Page 27 of Mr. Fixer Upper
Gannon shook hands with Carina and grinned when she squeaked out a greeting. He solemnly offered his hand to Malia who handed Paige her donut and wiped her hand on her purple sweater so she could shake.
“Are you ready for today, pipsqueak?” he asked Malia.
She grinned up at him. “I’m getting a pink room,” she announced. “Do you have a fever?”
Gannon slapped a hand to his forehead and frowned. “No. I don’t think so.”
“My mama says you’re hot, hot, hot.”
Paige couldn’t stifle her laughter. Carina looked like she wanted to die on the spot. Malia, on the other hand, was waiting for an answer from Gannon.
His bark of laughter turned heads around the tent, but he recovered quickly. “I promise I don’t have a fever.”
“Oh, good.” Malia breathed a sigh of relief. “’Cause then you would have to go home and rest, and you couldn’t help build our house.”
“It was really nice meeting you,” Carina said, sounding as though she was being strangled. “We’re just going to go… over here.” She dragged Malia across the tent, and Paige’s laughter let loose.
“I love when kids sell out their parents,” Gannon grinned.
Paige recovered enough to reach for a cup of coffee. “That was really nice of you to come in early and make sure Malia would be comfortable with you.”
“I’m a nice guy,” he insisted.
“You look like one now, but you’ll have to remind me when you’re throwing a hissy fit and flipping a work table.”
He looked offended. “I have never once flipped a work table.”
“Maybe not, but you’ve thrown plenty of hissy fits,” she argued.
“Hey, you’re talking to the guy who brought you the best pizza that Portland, Maine, has to offer last night.”
“And I thank you for your generosity, but I don’t think last night should happen again.” Paige looked pointedly around them, keeping her voice low.
Gannon’s eyes skimmed over her face to the neckline of her t-shirt and widened. He hooked a finger into the scoop neck, a deliberately intimate move. “You’re mic-ed.”
Paige felt the color drain from her face. The last line of their conversation rang in her head.I don’t think last night should happen again.They hadn’t even begun filming, and she’d already added fuel to the fire. She tried to push past him, but he caught her and spun her around to face away from him. “Relax,” he ordered.
He tugged at the hem of her shirt. And Paige nearly screamed.Why was he taking her clothes off? What the hell was happening?
“Mic’s not hot,” he said, pulling her shirt back down.
The microphone’s power pack was clipped on the back of her jeans and apparently not on. Relief had her forgetting to mind her words. “Jesus, I thought you were undressing me,” she gasped out and then clapped a hand over her mouth. One plane ride with him had her spilling her guts, filter-free.
Gannon’s expression changed subtly going from amused to something… darker, edgier. “Princess, when I’m undressing you, you’ll know it.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
True to their word, the Kings had cooked up a scheme to detract from the rampant speculation about Gannon and Paige getting naked. #NapsWithGannon was trending on Twitter thanks to Cat and the rest of the crew sharing photos with people napping on Gannon.
Paige’s personal favorite was the one of grumpy-looking Gannon cradling the two hundred and fifty-pound Louis in his arms while Louis pretended to sleep. The rest of Twitter began to respond with Photoshopped versions of the pictures, some of which ended up on the gossip blogs and a late-night talk show or two, fueling the fun.
Paige felt as though she’d dodged a bullet when requests for comments stopped piling up in her Facebook inbox. The network was still hell-bent on her being part of the show, but at least the world wasn’t still questioning whether or not she’d played a role in destroying reality TV’s hottest couple.
“One more season,” Paige chanted to herself until she remembered she was mic-ed. She continued to set up the interview booth in silence. She’d set up under a popup in the front yard so the house would provide the backdrop. The action in the background of swarming construction teams and volunteers combined with the interview should keep viewers interested.
Paige waved Carina over and ran through the questions for the interview with her. She didn’t want to risk upsetting her or Malia with an insensitive question or assume that Malia knew more about her condition than she did.
“These are all fine,” Carina assured her. “Honestly, Mal knows as much about her cancer as I do. She wants to be a cancer doctor when she grows up.”
