Chapter One
With a smile and a generous swipe of lip gloss, Penny Davis made her way down the concrete steps and across the foyer of the Stirling Theater. Reaching the front door, she yanked it open, and stepped inside.
A warm, welcome feeling surrounded her. The theater was her second home, a comfortable place full of comfortable things. It was somewhere she belonged - and really, those places were few and far between.
Her smile widened when she noticed her stage assistant Marc chatting to the director, Jane in front of the stage. Penny loved working with them both. They’d all done quite a few shows together, so as a team, they were well on the way to becoming a well-oiled machine. And personally, it was not difficult to share her backstage space with Marc.
She slowed her steps a little, so she would have time to appreciate him before he and Jane realized she was there. He wasn’t the classic tall, dark and handsome, since he was only a little bit taller than Penny’s own five foot eight, but his body was compact and muscular, with dark-toned skin that suggested a middle-eastern heritage. The muscles in his shoulders and arms filled out his ubiquitous black t-shirt amazingly well, as did his butt in his blue jeans.
Her ogling session was interrupted when Marc realized she was there. “Oh, hey Pen,” he said with a dazzling smile. Penny flushed. She hoped he hadn’t noticed exactly where her eyes had been.
“Hi,” replied Penny warmly, then turned to the director. “Hi Jane.”
“Hi Pen.” Jane was never without makeup, perfect nails and a bright pink streak in her white-blond hair. Still, she could wield a hammer or a paintbrush with the best of them, and she was one of the most talented directors Penny knew. “I’ve asked Marc if he could go on book today for me.”
“Sure, not a problem,” Penny replied. ‘On book’ meant that Marc would be reading the script as the actors acted it, feeding them lines when they forgot. And this early on in rehearsals, there were an awful lot of missed lines.
Penny was disappointed that Marc wouldn’t be backstage. He was fun and made some of the very long intervals between scenes fly past with his banter and teasing.
But deep down, Penny figured he was way out of her league. He must have a whole cadre of women lining up to date him - gorgeous, amazing women who never worried about what they were saying or how people were looking at them. And he would never be interested in such an introverted, anxious person as Penny.
“I’m getting a coffee before we start. Anyone want one?” Jane asked. Penny shook her head and Marc said, “No thanks, Jane,” as she went to the back of the auditorium where the kitchen was, leaving Marc and Penny alone.
“Sorry to leave you back there by yourself,” Marc said, but Penny shook her head with a smile.
“I can hold the fort for now. It’s more important to have a prompt out here than two of us backstage.”
“True,” agreed Marc. “But I’m sorrier for myself. I think I’ll have a much tougher job than you this afternoon.”
“It was scripts down only a week ago,” mused Penny, “which means yes, you’ll be prompting every second line.” She grinned at Marc, who grinned right back at her.
“It will be a bit quiet back there though,” she continued. “Especially during that long scene eight when everyone is on stage. Hope I don’t drop off to sleep, being back there on my own.”
Marc barked a laugh. “How good would that be? I can just imagine Chris and the girls all crowding back in, and there you are, mouth open, drooling…”
Penny swatted at him with a smile. “I would not be drooling.”
“Snoring then.”
“Not that either.”
“You don’t snore?”
“No, I do not.”
“Who told you that?”
Penny hesitated. She hadn’t slept with anyone in a very long time. And she knew that Marc’s question wasn’t meant to be prying. But she immediately felt as if she needed to back away from the conversation, to put some distance between herself and Marc. “Nobody.” All the humor fell away from her face. “I have to go backstage.”
“Sure.” Penny was sure she saw a flash of concern in Marc’s dark blue eyes, but she just turned away, running up the steps on to the stage without turning back.
When she reached backstage, she stopped and leaned on the wall, her heart racing. She gently banged the back of her head on the wall. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she whispered to herself.
It was always like this. She tried hard to be friends with Marc, and with other guys, to let things take their natural course. But inevitably, she scuttled her own chances by backing away when things got even the tiniest bit more interesting.
She wasn’t even sure why she did it. She had a friendly, sociable personality, and a huge group of female friends. But as soon as she started to get even a little bit closer to a guy, something happened.
Penny didn’t want to think about why. The why was shut deep inside her mind, closed away so that she wouldn’t have to think about it, to feel anything about it.
But what Penny didn’t know was that the very thing she was trying to avoid was about to make itself very clearly felt.
And the effect on her life would be horrendous.