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“We’re shooting inside the main house this afternoon, so we might need you to hang around,” Rourke said.
“I have an appointment at one and 3:30 in the trailer,” Audrie said.
“You cleared it with Christian?” Landon didn’t want to shut the rest of the people at the table out, but her words had caught his attention. Besides, this affected everyone sitting here in light of the conversation they’d been having. “Being able to have clients on the property and all.”
Audrie nodded. “I told you I could handle it. He’s like a brother to me.”
“He’s a great guy,” Rourke said. “Anyway, we’re trying to wrap around five or so. Next week, we have a bunch of night shoots, so we want to knock out all the day stuff where we can.”
Landon looked over at Audrie. “Rourke likes to limit work hours on his sets. Nobody has to put in fifteen- or twenty-hour days. That’s not the case with many location shoots.”
“That’s what makes Sugar Cookie Productions so great to work with,” Michael said.
Michael was actually smiling. That seemed uncharacteristic of him, but he was looking at Audrie as he did so. Did she bring out the soft side of Michael? That was saying a lot. Maybe she could warm up Jessica.
That thought reminded him of the way Jessica had been acting with him earlier. He would scan the area for signs of her, but he was facing the wall. Besides, everything he wanted to look at was right here at this very table.
“That’s great,” Audrie said. “After my second appointment, I’ll check in on set. If they don’t need me, we’ll take a quick drive. I think I know where we can get some Christmas cards.”
He had no idea what she meant by “a quick drive.” He couldn’t imagine there was a greeting card store in Corbin, and even if there was, what were the odds they would have Christmas cards in stock in August?
But he wasn’t going to argue if it meant spending time with Audrie. He’d happily hop in a vehicle with her and see where the road took them.
5
Audrie stood beside the hair and makeup trailer watching Mrs. Posey as she backed out of the driveway. Partly, she feared her 3:30 appointment would crash into something since her attention was focused on the main house. But Audrie also wanted to make sure the older woman was on her way and not climbing out of her car and sneaking onto the set.
Once Mrs. Posey’s car disappeared through the shrubs, Audrie slid her purse strap higher on her shoulder and headed to the main house as planned. Mrs. Posey had begged to see what was going on—just a quick tour, she kept saying. But Audrie promised Christian she would not let her customers traipse around his property. Besides, Landon and Rourke had been nice enough to let her do this. The least she could do was keep the guests away.
They’d wisely done the outside shots in the morning, taking the scenes they were shooting in the hottest part of the day indoors. That meant they were all packed into Christian’s kitchen, which was spacious but not quite big enough to handle an entire film crew and all their equipment.
Audrie closed the door as quietly as she could manage, terrified she’d interrupt the scene. Only when she turned to face everyone did she realize they weren’t shooting at the moment. A few people toward the back of the cluster had turned to look at her.
“Sorry,” she said, grimacing.
There was no reason to apologize, really, but they all seemed so absorbed in what they were doing. Even though she was technically crew—for the next couple of days, anyway—she still felt like an outsider.
She spotted only one familiar face, and that was Tracie. “Audrie!” Tracie called out. “This is Audrie. She does hair.”
Now everybody was staring at her. She felt like shrinking back out the door.
Cameras were pointed in Tracie’s direction, and someone was holding a boom mic near her head. Only as Audrie rose up on tiptoe did she see Jessica sitting at the table. It was a table Audrie didn’t recognize. Had they replaced the furniture in here?
“Hi, everyone,” Audrie said, feeling suddenly very self-conscious. “I was just here to see if anyone needed me for anything.”
She tugged at the tie on her apron a couple of times to point out that she was equipped with all the hair supplies someone might need. Since they were working inside today, maybe they didn’t need a touch up.
“I’m good,” Jessica said without so much as a glance in Audrie’s direction.
And then everyone went back to what they were doing. Audrie may as well not have even been standing there.
She didn’t care, though. She was scanning the room for signs of Landon. She didn’t see him or his brother.
“Places, everyone!” Michael called out.
Uh-oh. She was going to be stuck here on the other side of the scene if she didn’t act soon. As everyone maneuvered around, Audrie squeezed through the crowd and beelined toward the living room. She could get to the rest of the house from there and, if worse came to worst, she could head to the deck and take the steps down to the bank. Hopefully, she’d find Landon before then.
The living room had another surprise in store for her. She froze just inside the doorway, hardly able to believe her own eyes. It looked like a gigantic crate of Christmas decorations had exploded. Every wall was covered in some sort of lit greenery and there were stockings all along the fireplace. A huge Christmas tree was in the corner closest to the doors leading to the deck. The Snow family had never gone this far at Christmastime.
