Page 49 of Mr. Fixer Upper
“You look like you got hit by a dump truck,” he said, leaning his elbows on his knees.
“I kind of feel that way, too.”
“Anything broken?”
She shook her head. “Nothing serious. Should be back to normal in no time.”
He nodded and stared out at the front of the Dufour’s house, which was currently being re-sided while Louis shot some footage. “House is looking good,” he ventured.
“Eddie. You might as well get to it.”
“I’m here primarily to head off any legal issues that might arise from ‘the incident,’” he said, tossing up lazy air quotes. “Got some worker’s comp stuff to fill out. And the suits want you to sit down with me or Andy and walk through the ‘incident’ step-by-step. Talk about how harrowing it was to almost die on camera. Maybe work up a few tears. You know the drill.”
She did and had anticipated as much.
“But there’s more, isn’t there?” she prodded.
Eddie yanked off his Orioles ball cap and shoved a hand through his curling gray hair. “They want Tony out.”
“What?” Paige gasped. The sharp breath hurt her ribs and pretty much everything else. “That’s not going to happen,” she argued. “He pulled us out of there. He carried that little girl into the house and then came back and dug me out from under two fucking circus tents.”
“Well, see, the network feels that he should have continued to film instead of getting involved.”
“That is bullshit, and you know it, Eddie.”
“Have you watched the footage?”
“No, I’ve been busy being in the hospital,” she snapped.
“Now, look, kid. I don’t like this either. So I need your help.”
He wasn’t asking her to fire Tony, Paige realized. He was asking her to come up with a way out of it. “I’ll quit, and I’ll sue if they fire him,” she told him.
Eddie was shaking his head. “Not big enough.” He wasn’t saying it to be mean. It was just a fact that field producers were just about as plentiful as production assistants. If she quit, they’d fly in some other idiot to replace her the same day.
Well, if she wasn’t big enough, she knew who was.
“Andy, can you send Gannon and Cat out here as soon as you wrap that scene?” Paige said into her headset.
“You’ve got an idea?” Eddie asked.
“Tony’s not going anywhere,” Paige promised.
“We’re resetting for a new shot,” Andy reported in her ear. “You can have them for ten minutes.”
“Works for me.”
They came out of the garage both covered in dust and dirt. Gannon with his powerful strides and Cat with her dancer-like stroll, their long legs eating up the driveway as if it were a catwalk. Paige saw the tightening around Gannon’s jaw, knew he was expecting a fight.
“Eddie,” Gannon said, offering his hand.
Eddie shook it enthusiastically. “Good to see you both. This season’s shaping up to be pretty great.”
Gannon said nothing, but Cat gave Eddie her “for the cameras smile.”
“So what do we owe the honor?” Cat asked. Her tone was friendly, but Paige knew better than to be fooled by that.
“Eddie has some news,” Paige told them. “Go ahead, Eddie.”
