The Honeymoon Trap

by Christina Hovland

  She ground her heel into the disastrous image, slammed the door to the bedroom, and stripped off her robe. A sob desperately tried to escape from the depths inside her. She swallowed it down. Caterpillar. Never, never would she have expected him to join the crowd of bullies who spent years tormenting her.

  Tears are a luxury girls aren’t afforded. Her mother’s words echoed in her mind.

  She crossed her arms over her breasts, embarrassed. Ashamed. The bathroom door stood ajar. She snatched a handful of clothes from the dresser and turned the lock behind her.

  She.

  Would.

  Not.

  Cry.

  With nowhere to go, she turned on the shower, ready to wash away Will’s scent. Wash away her pain. Wash away the world.

  “Luce?” he called through the thin door.

  She refused to answer him.

  A firm knock against the door.

  No.

  She gripped her fingers tight to keep her hands from shaking.

  The shower warmed, and she climbed in, raising her face into the stream. It dissolved any semblance of armor remaining. Like cotton candy dropped in a lake, the dam around her emotions disintegrated and every unshed tear she’d ever held inside released.

  She stood there, unmoving, until the hot water ran out and a cold, angry stream spiked against her skin. She didn’t turn it off. The freezing water rinsed away her warm tears.

  Then nothing.

  She finally shut off the water, wrapped a towel around herself, and cracked the door.

  He was gone.

  She took her time, rubbing a towel against her chilled skin, combing her frozen hair.

  They were done. It was time to leave Confluence. She couldn’t stay. Not anymore.

  Stupid, fat caterpillar…

  She firmed her resolve, held the pieces together, and stepped from the bathroom. The apartment was quiet.

  She wiped at her cheeks.

  She needed a plan to work her way out of Confluence. She’d start with the newsroom. Go to work and figure out what came next.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Lucy stuck around the newsroom with Reuben, both of them the only staff left at the station. Everyone else had either gone off on various assignments or disappeared upstairs to rub elbows with the network executives.

  The time for the press conference to start came and went.

  Lucy didn’t attend.

  Will needed to focus, and the last thing he needed was his ex-girlfriend distracting him. That’s what she’d told herself anyway.

  After the announcement and questions, they would have a big VIP party for the Crestone executives. Lucy wouldn’t be there, either. She would hang out in the newsroom and help the night producer once the stories came in. Perhaps she and Reuben could order a pizza. He’d taken it personally upon himself to teach her inappropriate jokes. Maybe she’d even laugh today. It beat sulking at home.

  She rose to grab the scripts off of the printer.

  The phone rang. Reuben grabbed the receiver.

  The police scanner crackled. She turned it up. “Car two five. Dispatch. Car two five. Attend six-five-four Rivers Drive for multiple reports of animal—”

  “Lucy?” Reuben called from across the newsroom.

  Lucy clicked off the scanner and rolled the chair away from her desk so she could see him. “What’s up?”

  “We’ve got a situation.” Reuben placed the phone back in the cradle. “An alligator’s loose in the river.”

  Lucy shook her head dramatically. “I’m sorry. For a second I thought you said there was an alligator in the river.”

  Reuben didn’t laugh. “That’s what I said.”

  “Quit joking around.” She rolled back to her desk.

  “It’s not a joke.”

  Okay, so he was being totally serious.

  “How would an alligator get in the Colorado River? Don’t they need salt water?” She stood and propped an arm against the side of her cubicle.

  “No idea. But a guy apparently lost an alligator—some kind of zoo transport. We just got a tip that it’s in the river.”

  “Am I being punked?” She glanced around the empty room. Stranger things had happened on slow days in the newsroom.

  “If you are, then I am. All the media is at your boyfriend’s press conference, so we could get the exclusive if we hustle.”

  Her heart dropped at the mention of her “boyfriend.”

  “We could totally scoop them. Who do you want to send?” Reuben asked.

  “No one.” She didn’t want to call down a reporter. It would raise eyebrows if she pulled any of them away. The other news outlets in Confluence might start sniffing around.

  She could do the job. Will had told her she couldn’t go on camera, but there had been no time to talk about it. She didn’t exactly have many options here, desperate times and all that. Besides, this was a plan—get on camera and get out of Confluence.

  “How long since you practiced your photog skills?” She tossed a notepad in her purse and zipped it closed.

  Mischief flashed across Reuben’s face. “You’re going to scoop this, aren’t you?”

  Yes, she was. An alligator in the freaking river meant she was absolutely going to scoop it. If they got some video, a few interviews, this would be a great story. The kind a reporter would add to a demo reel.

  “What do you say? You want to go rogue with me?” She hitched her purse over her shoulder.

  “Been a while, but I think I can remember how to turn on a camera.” Reuben grabbed one of the camera bags and a tripod by the exit. “They said it went in near the Market at the trailhead. You driving or am I?”

  Lucy grinned and snatched her press pass from her desk. “You’re driving. Let’s go find our gator.”

  “Hey Lucy, what’s the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?”

  “What?” She played along.

  “No idea, but we’re about to find out.” He winked at her.

