Page 37 of Mr. Fixer Upper
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Paige did her best to compartmentalize her feelings on set that afternoon, but holy hell. She’d climbed Gannon like a tree and grinded on him with a desperation that scared the ever-living crap out of her. Now, she was counting down the hours until she could go back to the hotel and at least shower before she let Gannon ravage her. Or she ravaged him.
All of her very logical doubts about her job, his absolute wrongness for her, were still there. But they were much quieter since they’d kissed… and nearly gotten naked.
She wanted him. He wanted her. They were two single, consenting adults who could keep a secret. So what if the network wanted this to happen? So what if it would be career suicide?
Okay, that one still bothered her.Which was exactly why she wasn’t going to think about it. She had a whole host of other things to think about, and thankfully Gannon wasn’t here on set to further distract her. He was shooting an hour and a half away on location at a metal shop where they were creating a custom canopy for Malia’s princess bed. Lou and Mel were with him.
Here at the Dufour house, Paige was in charge of wrangling Malia’s class from school in helping Cat with a giant mural for the little girl’s bedroom. Twenty-three six- and seven-year-olds were currently running amok on set.
Rico and Tony were shooting the chaos while Cat snapped selfie after selfie with the kids.
The late afternoon sky was darkening ominously with swollen clouds that Paige willed to pass. The last thing they needed was to juggle filming, children, and a storm.
“Okay, let’s get this circus under a tent,” Paige said into her headset. She flagged down Sam and enlisted his help herding the kids into the second tent they’d set up in the Dufour driveway. The parents were all ushered into the craft services tent where plenty of coffee and snacks awaited. It didn’t leave a lot of room for the shooters to maneuver, but if it was going to rain, they needed to be under some kind of roof.
Paige wished Cat would have had this brilliant brainstorm before shooting commenced because she could have arranged to do it at the local elementary school rather than having an entire class running around a construction site. But it was a lesson learned for future shows.
Paige stood in the tent entrance subtly blocking the way out so none of the kids could wander without her seeing them. Cat stood in the center with Billie Brunelli—whose son, a bespectacled little guy with freckles and a Brunelli construction shirt, was in Malia’s class.
There was no point in blocking the scene. Cat would go where she needed to go, and Rico and Tony would follow as best they could. They were hoping for a few minutes of cute kid footage and an end product that could be used in the reveal.
Cat handed out blank canvases to groups of three and explained the hand printing process. The parents had been warned in advance to send their kids to the set in clothing that could be destroyed. The show had coughed up an additional hundred bucks in the budget for kid-sized volunteer shirts that would soon be unrecognizable under shades of pink and purple paint.
It was chaos, but cute chaos. It sounded like a cafeteria with all the chatter under the tent. It was so loud that Paige almost mistook the long rumble of thunder for a truck on the street. Her phone vibrated silently, but insistently, in her pocket. She pulled it out, expecting to see a call from Mel, but was greeted instead with a weather alert.
Severe thunderstorm warning for their location.
As if to punctuate the alert, the wind gusted behind her, rippling the tent walls and drawing squeals from the kids. A bolt of lightning forked across the darkened sky behind her and a long roll of thunder echoed on its heels.
“Shit.” Paige muttered into her headset. “Andy, I think we’re gonna need to get everyone inside in the basement.”
She saw him nod across the tent before he called cut. Cat looked up from where she was immersed in a painting with two kids. “Okay, everyone.” Paige clapped her hands. “We’re going to take a little break and go inside.”
The thunder crashed outside and a handful of kids screamed. Cat and Andy sprang into action, marshaling the kids into a line.
Paige got back on her headset and yelled for Sam. “Sam, I need you to get all the adults in the house. Storms coming in fast.”
Rico headed outside first with his camera to get the kids as they hustled out of the tent behind Cat. “Everyone keep going!” Cat yelled into the wind. The clouds burst open sending the first fat drops falling to earth. Andy ducked out of the tents waving parents over and directing them into the house.
“Basement, everyone! Go!”
Paige stood by the tent entrance with Tony counting little heads as they ran by.
“Twenty-one,” she said as the last little boy jogged past. “Shit. We’re missing two, unless I miscounted. She ducked her head out into the yard. Andy and Cat were rushing everyone inside.
Lightning struck again, this time close enough that the hair on her arms stood up.
“I need a headcount,” Paige shouted into her headset.
She heard garbled voices coming through on the other end and knew it would be impossible to get a definitive number with everyone crammed into the house. “Goddamn it,” she muttered. “Tony, go inside, I need to make sure no one else is still out here.”
She didn’t wait for his response but ran toward the back of the tent. There were tall studio lights set up against one wall of the tent that was billowing like a jet was taking off outside. Back in the corner there were two tables stacked with art supplies and boxes. Paige spotted a little sneaker with ducks on it and then another one. She jumped over still wet canvases on the ground and ducked down.
Two tear-stained faces greeted her. The little boy was holding his hands over his ears, and the little girl was stroking his leg and telling him everything would be okay.
“Found them!” Paige said into her headset. “Hi guys, I’m Paige. I’m going to take you inside so we don’t get wet from the rain, okay?”
