Page 37 of Happy Trails & Honey Pots

Her brow furrowed slightly, and the edges of her eyes twitched. “Okay.”

Braxton did not like surprises. She liked control. She wanted to know everything that was going on at all times. It was part of what made her indispensable as an assistant and was going to make her just as irreplaceable in her new role.

“You have been an incredible assistant to me over the past five years.”

“I know,” she clipped back.

Besides hating surprises, Braxton also did not appreciate compliments. They made her uncomfortable. Typically, she ignored them or deflected. In this case, she was just irritated.

“Your talents are wasted in your current role. I am offering you a position in Ford Entertainment as head of production and acquisitions. It’s the job you’ve already been doing, minus making my travel arrangements, picking up my dry cleaning, and answering my emails. The offer is in your inbox now. You’ll see that your salary has increased significantly, and you have shares in the company.”

Braxton stared at me for several seconds before definitively stating, “No.”

“No?” I repeated. “You haven’t even looked at the offer.”

“I don’t need to.” Her tone left no room for argument.

“Am I missing something here?”

“Who’s going to handle everything for you?” she asked.

“I will.”

Her expression morphed to one of amusement, indicating my response was comical. “I don’t think you grasp the magnitude of…shitthat I safeguard you from. Peoplealwayswant something from you. I’m the only thing that is stopping them from bombarding you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year.”

“Braxton, I know I’ve leaned on you, probably too much. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t take care of myself. And even if I can’t, that is notyourproblem. You can’t put your life on hold to babysit me. I’m a grown man.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Fine,” I agreed.

I knew there was no talking her into anything, even though this was a no-brainer that shouldn’t even be discussed. She would make the right decision, and the right decision was taking the job. She was just loyal to a fault and would have to come to terms with stepping away from her current responsibilities even if she felt guilty about doing so.

I pulled up the top sheet, which was the overall budget for the movie. It encompassed all the costs necessary to bring a script to life on the screen. It was an itemized layout of our budget for both pre and post-production, above the line and below the line. Above the line being the director, producer, writers, development, cast, rights, etc. Below the line being the crew, music, equipment, locations, transport, construction, catering, travel, and post-production.

Braxton had a gift for pinching all the pennies in all the right places. Besides having a photographic memory, she was also a wiz with numbers.

After we went through the top sheet numbers, Braxton sent me a link and password. “Jeanne sent the tapes for young Austin and young Zoe.”

Even though I wanted to hire AJ on the spot and not make him go through the auditioning process, I’d promised Zoe I would not give him special treatment. So, he’d sent in his audition to casting just like everyone else. What Zoe didn’t know was if Jeanne, our casting director, didn’t send AJ as one of her top picks, I was going to call and have her send in the tape because I knew he was good. I filmed it with him. I wanted to get Braxton’s opinion because I knew she would be brutally honest.

“Have you looked at them?”

She nodded.

“What do you think?”

“She only sent five options for each role. It was slim pickins.”

“Slim pickins?” I repeated. I’d never heard Braxton sayslim pickins.

“I think this town is rubbing off on me.”

I smiled.

“I watched four tapes for Zoe and was getting a little worried, but then I saw Kendall French. She’s the girl; it’s not even close.”

“Okay, what about Austin?”

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