  When they arrived at the river, a small crowd had gathered around the edge of the water. A couple of uniformed police officers stood guard. Lucy distracted them with reporter questions while Reuben slipped past.

  He didn’t waste any time. The camera was on his shoulder, rolling video immediately. It may have been awhile since he lugged one around, but no one would ever guess.

  The huge, muscled gator sat near the edge of the water ripping apart what appeared to be a giant chuck roast. Several police officers and three handlers in khaki shirts inched toward the escaped reptile. Reuben kept a step behind them with the camera.

  Lucy glanced to the scuffle taking place by the water. An older man with white hair, dressed in head-to-toe khaki, looped a hook around the distracted gator’s head. Then he hopped on the back of the six-footish reptile like a cowboy and held the beast tight. It took two more of them to straddle the head, hold the mouth closed, and wrap black electrical tape around the snout.

  Reuben remained only a breath away, getting the whole thing on film. Lucy gave mad props to him for not balking as the heavy tail thrashed near his feet. That video was going to be fantastic.

  With the gator secured and placed back in its metal cage, Lucy clicked into reporter mode and collected sound bites.

  “How did the gator escape from your vehicle?” she asked the lead handler.

  The gator wrestler who had some kind of animal teeth strung on a necklace appeared ready to conquer the depths of the deepest jungle in camouflage cargo pants, brown work boots, and a khaki bush shirt.

  “Weeeell, this isn’t the first time ol’ Jack here’s made a break for it. First time he’s ever made it outside the trailer, though. I figure we’ll take ’em back to Florida. His travelin’ days are through.”

  “What would you say to the people worried about Jack’s well-being on the road?”

  “I’d say if they’re worried about ’em, then they don’t know Jack.” He smirked.

  And there you had i
t. They didn’t know Jack.

  She wrapped up the interview, and the gator-wrestlers let her get close to the now-resigned-to-his-fate beast.

  Lucy loved her job. This little adventure would move her forward, out of Confluence.

  This was right, the moving on. She played those words on repeat in her head—and would until she believed them.

  She adjusted her collar and buttoned up her suit jacket before the green light of the camera turned on. Reuben cued her, and she smiled her best I-know-what-I’m-talking-about grin into the lens. “It’s a jungle out there, Confluence, but this big guy is on his way back to Florida tonight. Thanks to Jack’s handlers and a few first responders, the Confluence River is safe once more. To Jack the alligator, all we have left to say is, ‘Later Gator.’”

  Intoxicated on adrenaline, they hurried back to the station to get the story ready for the evening news.

  The station buzzed with preparation for the upcoming broadcast. She didn’t have much time to put together the segment, so she plunked herself in an editing bay to clip the snippets of sound and video together. Her image filled the screens, and she lost herself in the little room. Everything in her hummed with elation when she added the final voiceovers. She tapped a few buttons, sending the story to be stacked into the show—just in time.

  “Lucy, don’t go crazy, but I posted some of our video online.” Reuben shifted from foot-to-foot just outside the editing room.

  She glanced up at him. “What’d you post?”

  “The gator wrestling and then your stand-up afterward when he kind of did the alligator I’ll-be-back smile behind you, and you said, ‘Later Gator.’”

  She laughed. The beast had done a decent impression of Schwarzenegger—for an alligator.

  Whatever. The full story would be on the news in under an hour anyway.

  “The thing is—” Reuben shuffled uncomfortably again. “I have a bit of a following online and well…now the video is trending. There are memes, too.”

  Lucy felt her eyes go wide.

  “Only a few of them gave it a thumbs down. Totally impressive for a viral video like this.” Reuben waved a hand toward the monitor.

  That was so not her concern right now because William moved behind Reuben, and every muscle in Lucy’s body went rigid.

  His gaze went to the screen behind her.

  He told her to assign the stories, not do them herself. She got that. But this wasn’t exactly a situation that could wait.

  Still, his eyes flared. A little vein in his forehead throbbed.

  She didn’t need to look to know her image was still there, where she’d paused it on the screen, the alligator smiling like a maniac in the background.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The blood in Lucy’s head thrummed. She’d hoped to forego William and go through Parker from here on out.

  At that moment she wanted to run. Wanted to hide. Wanted to scream into the nearest pillow. Deep breaths. This was work. She had a job to defend, even if it hurt like a million needles under her fingernails to look at him.

  The wheels on her chair squeaked as she shoved away from the desk.

  “Reuben, give us a minute.” Will jerked his head toward the hallway.

  Reuben, not an idiot, excused himself with a questioning glance at Lucy.

  The heavy soundproofing on the walls of the editing bay seemed to close in on her. His voice and the word caterpillar echoed in her head. She shook it off. This was work. Not home. This was work and she’d done a damn good job for the station that afternoon.

  She rallied her courage. “We got a tip and didn’t want the other stations or the newspaper to get the scoop. If I called a reporter from upstairs, they would’ve noticed. Reuben and I got the story. The end.”

  Kind of.

  He pressed his lips together and gestured to the monitor. “Show me.”

  Lucy scooted her chair closer, pushed a few buttons, and played the video for him. He didn’t relax, didn’t show any expression. Exactly one minute later, the story finished on the alligator’s funky smile.

