On Location

by Sarah Echavarre Smith

  But there’s one thing I still need to make clear to him.

  “You clearly don’t care about your performance on-screen, but you need to care about how you act around the crew. Specifically the female crew members.”

  When he glares at me, I look him straight in the eye.

  “You know what I’m talking about. I haven’t forgotten what you said to Rylan the first day of shooting—or the way you looked at her. Watch how you act. If I catch you doing anything inappropriate, there will be hell to pay. Understand?”

  He purses his lips. The overly tanned skin around his mouth explodes into a million wrinkles. “Yup.”

  I spin around and walk back to the rest of the crew, my heart pounding out of sheer anger. I stare at nearby Upheaval Dome to distract myself. I fixate on the three-mile-wide expanse of grayish rocks pushed up into multiple cone-like formations, mesmerized. The landscape sticks out from the hundreds of miles of red desert like a sore thumb.

  Rylan walks up to stand by my side. “This is the single coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” she says, her blue eyes sparkling as she stares at it. “But you know, I think it’s so much cooler that geologists and scientists don’t know how it was formed.” She turns to face me. “I think the theory that a meteorite hit this spot millions of years ago makes the most sense. I mean, I’ve seen photos of Upheaval Dome from outer space and it looks like such an obvious meteorite impact. To me, at least.”

  I smile at her. Witnessing her genuine excitement melts away the frustration in me.

  Then she laughs and blushes while cupping her cheeks with her hands. “Sorry,” she says softly. “I’m a huge geology nerd.”

  “Don’t be sorry, Rylan. I love how enthusiastic you are about this. Actually, would you want to put your geology knowledge to use? I’ve been kicking around the idea of including bonus content online to go along with the series, and it sounds like you’d be the perfect person to help with that. I think Upheaval Dome would make a great mini-featurette.”

  Rylan’s mouth falls open. She cups a hand over it before nodding yes. “Oh my gosh, I would absolutely love to do that!”

  She leaves to help Joe and Wyatt pack up the camera equipment while I help Haley pack up. When I look up for a moment, I catch Colton hurrying up the nearby trail to the lookout point where Blaine is scrolling through his phone. When Colton reaches and speaks to him, Blaine frowns up at him.

  “What do you mean they don’t have camel milk? This is the desert, isn’t it?” Blaine yells.

  Wide-eyed Colton starts to say something, but Blaine holds up his hand and stomps in the direction of the parking lot.

  “Poor kid,” Haley says.

  “Whenever I get annoyed at all the Blaine-related bullshit we have to endure, I remind myself that Colton has to put up with way worse.”

  “That makes you feel better?” Haley asks.

  “No. It makes me feel worse. Colton shouldn’t have to put up with being mistreated. But then I fantasize about all these creative ways of taking Blaine down.”

  Haley chuckles before typing something in her tablet. Colton starts to walk back to the parking lot, but Rylan runs up to him and stops him. I nudge Haley to discreetly take a look. They both smile shyly as they chat for a minute. They give each other identical timid waves, their hands lingering low and by their sides, before Colton walks off, a giant smile on his face.

  “It seems like he found a way to cope with the stress,” Haley says.

  An hour later we’re at the parking lot packing the equipment into the cars. Joe and Wyatt take off in their van right as Drew walks up to me.

  “You still planning on scouting locations in the park today to film for online content?”

  “Yeah, with Haley.”

  “Just wondered if you needed some help.” He scrubs a hand over his face. Judging by the furrow of his brow, I thought he had something more serious to say.

  “I think we’ll be okay.”

  “Goddamn it!”

  The back door of the SUV slams shut, rattling the car. Haley stomps over to us, venting about how one of the web-content editors at Expedition just accidentally deleted the raw footage from her recent shoot in the Adirondacks.

  She tugs at her ponytail. “I have to run to the hotel now to get my laptop and email everything to him again tonight if we’re going to make the editing deadline.” She rubs her eye with the heel of her hand. “You’ll have to location scout on your own. Sorry, Alia.”

