Method Acting: An opposites attract, found family romance (Center Stage Book 2) by Adele Buck (web based ebook reader txt) 📕

towel. Opening her eyes, she looked in the mirror and saw a good-humored, freckled face grinning at her. The other woman’s curly, strawberry-blond hair was nominally pulled back in a ponytail, but frizzy wisps curled over her head like a halo.

“I think your hair is pretty,” Alicia said. “Like a Botticelli angel or something.” There was something about the curls that made her think of Gracie. Her throat threatened to close up at the memory, and Alicia swallowed hard.

Gracie again.

The other woman pouted at her own reflection. “I guess we always want the opposite of what we have. I thought I would outgrow that. Everyone always said, ‘Oh, mark my words: you’ll love your curly hair one day!’” She fingered a fuzzy strand. “They were wrong. Especially in the humidity.”

“Which there is more than enough of here,” Alicia said.

“You said it.” The other woman’s open, friendly expression seemed to be paving the way for more conversation, so Alicia grabbed her bag and waved as she left the dressing room.

“Nice talking to you,” Alicia said as she walked toward the door to the street. The day was sunny and hot and yes, humid, but she was already sweaty from her workout. She didn’t care how she looked. She could be as anonymous as she liked.

And Alicia liked anonymity.

Taking a long pull on her water bottle, she strode down Ninth Street. She was still unexpectedly charmed by the low buildings of D.C., in stark contrast to the steel and concrete canyons that she had grown used to in New York. She liked the greater view of the sky, the utter whimsicality of a solid, neoclassical building squatting across the street from an airy, modernist confection seemingly spun out of glass.

Alicia swung her arms to stretch and loosen her muscles and settled her gym bag more securely on her shoulder. She thought about the possibility of actually living here full-time. What would it mean? Would she be able to get enough work? She relished the sunshine pouring over her body, reveling in the heat. Would she ever be truly cold again if she lived here?

“And…fifteen. Nice.” Russell helped Colin rack the barbell, and Colin wiped the sweat off his face with a towel.

“Ready to see if you can top that?” Colin grinned up at Russell and stood to spot his friend as the other man lay down on the bench, lifting the weight from the rack. Watching the fall and rise of the bar, a shock of pale blond hair in the corner of his eye made him jerk his head to the right. Embarrassed to see it was not a lithe woman, but rather a young guy with an unfortunate man bun, Colin’s eyes flicked back to Russell.

Too late. The other man had noticed his wandering attention.

“Cruising for something…or someone, my friend?” Russell’s upside-down face grinned and he winked. “Good thing I was keeping count. That’s fifty for me.”

“Bullshit,” Colin replied. “Unless you’ve turned into a comic book character with super speed-lifting powers, that’s the biggest load of bollocks ever. Even from you.”

“Aaagghhh,” Russell grunted, and Colin hovered his hands under the bar as his friend racked the weight. “No,” he said, sitting up and shaking out his trembling arms then scrubbed a towel over the dark brown skin of his shaved head. “Not even close. Just eight to your fifteen.”

“You’re all in from the looks of it. Ready to shower and grab a beer?”

“Finer words were never spoken.” Russell grabbed his towel, and the two headed for the locker rooms.

Stepping out onto the street a short time later, they headed for a bar a couple of blocks away by longstanding mutual habit. Colin held the door as Russell stepped inside.

“Two Sam Adams,” Russell said to the bartender as they slid onto stools. “Now. What was with the distracted act back there?”

“I have no idea what you mean,” Colin said, lifting the pint the bartender handed him to his lips and looking straight back at the rows of bottles behind the bar.

Russell leaned forward onto the bar, craning his neck to look his friend in the face. “Don’t even try that with me. I know distraction when I see it. Professors are experts in watching people zone out. And if I were to guess…I’d say there was a woman involved.”

“Oh, would you?” Colin turned to look at Russell.

“Unless you’ve suddenly got a thing for skinny blond dudes? Yeah. But hey. I don’t judge.” Russell winked and sipped his beer.

Colin set his pint down on the cardboard coaster in front of him. “I’m not interested in anything but work these days.”

“Just because Tressa did a number on you doesn’t mean you have to check out on the human race, my friend. Especially the female half. It’s been two months. Time to get back in the game.”

Colin huffed a laugh. “And Tressa called me today seeming to think that two months was the correct amount of time for me to forgive and forget what she had done.”

Russell grimaced at the mention of Colin’s ex. “Slim to no chance of that ever happening if I know you.”

“Exactly. Anyway, I’m not checking out. Just taking a break.”

“Right. Which is why you were checking out a random dude because you thought he might be a woman. Makes perfect sense.”

Colin sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine. I met a woman last night at the Folger party. She was attractive. But she seemed like trouble. That’s it.”

“Right,” Russell drawled again, picking up his beer. “Trouble.”

Alicia propped her iPad on the wobbly little café table in the shady garden in front of her apartment. Reviewing Susan’s e-mail again, she chewed on one fingertip. Susan always had to have someone to confide in, and that role rotated, usually to the newest person who hadn’t figured out her games yet.

Alicia was the only one Susan ever returned to, when all other options were exhausted. Alicia supposed she should be insulted by this, but somehow, she never was. Susan’s