Her brain didn’t register any of that until it was all over. She found herself on her back on the dusty floor. Beckett’s arms were around her, his face inches from hers. Her heart was pounding.
“Are you all right?” He sounded as breathless as she felt.
She swallowed. “Yeah.”
In one smooth movement he helped her sit up and then turned to see what the result of Stu’s distracting behavior was. Rachel expected to see a pile of broken wood on the floor, possibly someone injured. But evidently Todd and another member of the crew were able to gain control of the lines and stabilize the heavy shelf. They were all looking at her to see if she was hurt.
Stu turned to Glen. “Did you get all that? A rescue! That’ll play great.”
Beckett surged to his feet in front of Stu. “If you pull one more stunt like that, you are out of here. Stay in the background with your mouth shut for the rest of the day, or you can leave and go bother someone who doesn’t have peoples’ lives in their hands.”
Stu looked suitably apologetic. “Right. Right. Sorry. But Rachel’s okay, isn’t she?”
Beckett helped her to her feet. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She faced the camera, her heart still racing. “Guys, the salvage business is hard work and it can be dangerous at times, as you’ve seen today. Distractions are not a good thing.” She wiped her sweaty palms on her shorts. “I’m going to go back to my putty knife and the pretty little tiles on the second floor.”
She walked over to Stu so they could talk quietly. “I think it’s time to turn off the camera.”
He frowned. “They’ll be working here for hours yet.”
“I’m sure you’ve gotten enough footage for today.”
Stu’s expression got stormy, like it did when he was angry and trying to hold back. “How would you know what footage we have? You’ve been playing upstairs with a putty knife.”
Right now, Rachel hoped her expression was pretty damn stormy, too. “I know you’re the producer, but you have to see what a distraction and hindrance we are for the salvage crew. Not to mention making things more dangerous than they already are.” Rachel glanced around and saw that everyone was watching and listening. Guess they weren’t as quiet as she thought. “There’s been enough drama for one day.”
Stu stared at her a moment, then nodded. “That’s a wrap for today.”
Rachel nodded. “Good. I’ll meet up with you guys later. I have a couple of jobs to finish up here.”
…
At the end of the day, Beck and his crew drove back to the salvage yard to unload the box truck. It was a major relief when the film crew left and they could get back to normal. He wasn’t sure why they thought salvage work was so exciting. He sure wasn’t excited about having to deal with them again at the bar.
He was impressed with the way Rachel dove into the projects he assigned to her and that she hung around to finish them after her crew left. She took off to meet them only after she was done. He’d never seen anyone get such joy from unscrewing doorknobs.
Ginny came running out back to meet him before the truck was half empty. “Were you actually rolling around in the hay with Rachel during the salvage?”
“Hay? What are you talking about?” He started to head back to grab another load from the truck but Ginny stopped him.
She shoved her tablet into his hands. “This.”
Mia had posted a shot of the moment he took Rachel to the floor to get her away from the swinging shelf unit. There was a lot of dirt and dried grass and stuff on the scuffed wooden floor. Guess it probably could be interpreted as a barn. But in the instant she caught them, they appeared to be gazing into each other’s eyes, maybe even a fraction of an inch from kissing. The caption said, “Watch the upcoming special Rachel Touch episode to see what happened during a salvage at an old country store.”
He shoved the tablet back into his cousin’s hands. “I was making sure she wasn’t hurt.”
“Hurt?” His mother had followed Ginny out back. “Who got hurt?”
“No one. Stu distracted our guys, but they recovered right away and there was nothing to it.”
“Except for the picture.” Ginny handed the tablet to his mom. She glanced at it and then stared back at Beck.
“That picture is not what it looks like. I’d just saved her from getting smashed by shelving.”
Pop rolled up in his chair to get in the middle of the conversation. “What I heard is that you overreacted. Todd said he had it under control.”
Todd already ran to Pop to tell his side of the story? “We both know all it takes is a split-second distraction to cause a disaster. Yeah, Todd regained control, but he lost it for long enough that I felt I had to get Rachel out of the way. Have Stu show you the recording if you don’t believe me.”
Pop looked stunned. “I never said I didn’t believe you.”
“Oh, Beckett, what did we say about mixing business with pleasure?” his mom asked.
He blew out a frustrated breath. “We weren’t making out on the floor. I got her out of harm’s way.”
“You’re not falling for this girl, are you?”
“Of course not,” he lied.
His mother narrowed her eyes and gave him that look. The look a mother gave her son when she knew the stuff coming out of his mouth was bullshit.
“Not much point,” he added. “She’s not hanging around Lakeside any longer than she has to.” And he couldn’t forget it.
“And yet that’s the picture that got posted,” Pop pointed out.
“I don’t have any control over what they post. Stu wants us to play up the attraction stuff, that’s all.” Careful, that’s almost an admission. “Apparently anything goes if it’ll boost the number of viewers tuning in when the episode runs. And we need high ratings as much as Rachel does if we want to see an impact on our businesses.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing, son,” Pop said. “This all could bounce back to bite you in the ass. Bite us all.”
