Page 72 of Happy Trails & Honey Pots

His breathing was labored, and I saw his hands shaking around the pot.

“You know what?”

“What?” He looked at me.

“I bet your dad was nervous when he gave your mom the honey.”

“You think?” AJ asked.

“Of course. He’d never talked to her before.” I leaned closer to AJ. “Weren’t you nervous before you talked to Kendall?”

He nodded.

“Buthe probably didn’t want your mom to think he was nervous, so he was trying to hide it by making jokes and being funny. Luckily, you don’t even have to come up with what to say, ’cause he already did. All you have to do is say what he said. But you canusethose nerves; just try and hide them, like he did. Do you think you can do that?”

He nodded, and I saw the color return in his cheeks.

“Good. And if you mess up, it’s no big deal. I mess up my lines all the time. That’s why we have blooper reels. Just have fun. You got this.” I made a fist with my hand, and he gave me a pound.

I made my way behind the cameras in video village and waited for Shania to yell action. Before she even spoke, I sensed Zoe beside me. Goosebumps broke out on my arm, and I smelled her fresh, floral scent.

“Is he okay?” she whispered. “He looked like he was about to throw up.”

“He was just nervous.”

“What did you tell him? He looks better now.”

“I told him his dad was probably nervous when he talked to you for the first time, and that he probably hid it by telling jokes, so that’s all he had to do, was just hide it and say what he said.”

I glanced over and saw she was nodding as she stared at the monitors, waiting for the scene to start.

The first take went off without a hitch, and beside me I noticed Zoe exhale. I don’t think she breathed during the entire two-minute scene. AJ didn’t miss a beat. He was funny, charismatic, and the chemistry was coming through the screen.

Shania walked over and told them how amazing they were. She gave them a little note, mainly where to cheat the camera so we could see their faces better and they went back to one.

As they were resetting, I leaned over and asked Zoe, “Was he?”

“What?” she glanced up at me.

“Austin. Was he nervous?”

“Oh, no.” She shook her head. “He was way too sure of himself for that. But I’m glad you told him that. If I would have thought of it, I would have said the same thing.”

Damn. Even at thirteen, Austin was that confident. He really was the perfect guy. How the hell was anyone ever supposed to live up to that?

35

ZOE

To sayyou could cut the tension at the table with a knife was an understatement. Tonight was the first time AJ and I had been back for Sunday dinner since our abrupt exit. I would have been more than happy to never darken the door of this house again, but AJ wasn’t ready to sever ties, so here we were.

I assumed I would have had to eat crow and grovel as I apologized to my mother before we were welcomed back at this table, but to my eternal surprise, I’d received my monthly reminder text as per usual, and we’d shown up because AJ wanted to come.

“I was in the movie last week,” AJ said, breaking the very loud silence in the room.

“Oh, was that last week?” My mother pretended as if she had no clue that there had been any filming going on in Firefly. Everyone in town knew it was happening. That was all everyone was talking about. There were production vans and street closures. The island was not that big.

“Yeah. It was so fun! Shania and Miles said that I did a really good job!”

---