Page 15 of Love like the (Real) Reel Thing
“Uh, Jess, are you okay?”
She blinked. “Good, yep.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I was saying that I heard some of the crew are already here.”
“Yes, I met the director and assistant producer, and the woman in charge of publicity earlier. I can’t believe SpencerTorres and Afric Brooks are arriving later today. I loved their last movie.”
A beat passed and then he gave a teasing smile. “Should I warn them?”
“No need, I promise.” Jess grinned. “I’ve just never been this close to Hollywood before. What about you?”
“Oh, I’m in the inner circle,” he said. “Anyway, I’m finished here now. Are you still working?”
Jess checked the time. It was after six. “Nope, I think I can safely finish for the day.”
“I’m heading back to the village,” he said. “Can I walk back with you?”
Jess did a quick mental check of what she’d left at the castle. She didn’t need any of it tonight, and anything important was locked in Ian’s office. “Sure.”
They headed across the field towards the main driveway to the castle. As they got to the edge, Robert stopped. “Turn around now and have a look.”
Jess turned and scanned the three sides of the set with the centre bandstand. “It looks great, very realistic.”
“The set designers did a good job.” Robert glanced over at the castle. “So, I hear some of the staff are signing up to be extras?”
“Yep.” Jess nodded. “Half the locals will probably put their names forward too, won’t they? What about you?”
“Too busy. And no burning desire to hang around a set doing nothing all day.”
They reached the castle’s huge wrought-iron gates and walked up the small road that led to the village.
“Listen,” he said, “I feel bad doing this, but I’m going to have to take a rain check on that coffee. I’ve been asked to look at a job in Ballina, and the client is only free that day.”
“Oh, yeah, no, that’s grand, don’t worry.” Jess managed a smile. Maybe he was regretting asking to meet. Or she’d read the situation wrong and he was just trying to be friendly?
“You know, I was just about to treat myself to a pub dinner at The Tin Whistle.” Robert looked thoughtful. “Why don’t you join me?”
Jess hesitated. Coffee was fine, but dinner? She’d only met Robert and, if things got awkward, she’d spend the whole six weeks down here trying to avoid him.
“We’ll go Dutch if that makes you feel any better,” he said, correctly guessing what she was thinking.
She gave a reluctant laugh. “I guess I do need to eat. And I haven’t had a chance to do any shopping yet.” She glanced down. “Am I okay like this?”
He smirked. “You’re probably overdressed, but the locals will forgive you if you’re with me.”
She needed to stop overthinking things and just go with the flow for a while. This wasn’t serious. It was just a meal with a nice guy. At most, it was a bit of harmless flirting.
And it was exactly what she needed to forget about Adam.
CHAPTER 9
Filming ofAn Irish Inheritance– the new romantic comedy co-starring Spencer Torres and Afric Brooks – will get underway today at Mayo’s luxury Linford Castle. The cast and crew arrived at Linford at the weekend and will also stay in the Victorian-style hotel for the duration of the shoot.
While the American scenes were shot in Seattle in late April, the majority of filming will happen at the five-star castle hotel.
A spokesperson for the production company, Blue Star Studios, told theDaily Globethat two of the castle suites and all the common areas including the Great Hall, the orangery and foyer, as well as an outdoor set on its extensive grounds, will be used for filming.
@starzwatch: As filming ofAn Irish Inheritancegets underway at Mayo’s 5-star Linford Castle, it’srumoured that Spencer Torres has asked to stay in one of the luxury cottages in the grounds, as far away as possible from co-star Afric Brooks who’s settling into the hotel’s infamous Lady Linford Suite.
