She frowned, put a hand to her stomach. “Wow, I really feel awful all of a sudden.” Then she turned toward him. “You probably shouldn’t be in here. I might be contagious.”

He took a small step back, but his smirk remained. “I never get sick.”

Just then Cass slapped a hand over her mouth, and looked at Austin with wide eyes, lurching forward in her chair. That did the trick. Austin jumped backward.

“Don’t you puke on me, Goodwin!” Then mumbling something about needing to get on set, he turned and left the room in a flash.

Cass took a deep, satisfied breath and settled back in the chair just as Priya appeared in the doorway, watching Austin retreat down the hall.

“What did you do to him?” she asked, handing Cass the steaming mug of tea.

“Nothing he didn’t deserve,” Cass replied, blowing on the surface of the hot tea. “Thanks for this.”

Priya put clips in the front of Cass’s hair, to hold it back before she applied her makeup for that day’s show. “You look less ghastly. So, what happened this morning?” Priya mixed two foundations together on the back of her hand, then took a brush and started on Cass’s forehead.

“Nervous stomach, I guess.” Cass shrugged.

“Hmm. Anything you want to talk about?”

She wished she could. Priya was a good listener and an enthusiastic advice giver. But Cass didn’t need advice, because there was really no other option than to end things with Miguel. Now she just had to keep her chin up and finish these final episodes and get back to Starlight Peak. Where she would hopefully be able to forget all about the surfing physician assistant who had somehow worked his way into her heart in a matter of days.

“Not really. And please don’t take that the wrong way. You’re a great friend to Charlie, and to me, too.” Cass smiled at Priya. “But I’ve created a mess, and now I have to set things right.”

Priya squeezed her shoulder, giving her a gentle smile. “You know, Charlie has that ‘nervous’ stomach thing, too.”

“She does?”

Priya nodded, then said, “Chin up, please,” and proceeded to dab under Cass’s neck with the pink sponge. “Our first day on set she threw up, like, six times. I had to redo her makeup more than once.”

“Seriously?” Cass couldn’t imagine it. Charlie was always so confident and self-assured. She couldn’t picture her getting nervous enough about anything to throw up once, let alone that many times. Though, to be honest, Cass had to admit she and Charlie had drifted apart recently and that she didn’t know her twin as well as she used to. With their workaholic schedules they hadn’t made time for each other like they should have, something Cass was regretting more every day. She missed her sister.

“I thought she was done for, especially when she got sick in her assistant’s take-out soda cup about five minutes before they started shooting. You should have seen the poor kid’s face. The horror. He didn’t last long.” They both cringed, then laughed. “But then she went out there and pulled it off somehow. She was flawless.”