  Sheesh, not even a lip twitch.

  “You had no alternative but to go behind my back? Again?” he asked without expression.

  Well, yeah, of course she had other options. None of them were good ones. “This was the best choice.”

  He remained silent.

  She should probably lay it all out. Break all the news at once. Tear off the bandage in a single sweep. “There’s more.”

  “You said ‘the end’ before. I’m understanding ‘the end’ is not ‘the end’?”

  “Reuben posted some of the video online, and it’s gone viral.” She spit the words out as fast as she could.

  He rubbed at his forehead. “How viral?”

  “I’m not sure there are levels of viral. I found out right before you came in. That’s all I know.” She nearly added, “Forgive me Father for I have sinned.” She wasn’t particularly religious, but right now, a bit of divine intervention would be good.

  “To be clear, I asked you to assign a story before, because you were too close to it. You did it anyway. Then I asked that you assign all other stories until we could work out the fact that you didn’t do as asked. You did this anyway. And the video is now being viewed all over the world?”

  She gnawed at her lip. “It would seem so. I did what needed to be done to get the station an exclusive story.” Now she was repeating herself. Not a good sign.

  Eyes fixed on the monitor, he didn’t say a word. Like he was on the precipice of deciding if he was angry because she hadn’t listened, or pleased because his station got the scoop on a big story.

  She continued, “Look, things happened today that ended up with me reporting a story. The video and the reporting, they’re good. I’m not saying that because I was involved. I’m saying it because the end result is amazing. I’m sorry I broke your rule. I didn’t do it intentionally. I didn’t mean for my face to be all over the internet. I didn’t mean to upset you. I didn’t mean to have my picture turned into a meme.”

  “What’s a meme?” Will broke his stare from the monitor back to her.

  “It’s one of those things that people post with different words.”

  His expression remained blank.

  “Like, so you can say something you want to say, but you don’t want to just say it, so you use a picture and text?”

  Nothing.

  Ugh. How could she explain this?

  She grabbed her phone and brought up a browser. A few keywords entered into the search engine and yup—reporter Lucy, standing in front of the smiling Arnold Schwarzenegger alligator. This one said, “They told me I could be anything, so I became an… Investigator.” She handed the phone to him.

  He studied the screen, tapping through the variations of what the internet was currently finding hilarious. “You’re kidding me.”

  “I wish.”

  He puffed his cheeks and let out a long breath. “What’s a ‘Shenanigator’?”

  “No idea. The ‘Later Gator’ one is kind of funny, though. That’s a pun on what I said in my stand-up.”

  No response.

  She took her phone back and slipped it into her pocket.

  Parker’s voice cut through the air. “William, we’ve got a situation.”

  Will closed his eyes and counted to three under his breath. “This day is just full of those. What now?”

  Parker walked toward them with intent. “News was short on content today, so Lucy’s story ran at the top. National picked it up as the kicker to the evening news.”

  Oh.

  She stilled.

  William squeezed her shoulder. “You don’t do things halfway, do you?”

  She couldn’t move with the rushing in her ears overwhelming all thought.

  Oh. My. God.

  Her story had hit the national evening news.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  William had managed to condense days of lengthy executive meetings
in Colorado Springs down to hours. He still hadn’t quite solved the puzzle of how to keep the merger without putting a bunch of people out of work.

  For now, things were stable with the acquisition, and he’d figure it out. But he needed to get home. Sort out the mess with Lucy. He’d been pissed. Hadn’t handled things well. He’d been pissed she went against his directive… again. They could sort it out. He knew they could.

  Fine, so he messed up when he found the photo. There was time to fix everything. Admitting anything else wasn’t an option—even if she wouldn’t answer her phone.

  Being away, even for only a day, had shown him he had fallen hard for her.

  Now he just had to tell her.

  Leather briefcase slung over his shoulder, he hurried to his truck parked across the lot at what would soon be the flagship station for Crestone.

  “William!”

  He glanced up as one of the Colorado Springs executives he had met with rushed toward him.

  “Jim.” William nodded as the older man came closer. “Everything okay?”

  “It is.” Jim clapped him on the back. “Wanted to catch you before you left town.”

  Jim had been the lead troublemaker on the buyout, waffling back and forth. They had made headway today, though.

  “Looks like it’ll be a tough road on this merger.” William glanced around the lot again.

  Sadness played across Jim’s face. He jerked his head toward the building behind him. “This station’s been in my family for three generations. A lot of good people have worked here for years.”

  William waited, understanding that Jim needed to say whatever he came to say. He had to let Jim come to the conclusion the rest of the executives had already arrived at—Crestone was the best answer for everyone. Jim, unfortunately, was still holding firmly onto the past.

  His Adam’s apple bobbed in his wrinkled throat. “Think it might be time to let her go. You’re a stand-up guy. I can see that now.”

  Damn, it was hard to witness a leader make the decision to give up everything his family had built. “I’ll take good care of your company,” William assured him.

  “Wouldn’t sign it away if I didn’t believe that.” Jim shifted slightly. “I hope you’ll give our employees a chance to prove themselves.”