Page 15 of Hot SEAL, Under Pressure

She turned to follow his gaze. It didn’t matter how good they looked, because Joanne had her heart set on Clay and Tasha. And what Joanne wanted she was used to getting.

Pregnant. Jeez. What were the odds? Although Tasha had said she’d gained a few pounds and her boobs were bigger. Not being a mother, Shelly had completely missed that clue.

Getting a glance at Clay where he still spoke with Nick, Zach, and Gabby, she had to admit with how hot these guys were, it was more of a surprise there hadn’t been a NMM baby long before this.

These couples were going to make gorgeous babies. Through her misery aboutUnder Pressurepossibly dying before it even began, another idea struck her.

They could build a show around Tasha’s pregnancy.

Hot House Baby.Baby in the House.Hot Babies…no. That last one kind of sucked.

It didn’t matter. She’d think of a good title. Then she’d pitch it to Joanne, at the same time she told her boss Clay had put his foot down and wasn’t going to let Tasha do anything as physical as this competition when she was carrying his baby.

Hopefully the idea of a ratings-grabbing baby, not to mention the new viewership and sponsors a baby would attract, would distract Joanne from the fact they’d lost Clay and Tasha for this show.

Until then, she needed to get this sizzle reel shot, edited and to Joanne before the end of the week. Then, if—when—a network greenlit the show, she’d come up with an eighth team. All she needed was another SEAL and another civilian.

Brian had performed some magic, hooking her up with a short list of SEALs who had recently gotten out of the Navy but still lived in the area. She’d contacted them and once they heard they’d be getting paid they were totally into it.

She would have to go back to Brian and ask for one or two more SEAL recommendations and then revisit some of the women they’d considered during the open call.

But that was a problem for later. Today, they needed to get moving.

She eyed the SEALs gathered around the start of the course watching one of their own systematically work his way through the obstacles. He was currently climbing a high wall like he was born to do it.

“Jerry. Can you get these guys on tape?” she asked as she watched the impressive performance.

“On it.” The camera already on his shoulder, he moved closer to the action.

“Me too?” the sound guy asked.

The image of the edited footage of the SEALs dominating the obstacle course on the opening of the teaser reel coalesced in her mind.

“Yeah. Camera two as well.”

He nodded and moved off while she spun and searched for the new guy who’d just started and was acting today as her assistant. She hoped he was on top of things.

“Jonas!” she called. When he turned and trotted closer, she asked, “Any chance you’ve got some blank release forms with you?”

“Got ’em in the van.” He tipped his head toward where they’d parked the production vehicles.

“Can you get all of those SEALs over there to each sign a release? That way we can use what we capture today for B-roll. It’ll be good filler.”

And she might need filler, and lots of it, now that one of her teams had dropped out.

“You got it.” Jonas took off at a run, reminding her of herself her first week on the job. Back when she was new and eager and full of energy and dreams.

That feeling of life and her career being bright, shiny and new was long gone.

Today, she was in charge and she felt the weight of that in every fiber of her being.

Joanne had shown huge confidence in her, an associate producer, by letting her run this shoot.

Of course, Joanne hadn’t had much choice. She’d had to have faith in Shelly. This shoot had been thrown together so last minute that all the usual directors and producers were already tied up on other sets, working on other projects.

No matter how she’d gotten put in charge for the day, Shelly couldn’t let Joanne down. This was her opportunity to prove herself and she wasn’t going to screw it up.

Baby, or no baby, her future depended on making this happen.

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