  I start to say it’s no big deal, I’ve done it a million times before, but Drew interrupts.

  “I can stay and help you scout.” His lips are pursed like he’s aching to spill something.

  I’m about to tell him that I can handle it just fine on my own, but Haley flashes a thumbs-up at us. “You’re a lifesaver, Drew,” she says, her eyes glued to her phone as she speaks.

  She jumps in the car, Rylan hops in the driver’s seat, and seconds later they’re gone.

  He turns to me. “Looks like it’s just me and you, Dunn.”

  I let out a quiet sigh, bracing myself for what is sure to be an awkward few hours. “Looks like it.”

  8

  We walk to his car and he asks where he should drive to.

  “Whale Rock.”

  I buckle my seat belt and brace myself for a few minutes of awkward silence.

  As he pulls out onto the main road, he glances at me. “I want to apologize.”

  “For what? You did a great job reining in Blaine today. If you hadn’t told him to put out his cigarette, I was going to shove it down his throat.”

  A chuckle bursts out of him. It’s so goofy and joyful-sounding.

  “No, that’s not . . .” He clears his throat. “I mean, thanks.”

  Another few seconds of silence follow. I swallow.

  “I want to apologize for how dismissive I was when we were talking about the Needles shoot getting canceled.”

  “Oh.” On the inside I deflate just thinking about it.

  “I didn’t realize you had such a history there. And that you wanted to honor your grandma.”

  I turn to look at him. “How did you know that?”

  He rubs the back of his neck. “I was walking up the alley near the coffee shop and heard you and Haley talking the other day. I’m sorry for eavesdropping, but I want you to know that I think your idea of memorializing your grandma with an episode at the Needles is really thoughtful.”

  When he turns to look at me, I see there’s softness in his eyes too.

  “And I’m sorry for saying it wasn’t a big deal,” he says. “That was an asshole thing to say.”

  He turns back to the road. I stay quiet for a bit as he pulls into the parking lot at the trailhead for Whale Rock. We park and I glance up at the massive, long, dome-shaped, sandstone rock half a mile away. It looks like a beached whale jutting out of the orange-red dirt.

  “Thanks for saying that. I appreciate it.”

  Drew clears his throat as he unbuckles his seat belt and turns to me once more. “I was able to call the ranger’s office at the Needles and get them to reschedule.”

  I whip my head to face him. “You what?”

  “I booked an overnight shoot there for this weekend. Saturday night into Sunday late morning,” he says. “If you’re okay with moving things around in the schedule, the Needles is yours.”

  I gawk at him, speechless.

  “I know it throws off the shooting schedule a bit. These first two weeks were supposed to be in Moab, and then we’d move on to Zion, then Bryce, then Capitol Reef. We’ll have to cut things short in Moab to make it work, but then we could tack on a couple of days back in Moab at the end of the shoot, if you’re cool with that. We’ll be going back and forth across the state, which I know isn’t ideal, but—”

  I reach across my seat to hug him.
I squeeze him so hard that he makes an “oof” sound.

  “Oh my God!” I squeal softly into his left pectoral muscle.

  He chuckles above me, and I take a breath. He smells like mint and pine needles. It makes my heart beat just a tad bit quicker.

  A few more seconds of hugging him and it hits me just how inappropriate it is that I’m touching Drew like this. I lean back into my seat, embarrassed. But I’m too hyped up on excitement to stay embarrassed for long.

  When I look at him, he’s fighting back a grin.

  “How did you . . . I mean, you said . . . I thought it was impossible at this point . . .”

  “I called in a favor.”

  I let out a laugh. “A favor?”

  “I promised the ranger I talked to that we’d put his name in the credits as a consultant for the series.”

