Trent reared back, indignant. But he knew Hal was in one of his mercurial moods and he didn’t have the backbone to stand up to him. Instead, fear in his eyes, he whispered, “Are you firing me?”
“No!” Hal barked. “I’m not firing you! But don’t tempt me! I’m firing him!”
Everyone looked over at who Hal was pointing at with his pudgy finger. Chase was just wrapping up his two hundred and fifty push-ups. Sensing something was wrong, he tucked his knees in and sprang to his feet, surprised to find everyone on the set staring at him.
“What’s going on? Who’s fired?” Chase asked.
“You are!” Hal bellowed. “Get off my set!”
Chase’s mouth dropped open in shock. “What?”
“Sorry, kid, I don’t condone violence of any kind, and I got witnesses who saw you punching out a security guard for no good reason.”
Chase’s eyes zeroed in on Matt. “He attacked me! I was just having a casual conversation with Danika—”
“Come on, Chase, you know that’s not true,” Danika scoffed.
Chase fumed, rage building, ready to explode like Mount Vesuvius, but he fought hard to keep his quick temper in check.
Hal finished wiping the sweat off his face and then blew his nose into the handkerchief before continuing. “We also received an official SAG complaint about your inappropriate behavior during this shoot, sexually harassing another actor . . .”
“Really? You of all people are accusing me—?” Chase stopped himself because he knew the power Hal Greenwood wielded in Hollywood.
But the irony of the statement was not lost on anybody.
Hal took umbrage at the implication no matter how dead-on accurate it was. “Plus, you’re a lousy actor.”
That did it.
Chase could accept the accusations of violent behavior and sexual misconduct, but he would never stand by and allow aspersions to be cast on his acting talent. “I will sue you!”
Hal guffawed. “I would love that. Do you know how many lawyers work for me? How many lawsuits I’ve fought and won over the years? Go for it, man. I will suck you dry. Now you can walk out of here on your own, or I can have my goons carry you out.”
The silence on the set was deafening.
Chase sniffed, wiped his restructured nose, and then stormed off, but not before throwing a threatening look toward Matt, as if they still had unfinished business.
Trent, still rattled by the whole scene, finally spoke up. “All right, you heard Mr. Greenwood, that’s a wrap for today.”
The crew began to slowly disperse.
Poppy hung back as Danika bounced over to Hal, whose chubby face brightened as she approached.
“Hello, baby girl,” Hal cooed as he embraced Danika, rubbing his meaty hands all over her back. She didn’t flinch because she was obviously working him.
“I want you to know, Hal, I am behind you one hundred percent on your decision to replace Chase. It was a totally toxic environment with him around.”
“I want you to be happy, angel face,” Hal said, pulling away, but keeping his hands planted on her hips.
“Do you have any thoughts on who you might bring in to replace him?”
Hal shook his head. “Greta’s going to call around to the agencies to see if anyone on our short list is available. We’ll find someone great, trust me.”
“I trust you, Hal,” Danika said, carefully extricating herself from his grasp. “Are you open to any suggestions?”
“Of course, honey, you have to work with the guy, so I’d love to hear any ideas you might have?”
Poppy stepped closer, intrigued.
So did Matt.
“I know it’s crazy, way out of left field, and he doesn’t have a lot of credits, but I know he could pull it off and he already has a lot of fans on this set.”
Hal was hooked. “Who are we talking about?”
“Matt,” Danika said.
“Matt?” Poppy heard herself say out loud.
“Me?” Matt cried.
“Who’s Matt?” Hal asked, dumbfounded.
Danika slid an arm around Matt. “This is Matt.”
“Your security guard?” Hal asked, confused.
“Yes. Hear me out. Matt’s also a very good actor. He showed me some of his theatre work on YouTube. He’s perfect! You should at least give him a screen test,” Danika said, not quite insisting but showing her teeth as the film’s true star.
The blood drained from Trent’s face. He was not exactly on board with this casting prospect as he had been with Poppy taking over the much smaller resort owner role.
Hal was perplexed as to what to do.
Poppy could see he didn’t like the idea, but he had just fired his male lead and didn’t want to now alienate his female lead and her millions of Instagram followers so he promised to think about it.
Poppy whipped her head around toward Matt, who was still in a state of shock, not quite sure what had just happened.
Poppy, however, was relatively confident what was about to happen. Matt would have to start preparing for his first Hollywood screen test.
Chapter 10
There had been absolutely no expectation that Matt would assume the role of Jim Munroe in the Palm Springs Weekend reboot for Netflix. Matt himself had declined Trent’s reluctant invitation to take a screen test three times, explaining that his role on the set was to strictly look after Danika, keep her safe from the stalker who was still out there roaming around, and he should not be distracted in his mission. But Danika had continued to insist. It made sense to her that with Matt in the cast she would feel safer, more secure. Poppy suspected that she had a little crush on him, and knowing he had once been an aspiring actor, Danika wanted to help him out and make him like her more. But to Matt’s credit, he had resisted the urge to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That is until Danika threw down an ultimatum, strongly suggesting that she might terminate the Desert Flowers Detective Agency if she didn’t get what she wanted.
Left with no choice, Matt had finally agreed to a screen test. What happened next was
