Page 53 of Jason

“Mallory, I need you.I can’t do this without you.”

She didn’t say anything for so long that Jason worried he might have lost the connection.“What’s going on?”she asked.

Jason filled her in on Cass’s latest antics and the fact he wouldn’t call back.“We start shooting in three days and the crew is setting up without any guidance and I don’t even have a call sheet.So please, Mallory.This show is so important to me—you have no idea how important.”

“I can come,” she said slowly.“But with a few conditions.”

“Mallory, I—”

“I want to direct.”

Jason sighed.“Mallory, you know that I—”

“A few scenes!I’ll do the hospital scenes!”

“Cass won’t agree,” Jason said.

“Cass isn’t even there, is he?And if he doesn’t like it, then maybe he ought to pick up the phone.Come on, Jason, let me do it until he comes back.That’s not asking too much, is it?”

He really had no choice.“Fine.Done.What else?”

“I won’t stay at your family’s house.”

He almost laughed at that.There was no way he could get around the estate in the shape he was in.“Agreed.You’ll return to your room at the Bickmore.Anything else?”

“You’ll take a look at my short film I’ve finished,” she said softly.

“Okay,” he says carefully.“I’m not sure I can help you in any way.”

“Jason I didn’t ask you to buy it, I asked you to look at it.Will you?”

“Yes,” he said.“When can you be here?”

“Let me see.I suppose I have to arrange my own plane?”she asked, and laughed.

“It would be a big help.”

“We can not afford all this flying.I’ll be there tonight.”

“Fantastic.Hey…” He was smiling for the first time in days.“Bring that blue dress.”

“You are so bad, Jason Blackthorne,” she said.“So we’re still doing that, huh?”

“Listen, I don’t know what we’re doing.I just know that I can’t wait to touch you and kiss you and boss you around, and in that order.What if…what if we agree to decide what this is later?”

She giggled.“Great idea.So I’ll see you tonight?”

“Yes, thank you.And Mallory?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you take the other job?”

Another long pause.“Not yet.”

“Great.See you later.”

Jason hung up.He felt so much lighter now.