Chapter 9
Kayla had to hand it to this kid, Noah: he was absolutely fearless about going up to vendors and explaining the situation.
It was clear that a number of them knew him: several people congratulated him on the playground, suggesting they hadn't seen him since last Christmas, but recognized him as a mover and a shaker around town.
"The director had some big feelings to deal with," Noah confided in one older man who was halfway through setting up a booth of hand-sculpted clay houses and wood carvings. "My little sister is only two and she's got a lot of big feelings, all the time. Really, really loud ones."
"Unlike you," the older man said solemnly.
Noah eyed him. "I'm not loud like she is. But everybody has big feelings sometimes."
The older man laughed. "That's true. But adults aren't supposed to let those feelings get in the way of their jobs." He, in turn, eyed Kayla, who stepped forward with an embarrassed smile.
"I know it's asking a lot. But I also know the market doesn't open until Friday, so I'm hoping…" She grimaced a smile toward him. "I'm hoping a day's delay won't make too much difference. And the crew will come help you set up, in repayment for the delay."
The man offered a gusty sigh and then his hand to shake.
"I'm Tom. This whole filming thing has been hard on everybody's schedule.
We're not used to needing to be set up two days early so you can use some of our space as a set before we open.
But you've paid for our time and you've got all these extras running around needing holiday gifts for people, so I've already sold enough to make up for the inconvenience.
I think a lot of us are finding the same thing. "
"It's nice to meet you, Tom. I'm Kayla. This is Jordan. You've met Noah," she said with a grin as Noah went on to the next booth, a vanguard indeed.
Tom looked after the kid with a laugh. "He and his mom moved to Virtue four or five years ago and I swear to God, between him and the librarian this whole town has taken on a new life."
"The librarian?" Jordan said, mystified. "Sarah? Do you remember Sarah Ekstrom?" he asked, turning to Kayla. "She was a few years ahead of me, and built the town website back when that was a new thing to have."
"The one you were complaining about being stuck in the early years of the internet?" Kayla asked with a smile.
"Yeah. I don't know why she's never updated it, especially with the vote last year to bring the railroad back into town."
Kayla's stomach lurched. "Really? More people coming to Virtue?" She didn't know how a shifter sanctuary town could stay hidden and quiet if there were big Christmas markets and a working train line and whatever else was going on in Virtue these days.
"We've got to adapt to survive," Jordan said cheerfully. "Thanks, Tom. We'll come by again, I promise, but we'd better catch up to Noah before the whole town thinks he's the boss of us."
Tom grinned. "Noah already thinks he's the boss of the whole town, so it probably won't do you any harm. Good luck dealing with the director."
Kayla puffed her cheeks out, thinking about Cyril, and nodded gratefully to the sculptor.
For the next couple of hours they worked their way through the booths, talking to every individual proprietor, although after the first half hour it was clear rumor preceded them.
Noah abandoned them, feeling his work was done, and Kayla couldn't disagree: at that point most people wanted selfies and a minute or two of chat, their general feeling being that they were setting up early to accommodate the shoot anyway, so a half-day's delay wasn't going to make that much difference.
Kayla was incredibly grateful, and told everyone as much, ending with a grin at the cider shop where she said, "I'm going to have the PA get the names and business names of everybody here and have you all thanked individually in the credits. "
"We're going to be in the movies?" the woman asked in delight, and gave Kayla the hot cider for free. Kayla tried to argue, and ended up leaving an egregious tip instead.
Fingers wrapped around the cup, she bounced her shoulder off Jordan's as they walked away. "Thanks for sticking with me for two hours of schmoozing the locals."
"You are a local," Jordan said, amused. "And watching people light up when they get to talk to you was my treat."
"Not many people know I'm a local, though," Kayla protested, then glanced back at the market aisles.
"I can't believe…any of this. I can't believe that market even exists.
There were like five booths and a Santa Claus when I was a kid.
Hardly any of those people actually were locals.
I'm sure they're from around the upstate area, but they're not Virtue natives.
" For one thing, there hadn't been any shifters among them, but more importantly, nobody had recognized her as Kylie Quinn, and she hadn't recognized any of them. "Virtue's really changed."
Jordan nodded as they wandered past the gazebo toward the playground side of the sidewalk. "Do you remember the county fair? I remember it as being pretty good when I was a kid, but I came back to Virtue just as it started this year and I went and it was fantastic. Nothing like what I remembered."
"Oh, you've only just come back?" That startled Kayla. "I thought you'd been back…well, since your injury, I guess. Since last year."
"Mmm, no. I stuck with the team a little while, hoping I could get my speed back, and then spent some time looking at coaching or managing, but…
" Jordan shook his head. "I always thought I'd be into that, but it turns out I really wasn't. So I came back this fall because my parents moved down south and at least there was a house for me to live in.
" He grimaced. "That's not great, is it?
Thirty-seven and skulking back to my parents' house to live. "
Kayla snorted, an undignified sound she couldn't allow herself in films, most of the time. "First off, in this economy? Totally normal. But also, I bet they were glad to have you in the house, if they didn't want to sell it."
"They were," Jordan admitted. "They liked the idea of me coming home, even if they picked up and moved somewhere warmer. And it's given me a chance I wouldn't otherwise have, to figure out what I want to do."
"And to meet me again," Kayla said, half teasing. Her owl puffed up, feeling 'meeting her again' was too important to tease about.
I know, but how do I explain that to him? Kayla asked, not really expecting an answer.
We show him, the owl said with obvious exasperation.
Well, not right here!
"Meeting you again is the best thing that's happened to me in years," Jordan said with a smile.
