“Yes, ma’am. At your service. But you, young lady, can call me Grandpa J.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you. Thank you for agreeing to do this.”
“I never pass up a chance to talk about my Marie.” Colonel Hunter’s eyes lit up when he spoke his late wife’s name.
Josie smiled warmly, genuinely. “I just have a few forms for you to fill out and then we can get started.”
“Sounds good.” I watched as the two moved over to the bench where they were going to conduct the interview.
I returned my still camera to my bag as my phone buzzed in my pocket. I looked down and saw that it was my cousin Austin calling. When we were growing up, he would spend several weeks every summer in Wishing Well with us, and he’d always bunked in my and Beau’s room because we were the closest in age.
After high school, he’d gone into the military and I’d started travelling for work, so I hadn’t seen him since we were teenagers. I was looking forward to catching up with him and meeting his wife Sara and stepchildren Charlotte and Trevor.
“Hey, man.”
“Hey, Sara wanted me to check and make sure that you or…”
“Josie,” I filled in the blank.
“Right, Josie were good with hamburgers tonight.”
“Hamburgers are great for me. Josie is a vegetarian, but I know she wouldn’t want you to go to any trouble.”
“No trouble,” Austin assured me. “Sara’s been on a health kick, so we have some Beyond Meat patties in the freezer.”
“Thanks, man.”
“No worries, see ya tonight.”
“Lookin’ forward to it.”
I disconnected the call and before I could put it away it buzzed again. This time it was Mia.
“Hey.”
“Hi, I tried Josie but she’s not answering.”
“She’s with Colonel Hunter.”
“Aww, Grandpa J. He’s the best.” I could hear the genuine affection she had for the man. “Well, I just l wanted to let you guys know that I looked at the dailies you sent.”
Last night when we’d gotten to the hotel, before I’d almost had a heart attack when I’d heard Josie scream bloody murder, I’d uploaded the footage from the day to Dropbox for Mia.
“They look so good!” Mia exclaimed. “Josie is a natural! I can’t believe that she got Hank to string more than four words together. And the stuff with the locals, it’s gold! Josie really gets people to open up, she’s amazing.”
“Yes, she is.”
“How are things going? With you two?”
Mia might be new to the Briggs family, but she’d apparently jumped right in with the meddling. I could practically hear my mother’s voice in her question.
“Good.” If she thought she was going to get more from me than that, she was crazy.
“So, you two are getting along then?”
“Yep.” Her fishing expedition was going to be fruitless.
“Everything’s running smoothly? No issues?”
“Nope.”
There was a moment of silence before she blurted out, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but I heard what you did when Josie had her meltdown.”
Shit. I’d totally forgotten that the camera was rolling, and that Josie’s mic was live. I hadn’t looked at any of the footage, I’d just sent the raw files to Mia. I was furious at myself for not protecting her. She had enough trust issues, and I’d unintentionally exposed a private moment in her life.
“Has anyone else heard it?”
“No. And I deleted it.”
I let out a relieved breath.
“I only said something because, well, I just wanted to say thank you.” Mia’s voice cracked. “I don’t know what she would’ve done if you weren’t there.”
“She would’ve been fine.” Josie was a lot stronger than people thought. She was a lot stronger than she thought, for that matter. I hated thinking of what she’d gone through, but you didn’t make it through that and still be as kind and empathetic as Josie was if you weren’t a fighter. She’d been betrayed in the most public, and intimate way and still had compassion and joy in her heart. She hadn’t let it break her spirit.
After promising to send Mia the footage from today, I disconnected the call as Josie approached me, smiling widely.
“We’re all set.” Her smile faltered when she saw my expression. I could feel the crease between my brows from the anger I felt over what she’d been through, and that she’d gone through it alone, so I relaxed my face. “Is everything okay? Who was that?”
“Mia, she saw the dailies and loved them.”
“Oh, good.” I could see that she wanted to press me as to why I probably looked like my dog had just got