Method Acting: An opposites attract, found family romance (Center Stage Book 2) Adele Buck (e novels to read .TXT) 📖

Unlocking the front door of his house, Colin ushered Alicia in before him and then escorted her back to the kitchen, pulling out a barstool for her to sit on at the island. Opening a high cabinet, he fetched down two glasses and pulled a bottle of wine out of the refrigerator. Pouring for each of them, he smiled at her.

“So. Anything you’re allergic to or don’t eat?”

Alicia shook her head as she lifted her wine glass. “Nope. When I was young I couldn’t afford to be picky. Now I just like to try stuff.”

“Adventurous. I like it.”

“Mmm. Yeah, you do.” She shot such a smugly challenging look his way, he nearly ended up with wine coming out his nose.

“Not fair using your feminine wiles on me when I’m trying to feed you,” he said, pulling several potatoes out of a basket on his counter and washing them in the sink.

“Fine.” She placed her glass down and smiled at him.

“You’re just going to stop talking entirely now?” he asked, drying the potatoes on a dish towel and pulling out a knife and cutting board.

“I’ve talked enough. You talk to me now.”

“What do you want me to talk about?” he asked, starting to cut the potatoes into bite-sized chunks.

“Well, I’ve talked about my job. Tell me more about yours. What does being an education lobbyist entail?”

He paused in his cutting to look at her. “You really want to know?”

“Sure. For instance, why STEM?”

Putting a handful of cut potatoes into a bowl of water, he thought for a moment. “Well, my firm represents a lot of technology companies on a variety of matters. They have a vested interest in making sure we have a well-educated pipeline of people who can become their employees.”

“Wow. That’s thinking ahead,” Alicia said.

Colin shrugged. “It’s necessary, sadly.”

“And what about the arts?”

Colin glanced cautiously at Alicia. She was looking at him calmly, but he knew her a little too well now and sensed hidden dangers under that serene façade. Sorting through several possible responses, he finally said, “Explain?”

“Explain the arts?” Alicia said, incredulous.

“No, explain the connection. What do the arts have to do with science?”

Alicia blinked. It seemed so obvious to her. “You think scientific discovery just comes out of equations and formulas?”

Colin looked at her, his eyes narrow. “Go on.”

Twisting the stem of the wine glass in her fingers, Alicia paused to choose her words. “Inspiration. It’s not so different. No matter what you’re being inspired by, it’s the same impulse.”

Slicing an onion, Colin said, “Interesting. Any data to back this theory up?”

“Yeah, actually. I’ve read that people who have arts education have better outcomes in regular academics. One theory is that arts training makes people more open to creative impulses. Creativity is creativity, no matter if it’s about music or math. And actually, music is basically math you can hear.”

“I’m a lawyer. I’m going to want articles, facts and figures, you know. Evidence.” He smiled at her, though, and her heart thudded. The fact that he trusted her about this, was willing to meet her on equal intellectual footing, seemed to mark something new.

“And then there’s telling people about what you’ve discovered. Like at the gala.”

Colin put the onion slices into a bowl and retrieved a head of cauliflower from the refrigerator. “You mean the kids? What about them?”

Alicia sipped her wine, considering. “All of those kids were obviously really smart. But they weren’t all very good at explaining what they were smart about. Most of them got too complicated or too tongue-tied or even robotic. That can’t be good for their careers down the road.”

“True. Presentation skills are also often a huge problem with our new associates at the firm. What would you do about that?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.” Colin began dissecting the head of cauliflower. “You’ve made showing audiences things, making them pay attention to you, your life’s work. What would you do to help those kids?”

“Um.” Alicia blinked. “I’m no expert on this. I mean, I know a choreographer who worked on a thing called ‘Dance Your Ph.D.’ But I don’t know much about it.”

Colin nodded at his laptop. “Look it up. Let’s see what they did and how it helped.”

Alicia put down her glass and pulled the laptop toward her, opening it and typing in a search. “Here.” She turned the laptop toward him and let a video run. Colin leaned on the counter, and they watched as a man explained complicated scientific experiments and discoveries and how dance helped explain the processes and results.

Returning to the cauliflower, Colin appeared lost in thought. Putting the pieces in a bowl, he looked at Alicia speculatively. “Do you have any time on Tuesday?”

“To do what?” Alicia asked.

“Those kids are all going to be here until the middle of the week, sightseeing, attending cultural events, meeting their members of Congress. They have a couple of empty hours in the afternoon on Tuesday due to a cancellation. The original idea was just to give them some downtime, but the chaperones in charge of keeping watch over them aren’t keen on that idea.”

Alicia’s eyebrow lifted. “Where do I come in? Babysitter?”

“No. I want you to give them an acting workshop.”

“Seriously?” Alicia’s stunned expression nearly made Colin laugh out loud.

He put a large pan on the stove and poured in some oil. “I’m dead serious. You have a lot to teach these kids about communicating with passion and clarity. The question is, is it something you’d want to do?” He focused on the growing shimmer in the oil. When it had heated sufficiently, he put the onions and some cumin seeds on, filling the kitchen with a pungent, savory aroma. Turning back to her, he found she was looking at him with an assessing gaze.

“What do you say?” he asked.

“Is this a gig?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re talking about employing me as a professional actress—or acting coach.” She tapped the bowl of the glass with a short fingernail, making it ring over the hissing