Lights, Camera, Love Story

By Beth D. Carter

Jake Coolidge is Hollywood’s hot new star. Growing up in Los Angeles among the film sets his father worked on, Jake knows fame is fickle, so he lives life to the fullest. He never has to search far for a pretty face with an amazing body to fill his bed, and he never, ever, promises fidelity.

Norah Scackett has lived her whole life in a fantasy world. Knowing she would never be the girl to wear a bikini or short shorts, she’s come to accept that she has curves even though she secretly wishes she was one of the slim, beautiful models that decorates Jake’s arm.

She’s written a movie script that she knows Jake will be perfect for, but she’s ill prepared for the magnetic attraction she feels for him. As she tries to form a professional bond with him, his hot and cold attitude breaks her heart one too many times. Can Jake save a love that he denied before he’s lost the only person that ever really mattered?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beth D. Carter
• Release date: Sep 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005268619

Beth D. Carter

I like writing about the very ordinary girl thrust into extrordinary circumstances, so my heroines will probably never be lawyers, doctors or corporate highrollers. I try to write characters who aren't cookie cutters and push myself to write complicated situations that I have no idea how to resolve, forcing me to think outside the box. I love to hear from readers so I’ve made it really easy to find me on Facebook or Twitter. To subscribe to my newsletter, please visit my website: www.writtenbutterfly.com

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Lights, Camera, Love Story

By Beth D. Carter

Published by Beth D. Carter

Smashwords Edition

2021

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locales or events is entirely coincidental.

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Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Epilogue

Chapter One

Jake!

Pounding came on his trailer door and Jake jumped off the couch to open the door. A small-framed girl with chopped blond hair and a pixie face smiled up at him.

Hi, Jill. Am I needed on set? Jake asked, wiping the sleep from the corner of his eyes.

Nah, Jill said. She held out a script. Here it is.

Jake took it with a frown. Isn’t this a little thick to be a shooting script?

What? Oh, no. This is the script I told you about. Remember? You promised you’d read it and give feedback.

I did? he asked, wracking his brain trying to remember when he said such a thing.

She nodded. At the bar last weekend, after wrapping. Remember?

Oh…yes. Shit. He’d used the promise as a way to worm his way into her pants, but it hadn’t worked. Sure, she squealed with pleasure when he agreed to read it and had even hugged him, but then she’d hopped off the bar stool and hurried out the door with her phone plastered to her ear.

Oh yeah, he assured her with an easy grin. I remember now. Written by your aunt.

Cousin.

Right.

Believe me, Jake, I wouldn’t ask but I’ve read the script and its brilliant. I know you took the part in this television show to distance yourself from typecasting so I was thinking this film could be another great steppingstone in your career.

Wait. She was for real. He glanced at the script in his hands. Waiting to Come Home. That was a terrible title.

You should probably send it to my agent, he told her. Does it even have producers or a studio backing it?

No. She doesn’t even have an agent. Listen, its Norah’s first screenplay and all she’s looking for is some pointers. I’m the one that thinks it’s brilliant and needs to be picked up, so read it and tell me what you think.

What’s it about?

Jill clapped her hands and practically bounced on her feet. A pitch session! How exciting. Okay. The man in the story loses his best friend in an overdose. He spirals down into an abyss and just when he’s ready to end it, into his life walks a male prostitute who has a heart of gold and pulls him back into the land of the living.

Jake blinked. And you think I’m perfect for this role, how?

Jill raised her brows. You’ve played an action hero that propelled you into stardom and then took a recurring role on a television show where you play an undercover teacher slash cop. Another hero. The man in that script is not a hero. He’s flawed, he’s selfish, he’s self-centered. He’s you.

Ah, Jake said, raising an eyebrow. Flattery.

She smirked at him. You said you didn’t want to be typecast. My cousin Norah wrote an amazing character so please give it a chance. Indie films are the rage now.

Indie film, eh?

Look at Guy Pearce. Tom Noonan. Or Parker Posey.

She had a point. Indie films usually grabbed a lot of attention with critical success.

Why come to me? he asked her. Why not peddle this to a director or producer first?

Come on, Jill said a bit disdainfully. You know how this business works. It’s not about talent it’s about who you grease elbows with. If you like this script you’ll be more equipped to find financing and producers and such.

It was a valid point.

Can she take criticism?

Absolutely.

He was always wary of people who answered with the word absolutely. It just screamed low self-esteem. Okay. I’ll read it but I’m not going to sugar coat it or anything.

That’s fine. Really. She wants to know how to improve it. Jill pointed to the script. Norah’s contact information is on the front page.

Got it, he said and tossed the screenplay on the table. Jill clapped her hands excitedly again and turned away. Hey, does she look like you?

Jill looked back at him and arched a brow. No. Why?

Jake shrugged. Just asking. When do you think I’ll be needed on set?

She shrugged. How the hell would I know? I’m just the assistant. Bye!

