ANNA
She had a tight, detailed schedule that she’d drawn up on her favorite app.
For day one, she planned to view three different small towns.
It was going to be a stretch and quite a bit of driving, but she was certain she could do it if nothing went wrong.
She’d already booked a room in the third town where she intended to stay the night before the next three towns.
The director wanted to start filming as soon as possible, and she was determined to make that happen.
Her rental car was a blue sedan, not something she would drive normally. She tended to favor coupes due to rarely dragging anyone else along with her. Either way, it would get her from point A to point B, and hopefully all the rest of the way through the alphabet.
She pulled into a spot in the first small town.
The land around it was a little too flat, but she was sure she could find a ranch somewhere.
Ideally, it would be close to wherever they were going to film the in-town scenes, but it was better to get the right locations and travel a bit.
She visited a café and a diner. One of the scenes took place at a park with a gazebo, and the town lacked one of those.
It could be easily built, obviously, but all things being equal, it would be nice to have one ready to go.
While the town was small enough, it seemed to have mostly newer architecture.
The town in the novel was described as older, historical.
She noted that down and got into her car to drive to the next town.
But when she turned the key, the car made a ticking sound and went nowhere.
She narrowed her eyes at the dashboard. Nothing jumped out at her.
“It’s gotta be the battery,” she muttered. “Stupid rentals.”
She got back out of the car and started asking around for a jump. The only employee in the village gift shop offered to help. She actually had to turn the open sign to closed to do so.
“Oh, you don’t have to go to all the trouble,” Anna said. “I’m sure I can find someone else who isn’t so busy.”
“Honey, I wasn’t busy.” The woman laughed. “I was bored.”
Once their vehicles were nose to nose, the woman glanced into Anna’s car to see if she could find anything wrong. Instead, she noticed the paperback on the passenger seat. “Oh, are you reading Texas Sunrise? Honey, you’re late to the party.”
Anna laughed and responded, “Oh, no, I am the party.” She then shared why she was in town.
“A movie?” The woman helping her got that twinkle in her eye. It was the same twinkle Anna had seen in the eyes of Joan from the airplane. She was thrilled. She also said, “Oh, but you can’t film it here.”
“You don’t think so?” Anna asked. She’d already come to the same conclusion, but she was curious what the other woman’s reasons would be.
“Well, how far into the book are you?” her new friend asked.
“About halfway.”
“So, you know. Our little town is cute, and I wouldn’t change it for the world, but it’s not quite the same as the one in the book.
Oh!” She perked up with a thought Anna was immediately intrigued to hear.
“Have you been to Denson Oaks? That place would be perfect! So many old buildings, and not much has changed over the years.”
“I haven’t been there yet, but it’s on my list. I’ll arrive there tonight, actually.”
“Oh, it’s going to be the winner. I just know it is.” The woman grinned. “I mean, I wish it could have been here, just so I could be part of it all. But I love that book, and every time I’ve visited Denson Oaks, all I could think was that it looked exactly like the village in Texas Sunrise.”
“Well, I hope it’s a winner,” Anna said. “If it is, I can relax after today.”
They finished the jump, and Anna’s rental car started up right away.
She drove to the next town with no problems, parked downtown, and started to look around.
As she observed the town, she noted down details in her phone, imagining certain scenes she was in the process of reading and where they might be shot.
Again there was a park. This one had a gazebo, but it wasn’t quite right—too small—so one would have to be built for the shoot.
The buildings were older than the last town, which was promising, but the look wasn’t exactly right.
Anna didn’t worry too much about it. She still had the rest of the week to find a good spot, and she’d scheduled three towns for every day.
There had to be one that was perfect. Denson Oaks sounded promising, since it was the favorite of a fan.
As Anna understood it, Texas Sunrise fans were devoted.
She doubted any of them would link a real town to the town in the book unless it was exactly right.
She sat down at a diner and ordered the same meal that the main character in the book ordered during the diner scene.
There wasn’t any reason for it beyond Anna wanting to get into the perfect headspace.
She was trying to explore the way she imagined the fans would explore.
Whichever town became the location for this movie was going to see a surge in tourists, no doubt about it.
Anna wanted to experience the town the way she felt the tourists would.
It was, perhaps, above and beyond her job description, but Anna took her job seriously.
She always thought about the post-production life of the town just as much as the rest. A great location with a decent attitude toward tourists could extend the success of a film.
