A Dropped Stitches Christmas Read Online Free Page A

Randy says as he walks over to the counter and leans on the other side of it. You know, I have to say right here that Marilee was right all of those times she went on and on about the grill guy’s eyes. He does have these amazing eyes that are blue and gray all swirled together and they crinkle when he smiles. Marilee never said anything about the crinkling. And his hair isn’t bad either. It’s full and dark and touchable. Not to mention that he’s tall, but not too tall. And he moves like an athlete. I don’t know that he has a San Marino look, but whatever his look is, it’s good.
    Okay, so I need to get a grip on myself. I turn to Lizabett. “Things have changed since I Love Lucy. ”
    There’s nothing like Lucille Ball to throw some cold water on a fantasy. She might have claimed to make it without talent, but that doesn’t really happen.
    “Don’t worry about that,” Lizabett says as she puts the Variety down on the counter. “Lucille Ball only said she didn’t have any talent—everyone knows she really did. We’re always our own worst critic. Maybe you have more talent than you think, too. Besides, you just seem like a movie star.”
    “You’re the one who dances, I don’t. And I can’t sing. I can knit now, but that’s only thanks to Rose and I don’t think there’s a demand to see actresses knit. I don’t know what I can do that might be a talent.”
    “You can walk,” Lizabett says firmly.
    Both Randy and I look at her.
    “Of course I can walk .”
    “No, I mean like a movie star. If you just walk across the screen, people will know you were born to be a star.”
    “There haven’t been silent movies for almost eighty years,” I say gently. I hate to be the one to disappoint anyone. “If someone is going to be an actress these days, they need to talk, too. I have a pretty average voice.”
    Lizabett is hunched over her newspaper scanning the casting calls like she’s expecting a miracle.
    I hear footsteps in the back of the diner.
    “What’s up?” Marilee says as she walks toward us. She takes her baseball cap off and shakes her head to make her hair fluff out a little. Marilee used to wear baseball caps all the time and now she only wears them when she’s back in her office doing the books for the diner. She says they help her think.
    “We’re trying to get Carly a place in the movies,” Randy says.
    I watch Randy looking at Marilee, but the pupils in his eyes don’t get bigger or anything. I read once that you can tell if a man is attracted to a woman because his pupils dilate when he looks at her.
    “I probably need to have experience before I can get a part,” I say, trying to keep a good grasp on reality.
    Randy shifts his shoulders so he can look at me while I’m talking. I’m not sure, but I think his pupils do get a little darker. Maybe it’s the change in the light, though.
    “Here’s one you don’t need experience to get,” Lizabett says as she holds up the newspaper. “It says right here. ‘No singing needed.’”
    I stop looking at Randy’s eyes and look at the newspaper. “But they’d still expect some acting.”
    Lizabett shakes her head. “It says you need to be calm and able to walk serenely across the stage with a pack attached.”
    “Well, you can walk serenely, that’s for sure,” Marilee says. “You had to do that when you were the queen in the Rose Parade. You could even wave at people if you needed to. You did that, too.”
    “And a pack—that’s nothing,” Randy adds. “You had to stand for hours on that float with a crown on your head.”
    “And you like animals,” Lizabett says as though that settled everything.
    “I have a cat. That doesn’t mean animals. What kind of a job is that, anyway? I’m not doing a circus show. I’m afraid of heights.”
    “It’s not a circus show,” Lizabett says. “It’s the Christmas pageant that’s going to be at the North Hollywood Cathedral. They’re running it just like community