He shut the door when she flounced away and returned to the spot he’d been lounging in on the couch. He stared at the script. The summer hiatus was coming up all too quickly and his agent had been throwing all kinds of scripts at him, trying to get him to commit to something. He wanted to work, but the trouble were all the scripts he read were crap. He should say fuck it and pick one because he knew how Hollywood worked.

If you made a great film it was expected of you to continue making great films, but if you flopped you skated on thin ice. He’d learned the hard way of how cold and fickle the love from show business could be.

He was riding high on the coat tails of the film last year and the television show he was currently on continually pulled in high ratings. Technically he wasn’t even a regular of the show, but it kept him working and in the minds of studios. Plus, he was in the tabloids every other week so all was good on that end. But he wanted something more, something to show that he was a great actor. He’d been called empty headed, shallow and a mess, but never once had he been called talented. It hadn’t taken all that much talent to act the hero in the hit film The Hero Factor, and it had been women and young girls that had propelled the film into success. Being labeled a hunk had put him on everybody’s tongue, so he’d done everything possible to rev up his reputation.

He smiled as he remembered the Caleb fiasco. His mother had been so proud he was gay, because being gay was so in now, and he’d had to crush her motherly pride that he preferred vaginas to dicks.

Jake sighed and ran a hand through his hair again. Hair and make-up would fuss at him, but then again, that was nothing new. He stared at the script he’d thrown down and picked it up, flipping through it. He read the first line of dialogue, and quickly got sucked into the scene. A heated debate if one character needed to continue prostituting himself. It was slightly intense and a bit too uncomfortable. He went to the beginning and started over.

****

Norah Sackett bit her thumbnail as she listened to Jill on the phone.

He promised me he’d read it and I assured him he was tailor made for it. He looked interested, Norah.

I didn’t write the part for him, Norah told her cousin, crossing her fingers at the lie. I don’t want him to think I’m some sort of stalker girl.

No, no. It’s like flattery. Believe me. It’s Jake freaking Coolidge. The man has more ego than brains, but he also knows he needs something to set him apart from all the other action heroes out there.

Oh god! Norah exclaimed, trying not to hyperventilate. What if he hates it? What if he thinks it’s so bad, he calls me up and laughs at me? What if he calls me talentless? What if he just calls me? Oh god, Jill, why did you talk me into letting you give Jake Coolidge a copy?

Calm down, Norah. This is why you moved to Los Angeles, right? To pursue your writing. Sure couldn’t make movies in po-dunk Missouri.

Hey now. You’re from po-dunk Missouri too.

Yes, but I don’t tell anyone that and that should tell you something. But when Jake calls you and tells you he wants to do your film, I get to work on it, hear me? In any way possible.

Norah chuckled. I’ll make sure to make that a condition.

Awesome. Gotta run, sweetie, the director of the week is waving me over. Love ya! Bye!

She hung up before Norah could return the sentiment. Norah laid the phone on the small dinette table and clasped her hands together as she stared at it. Would he call? Or would she never hear from Jake Coolidge?

She’d lied to Jill when she said she hadn’t written the part for him. Of course, she had. He was the most beautiful man on earth and God help her if she ever got to see him in person. Usually, she wasn’t a star struck kind of person, but Jake Coolidge was a slice of heaven. And if he liked her screenplay, he could be her savior since she only had two more rent payments left in her savings before she had to get a real job. This script meant everything to her, and she believed in it.

Hopefully, Jake Coolidge would too.

Chapter Two

Norah stood in line at the post office, letting her mind wander, when her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. She sat the package she was going to send on the little island next to her and dug her phone out. Not recognizing the number, she was about to click off when she thought it might be Jill calling from a different phone line.

Hello? she asked softly.

Hello, Norah Sackett? a deep male voice asked.

Yes?

This is Jake Coolidge. I work with your cousin Jill.

Norah’s mind went blank. She pulled her phone away and looked at the number, trying to determine if it was a prank.

Hello? Miss Sackett?

Uh…yes. I’m here. She hoped Jake Coolidge could not hear the breathless quiver in her voice. She glanced behind her at the other customers and got out of line so she could have a private moment with Jake Coolidge. It took everything in her not to squeal.

She moved the phone away to clear her throat and then returned it. But it was impossible to steady her pounding heartbeat, so she didn’t even try.

Yes, Mr. Coolidge, I’m here. How may I help you? She gave a fist pump that her voice came out sounding normal.

Last month Jill gave me your script to read, and I was hoping we could meet for lunch to talk about it.

Did she just die? Because no frickin’ way did Jake Coolidge ask her to lunch!

Definitely, she murmured calmly. Is there a day that works well with you?

How about tomorrow?

I am free tomorrow.

Great. I live in Malibu. There’s a great little café on the PCH, just past Las Floras Canyon Raod called The Applegate. Meet me there about noon?

That sounds nice. Thank you for your call.

He gave a smooth chuckle. My pleasure. See you tomorrow, Miss Sackett.

And he clicked off.

Norah stood there for a long moment, staring at her phone, wondering if she’d just dreamed the whole conversation with Jake Coolidge. She jumped up in the air with a whoop of