Page 30 of At the Heart of It
She blinked. “Then why—” She stopped, remembering their conversation in Ashland. “That’s right, you said your sister runs a pet rescue center?”
“Yep.” He set down his drink and grabbed a piece of pizza out of the box. “She owns Clearwater Animal Shelter. She also owns me, come to think of it.” He grinned and took a bite of pizza, but there was something in his eyes that Kate couldn’t read. It was somewhere between pride and sadness, which seemed so incongruous that she wasn’t sure she was reading him right at all.
Kate slid a slice of pizza onto her own plate and wondered if it would be weird to ask for a fork. Probably. She needed to just go with the flow. If she wanted any hope of persuading Jonah to do the show, she needed to come off as friendly and unassuming.
Requiring flatware to eat pizza wasn’t very unassuming.
“I have to admit I don’t know a whole lot about reality television,” Jonah said. “What’s your job in all this, exactly?”
“For this show, I’m the executive producer,” Kate said. “But I’ve also asked to be on site as a field producer.”
“Is that unusual?”
“Sort of. The executive producer is the one with the big-picture vision for the show, and the field producer is on the ground helping to capture footage and steer the day-to-day filming. In this case, I wanted to do both.”
“That sounds like a lot of work.”
“It is, but it’s important work.” She smiled, feeling a little awkward as she spread a few paper napkins over her lap. “This show is kind of my baby.”
“I caught that.” Jonah helped himself to another slice of pizza.
“So,” Kate said, taking a small bite before she continued, “you’re open to hearing about the TV show.”
“Yes. May I first tell you what I’m not open to?”
She arched a brow at him, then wondered if she looked like the cat. “This isn’t sounding like a good start for openness.”
He shrugged and took a big bite of pizza, chewing and swallowing before he spoke again. “I just don’t want to waste anyone’s time here, so I need to put this out on the table.”
“By all means.”
Jonah cleared his throat. “I’m not willing to fake it,” he said. “I’m not going to make up handyman projects or talk about NASCAR or scratch my junk on TV or anything else they think will help me look more like an average, blue-collar guy.”
“Okay.” Kate nodded and made a mental note to put No junk scratching in an email to the network execs. “Would you be okay with continuing to offer the sort of blunt, no-filter commentary you gave in On the Other Hand? That’s the part of Average Joe that everyone fell in love with.”
“Maybe,” he said. “I’m not willing to play dumb. And I don’t want to be made to look dumb.”
“Understandable.” She took another bite of pizza as she waited for him to continue. “What else?” she prompted. “What are your other conditions?”
“I’m willing to collaborate and be friendly with Viv because we are friendly,” he said. “More or less.”
“I got that from the kind and tender way you told her to fuck off.”
Jonah offered a small, chagrined smile. “Sometimes exes bring out the worst in us.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
Jonah leaned back in his chair and took a swig of tea from the bottle. A cat the size of a small automobile took it as an invitation to jump up onto his lap.
“Get down, Porky,” Jonah said as he eased the enormous beast onto the floor. “Your dinner is cooling.”
The big gray cat growled and sauntered away. Jonah turned his attention back to Kate. “I suppose Viv would say you can’t blame someone else for making you act a certain way,” he said. “That people control their own words and actions.”
“You don’t agree?”
He shrugged. “You can’t blame others for your actions, but you also can’t help how you feel. And sometimes certain people bring out the worst kind of feelings in you. It’s up to you whether to act on them, but feeling like shit never brought out anyone’s best personality traits.”
“I suppose that’s true.” Kate took a sip of tea. “So is that it for your conditions?”