"I'm feeling spoiled, getting to steal away a movie star for entire hours at a time.
Speaking of which, I really should bring Barney home for a while.
He's an incredibly tough dog, but he's been out here in the snow and cold for a long time and I want to get his feet warmed up.
I don't want to be weird, but would you like to come over? "
There you go, the owl said, satisfied. Now we can tell him who-oo-oo we really are.
"I'd love to. There's so much I want to tell you."
"Starting with what actually happened today with your director?" Jordan glanced at her as he guided them down the sidewalk. "Is everything okay? It cannot be normal for a director to take an afternoon off."
That wasn't at all where Kayla had meant to start, but it would do.
"Did I mention he's an ex? Apparently he thought doing this film together meant we were getting back together, and he's been a real pill when I wouldn't give him any more than the professional time of day.
He cut Andy's scene time short so he could be mad at me for not being back on set 'on time,' and we had it out.
I told him to shape up or I'd fire him."
Jordan's eyebrows shot up. "Can you do that?"
"I'm one of the producers, so, yes. I don't know if I can get a qualified director in fast enough to not lose a lot of time shooting, though." Kayla scuffed snow as they walked along. "So I told him I'd always wanted to direct, anyway."
A shout of laughter nearly deafened her. Kayla glanced at Jordan, whose smile spread across his face. "Good for you. Put him in his place. Can you? Direct, I mean."
"I've never done it before, but I think so, yes. I've been in this industry a long time and I know how it works." She smiled. "Probably not as well as I think I do, from a directorial standpoint, but…"
"Oh, I bet you do. This way." Jordan waved them down another street, the sounds of the town square and market space fading away.
Trees overhead bowed with snow, clumps occasionally falling off, and the lawns were all buried in smooth, even whiteness.
Kayla knew the neighborhood; a friend of hers had lived down this street.
But then, Virtue was a small town, and it was hard to say there were any neighborhoods she didn't know.
Still, it felt comfortable, almost home-like, and she hadn't felt that in a long time.
That's Jordan, her owl said in wise tones. He feels like home.
Which was something Kayla didn't want to think about.
She wasn't sure Jordan was settled again, here in Virtue, but Kayla lived in Los Angeles when she wasn't on site.
Moving back to Virtue wasn't an option for so many reasons, not the least of which was she truly didn't want to draw any more attention to her hometown.
And maybe living here wouldn't, but that didn't address the fact that all the connections and auditions she needed were on the other side of the country. It was all…
…it was all putting the cart before the horse, she admitted to herself.
There were a lot of hurdles to clear before she had to worry about who was going to live where.
They turned down another side road, and finally into a cul-de-sac that Kayla didn't think she'd ever been in before.
There were only four houses, identical in structure, but each painted a different vibrant tone, all with startlingly clashing doors.
"Wow. I love it. This is like a Wes Anderson set, or something. Which one is yours?"
"Teal and red," Jordan said with a sideways smile.
"When we first moved here the houses were all the same color and people would knock on the wrong doors, so Mom painted our place teal, and then the neighbors went for dark orange and that really intense blue, and it turned into this whole thing where they were trying to one-up each other.
I'm forever grateful that the Billinghams didn't actually go for lime green and purple, but the Parkers got to the purple first." He gestured at a yellow house with blindingly green trim, then at the final house, which was hot pink and purple.
"How did I not know there were all these adults back here in the corner of Virtue getting their house freak on?" Kayla asked in delight as they went inside. Barney stopped right on the interior doormat and danced around, trying to dry his feet as the humans took their shoes off. "This is great."
The interior was much less freaky than the exterior, but it still had a powerful personal style, bright-colored accent walls and macrame hangings over doors, with family photos, art, and sculptures along the walls—and that was just the foyer they'd entered.
Stairs led up almost directly in front of them, a short hall beside them reaching toward the back of the house; what looked like a dining room lay on one side of the foyer, and an office of some kind on the other.
Jordan gestured for Kayla to proceed him, and she went down the little hall into a large, warm living room with a big porch hanging off the back, then turned back to Jordan and smiled.
"No wonder you wanted to come home. This place is wonderful. "
"Do your parents still live here?"
An old, familiar pain stung Kayla and she shook her head with a sad little smile. "No, they both died pretty young. After I'd left home, but…Dad got sick, and I think Mom died of a broken heart, honestly. I didn't expect to ever come back, so I sold the house, and…" She shrugged a little.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't know."
"Thanks." Kayla sat on the edge of a couch, then laughed softly as Barney bounced in and leaned against her with big adoring eyes.
"Aww, did you know I felt sad, boy? You're a good pup, aren't you.
Even if you knocked me over yesterday. Although I guess that was fate," she added even more softly, glancing up at Jordan.
His cheeks were red from the cold, just like Kayla supposed her own were, and his hair stood up every which way from the hat he'd removed.
His gaze was warm, though, and his smile sweet.
"Fate, huh? I guess so. No other reason for me to be so lucky.
Look, I know it's earlyish, but would you like to stay for dinner?
I can cook," he promised. "I can even cook vegetarian if that's your thing.
I know you're not vegan. You had hot chocolate with whipped cream. "
Staying for dinner meant plenty of time to both get to know Jordan better, and to figure out how to tell him that not only was she a shifter, but the town he'd grown up in was full of them.
"Dinner sounds wonderful," Kayla said. "I'm going to have to call the studio and let them know what's up with Cyril, but if you don't mind that, then there's really only one other important question to ask. "
Jordan's dark blond eyebrows crinkled. "What's that?"
Kayla leaned forward, gazing up at him intently, and, as seriously as she could manage, said, "Is the dog allowed on the couch?"