Page 17 of The Burdens We Share (Satan’s Angels #3)

Ivory

“Blair is the cutest. She really is a mini me,” Brody speaks affectionately about the actress playing her when she was a little girl.

We all sit in Brody’s trailer and go through scenes. “She is so cute,” Aria agrees.

Brody asks me, “Did they find an actress to play Little You yet?”

I shake my head, “No, but I’m glad you brought that up. I have an idea,” I quirk my head at her.

Harvey and Sly are here today on set and they sit with Dallas in the little kitchen area.

It’s interesting to watch the dynamic of Harvey and Dallas interacting with Sly.

Dallas and Harvey are best friends and business partners and they have far more in common than they do with Sly.

Sly’s a fucking rockstar for crying out loud.

He couldn’t be more different than them.

Sly isn’t best friends with Harvey and Dallas by any means, but they do include him in conversation and I do think they have a mutual silent agreement of some kind or just some kind of understanding ever since Dallas and Harvey had to pull a raging Sly off of Rogan that night.

“What’s the idea?” Brody asks curiously.

I look over at the guys, “Harvey?” I call.

He stops talking to Sly and Dallas and looks over at me with a questioning look on his face.

Harvey and I have never been close, and if I’m being totally honest, I don’t think he likes me very much.

I don’t blame him for that. At one point, Aria and I were really shitty to Brody and she didn’t deserve it.

If he hates us, it’s because he’s loyal to Brody.

Though I don’t think he hates Aria anymore.

Not after he tried to warn her about Rogan.

“I have a question for you and Brody if you don’t mind,” I give him a polite smile.

He turns and gives me his full attention.

Sly takes the opportunity to get up from his seat in the kitchen and walk over to where his fiancé sits.

He places his hands on her shoulders from behind and kisses the top of her head.

She smiles at the contact and I’m so genuinely happy for Aria that she’s happy.

Brody leans forward, “Let’s hear this question.”

“I was wondering if maybe Lucy would like to play young Ivory Aslan in the movie?” I ask.

I feel awkward asking. Lucy is Harvey’s little sister and Harvey is extremely protective of her.

He’s more of a parental figure to her than a brother and I have a feeling that Harvey may not want her in the spotlight.

But I love Lucy like she’s my own little sister.

Brody likes to include her in our group hangouts or sleepovers sometimes and she’s such a sweet and funny girl.

Harvey looks surprised as if he was not expecting me to ask that at all. He looks at Brody who’s grinning ear to ear. She looks at him and beams, “I’m sure Lucy would love that.”

Harvey nods and looks at me in a way he’s never looked at me before, “That would make her so happy. Thank you, Ivory.”

I give him a gentle smile, “So you’ll allow it?”

Harvey walks over to his fiancé and sits down next to her on the bench seat, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She presses a kiss to his cheek and he fights a smile as he speaks to me, “Of course.”

I clap my hands, “Yay!”

Aria frowns, “I wish I thought of that first. Fuck.”

Sly leans into her ear, “It’s okay, Kane. You’ve been busy with wedding planning.”

Aria’s face breaks out into an ecstatic smile, “I have been.”

Brody asks, “When were you guys planning on having your wedding anyway? We were planning ours for this Summer.”

I roll my eyes. Not for nothing, but it really sucks being the only single one in the group.

Everyone else is planning weddings and being all lovey-dovey.

The only romance I have going on is a damn stalker and it’s one-sided.

I’m suing the universe. I’m sure Selene would love to take that case. She’d probably win too.

Aria answers, “We were gonna do a Halloween wedding.” Typical Aria Kane. She loves the spooky stuff.

Brody adds, “Oh, speaking of, I was wondering if you bitches would be my bridesmaids?”

Aria laughs, “Wasn’t that already a given? I assumed we all had an unspoken agreement. You all know you’re my bridesmaids too, right?”

I smile. It seems I’m just destined to be in weddings and never be a bride. “Can I wear a pink dress?” I bat my lashes.

“No.” They say at the same time.

I groan, “Booo, you guys suck.”

“Get married and then you can have as much pink as you want,” Brody preaches.

I roll my eyes, “That would require me to find a boyfriend first. That seems like a lot of work. Besides, I have no room in my life for men right now.” I pick up my script to have something to do with my hands and I skim through lines, pretending to be focused so nobody will press me.

“What about Nate?” Sly asks, seriousness in his voice.

“What about him?” I look up at him over my script.

