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CHAPTER THREE

Zack

L ucas Siren. That was his name. That was the name of the alpha who had miraculously rescued me from the freezing water. He was even more beautiful and hunky fully clothed and on land than he’d been in the water. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said the man was a god.

Literally. Because I’d overheard someone during auditions casually mention something about gods walking the streets of Valleywood and the director of the Valleywood Performing Arts Center, Dion, actually being Dionysus, the ancient Greek god of wine, fertility, festivity, and, you guessed it, theater.

But that was silly, of course. Those gods were just myths from thousands of years ago. There was no such thing as old gods in the new world, only normal alphas, omegas, and betas.

Although I had seen a few things I couldn’t explain in the week since I’d been in Valleywood, like when I’d spotted a lion roaming in one of the parks I’d found on a nighttime walk who, when I looked away and looked back, was suddenly a person.

I didn’t really care about all the weird things that went bump in the night. All I cared about was seeing Lucas again when the entire new cast and crew of The Little Mermaid met up in the auditorium of the VPAC for our first day of rehearsal meeting on Monday afternoon.

“Welcome, everybody, welcome,” Betty, who had helped cast the show but was now the stage manager, greeted everyone from the front of the stage as we filed into our seats. “We’re so excited to have you here for this scintillating new production of an old classic. My brother, Ben, who is your fearless director, and I wrote this musical version ourselves.”

“We’re aiming for a family-friendly extravaganza that will also appeal to the adults in the audience,” Ben said, stepping slightly in front of his sister. “That’s why we’ve cast the brightest and best.”

Speaking of brightest and best, I sat a little straighter in my aisle seat and glanced around, looking for Lucas. I was happy to be a part of the production, even though I was just a stagehand. Sitting there with the rest of the cast and crew made me feel as if I’d fulfilled the purpose of the call that had brought me to Valleywood in the first place.

Well, almost.

When I spotted Lucas entering the auditorium looking perfectly sheepish for being a little late, my heart throbbed in my chest and every omega sense I had pinged to alertness. I might even have gotten a little wet in the seat, too. My sense that I was in the right place at the right time warmed to a perfect buzz of contentment, especially when Lucas easily picked me out of the crowd filling the seats and smiled.

Although he might have noticed me so quickly because I was on the aisle near the back of the room where he’d entered, watching for him.

“We have a rigorous production schedule ahead of us,” Betty was saying on the stage as I gave most of my attention to Lucas walking toward me. “This isn’t some community theater production. This is a professional enterprise. You will treat it as your job. We have vocal and dance rehearsals every day, and we’ll start running the entire show, either here on the stage during the day until the show currently playing closes in two weeks, or in the rehearsal space.”

I barely registered what she was saying as Lucas reached my row and bent slightly to whisper, “Can I sit there?” pointing to the seat next to me.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” I whispered back, heart pounding.

I stood awkwardly and pressed against my folding seat so Lucas could shimmy past me. Our bodies rubbed in all sorts of ways and his glorious ass was almost in my face the way I was scrunched over. He was a lot bigger than me in any case. I breathed in his salty scent which held hints of aged driftwood and what I could only describe as water, though I didn’t think water had a scent, until he shifted to sit in the seat beside mine.

I just stood there grinning at him for a moment before Ben’s voice from the stage reminded me that we were in a meeting, not a meet-up.

“Be prepared for some rewrites as we go along,” Ben said. “While the script is finished, some things have come to light that have prompted us to make a few adjustments.” He glanced to his sister.

“The stage crew has nothing to worry about,” she said, inching forward a bit. I blinked, noticing that Betty and Ben had come significantly closer to the front of the stage. It was like they were trying to one-up each other by moving in front of the other any time someone spoke. They were going to fall off the stage at the rate they were going. “The basic scenic design and lighting plan haven’t changed. As soon as we’re done here, I’ll give you each your assignments.”

“There are a few final things we need to cover,” Ben said, staring pointedly at Betty.

Lucas leaned close and whispered in my ear, “I’m sorry I got held up the other day. I wanted to talk to you more at auditions.”

Whatever final things Ben had to say could wait.

“I wanted to spend more time with you, too,” I said, gazing up at Lucas with stars in my eyes. I blinked and flushed, then blurted, “It’s okay to say that, right? It’s not weird of me to throw myself at you when I hardly know you?”

Lucas laughed. It was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard. “Not when I feel the same way,” he whispered. “That’s how people get to know each other, after all. You meet casually?—”

“By being thrown off a bridge,” I added.

“And you hit it off,” Lucas went on without missing a beat.

“You meet again by chance,” I filled in.

“And hang out so you can get to know each other better?” Lucas asked, his eyebrows going up.

We had swayed closer to each other and our lips were less than a foot apart. I was loving it and said, “Who knows what might happen from?—”

“No relationships!” Ben snapped on the stage, shattering the moment.

Lucas and I both whipped to face the stage, our eyes wide in surprise and embarrassment, as if we’d specifically been caught breaking the rules.

