One
Dunn, Virginia.
Isaac Dunn’s twin brother had gone and had a town named after him.
Not on purpose. Max, in his effort to escape the Hollywood spotlight, had attempted to hide out by purchasing this mountain town. But as per his usual, surly Max was beloved by everyone. Isaac, given his relation to Max, had been accepted by The Dunnians on sight.
The rift that had occurred between them after their successful TV show ended had healed. But the scar was still a visible one. Isaac and Max had always been a unit—in the womb and well into their twenties, before Max left Hollywood. Once Max stated he’d wanted nothing to do with the show, Isaac had taken it personally. It’d felt like Max had wanted nothing to do with Isaac, either.
Over the years, they’d patched things up for the most part. Isaac had shot commercials and had filmed a few television pilots that hadn’t led anywhere. Now, though...
Now was different.
Not only had Isaac been given a second chance at fame, but he was starring in the reboot of the very show that had skyrocketed him into the public spotlight.
He was in the process of a second big break. Temporarily living in the same town as his once estranged brother, Isaac was healing those past hurts, one filming day at a time. The town loved him, his brother and he were growing closer by the day, and the cast and crew had been nothing but supportive.
Everything was finally falling into place, piece by piece. This whole do-over thing wasn’t something he would half-ass.
He stepped around the extras on set and waved to Ashley Lee, director of the Brooks Knows Best reboot. She hadn’t been around when both Isaac and Max had acted in the show decades ago, taking turns playing the same young character. Now Danny Brooks was all grown up and being played by just one of them—Isaac.
“Nice work today,” she told him.
At five-ten, Ashley wasn’t dainty by any stretch of the imagination. She was wildly confident, despite Brooks Knows Best being her directorial debut. Even Isaac had suffered a bout of nerves before reprising his role as Danny Brooks, and had absconded to his private island to prepare alone.
“Thanks, Ash.”
She took a look around before she lowered her voice. “Cecil is asking about your girlfriend. He maintains that the public needs to see her, and soon. He’s worried about bad publicity.”
“I thought all publicity was good publicity,” Isaac replied.
The girlfriend announcement, meant to distract from another PR issue, had caused a ruckus. That white lie had been chasing him for months.
He couldn’t tell anyone the truth, save his agent and his brother, who already knew: there was no girlfriend. He’d made her up to save himself from a whole lot of explaining earlier this year.
“You know my father-in-law.” Ashley shrugged. “Only good publicity is good publicity. He is trying to keep the show in a positive light so we can soar to number one the week it releases on the streaming service. Every detail counts.”
Isaac did, indeed, know her father-in-law. The producer was white-haired, hot-tempered, and rarely smiled. Cecil Fowler had been intimidating when Isaac was a child actor. Not as much now, but it was in Isaac’s best interest to keep Cecil smiling.
All he had to do was find a woman who could play the role of a lifetime: his girlfriend. Confessing he’d made her up would send Cecil off the deep end and topple the pile of carefully stacked blocks before Isaac climbed it to the top. Isaac was going to reclaim what he’d lost. Success or bust, no exceptions.
“She might be able to stop by during filming,” he told Ash with a smile. “I’ll check with her.”
“I want to meet her. Not for publicity reasons but to see if you managed to find a nice girl.”
“You bet.” He’d like to meet her, too. “See you tomorrow.”
So far, scrounging up a girlfriend—even a fake one—had been an impossible task. It’d started when he and his agent had pulled a fast one on the public, and pretended to be dating. The truth came out, which would have cast a shadow over the reprisal of Brooks Knows Best if Isaac hadn’t thought fast. He’d concocted a story about Kendall covering for the woman he was actually in love with. The attention had then shifted from the lie about dating Kendall—who had only pretended to date Isaac because the public had seen her with Max—and on to the woman Isaac had yet to introduce to the public.
It’d been too much negative attention for Cecil. The aging producer knew what Isaac knew—that the public could be fickle. At the height of cancel culture, the show could tank before they were done filming, if they weren’t careful.
Since Isaac’s top goal was to ride his comeback wave to a larger role on a blockbuster film, he was determined to find a solution both he and Cecil could live with.
Isaac would find a girlfriend. Somewhere.
With filming wrapped for the day, he stepped out of the coffee shop into the sunshine. Virginia couldn’t touch California for quantity of sunshiny days, but Isaac liked it here.
Max had accidentally reinvigorated the mountain town when all he’d been trying to do was escape LA. With Max living on the opposite side of the country, Isaac had felt as if he’d been missing a limb. It was good to be near his brother again.
Isaac had once been half of a whole, working in a career that had gone up, up, up. He’d made the mistake of believing success would last forever. His role in Brooks Knows Best, which was filming here in Dunn, was his best shot at reclaiming that success, and healing his relationship with Max.