Page 3 of Happy Trails & Honey Pots

I knew that AJ and Walter didn’t understand my reservations about the movie. To be honest, I didn’t think my friends really understood it. They supported me, but they didn’t understand it.

Austin died nearly ten years ago. 3571 days, to be exact. He was more than what someone could ever condense into ninety minutes. I didn’t want his memory to become a commercial of his life. He was a hero. Not facetiously or figuratively. He was literally a hero.

In fact, the name of the movie wasFallen Hero: The True Story of Marine Sergeant Austin James.

What if the movie got it wrong? I’d seen it happen with other based on a true story movies. That was a very loose term that meant a lot of creative license could be taken. Austin wasn’t here to tell the real story. To set the record straight.

If I didn’t protect his memory, then who would?

I didn’t even know exactly what happened. I wasn’t there. I wasn’t in Afghanistan. Yes, I knew he saved people. But the only fact I knew for certain was that he left, and he didn’t come back to me. He promised me he would come back, and he didn’t.

AJ rolled his eyes as he put his AirPods back in his ears and stared out the window the rest of the way to school. I hadn’t evenpulled to a complete stop before he opened the door and got out, not sparing me a second glance.

“Bye, I love you,” I said as he slammed the door.

I winced again. I wasn’t sure if it was from my head, which was still throbbing. Or my heart, which was still breaking. Probably both.

2

MILES

“Ten minutes!”Marissa, the PA assigned to me, announced from the doorway of my trailer. “We’ll be ready for you to walk in ten minutes.”

“Thanks.” I smiled before glancing back down at my notes as she shut the door.

Even though my lines were going to be scrolling on a teleprompter, I still needed to have them memorized. With dyslexia, I always had in-ear prompts. But with live shows, technical difficulties were a very real possibility, so I relied on memorization. It was a lot more work on my part, but it saved me from looking like an idiot in front of millions of people.

Interviews, red carpets, and awards shows were three of my least favorite parts of my job as an actor, and tonight combined all the above. I was hosting an award show, which meant I not only had to walk the red carpet but also had to stop and be interviewed by each and every person with a mic in their hand.

“Just got an email. Your call time has been moved up to 4:00 a.m. tomorrow.” Braxton was typing on her phone as she walked back into the common area from the back room of the trailer where she’d been on a call.

“Did you get a hold of Zoe?” I knew that I was not going to like the answer before I asked the question.

In the five years since I’d hired Braxton Davis as my assistant, I’d learned her tics and tells. If she had good news, she would have led with it. Since she didn’t mention anything about the call the moment she came in, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

“I did.” Braxton lifted her head. Her almond-shaped, brown eyes softened as she sat down across from me on the bench. “She has reservations.”

I stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

Braxton’s shoulders squared as she sat up a little straighter. “She doesn’t want to speak to you.”

“Why?”

“She didn’t specify.”

Taking my career from teen heartthrob to serious actor did not come without sacrifice and growing pains, and this was one of them. As a twenty-six-year-old, apart fromLong Way Home, I continued to receive offers for high school roles, so I’d decided to take matters into my own hands.

After spending eight years as the lead on the teen soap operaHappy Trailsand booking several international clothing and fragrance campaigns, I’d invested my money well and started my own production company. When I read the script forFallen Heroa year ago, I auditioned and got two callbacks. I was shortlisted for the lead role, but, as with a lot of projects in this business, the movie stalled when funding fell through.

So, last week, I bought the rights and cast myself as Austin James, the lead. This was going to be my breakout performance. I was not only acting in the movie; I was also producing and co-directing the film. There was a lot on the line.

The movie originally came about after one of the men in Austin’s squad, Lance Corporal Anthony Brown, wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times detailing the mission where Austin saved not only fellow Marines but also over a hundred civilians at the peril of his own life. I’d spoken to all the other men in Austin’s squad, and they all said the same things about him: he was smart and funny, the kind of guy that people gravitated to. A man who was easy to follow. He had innate leadership qualities. He was hard-working and held himself to a higher standard than he would ever hold anyone else to.

They all agreed that Zoe was the sole reason he was who he was. She and their son AJ were his entire world. Apparently, he got a lot of attention from females, but he never even noticed. Zoe was the only woman that existed for him.

Every single man said the same thing. Zoe was everything to Austin. He lived and breathed her. She was his why. She was his everything.

And she wanted nothing to do with this movie. She didn’t want it to happen. She’d been against it from the very beginning.

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