  I exhale and fall back into my seat. I’m smiling so wide that it starts to ache behind my ears. “You have no idea what this means. I’ve been dreaming about filming there ever since I got into travel production. I just . . .” I face him. “Thank you for making this happen. It means everything.”

  A smile stretches across his face. “If I had known how special the Needles was to you because of your grandma, I wouldn’t have let the ranger’s office cancel it in the first place.”

  “You’ve redeemed yourself. You really are as incredible as Brooke said you’d be.”

  We jump out of the car, and I sling my hiking pack over my shoulder.

  He raises an eyebrow. “Brooke said that?”

  “Her exact words. She sang your praises.”

  He flashes that flustered smile I remember seeing when he ran into Haley and me at the coffee shop. It sends a tingle from my fingers to my toes.

  My phone buzzes with a text, and I sneak a quick peek. It’s a slew of messages from my parents in our family group text chain.

  I beam when I see that they filmed a short video of themselves.

  “Hi, anak!” my mom says while grinning. She holds a giant mug with a picture of Zion National Park on it. “We just wanted to say a quick hello and wish you luck while you film your series! We’re so proud of you!”

  “Hope filming is going well, honeybun.” My dad waves and then tugs on the bill of the baseball cap he’s wearing, which has the word “Utah” stitched on it in bright orange letters.

  He hunches down to be at the same height as my mom, who’s a foot shorter than him. He wraps an arm around her, pulling her against him before kissing her cheek. She beams up at him. That obvious look of love between them makes my chest ache. It’s the best feeling knowing that my parents are still in love with each other after more than thirty years together.

  “We love you! Call us soon, okay?” Mom says in her singsong voice.

  Underneath their video is a text from my older brother, Chase.

  You two are ridiculous LOL. Way to go, sis. Proud of you.

  Behind me I hear Drew’s low chuckle. “Your parents are sweet.”

  “They really are.”

  I make a mental note to call them tomorrow after we finish filming for the day.

  “I don’t know if my parents would ever have the patience—or technological know-how—to film a video and text it to me.”

  I laugh as I slather sunscreen on my face and neck. “Oh, it took them ages to figure out FaceTime. But once they did, it’s their preferred way to communicate with my brother and me.”

  “My parents favor yelling on the phone because they still haven’t figured out that they can actually adjust the volume on their phones.”

  We laugh, and I hand him the bottle of sunscreen.

  He shakes his head no. “I think I’ll be okay. I’ve got a hat.” He slips on a baseball cap and I frown.

  “I know that this is a short trail, but there’s zero cover so we’re completely exposed to the sun. Believe me, you’ll burn quicker than you think. And a baseball cap is terrible sun protection.”

  I place the sunscreen in his palm and pull out an extra collapsible sun hat that I always keep in my pack. “This is way better. Your neck and the sides of your face are completely uncovered in a baseball cap.”

  Drew sighs through a smile as he takes the hat, then applies sunscreen. “Damn. I didn’t know I’d be contending with the sun-protection police,” he jokes. “Especially someone with a tan like you’ve got.”

  “My tan is all natural, thanks to my mom,” I say. “And protection from the sun is no joke on a wilderness shoot like this. I know better after years of working on outdoor shoots.”

  He secures the hat on his head and looks at me, his face scrunched. “God, I bet I look like a grandpa wearing this.”

  Even in the unglamorous design of a giant, floppy sun hat, Drew still looks dynamite—the exact physical opposite of a grandpa. All the unflattering protective gear in the world can do little to dampen his rugged handsomeness.

  I do a quick once-over of him, hoping it comes off as casual and not at all like I’m struggling to process just how impossibly hot he is. “You look great. You want a snack or anything before heading out?”

  “Nah, I’m good.” He chuckles.

  “What?”

  His hazel-brown gaze fixes on me. “It’s cool how you look after the crew. I notice you’ve always got plenty of snacks for everyone, and you’re always reminding us to drink water while we work. You’re such a den mother. It’s so cute.”

