She washed her face, grateful that it wasn’t later in the year and dawn had in fact broken. It wouldn’t be long before she was making the short drive over to Mac’s in pitch black, which was just cruel. She wassonot a morning person. Maybe she should have looked into being a bank teller or a town clerk. Except Pine Harbour only needed one of each, and Shannon and Lindsay seemed quite happy in their roles.
She arrived at work thirty seconds before her quarter to seven start time.
“Cutting it close, Olivia,” Frank teased.
“Had to make myself beautiful for you, boss.” She gestured at her black fitted t-shirt and dark blue jeans. Pretty much her standard uniform that took all of ten seconds to put on. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her face free of makeup other than a swipe of lip balm.
“It’s a good thing Rafe likes you just the way you are.”
“You do know we’re divorced, right?”
He raised his eyebrows and snorted. “Doyouknow that?”
“Don’t you have hash browns to make or something?” She’d deflect that conversation forever, even with Frank, who’d unexpectedly assumed a father figure role in her life. A grunting, unemotional father figure, maybe, but he was all she had.
The door chimed just as she hit brew on the first pot of coffee for the day. Two men walked in, one in a slick, pretty suit that screamedcity, the other in tight black jeans, studded belt, Doc Martens and a long-sleeved Social Distortion t-shirt. They looked about the same age, in their thirties, but other than that…yin and yang. And totally out of place in Mac’s. Olivia was instantly curious.
“Morning. Coffee’s just brewing. Can I get you menus?” she asked as they grabbed seats at the counter.
Suit nodded. She handed over the laminated sheets and gave them a minute before wandering back. “Can I get you started with a drink? Coffee or tea?”
Social D yawned. “Coffee for me, please. And keep refilling my cup.”
Suit wanted the same. Olivia pulled two clean mugs from the tray under the counter. As she poured, she asked, “So what brings you guys to Pine Harbour?”
“Location scouting,” Suit said at the same time as Social D said, “Cottage hunting.”
“Seriously?” Suit looked at his companion and laughed. “Like anyone would believe we’re buying a cottage together.”
Olivia suppressed a lip twitch and lifted her hands. “We get all sorts of strange bedfellows in here. But I’m betting the location scouting is the truth, huh? That sounds fun.”
Suit rolled his eyes. “Not fun if you leave Toronto at two in the morning because someone wanted to tuck his kids in last night, and be back for bedtime tonight.”
She couldn’t hold back her reaction tothatrevelation. “Awww! How many kids?”
Social D smiled for the first time since coming in and handed over his phone. “Three boys.”
“Gorgeous.” Not for the first time, she had a tiny pang of longing for the pile of love in the photo. Three mini-rockstar clones and a pretty brunette smiled up at her. She blinked away her personal thoughts—no point dwelling on what could have been. “Do you need another minute?”
They didn’t. She put up their orders, then greeted a few new customers, did a round with the coffee pot, and by the time she had a minute to stand behind the counter again, Suit had his business card out and was tapping it on the counter.
“Listen, you’re probably as good a place as any to start. We’re going to spend the morning driving around, but there’s no way we’re going to see everything we need to find in one day.” He handed over the card.Greg DeCecco,Locations Manager, Dancelight Productions. “This is Trey Rogers, he’s a freelance cinematographer working on this project.”
Social D held out his hand. “And you are…?”
“Olivia Minelli.” She shook his proffered hand. “This is pretty exciting, I gotta tell you. We get the occasional celebrity cottaging in the area, but a movie shoot would be neat.”
Greg nodded. “Here’s the deal. We’re here because my assistant did a pre-scouting mission and thinks Pine Harbour would be a perfect stand-in for a town in a project we’re working on. But given how far we are from the city—“ Ha. Spoken like a true Torontonian. There were two or three other cities that they would have driven through to get to the peninsula. “—We’d like to hire someone local to be a location assistant. It’s not a lot of money, more of an on-call type of gig, but might be good for someone just out of college or someone who wants a part-time job.”
Her heart started hammering in her chest.Me, pick me. She had a job. One that kept her pretty busy. But the lure of a bit of extra money that she could sock away. “Uhm, how long would you need someone to help out?”
“Six months, longer if they want to come on as a production assistant during filming, but our department will relocate here once filming starts, so that’s optional. Filming will start in April, if all goes well. We have a list of key sites that need to be sourced in one central area, then a list of secondary sites that could be filmed elsewhere—”
“But that’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves,” Trey interjected. “If you know anyone who might be interested…”
Could she stick around for another six months? A nervous flutter started in her gut. “Well…maybe me.” She offered what she hoped was a winning smile. “Depending on the terms, of course. I work here thirty-five hours a week, but I do split shifts sometimes, and finish early other days. I might have time for whatever you need.”
Behind her, Frank cleared his throat. “Hey, traitor. Orders up.”
