‘Um, nice to see you, too.’
Jackson’s disguise was so complete, with the heavy boots and walkie-talkie; he even had the muscled arms to fill out the uniform. ‘I never would have guessed it was you,’ she said, wondering why he would want to be mistaken for a security guard.
‘How about I take you and your two friends on a quick tour of the set?’ he offered, pushing his sunglasses up his nose. ‘To say thank you for standing up to Harry for me.’
‘That would be killer!’ Sophia said.
‘Quick, through here!’ Jackson pulled away one of the plastic barriers just enough for them to slip through. He looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching. ‘Get behind that truck!’
As Olivia ducked through first, Jackson whispered. ‘Don’t draw any attention to us or we’ll get swamped.’
‘What about Brendan?’ Ivy said as they stepped past the barriers.
‘We’ll meet up with him later,’ Sophia said, pushing her own way through. ‘Come on!’
Ivy and Sophia scurried behind the back of the truck, but as Olivia followed them she stumbled over the base of the hollow plastic barrier, making a loud thump. She fell against Jackson with a muffled squeak. In an instant, his strong arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her behind the truck. So much for not drawing any attention. Why am I such a goof ball in front of Jackson? Olivia thought.
‘I think we got away with it,’ Jackson said, risking a glance around the truck. He was still gently holding her arm. He noticed her looking down at his hand and pulled away. Olivia found herself loosening her knitted rainbow scarf.
‘Warm?’ Ivy asked.
Sophia grinned. ‘Despite the frost?’
Olivia shook her head, yanking at the scarf. ‘It’s all the excitement.’
‘The excitement?’ Ivy said, raising her eyebrows and directing a pointed look at Jackson.
‘I mean of sneaking in!’ Olivia hissed, digging an elbow into her sister’s ribs.
‘OK, ladies,’ Jackson said. ‘If you follow me, I will start your personal tour. There are a few safety procedures I must run through,’ he said, taking on an official tone. ‘In the unlikely event of a fire just leap over the barriers and run for it . . . and please don’t leave me behind.’
Olivia giggled.
He strode confidently out into the buzzing parking lot and the girls hurried to keep up.
‘This is so awesome!’ Sophia said.
Olivia was still wondering what made him get all dressed up. ‘Why the disguise?’ she asked.
Jackson steered them between two trailers, going deeper into the maze of trucks. ‘It gets really boring on set when you’re not filming.’
‘I can’t imagine getting bored on a movie set,’ Sophia replied.
Me neither, Olivia thought as a young man carried a stack of big cardboard posters with little squares laid out like a comic book.
Jackson noticed what she was looking at and explained. ‘Those are the storyboards. It’s the scene by scene plan of how the director wants the movie to look.’
‘So that blue blob sitting in the booth is you?’ Ivy asked.
Jackson chuckled. ‘Yes, this is a romantic comedy between two sketchy blobs.’
‘Love truly is universal,’ Ivy said, pretending to be philosophical and looking at Olivia and winking.
‘Ha ha,’ Olivia said, doing her best to give her sister a death stare.
I wish Ivy would stop teasing, Olivia thought. It’s hard enough not to do anything else stupid, without being constantly reminded how much I like him.
‘To answer your question,’ Jackson continued, ‘after my third movie, I had gotten used to all the movie madness. Plus a disguise lets me meet people without all the entourage and shrieking.’ He looked at Olivia and smiled.