  I lower the brim of my hat just a tad bit more so he can’t see, I hope, just how much I’m blushing at the sound of him calling me cute.

  “You ready?”

  We walk to the trailhead. As we make our way side by side along the red dirt path, I feel myself loosen. That same comfort and ease I felt when we chatted over drinks on our date comes over me.

  Drew pulls a package of Snoballs from his pocket, rips open the plastic wrap, and chows down. “See? I’ve got snacks covered,” he says around a mouthful of that cream-filled snack cake. “You want some?”

  I make a face and shake my head. I don’t see how he can eat that.

  “What? It’s delicious.” Two bites later the first Snoball is demolished and he’s digging into the second one. “It’s yummy chocolate cake and cream inside of a coconut-dusted marshmallow. What’s not to love?”

  “The processed flavor. And the chemically enhanced color.”

  Drew lets out a laugh, then kicks a small rock off the trail with one of his sneaker-clad feet.

  “What happened to your hiking boots?” I ask.

  “Thought I’d give them a break.”

  “Give your sneakers a break. If you want to survive this shoot, wear hiking boots. And moisture-wicking socks. Your blister-free feet will thank you.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I laugh at his playful tone. “I wore only sneakers during a shoot at the continental divide. A million blisters and two destroyed pairs of sneakers later, I learned my lesson.”

  “I’ve done a bunch of wilderness shoots, but never for this many weeks. I’ve got a lot to learn from you, Dunn.” He wags his eyebrow at me.

  I smile down at my hiking boots. “So what’s your story? How did you get into this line of work?”

  “It’s a long one,” Drew says with an exaggerated exhale.

  I gesture to the half-mile-long trail ahead of us. “We’ve got plenty of time to kill, and we’re the only people on this trail.”

  Drew explains how he started out working as a caterer and an extra for low-budget movies a couple of years out of high school.

  “Wait, you wanted to work in films?”

  He shakes his head. “Not really. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was twenty. I didn’t do great in school, like a lot of other kids. I was good at sports, but not good enough to make it a career. I was living at home, working endless dead-end jobs while t
aking college classes, which I hated. And then one day I saw an ad on Craigslist looking for extras on a random indie movie. I made friends with another extra, whose cousin worked on a travel series. That show needed a production assistant, and that’s what kicked it all off.”

  “So that PA job hooked you?”

  “Yeah, believe it or not. So many other people I met over the years hated starting out as a PA. And I mean, parts about it definitely were rough, but overall I liked it. Every day was different. I never got bored. I think that was my problem in school and my other jobs. I’m not good with routine. It’s tough, but I like all the random things that pop up when you’re filming. Every day is a challenge. I like having to problem solve and put out all the fires that come up.”

  “That explains why you’re so good at handling Blaine.”

  He shakes his head while rolling his eyes and grinning.

  “Seriously. Brooke said you’re a jack-of-all-trades and she was right. You can do everything.”

  “Not everything.”

  The way he softly mutters his words makes me curious. “What do you mean?”

  He stares at the ground, his footfalls getting heavier with each step. “I’d make a terrible host.”

  I scoff. “Do you not remember how slick you’ve been every time you’ve had to spoon-feed Blaine his scenes? You’re a natural. A million times better than him.”

  I glance at him, admiring his profile as he focuses on the trail ahead of us. My eyes follow the smooth, strong lines of his nose and jaw.

  “It’s a different story when the cameras are rolling.” He pauses and for a few moments the only sounds are from our shoes hitting the dirt and rock. A crow flies above us and caws.

  I want to ask him to say more, but I don’t want to pry.

  “I actually auditioned to host a show years ago,” he says as we close in on the rock formation.

  “You did?”

  He nods. “It was for some online gaming series. I don’t even remember the name of it. But I do remember how badly I blew the audition.”

  “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.” I try to laugh to lighten the mood, but he purses his lips and says nothing as he stares straight ahead.