empowering than any of that.
“Okay,” I said.
He stared down at me, his eyes widening. “Okay?”
“Okay.” I straightened my shoulders. “Just give me five minutes to freshen up and let’s do it.”
His lips pulled into a crooked grin that registered nine point nine on the Richter sexy scale.
After a quick stop in the car retouching my makeup and hair and drinking a bottle of water, I walked back to my mark and nodded, indicating I was ready to go.
When Jackson pointed at me, I took a deep breath. “What is love? I’m Josie Clarke and I’m going to be making my way across the nation on a quest to find the elusive answer to that question.
“Is love a curse? Our first stop is a charming community in Georgia. Firefly Island is a popular tourist destination complete with a breathtaking coastline, a delightful trolley system that serves as island transportation, and a web of picturesque canals and bike paths woven throughout the town. But is there a dark side to this idyllic community?”
I turned and motioned to the Colonial home before me. “I’m standing in front of the famed Abernathy Manor, which has been featured on several paranormal television shows including Ghost Hunters, and Haunted Hollows.
“A young woman named Lucille Abernathy lived in this estate. Lucille met and fell in love with a man who was beneath her station, a longshoreman named Bruce Comfort. The two had a torrid affair that ended in a secret engagement. When her family discovered that Lucille planned to marry, she was forced to choose between love or her family, wealth, and inheritance. She chose love and was disowned.
“But that was just the beginning of Lucille’s heartaches. After she was shunned, Lucille’s beloved called off their union and married a maid who worked for the Abernathy family. Heartbroken and in despair, Lucille tried to return to her family home but was turned away.
“The next day, the family woke to discover a window broken in the parlor. A search of the premises ended in a gruesome discovery. Lucille Abernathy was found deceased in her childhood bed. A note on her nightstand explained that she’d poisoned herself, but not before putting a curse on her betrothed and all of his male heirs. It doomed them to a lifetime of the same heartache that she had experienced. We’ll not only speak to locals on the island to see if they believe in the Comfort Curse, we’re going to meet the great-grandsons of that longshoreman and find out what they think of the curse that has haunted them for generations. Join us on this journey as we continue to ask the question, what is love?”
As I signed off, I felt like…me. I felt like I’d claimed a piece of myself. For the first time in… I couldn’t even remember. I’d done it. I’d faced my fear and was still standing. Did I know what the fallout was going to be? No. Would people dredge up my past and connect it to the show? Maybe. But for the first time in my life, I didn’t care.
If someone had a problem with me doing my job, fuck ’em.
Chapter 15
Jackson
“I like a man who gets a little jealous, darling. It shows he cares. But a possessive man is weak. It shows he’s insecure.”
~ Josephine Grace Clarke
Nothing about Josie Clarke or this job was what I’d expected. I was beginning to think there was nothing the woman couldn’t do. The more time I spent with her, the more she surprised me, and the more impressed I was by her.
I’d been on plenty of sets where on-air talent had had meltdowns for much less traumatic reasons than Josie had. And I’d never seen anyone pull themselves together as quickly and effectively as she had.
We’d just finished the interviews of townies and I snapped a picture of Josie speaking to the last person she’d talked to. Gunner was the dockmaster and he reminded me of the Gorton’s Fisherman. He’d lived in the town all of his life and had known three generations of “cursed” Comfort men.
He was thanking Josie for making him feel so comfortable during the interview. It was strange how different people were when a camera was turned on them. They froze up. Or they started having strange ticks.
Even the most seasoned actors’ energies changed when there was a lens directed at them. Most people probably didn’t notice the changes, it could be as tiny as a slight switch in their breathing pattern, or a