Mrs. Gentry returned. “I’m impressed, Samantha.”
“No big deal.”
“Well, it is to me,” Mrs. Gentry told her, then clapped for attention. “Everyone, I have an announcement. Ms. Castle has told me that she’s going to be offering some acting classes here in Sand Castle Bay in the near future. You’ve seen what a difference she was able to make with Sue Ellen today. If any of you are interested in learning more about those classes, I’ll have a sign-up sheet here for you at the end of rehearsal. Then she’ll be in touch with you with the details.” She glanced at Samantha. “Will that work for you?”
“That’s amazing,” Samantha said, taken aback by the unexpected show of support. “Thank you.”
Mrs. Gentry lowered her voice. “Just remember what I told you. You need to be above reproach.”
Samantha nodded.
Cass regarded her eagerly. “Can I sign up now?”
“You can sign up as soon as there’s something specific to sign up for,” Samantha told her. “In the meantime, if you’re free tomorrow afternoon, why don’t you come by Castle’s after school and read a couple of scenes with me?”
“Awesome! I know you’re impressed with the way Sue Ellen got her act together just now, but wait till you hear me,” Cass said. “I’m going to knock your socks off.”
Samantha grinned at her confidence, wishing Ethan were around to hear it. He’d done his job well.
“I’m counting on that,” she told the girl. Because Cass was going to have to be head and shoulders above the other actresses competing for parts if she was going to overcome the undeniable obstacles ahead.
And for more reasons than she cared to examine, Samantha wanted her to have the talent to surprise the most jaded of Broadway directors.
20
When Samantha walked in the door at home after her eventful afternoon at the high school, Cora Jane nodded in the direction of the backyard, her eyes twinkling.
Samantha frowned. “What?”
“You have company.”
Samantha glanced toward the water. Ethan was sitting on the end of the pier, his pants legs rolled up, his good foot dangling in the water. He’d seemingly locked the prosthesis in a position that would keep it dry, rather than removing it. In his work clothes, he looked very much like a man who’d played hooky.
“Is he fishing?”
“Not the way you mean. He came by trolling for information on your whereabouts. Since I had no idea where you were, I suggested he wait. I figured you’d call or turn up sooner or later. Let me know if he’s staying for dinner.”
Samantha nodded, kicked off her own shoes and walked barefoot through the grass to join him. He glanced up as she started along the wooden pier, then held out his hand to help her drop down beside him.
“I wasn’t expecting you,” she said.
“You should have been. You should have known you’d be on my mind all day.”
“Really?” she said, pleased. “All day?”
“Every livelong minute,” he confirmed, not sounding entirely happy about it. “And when I managed to distract myself for a minute, Greg was there to pester me for details about my weekend. He seemed convinced you were responsible for my mood.”
She slanted a look at him. “Were you cranky?”
He smiled. “Quite the opposite, in fact.”
“That’s good, then.”
“No, it is very, very bad. It makes people who know me suspicious. When they get suspicious, they ask questions I don’t know how to answer.”
Samantha knew the whole concept of a relationship was new to him or, if not exactly new, a painful reminder of all that could go wrong. It was clear he was struggling with it. She opted to let him off the hook.
“You know,” she began, “nothing’s really changed.”
He stared at her incredulously. “You can’t be serious. Everything’s changed.” He frowned. “At least for me. Are you saying nothing that happened this weekend matters to you?”
“Of course it matters. I’m definitely hoping it wasn’t a one-night stand, but if it was, then so be it. It was remarkable just the same.”
His frown deepened. “It was not a damn one-night stand!” he told her emphatically.
She smiled at his fierce declaration. “Good to know. Any other definition come to mind?”
His gaze narrowed. “You want me to define what happened between us?”
“It might help to clarify things for both of us,” she said. “You seem a little lost.”
“I’m not lost. I’m annoyed.”
“At me?”
“No, at all the people who expect us to pin labels on what happened.”
“But that includes me,” she reminded him.
“Yeah, but you’re only trying to help. They’re just nosy.”
She laughed at the likely accuracy of that. “Ethan, you don’t owe them an explanation. You do owe yourself one, and I wouldn’t mind knowing what you’ve come up with. No rush, though. There’s plenty on my plate without worrying about exactly where we stand.”
Just to change the topic and give him some breathing room, she filled him in on what had happened at the high school with Sue Ellen, Cass and Mrs. Gentry.
“I couldn’t believe Mrs. Gentry gave me her blessing and started a sign-up sheet. Last week she sounded pretty skeptical. She seemed to be afraid all sorts of skeletons were going to come tumbling out of the closet and I’d ruin her reputation if we were too closely aligned.”
Ethan looked intrigued. “Skeletons? Do you have some?”
Was that a hopeful note in his voice? she wondered. Surely not. Or was he hoping for something that would give him grounds to walk away?
She returned his curious gaze with a steady look of her own, then shrugged. “Not that I know of, but heaven knows what might get people’s tongues wagging around here. I suppose with a bad spin most of us could stir up controversy with things we’ve done in the past.”
“So you’re moving forward with teaching classes?” he asked.
“I thought I’d start with two or three,” she said. “See what the demand is. I need to sit down and figure out the focus of each class. I suppose I could do beginners and advanced, or maybe something