“Hey, it was you and Noah who got us into this thing in the first place. Don’t get mad at me because I’m trying to make the best of the situation.”
“I’m not mad at you.” Pop sounded confused.
“You’re always mad at me.”
“We don’t want to see you get hurt,” his mom interjected.
He thought about Rachel telling him goodbye. “No way to avoid it.”
…
“You’re not having an affair with that boy, are you?” Rachel’s mom asked, looking up from her phone. Rachel had already seen the picture Mia had posted, the one that looked as if she and Beckett were going to start having sex at any moment. Drama. More drama.
“Really, Mom. In front of the cameras? I’m smarter than that.”
“If you say so, but hanging around him when you’re not working isn’t the smartest thing to do, even if he wasn’t the junkman’s son.”
“I wish you’d stop calling Mr. Colburn the junkman.”
A guilty expression flitted over her mother’s face. “It’s a bad habit. I’ll try to do better.”
Wow, really? That was the first time Rachel remembered her mom saying something like that. “And you know my boss wants us to play up the idea that we’re having a fling.”
Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “Did he tell you to spend the night with Beckett Colburn?”
Rachel drew back. “No, of course not. I do have a mind of my own.”
“I’m aware of that.” Phoebe grimaced. “And I’m sorry I didn’t accept sooner that what your father and I had hoped for your future wasn’t what would make you happy.”
“Thanks for saying so, but what brought that on?”
Her mother sighed. “Yesterday your friend Mia came over here for an interview. As I was telling her about the past, how we had these lofty goals for you, how disappoin
ted we were when you turned away from everything we had to offer you…I realized how bad it sounded. I heard the words coming back to me, and then Mia repeated it. She asked if I was actually saying I was disappointed that you became extremely successful doing something you love.” Tears streamed down her mother’s cheeks. “We thought we were helping you. We never wanted to hurt you.”
Rachel moved from the side chair and joined her mother on the sofa. “I never wanted to hurt you, either.”
“We know.” Her mom took her hands. “I hope you know this party we’re throwing for you on Friday night, it’s not simply to get on TV. We want to show you that we support you. You’re our daughter and we love you.”
Now Rachel’s tears flowed. She couldn’t remember the last time she heard those words. “I love you, too.”
Her father walked into the room dressed, as always, as if he were on his way to the office. He’d probably been listening from the hallway, waiting for the declarations of love to get out of the way. In her heart, Rachel knew her father loved her. “We’re proud of your success, and your mother and I know you’re going to fly even higher in your career. A Bradford never settles for second best, and never rests on their laurels.”
Rests on their laurels. Rachel almost quoted the line out loud with him. She’d heard this speech over and over growing up. But there was one more line in the speech, and it wasn’t long before her father repeated that one, too.
“The only thing worse than never achieving success is losing it.”
Yeah, she knew that one well.
“We don’t have to worry about that, do we?” Her mom stood and smoothed the wrinkles from her skirt. “Now, make sure everyone on the Colburn side knows to dress appropriately for the party.”
Chapter Eleven
The phone call came in the middle of the night. Beck was jerked from a sound sleep when he recognized Holly’s ringtone. He scrambled for the phone and as he searched for it in the dark, he managed to knock it off the nightstand. Cursing, he slid onto the floor before he found it.
“Holly?”
“Daddy? Daddy!”
His heart wrenched as she sobbed. Every possible bad case scenario ran through his mind. All the nightmares parents wake up sweating from sent him surging to his feet. All the miles between him and Holly right now made him want to howl in frustration. “What happened, Holly? Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m not hurt, but I want to come home!” She was crying so hard he could barely understand her. Her breath caught. “I want to come home, Daddy. Right now.”
“Calm down, sweetie. Take some deep breaths. Where’s Emmie? Are her parents there?”
“Emmie’s here. We’re in our bedroom. Her parents are sleeping, I guess. I don’t think I woke them up.” He heard her ragged breathing begin to smooth out as she finally began to calm down. “I woke up crying and I need you.”
It killed him that he wasn’t there when his daughter needed him. That he’d had to send her away in the first place. He was so glad he’d gotten her a phone a couple of months ago. They’d talked before she went to bed last night, but that didn’t help when he wasn’t there for her now. “Tell me what’s wrong, sweetheart. I thought you were having fun with Emmie.”
“I was. I am. But I miss you. Two weeks is a real long time.”
He let out a soft breath of relief that nothing terrible had happened, but homesickness wasn’t fun. He longed to wrap her up in his arms. “I know.”
She was crying softly now. He could hear Emmie crying beside her. “And I miss Mocha. And Grandma and Pop. And I miss Rachel, too.”
Rachel. If it weren’t for Rachel, Holly would be home right now. Beck would have been able to comfort her after a nightmare and she’d probably be back to sleep by now. Instead there were strangers in their town with cameras and questions, things he shouldn’t have to worry about protecting her from.
