Jimmy continued. “They should be back soon. Gina, would you like a tour of Nielson HQ? It ain’t much, but it’s our humble little slice of freedom.”
“I’d love one.”
Pepper led Gina toward the main house, which held beds for Pepper, Jimmy, and the girls. Stone followed along with his father. They stayed quiet, so as not to create crosstalk and interfere in the audio recording while Pepper took Gina through each of the rooms, telling her how they’d built it, and some of the setbacks they’d run into. Most of it had been filmed, so it would give the editors opportunities to insert past footage.
Miguel beckoned Stone and Jimmy outside. They followed him over to the little house Stone shared with Reed, waiting while Miguel organized the cameras.
Jimmy pulled out a cigarette and lit up. He took a long drag, then tipped his head back and blew a smoke ring. “How’s it really going, son?”
Stone shrugged. He and his father didn’t talk much. Aside from being “the quiet one,” Stone just didn’t see eye to eye with Jimmy on a lot of things. And being one of seven kids, they hadn’t spent a ton of time together that wasn’t focused on shit like hunting or building.
Jimmy put on a good show for the cameras, but he wasn’t big on talking about feelings.
“I didn’t think you’d last so long.” Jimmy dragged on the cigarette. “Thought you’d be back here within the month.”
Nice to know his father had confidence in him. “Yeah, who knew?”
“My son, a dancer.” Jimmy shook his head. “Your sisters are thrilled. Your brothers are jealous. Reed and Wolf want to go on next season.”
“MaybeLiving WildandThe Dance Offcan do a crossover. Hell, all nine of us can fill out the cast on our own.” The joke was out before Stone even thought about it, and strange, because he and his father didn’t have that kind of rapport.
Jimmy let out a bark of laughter. “Wouldn’t that be something? We could all compete to see who’s the best dancer in the family.”
Stone gave a half-smile. “It’s me.”
“Miguel is gonna be pissed he missed this. We should say it all again on camera.”
Biting back a sigh, Stone nodded. This was his life. Finally have a real moment of connection with his father, then repeat it back like a parrot for the cameras. Totally fucking normal.
Miguel came back over. “Let’s get some footage of you two talking about the past couple months.”
Stone shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “Like what, specifically?”
“Talk about the challenges,” Miguel suggested.
“We just made a great joke about all the Nielsons going on the dancing show,” Jimmy said, dropping his cigarette and stubbing it out with his heel. “We’ll tell it again.”
A PA darted in to grab the cigarette butt from the ground with a tissue. Miguel rolled his eyes but gave them the go-ahead.
Jimmy turned to Stone, immediately “on.” He’d taken to acting better than any of them. Better than Stone had, certainly.
“Son, I can’t tell you how much you’ve been missed,” Jimmy said, patting Stone’s shoulder. “You are a sight for sore eyes.”
“I’ve missed this place,” Stone admitted. As he said the words, they rang false. He had missed being home, but it was less true now than it had been in April. The more time he spent with Gina, the more at home he felt, even though LA was still an odd fit for him. It might have been different if he hadn’t had the show to occupy his time, though.
Besides, Nielson HQ wasn’t technically “home.”
“Can’t imagine Los Angeles can hold a candle to what we’ve got here in Alaska.” Jimmy spread his arms wide and took a deep breath. “Smell the free—”
A racking cough interrupted his catchphrase. Years of smoking had left Jimmy with a cough that often ruined takes. When it didn’t appear inclined to subside, Stone thumped his father on the back. Jimmy spat on the ground, Miguel rolled his eyes again, and they continued.
Jimmy picked right back up where he left off, though he threw his arms out with less vigor than before. “Smell the freedom!”
Stone’s shoulder muscles tensed in annoyance.
This. Sucked. If he could just get through the next few hours, he could get back to what now passed for normal in his life: learning to dance.
Jimmy went off to charm Gina, and Pepper came over to stand at Stone’s side.
