Chapter One

      Production meeting for show Impact Load scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on site Monday. Walk-through and safety checks still required of building. Cam will be gaffing cables after meeting in prep for sound checks. Cast note: curious how Fynn will make out on this one—being pushed into spotlight and also working with the new girl. His preference to stay off camera won’t work this time if Carl has his way.

      —Impact Load Production Notes, Brian Merrick, Director

      It was a warm morning for early May in Toronto, and I wanted nothing more than to ditch my faux-leather jacket for something lighter. Not that I would. No friggin’ way. Not after the hours I’d spent picking this ensemble out, making sure I looked the part of the perfect television host. Today was launch day for Impact Load, my brand-new home-improvement show and dream come true. I only had one shot to make a good first impression on the production team and the film and building crews, which meant keeping my jacket in place and praying that I didn’t sweat like a man.

      We were filming at Trinity House. God, I couldn’t believe I was back here after all this time. It’s weird how a place morphs into this giant thing in your brain as time passes. I was five when I first walked down this pathway toward the shelter with my mom. I swore the large house was actually a castle. It might as well have been given the tiny apartment we’d been living in previously. Now standing here, looking at the peaked roof and long windows with gingerbread woodwork and seeing how much the place had decayed since my mother and I had lived there, broke my heart. Twenty years can change a lot.

      I would breathe life back into this place if I had to change out every single board in the building with my own bare hands. I owed it not only to Trinity House, but to myself. I had to give back to the place that gave me and my mom a fresh start, to ensure that other families would have a place to go. Plus, adding some stained-glass inlays to provide additional color and life would show off my design style for the show. That was the whole point of the program after all.

      “Dammit, they’re all single-pane windows. That’s going to be expensive to switch out.”

      I jumped and spun around so quickly my coffee sloshed out from the opening of its plastic lid and burned the side of my hand. “Shit!”

      “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” The man was incredibly handsome, though his scowl made his full lips sag and his laugh lines droop. His black hair lacked any sort of obvious product and yet still managed to lie in exactly the best way possible to highlight his crystal-blue eyes. He looked familiar—I felt like I had seen him before. Or maybe it was just those insanely good looks.

      He cleared his throat as his gaze slipped down my body.

      Oh, hello there. “That’s okay. Good to know my coffee can wake me up one way or the other.” I’m not a natural flirt, but I like to try whenever the opportunity allows. This guy was a temptation I wouldn’t be able to resist. Plus, it would add some sizzle to my Monday morning.

      “A