Ben was still looking at Betty, though he cast a gaze out over the auditorium as well. “No relationships during the run of the production,” he said. “I’ve been down this path too many times before and I’ve seen it ruin everything. If you’re already dating someone in the cast or crew, then fine. But I don’t want to see or hear about any of you getting involved. Showmances are the death of any good production, as far as I’m concerned, and I will fire you if I find out you’re diddling behind the scenes. No showmances !”

I swallowed hard and was pretty sure Lucas did, too. We even leaned away from each other to be on the safe side. I needed my part in the production, as lowly as it was, to fulfill whatever pull had brought me to Valleywood, and I would have felt terrible if Lucas was fired from his role as one of the leads because of me.

Funnily, Betty had her arms crossed and rolled her eyes at her brother’s pronouncements. She didn’t say anything about it directly when she loosened her arms, clapped her hands together, and said, “Right. Stage crew will meet with me in the rehearsal room and cast will meet with Ben on the stage to get your scripts and start learning songs.”

Everyone started to move, then, and the relative calm of the theater ramped up into noise and activity.

Lucas and I both stood. “I wasn’t expecting the rule about no showmances,” Lucas said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly and wincing.

“Yeah, that’s a new one to me, too,” I said, my heart sinking even as my womb pulsed. Evidently, it hadn’t gotten the no showmances memo, no matter how loudly Ben had shouted it. “But he kind of has a point. Every show I’ve ever been involved in has had some sort of romantic drama behind the scenes.”

“Oh,” Lucas said, like he was disappointed. “I’m sorry if I came on too strong, then. I didn’t realize you didn’t like those things either.”

“No!” I said, raising my voice loud enough that a few people noticed and stared at me, including Eric, the guy playing the prince, and his buddy, Greg, who was Lucas’s understudy. “That’s not what I meant at all. I definitely like relationships and wouldn’t mind having one with you. I mean, I like you and would want to be friends regardless of the rules. I’d break all the rules for you. Oh, gosh, that sounds corny. I mean, I think it’s a silly rule and?—”

“It’s okay,” Lucas laughed. “I get it. And I feel the same way.”

The two of us stood there for a moment, staring at each other with googly eyes, until Eric snapped, “Hey, Loverboy. Ben wants us all on the stage.”

I didn’t like the sly, calculating look in the man’s eyes. He was the sort who would rat me and Lucas out for the sake of spite if given half a chance.

“Well, um, okay,” I said, stepping into the aisle and away from Lucas. Every cell in my body sighed with disappointment. “I’ll catch you later, then.”

“Oh, er—” Lucas held up a hand as I started to join the stream of stage crew heading to the rehearsal room. He let out a breath and dropped his hand, then said, “I’ll catch you later.”

“Not if I catch you first,” I said, and like a dope, I mimed casting a fishing line then reeling him in.

Lucas laughed, but he also winced a little, like the gesture meant something more to him.

“Come on, you,” Betty said, gesturing for me to go with her as she walked up the aisle past us. “I have a very special job for you.”

“You do?” I asked, giving Lucas one final wave over my shoulder before allowing Betty to march me along, out of the auditorium.

“Yep,” she said, handing me one of several clipboards she carried. “I’m designating you as official stage custodian.”

“Stage custodian. Right, right,” I said, nodding and looking at the clipboard. I blinked, frowned, and glanced up at her as we crossed through the lobby and headed down a hall to the rehearsal space. “What does a stage custodian do?”

Betty smiled. “You keep the stage swept, the trashcans emptied, and all the backstage surfaces clear of junk and debris.”

I was the production janitor.

Great.

“Great!” I said, feigning enthusiasm. “I can’t wait to get started.”

I didn’t have to wait to get started. As soon as we entered the rehearsal space, Betty pointed out where the trashcans were and the fact that they already needed emptying. Someone had spilled a soda in the corner as well, and even from a distance I could tell the sticky liquid would be a pain to clean up.

“Here’s the key to the broom closet in the hall,” Betty said as everyone settled into the room. “I’m entrusting you with this because I think you can handle the responsibility. You seem like a good kid.”

“I’m twenty-seven, actually,” I said.

Betty’s eyes went wide. “Are you sure?”

“I’m pretty sure,” I answered. “I mean, those first four or five years were a bit of a blur, but my grandma assures me that I was born twenty-seven years ago, even though my birth certificate was lost in a fire.”

Betty laughed, though I didn’t think it was all that funny, then slapped me on the back. “Well, you don’t look a day over eighteen to me.”

“I get that a lot,” I said.

That was the end of that conversation. Betty moved to stand where she could address everyone and I shifted to the back of the room to assess how bad the soda spill was.

It wasn’t a terrible beginning to a production, as far as things went. Sure, I was the janitor and I’d been forbidden to fraternize with Lucas, at least the way I wanted to, on pain of death or firing, but I was a part of something now. The urge within me had settled and was calm and content just being where I was and taking part.

Betty’s orientation was quick and informative. Most of the other techies already knew which jobs they were there to do. For them, the orientation was more of a meet-and-greet and a starting place before the sound people went off to do sound things and the lighting people to do lighting things.

