Page 48 of Outside the Lines
“Yup.” I tried not to let my laugh get bitter. “Howling Moon’s owner almost laid claim to Ian’s set, because she thought I was building official merchandise.”
“Well,” Ian said, “to be fair, itisan official reproduction. But notat allmerchandise.”
Hunter rubbed his chin, and I couldn’t read his expression. “So what Wolf’s Landing stuff do you carry?”
“Comics and books.”
“That’s it?” He lowered his hand. “Not the collectable card game?”
I winced. “No—it caused too many issues.” Mostly Marlina giving us grief over selling it, though we could.
“Wait,” Ian said. “Are you allowed to carry it?”
“Technically, yes.” They carried it at the big box stores after all. And in supermarkets. “But sometimes you learn that the best thing isn’t always what you want to do.”
Hunter had his unreadable face on again. “Obviouslynot on your part,” he muttered.
I wanted to ask him what he meant, but Anna breezed into the middle of the set, rapidly firing orders to clear the scene and get everyone where they belonged. Even Hunter moved, obviously not ready to catch hell fromWolf’s Landing’s director.
I hadn’t realized how much jargon was in the film business, because half of what Anna said made no sense. Eventually, the cameras were positioned correctly and the lighting was right and she stepped back from the monitors she was viewing, then peered through all of the cameras themselves.
“Do you see how low the cameras are?” Ian whispered into my ear.
I nodded slowly. “They’re level with the set.” I kept my voice low. Other people were conversing as quietly as we were.
“Almost. They’re at what would be eye-level. Trick is, the forest behind—the real trees and ferns—also seem like they’re part of the model now.”
I pulled back and peered at him. “You’re shitting me.” Not as quiet.
“No,” Hunter said. “It’s how it works. Optical illusion.”
“Gentlemen?” Anna crossed her arms and stared at us.
“Sorry,” Ian said. “I was explaining the angles to Simon.”
Noweveryonewas staring at me. Great. Maybe the earth would swallow me up like that guy in Season Four. Anna’s stance softened though, and she beckoned me to join her. Both Ian and Hunter nudged me, so I went.
She led me to a bank of monitors that had been set up under something similar to a camping popup. “These are all the camera angles. They show what the cameras see.”
And there it was, the sacred grove in the middle of the woods, looking exactly like it had the last time I’d seen it on the show. Except I was standing in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by equipment, and I knew that the set was a model. “That’s . . . It looks like the real thing.”
“Itisthe real thing,” Anna said. “You were always working on an actual Wolf’s Landing set.” Her words were mild, which made me meet her gaze, because that was so not the image of Anna Maxwell that I was used to. “It’s magic, but it’s also real. And you helped Ian build it.”
I stared over at the miniature on its stand and my head felt stretched thin. “This doesn’t happen all that often, does it?”
“Random people from town finding themselves mixed up in our crazy Wolf’s Landing life?”
I suppose I was a random townie. “Well, helping out with sets and shit.”
Her chuckle was more in line with the hard-ass director I’d seen before. “You’d be surprised.” She nodded over to Ian and Hunter. “If you wouldn’t mind, I do have a set to destroy.”
I headed back. They likely only got one take on something like this. “Um. What happens if—”
Ian leapt at me and covered my mouth. “Don’t. Don’t say it. The shoot will go off without a hitch.”
I couldn’t help pressing my tongue against his fingers. His breath caught and there was the flutter of eyelids that meant I’d turned him on a little. He took his hand away. “Later,” he muttered under his breath.
“Picture’s up!” I didn’t know who yelled it, but everyone shifted to watch the model and Ian pulled me close. “Here we go . . .”