I feel a set of hazel eyes burning into my face and make eye contact with Dallas who’s scowling. He has a vein bulging out of his forehead like he’s fuming and I recoil, focusing only on Sly. What the fuck crawled up Dallas’ ass?

Sly grins, “You guys have a really unique connection. Why haven’t you tried dating?”

I shrug, “Nate and I are on the same page about that. We’re very close friends, but that’s all it is between us. I think he’s good-looking and he thinks I’m good-looking, but there’s no emotional connection like that. We’ve agreed things should be platonic.”

Sly opens his mouth to say something else, but the trailer door opens and Selene pops her head in. “Hello, deranged people,” she greets.

“Hi, mistress of evil,” Brody retorts.

Selene frowns, pointing a finger at her, “What did I say about stealing my thunder on the creative nicknames?”

Brody smirks, “Can’t remember. I probably wasn’t listening.”

Harvey chuckles and Selene rolls her eyes, “What else is new?”

Brody’s face goes stark serious, “Selene, I just asked Aria and Ivory, but I have to ask you too. Will you be a bridesmaid at my wedding?”

“Yeah, mine too?” Aria asks, looking up at Selene.

Selene’s face softens and she nods immediately, “Of course I will.” She shifts back to business a moment later and asks, “They want you guys to record your monologues today. I figured you could do lunch now because that’s gonna take a while.

What do you guys want?” Selene asks, withdrawing her phone most likely to send Matthew a text with everyone’s lunch orders.

Aria perks up, “Oooh. I’ll do some chicken nuggets.”

Sly laughs at her request, “You eat like a child.”

Aria rolls her eyes, “It makes me happy.”

Selene types Aria’s order in and asks Sly, “What about you?”

Sly shrugs, “I’m cool with whatever. A sandwich maybe?”

Harvey nods, “I’ll do the same.”

Brody answers next, “I’ll do an acai bowl. Extra strawberries please.”

Selene looks at Dallas and suddenly, I feel my hands clamming up.

She’s gonna ask me what I want and I can’t exactly ask for lettuce.

Selene doesn’t know about the nutrition plan Nara has me on and if she did, it would only cause her to flip on Nara and then my modeling career would vanish.

I push out of the booth and past Sly and Aria.

I feel everyone’s confused eyes on me, but Selene doesn’t notice, too busy typing in Dallas’ order.

When she finishes, she turns to me, “What do you want?”

I shake my head, “I’m good. I have lunch in my trailer. I’m actually gonna go eat it now,” I rush out of the trailer before anyone can say anything else. I don’t want them to ask me questions.

I feel Dallas at my back, keeping up with my every step. “Ivory,” he calls but I ignore him and continue for my trailer.

When I make it to the stairs he repeats, “Ivory.”

I turn to face him, “What?”

He looks confused, “What is going on?”

I shake my head, “Nothing. Everything is fine.”

He looks like I just told him a joke, “That definitely wasn’t nothing.”

I’m hungry, tired, stressed, and annoyed all at once.

Hungry because Nara doesn’t have me eating anything but rabbit food, tired because my body doesn’t feel rested, stressed because I have a lot on my plate including a psycho stalker, and annoyed because he’s pushing me.

“Why don’t you just mind your own business?

” I snap at him. “Isn’t your job to just watch me?

Nobody said you needed to talk.” I turn and swing the trailer door open so hard, it hits the stair rail.

I let it slam behind me and instantly, I feel guilty, but not guilty enough to go out there and apologize.

I toss myself down on the bench seat and stare at the ceiling. I don’t know how much time passes before the door opens and Dallas enters. He glances at me lying and staring at nothing and raises a brow at me, “Are you done with your temper tantrum?”

I stare daggers at him but decide to just ignore him. I roll onto my side so that I’m facing the bench seat and not him. My stomach growls and I pray to God he didn’t hear it.

––––––––

“FINALLY, MY TURN. I thought Brody would never shut the fuck up.” I pause, “LA was only supposed to be a pit stop. It wasn’t exactly on my way to Texas, more like across the country, but I wanted to see it with my own eyes after living on the East Coast my whole life.

“I got off that disgusting public transport bus and just looked at the city and knew I needed to be there.

I got a cheap and super shitty motel with the last two hundred dollars I had and unpacked all of my five items, toothbrush included.

The truth was, the only thing I owned that I actually gave a shit about was my guitar.

I took it with me to the dingiest of dive bars and played it in my pink cowboy boots and hat.