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“Good morning.” She smiled back and handed me the to-go bag from the coffee shop. “And how’s my perfect little nephew this morning, huh?” She picked the boy up and smooched his face good and proper. “Let’s get you some breakfast. Yeah, you gotta have food in your tummy before we go out on an adventure.”
Gah. Had to say I was a little jealous. It was gonna be rough not seeing Colin for three weeks.
I followed Haley out into the kitchen, and she wasted no time while she prepared Colin’s oatmeal.
“Okay, so first things first,” she said. “You and Roe are doing the food-truck thing tonight, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll get you content for at least seven posts.” That one was important to me. My tradition with Roe was alive and well, and we still brought Colin with us to Culver City for frequent food-truck dinners. Haley then spread my work out for various days of posting dinner recs on our Instagram. I liked getting the word out about my favorite food joints.
“Perfect—and you’re heading to Vermont right after Finland—”
“That’s been changed!” Roe hollered from down the hall.
I looked toward him as he left our studio and hurried toward us.
“We’re pushing Vermont to last,” he said. “I just got off the phone with Ortiz. We’ll come home after Finland, and then we have a week to catch our breath before we do New Mexico.”
Oh. Well, I liked that a lot more. Our schedule was gonna be hectic as it was, first doing this miniseries and then immediately jumping into filming for season three while we were technically still in preproduction. But with a whopping eighteen episodes, we had to take advantage and film whenever we could. A bigger production meant more puzzle pieces to fit together.
“In that case, we only have to plan for three weeks’ worth of posting,” Haley said. “Roe, don’t let Jake forget daily photo updates. I need—”
“M’ha-wee!” Colin yelled.
I pointed to him and eyed my sister. “He’s hungry.”
She laughed. “Even I caught that. You two go off and do your podcast. I got this. I’ll text y’all later.”
I chuckled and nodded. “All right. Thanks, hon.”
“By the way!” Haley said. “Nikki ain’t buying your sneakiness with money, just so you know.”
I furrowed my brow. “I know she’s not. That’s why I’m forcing you to do it for me. You’re supposed to call it a job perk.”
Did she think I was born yesterday? Nikki had long since stopped accepting money from me, unless it was warranted, of course, but if I occasionally wanted to treat the mother of my child to some nice shit she could do with our son, or on her own, I was gonna try every trick in the book. Now, she was gonna have Colin for three weeks straight, and I figured Nikki and Haley already liked to go to a spa together sometimes, so let me pay for it. Through Haley, obviously.
“That’s the crap she’s not buying, dork!”
“Not my problem.” I washed my hands of the whole thing and made my escape. “See ya tonight!”
Minutes later, Roe and I sat down in the studio—the door was locked to prevent sisters from barging in—and we donned our headphones shortly before seven AM.
The studio had really come together in the last couple of weeks. We shared the desk that took up an entire wall, right in front of the whiteboard, saving the rest of the room for what could be visible on-camera the day we went that route. A round table, comfortable chairs, our equipment, and a custom-made sign on the wall with the name of our podcast.
I unpacked our coffee and—oh, nice. Haley had bought breakfast sandwiches too.
This was why we invested in equipment that filtered out background noise. Nobody wanted to hear a person chew or clear their throat. Although, to be fair, we’d become pros at muting our mics when the situation called for it.
“Good morning, you’re Off Topic with Roe Finlay and Jake Denver,” Roe said as usual. “I’m Roe, and Jake’s absurdly excited to fly our new drone next week. You don’t wanna know what that thing cost.”
I grinned and took a swig of my coffee.
He wasn’t done. “I guess what I can say after working with a filmmaker for a couple years is that they’re outrageously expensive and snobby people.”
I laughed. “In other words, without me, you’d be looking at Roe’s mug through a phone camera. Look at this little critter, folks! Y’all can’t see it for the shitty resolution, but I swear it’s gorgeous. See ya next week!”
“I’d watch that show,” Roe told me, eyes brimming with mirth. “I sound adorable.”
“Which I can showcase with better equipment.” I smirked when he shrugged, and I decided to move forward. “But Roe is right. We’re stoked to be off to Scandinavia tomorrow, and my days of renting drones are over. I’m sure Roe will keep y’all posted on how ridiculous I look trying to maneuver the drone.”
