”
“Makeup’s done. Hair’s almost done. Margot’s sewing her in. You know Samara.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “I know of Samara. All I really know is you, Jane, and you make things easy, kid.”
Jane grinned, grabbing a water bottle as she gestured to the landscape. “I love the concept for this shoot, by the way.”
The shoot concept was “Go Green: Transformed by Nature” and the story was that Sara was an edgy girl from New York exploring a national park for the first time. The shoot would start with edgy, urban clothes shot against the stark beauty of the basalt columns, which meant to mimic the chrome and steel in Manhattan. Then, gradually, Sara’s clothes, hair and makeup would morph into a more natural beauty as the landscapes became more lush and colorful behind her, until she was completely transformed by the park in the final shots by Yellowstone Lake, almost one with the nature that surrounded her.
Today’s shoot had Sara’s black hair in a slick ponytail styled high on her head, harsh, futuristic black, white and grey tones in her makeup, and monochromatic sets of clothes and accessories. When Jane had last checked on her, Shanelle was getting the ponytail perfect and Margot was sewing Sara into a black cropped jacket which she wore over a long grey skirt with black military-style lace-up boots.
“I’m wondering if three changes today was too aggressive?” asked Amy. “We’re only on the second and it’s already two o’clock.”
“Don’t worry,” said Jane, “Samara’s a pro, and the light looks great.”
Amy looked at the sun. “Can’t have the sunset on the cliffs. The warm light wouldn’t work. Needs to be cold and stark.”
“It’ll be okay. Sun sets later here.” Jane smiled at the nervous stylist, putting her hand gently on the other woman’s arm. “I’ll go hurry things along, okay?”
“You’re the best, Janie.”
Jane headed for Sara’s trailer, noticing that Lars’s truck, which had left the set for a couple of hours, was back. One of the backup generators that fed power to the strobes had failed, and he had been sent back into Gardiner to get a new one from the local hardware store. She wondered when he had gotten back.