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Chapter One

Kieran

“Fuck this,” I muttered, entirely to myself and praying nobody else heard. I was on the set of the most recent renovation for Heartland Overhaul, the reality TV show for which I was the interior designer, and things were going… poorly would be an understatement. For some reason, the town’s new facilities manager, Andy Donahue, had made it his life’s mission to annoy me, and that was exactly what he was doing right that minute. As I was sitting to the side of set, scrolling on my laptop for wallpaper samples to order, Andy was hovering over me and rejecting every selection I made.

“Kieran,” Andy snapped. “Be realistic.”

I sighed softly. “Andy…”

“We can’t afford that,” he said deliberately, as if he were talking to a child.

“Andy,” I tried again. “Look, we have plenty in the budget for this wallpaper. I’m only looking at things in our price range. I promise.”

“It’s too expensive,” he repeated. “Keep looking.”

I rubbed my forehead in exasperation. “Why don’t you go check in with Max? I’m sure he has something for you to look at. Probably.” Max was the Heartland Overhaul producer, a good friend of mine, and someone who tried to keep Andy away from me as much as he could—which felt impossible most days, honestly. It was like Andy had it out for me or something.

He huffed in annoyance but a few seconds later, Max came around the corner, smiling his wide, easy smile, the one that I just knew he was using to placate Andy.

“Andy, Kieran.” He nodded at us. “Things going well I take it?”

I looked at Max with wide eyes and exhaled slowly. “Great.”

Andy, on the other hand, turned to Max with a deep frown on his face. “He won’t stick to the budget.”

“I—that’s not true,” I protested. I’d let Andy get away with a lot, but telling Max I wasn’t doing my job properly, that was too far.

“What’s going on?” Max asked carefully.

“I’m trying to pick out some wallpaper samples, but Andy doesn’t like anything I’ve suggested so far.”

Andy glared at me. “We don’t need anything splashy. Neutral is fine.”

I exhaled sharply through my nose. “We’re not doing Millennial Gray for wallpaper in a library.”

“It’s the best value for our money,” he said pointedly.

I fought the urge to flip him off.

Max had a small smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, and I could see he was suppressing his amusement. It didn’t take long for Jake, Max’s partner and the project foreman, to make his way over to us, too.

“What’s the party over here?”

As Max briefly explained, I pressed my fingers to my temples, desperate to get out of this conversation, this day, this reno. Hell, this job.

That last thought made me freeze for a moment. Did I really want out of the job? I liked working with my best friends on Heartland Overhaul, but now that we were on our third episode of the season, I was realizing that maybe I didn’t love the town renovation gig as much as I thought I would.

“Kier,” Max said calmly. “Do you think we can find some samples that would satisfy both sides? Things that fall into the budget and are clean, streamlined, simple, but not too boring or too gray?”

I bit my cheek to keep from snapping out something I didn’t want to say, and closed my eyes briefly. “Sure. I’ll do that.”

Andy let out a sound that was more of a hmph than anything.

Jake put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “Andy, we appreciate your contribution, but Kieran is the professional here. Let’s let him do his job.”

“I’m a professional, too,” Andy shot back.

Everyone looked at Andy with exasperation—including me. Then I turned my gaze to Jake and Max. “Thanks Jake, but it seems like Andy knows better than I do what the inside of a historic library should look like. He probably has opinions about furniture, tile patterns, and the wood grain for the circulation desks, too.” I closed my laptop and stood. “I’ll be in the production trailer if anyone needs me.”