Page 1 of Meet Me in Ivy Falls

Chapter One

TORRAN

Being Front and Center Gives Me Hives.

I needed a win.

Wait, let me rephrase.

I needed a big freaking win.

It’s all I could think about as I stood in the kitchen of my latest project: the historical renovation of a 1904 Craftsman bungalow that needed all the TLC it could get.

TLC. Tender loving care. That’s all many of the old houses in Ivy Falls needed. But my business partner Manny swore the phrase meant Tired, Laughable and should be Condemned when it came to the properties we bought.

Not this property though. This one was special. This one was going to change everything, and after the long months of grief I’d been wading through I needed this to go right.

Most days it was just me and Manny moving through the house along with a few contract workers who helped with plumbing, electrical and drywall. Today, the kitchen was filled with cables and wires that resembled a tangle of black snakes. Those wires powering interrogation-bright lights and film cameras that sat in various corners of the newly renovated kitchen.

‘Torran, we’re almost ready for you,’ Lauren Gillroy, the producer for Hearth and Home Network, said to me before turning to the director of photography and discussing where they wanted me to stand for the one-on-one interview.

Manny walked in my direction, his fingers pinching the brim of his Tennessee Titans baseball cap. Like he was navigating around quicksand, he carefully moved his hulking body, taking care not to jostle any of the equipment that looked like it’d cost a year’s worth of work to replace.

‘Remember to say the countertops are quartz not marble. People always get that mixed up.’ He scrubbed at the black whiskers on his chin. ‘Also, the wall color is called “Forest Flow” and plays nicely off the custom cabinets.’

‘I know I’m not as smooth as some supermodel strutting the catwalk, but I can give a simple description of the kitchen. If you happen to remember, the quartz was my choice. So was the paint color.’ I jokingly poked a finger into his thick shoulder. ‘I promise I have this under control.’

Manny quirked a thick eyebrow at me. He wasn’t my brother but he should have been by the way he could sense my moods, and today’s mood screamed anxious with a good dash of terrified.

‘You’ve got this, Tor. Pretend it’s only you and me walking the house. As usual, you’re trying to convince me that a rat hole with crumbling walls and hundred-year-old plumbing can be a shiny gem one day. You always have a vision. A focus for a house just like you did for this one. Talk about that and you’ll be fine.’ He gave me a steady gaze like he was willing me his incredible strength.

‘Okay, yes.’ I nodded like an idiot. ‘If I can live through repairing a broken sewer line, I can definitely handle a basic interview.’

I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince more – him or me.

Several times I’d told Lauren that Manny should be doing the interview. That I was a behind-the-scenes, didn’t-mind-getting-dirt-in-my-hair-and-drywall-on-my-skin kind of girl. Being front and center gave me hives, but Lauren insisted demographics showed female viewers connected more with a show when a woman was on camera. Lauren clearly knew this business. She spouted ratings data and advertising revenue numbers like she studied them day and night. The last thing I wanted was to upset her because this TV pilot could change our lives.

The walls of the kitchen tightened in as more cameramen and assistants filled the small square space. Lauren swept across the room in three-inch heels. Her curtain of shiny black hair swung behind her. ‘Manny, I need you up on the ladder doing touch-ups to the wall with the green paint.’

He gave me one last reassuring smile before moving past the wide picture window above the sink to the ladder set up in a corner near the creamy white cabinets with the nickel hardware.

‘Torran, I want you next to the outer edge of the island. We’ll start with you in the frame and then I’ll need you to walk back and allow the camera to pan out as you speak.’ Lauren pointed to an X made with black electrical tape on the other side of the island. ‘Stop at that spot. When the director gives you the signal, begin with all the details needed to make this kitchen so stunning.’

Warmth filled my cheeks at the compliment and I agreed to her direction.

Once I was in position in front of the island, a slate clapped down and the director pointed at me to start.

‘When we first bought this house, the floor below us was crumbling.’ My voice came out shakier than a jackhammer against concrete. ‘Manny spent days under the house to ensure the foundation was stable.’

A flash of my mom blazed through my head. What would she say about all this? Would she tell me to slow down? Speak clearly? Smile when I could?

Make it right, Torran.

It was the last thing she’d said as she was taking her final breaths. In that moment I didn’t need her to explain. She knew about my goal to save the dying history of Ivy Falls. Had seen me visibly shudder as more than one historic house in town was taken down by a wrecking ball or a massive excavator. We were one step closer to that dream once we finished shooting this last scene in the house, and I had to do everything to make sure it went perfectly.

The camera tracked me as I walked behind the island. Blood pounded in my ears. The noises in my head, the ones that screamed I wasn’t good enough, that I wasn’t smart enough or lucky enough to pull this off, grew louder. I was supposed to stop at the mark on the floor, but my dark thoughts snowballed. If I couldn’t get this pilot right, the show wouldn’t get picked up. We’d lose our shot at getting the money we desperately needed to float our construction business. To buy more homes before the town council condemned them. To preserve the history of Ivy Falls for future generations. The last few months we’d been scraping by, always managing to give enough money to our creditors to keep them at bay for one more month.

I shook off the darkness. Forced myself to remember what we’d rehearsed. What Manny said about pretending I was only talking to him.