I ended up going with Betty and the other stagehands back to the auditorium. After I cleaned up the rehearsal space, of course. Once there, we got a brief tour of the facilities, which were so far beyond anything I’d ever worked with before that it was staggering. After that was done, Betty thrust the broom that was leaning against the wall into my hands and gave me a big smile.

“Have at,” she said. “The production that’s running right now involves a lot of glitter, so you’ll probably spend a lot of time over the next few weeks sweeping it up.”

“Right. Glitter. No problem,” I said.

Glitter was the devil and sweeping it was a full-time job.

I didn’t mind, in the end, because Ben was working with the lead actors at the front of the stage as I got started with the swish-swish.

“We’ve already made one big change,” he was in the middle of saying as I pushed the broom to clear up the glitter. “After Lucas’s amazing audition the other day, we’ve decided to make the part of King Triton much bigger.”

Lucas smiled bashfully, which had my hole fluttering and getting slicky again, but not everyone was happy.

“What?” Eric demanded, lowering the script he’d been looking over with a jerk. “You can’t do that. The prince is supposed to be the main male lead.”

“The prince is still a major role,” Ben said, pinching the top of his nose. “But we want to showcase Lucas’s amazing voice. So now, not only will Triton be in the beginning of Act One and the end of Act Two, we’ve decided to add a bit where he goes up on land to search for his daughter. Are you okay with that?” Ben asked Lucas.

“Sure,” Lucas said, smiling and shrugging. “Whatever I can do to help the production.”

I paused to lean on my broom and just smile at him dreamily. Lucas really was a hero.

“This is outrageous!” Eric shouted so loudly that I startled, hit my face with the end of the broom handle, and dropped the broom entirely.

Everyone turned and looked at me. Lucas’s face flushed as our eyes met, and I thought I might melt.

“What sort of cracker-jack production is this?” Eric demanded. “You change the show to make a nobody into the lead and you’ve hired clumsy, incompetent stagehands.”

“Hey!” Lucas defended me. “Zack isn’t incompetent.”

“Of course you’d defend him,” Eric said. He turned to Ben and said, “I think there’s something going on between those two.”

I gulped and scrambled to pick up my broom, loath to get Lucas in trouble.

As I bent over, I accidentally kicked the broom, sending it skidding across the floor toward the piano, which was still there from auditions. I chased after it and grabbed it, but as I stood, the broom unbalanced in my hands and swung around, knocking a large pile of sheet music from the piano bench.

I tried to reach for the pages to stop the inevitable catastrophe, but as I did, I turned with the broom held horizontally and brushed even more off. When I grabbed for those pages, I dropped the broom. It clattered to the floor, and when I reached for it and some of the sheet music, I stood too fast and knocked the piano bench over entirely.

The entire cast, except for Eric, and Ben were all laughing by the time I managed to straighten and breathe for a second to regain my equilibrium.

“Here, I’ll help you,” Lindsey, the woman playing Pearl, the little mermaid, said, rushing over to pick up sheet music with me.

“I’ll help, too,” Lucas said, getting up as well.

“Alright. While they help stop the chaos, I want the rest of you to divide into vocal ranges for warm-ups,” Ben told everyone else.

“This is totally unfair,” Eric continued to grumble as he stayed right where he was and flipped through the pages of the script. “I’m the lead, not him.”

“You think I should tell him that the play is called The Little Mermaid and not The Asshole Prince ?” Lindsey said to me and Lucas with a friendly smirk.

Despite my clumsiness, I felt good. Lindsey was cool, and I felt like she could be a friend.

But more than that, Lucas kept smiling at me as we gathered up the last of the sheet music. Cal, the accompanist who had played for auditions, came over and shooed us away from the piano so he could play for warm-ups, but that was the perfect excuse for Lucas and I to step aside, where people wouldn’t pay attention to us.

“Sorry about the mess,” I said once we were standing behind the group of actors warming up. “Things like that happen to me all the time.”

“It was funny,” Lucas said. His smile immediately vanished. “Is it okay if I say that? I don’t mean to offend you.”

“No, I like making people laugh,” I said. Then for some reason, I just had to add, “I have dreams of being a stand-up comedian someday.”

“That would be really cool!” Lucas said, smiling again.

“Lucas, would you care to join us?” Ben asked when he noticed Lucas wasn’t with the others.

“Yep,” Lucas said, turning away from me.

I gripped my broom and prepared to go back to sweeping, but Lucas quickly turned back and leaned closer to me.

“Do you want to go out Friday night?” he whispered.

My heart caught in my chest and I could barely breathe. All I could do was nod.

“Great,” Lucas said, smiling. “I’ll catch you outside the theater and we can iron out the details. But now, I’ve got to sing.”

For a second, I could have sworn he was going to kiss me before he peeled away and jogged over to join the others.

I just stood there, my inner omega giddy with joy. I had a date with the hottest, most wonderful, most heroic alpha I’d ever met. Go me!