If Holly had stayed in Lakeside, she’d have been fascinated by Rachel’s life, the cameras, and the excitement. Her hero worship would have been out of control. She would have wanted to be in the middle of everything. She’d certainly have wanted to be on camera, too, and he’d never have let that happen. As it was, Beck was worried about how she’d handle it when Rachel left to go back to her life in L.A., to the fans, the cameras, and the buzz, never to see her again.
Right now he had to deal with a sad little girl, and that meant looking back a lot of years.
“I’ve been homesick, too, sweetie.” She knew she hadn’t been born in Lakeside, but he’d never talked to her much about the years he traveled around, trying to figure out who he was and what he wanted to do with his life. “You know that for a while I moved away from Grandma and Pop, right? I was homesick a lot.”
“You were?”
“Yeah.” He’d thought it would be a great adventure, a way to make his own mark on the world. But the first year was a series of odd jobs, barely enough to pay for food and dumpy hotel rooms. He’d wanted to get away from the family salvage business but, more often than not, had ended up working with a shovel or crowbar because that’s all he knew. Countless nights, he’d curled up on a lumpy bed, homesickness a heavy weight on his chest. Countless nights he’d talked himself out of going back home. Most times it was the memory of Rachel’s mocking voice telling him he’d be working in the family business for the rest of his life that had convinced him to stay where he was. “Very homesick.”
“Then why didn’t you go home?”
How did he explain that it was just something he’d had to do, even when he wasn’t sure it was the right thing? “Sometimes we can’t always stay where we’re comfortable. Sometimes we have to do things we didn’t think we could.”
“Like me staying here with Emmie?”
“I think you like being there with Emmie. And you know I’ll be here when you come home. It’s only another week.”
Holly sniffed, but she’d stopped crying. “I know. I still miss you.”
“I miss you, too. Hey, there’s going to be a grown-up party tomorrow night. How about I video chat with you, and you can have a peek at us all in our fancy clothes?”
“Will Rachel be there?”
Rachel… “Sweetie, you know Rachel is in Lakeside only for the publicity.” Using him. Using them all.
“Not only, Dad. She’s there to make your bar special, too.”
“For her show.” For her career and her popularity. For the buzz. But he wasn’t getting into that with Holly tonight. It was late. “What do you think? Can you get back to sleep now?”
“I think so.”
“Sweet dreams, then. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
It was a long time before Beck got back to sleep and that meant he was in a lousy mood when he got to work the next morning. He was ready to throw a punch when Stu and Mia blocked his way into The Salvage Station.
“What do you mean I can’t go in?” These were the people who invaded his life, sent Holly away, and took away Beck’s control of his business.
“You can’t see it again until the reveal,” Stu told him.
“I have to know what’s going on inside my own place.”
“Rachel went over the plan with you, didn’t she?”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“What’s going on?” Rachel came out of the station wearing bright orange shorts, another Colburn and Sons tee, and safety boots, followed by Glen and Russ, with their camera and mics. They closed the door firmly behind them. She looked so fresh and bright he wanted to scream.
“I need to get inside.”
“You said you’ve seen the show before.” Rachel scowled. “You know how this works. You can’t see it until it’s finished.”
“I have a business to get ready. The reveal is just for the viewers, isn’t it?”
She glanced at the camera and the sound boom, then
took his arm and led him a little farther away, into the parking lot. She lowered her voice. “Did you think the rules didn’t apply to you?”
“Are they recording this?”
She ignored the question like he should know the answer. “Do you think you’re special because…?”
“Because we had sex? Because we’re supposed to be having a fling?” Another way she was just using him to get what she wanted. He glanced over to where Stu stood with his arms crossed and Mia tapped away on her tablet. “Maybe I should be given a pass, since I’m playing along with this game.”
“What’s going on with you this morning?”
Colburn and Sons customers were watching them from next door. Some had their phones faced their way. “You never said I couldn’t get inside,” he said through gritted teeth. “I have things I need to do in there.”
“You’ll have to wait a few more days.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You love this, don’t you? Having all the control?” He hated having none. No control of his business. None with his daughter who was hundreds of miles away from him. And no control of the attraction he had to the woman in front of him.
She narrowed her eyes right back at him. “Beckett, it’s my job.”
“Your job. Right. Keep telling yourself that. It’s your whole life and you like it that way.”
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “What happened? What’s the matter with you?”
If he started, he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep his voice down. “Look, I can’t talk to you now without getting mad, so I’m getting the hell out of here.”
He’d talked to Davis this morning and he said Holly was doing fine, but Beck wouldn’t rest until she was back home. He turned to go back to his car, but Rachel stepped in front of him. “Are we having a fight or something? Because I don’t know what’s going on.”
“I want to get into my building. I don’t have a salvage today, so I want to go upstairs and clean so it’ll be ready to work on once you and your crew are finally done and gone.” All he could think about was Holly. The upstairs would be her space, and he had to get it ready for her, to make up for sending her away, for making her cry. After that call in the middle of the night, nothing was more important to him than making sure his daughter had a safe and comfortable space in the building.
The Goodbye Guy (The Men of Lakeside) Page 15