Page 21 of Nico

“Last one.” She glanced around the stunt area before looking back at me. “You're sure you're okay doing this by yourself?”

“Yeah. I'll be fine.”

She pointed toward the section of fence where the paparazzo had gotten through earlier.

“That where it happened?”

“Yeah.” I pulled out the first camera and began checking the mounting equipment, mentally working through the order I wanted to install everything while Sarah took in the set around us.

I couldn't blame her. She was still in high school, and how often did someone get the chance to wander around an actual movie set, especially one this big?

“This place is insane,” she said.

“Mm-hmm.”

She wandered over and crouched beside me, watching as I untangled a bundle of cables.

“You know,” she said casually, “if Uncle Tony were doing this, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have happened.”

Her elbow nudged my shoulder hard enough to nearly send me sideways. She laughed, and despite myself, I smiled.

“Probably.”

“Probably?”

I shrugged and went back to untangling the cables. “I guess I could've asked Tony for more input.”

Tony was better at this than I was. Everyone knew it.

I'd heard some variation of the comparison often enough that I'd learned not to react anymore. Tony would've thought of this. Tony wouldn't have missed that. Tony would've done it differently.

I was tired of hearing his name used as the measuring stick for everything I did.

I quietly hoped she'd leave soon. I didn't mind having her around, but I wanted to get started. I had a lot of work to do.

“The set is huge,” Isaac said as he walked toward us, glancing around the stunt area. “There are going to be blind spots.”

His eyes settled on the section of fence where the paparazzo had gotten through earlier.

“It was bound to happen eventually. The good thing is that it happened early. Now we know where the weak points are. Better to find them now than on the last day.”

My hands stilled around the cable in my lap, caught slightly off guard by his response.

“Oh. Well, I still think Uncle Tony would've done better.” Sarah huffed. She leaned toward me and whispered, far louder than she probably intended, “He's a little mean, huh?”

I bit my lip. I was fairly certain Isaac could hear every word, but Sarah clearly didn't care. She gave me a quick wave before heading toward her car.

“Take care,” I called.

“You too.” She climbed inside and drove away.

I reached for another box, then, just to be sure, glanced to my side. Isaac was still there. He hadn't left.

“Thanks,” I said eventually.

I wasn't sure whether I was thanking him for what he'd said about the blind spots, or simply for making Sarah leave.

“No one can predict everything. I've been on enough sets to know that something is always going to happen. You can plan for every possibility you can think of, but there's always going to be something you didn't account for.”