Most location scouts might not take that into consideration, but Anna always did.
In addition to lunch, she ordered a chocolate milkshake, because why not?
It was delicious, the service was decent, and her sandwich was good, too.
By the end of her meal, she was in a much better mood, and she looked forward to finally getting to see Denson Oaks.
This place was a definite maybe, though. She made sure to note that down.
Her rental car complained a bit as she started it, but a second try got it going just fine.
There was no chance the rental place that handed her this car was going to escape a negative review from her.
Did they even check the batteries before they loaned out their cars?
Was there any kind of regular maintenance done? Probably not.
As she drove, the landscape around her got less flat and more scenic, and she began to have a little hope.
At some point, she thought she might have missed a turn because she’d been so distracted by the beauty of the horizon in front of her.
She pushed on for a while, watching the brush along the road get a little greener as she did.
Little purple flowers started to dot the land on either side of the road.
When the sun began to set, she decided she’d better get a handle on whether she was on the right path before dark.
She pulled over and pulled out her map, scrolling and zooming to figure out exactly where she was.
Service wasn’t great out here, so she hadn’t been able to use an app to give her directions as she drove.
No matter, though. She knew how to read a map.
The trouble was her questionable rental car running idle in the heat.
Certain that was going to end badly, she rolled down all her windows and shut her engine off.
She could handle the heat, and it was going to lessen as the sun went down anyway.
Better less air conditioning than a car that overheated and stopped running.
After about ten minutes of tracing her route, she determined she hadn’t missed her turn after all.
It was coming up soon, though, and if she got going now, she could probably still make it to Denson Oaks before dark.
Then she tried to start her car. And it failed.
All she heard was a clicking sound, and then silence.
Anna cursed aloud and tried again. This time, even the clicking sound was gone.
Was it the battery again? She popped the hood and got out of the car.
Just in case there was something obviously wrong, she wanted to see the engine.
But who was she kidding? She wasn’t anywhere near competent enough about cars to be any kind of mechanic.
As far as she could tell, if nothing was smoking or obviously disconnected, the mystery remained.
“So much for getting to Denson Oaks before nightfall,” she muttered.
She tried her engine a few more times before she finally gave up and realized she was going to have to walk or call.
Or both. She grabbed her purse and phone and locked the car.
Then she started to walk along the side of the road, holding her phone up and swinging it around just in case it found a sliver of signal.
She probably got about a half mile down the road before a truck going the opposite direction slowed to a near stop.
The driver rolled down his window and leaned out to squint at her.
If she wasn’t already planning her next move, due to being a woman alone on the side of the road, she might have noticed he was probably the best-looking man she’d seen in years.
As it was, she was gearing up her sass so she didn’t look completely lost and helpless.
“You making a video or something?” he asked.
Yeah, like she was going to tell him the truth. “Sure. It’s nice out here. You got a problem with me recording out here? It’s a free country, isn’t it?”
The man put his truck in reverse and kept pace with her. “The signal’s better in the other direction,” he said, clearly not buying her act in the least.
“Like I said, I’m recording the sunset.” She planted her hands on her hips to look a bit more confident. “And beyond that, it’s none of your business.”
“Okey-dokey, darlin’.” He put the truck back into drive and started driving away. “My business or not, though, the signal’s better out that way.” He pointed up the road, back toward her stalled car.
“Whatever you say, man. Thanks!” She waved him away, and he drove off.
As soon as he was gone, she was better able to assess her situation.
What if he was telling the truth? She couldn’t see any real reason for him to lie.
Either way, he was long gone by now, and she was getting thirsty.
She headed back toward her car, where she had some water bottles waiting.
At the very least, she should have some fresh water along with her.
She’d been impulsive to walk away without it.
The walk seemed longer on the way back than it had on the way out, possibly because it was more steadily uphill this way.
But she got to the top of the hill eventually and looked down to see her car, still sitting with its hood open.
And leaning against his truck, just to the right, was the man who had stopped to taunt her just down the road.
“Oh, great,” she muttered. “Now I get to be inconvenienced and humiliated.”
The only reason she could think of for that smug expression on his face was that he had come to gloat. Well, she wasn’t about to spin around and march away from him now that he had clearly seen her. Anna’s greatest strength was also her greatest weakness when things really came down to it—pride.