All Vendors 2

by Cat Johnson

  “No, you never told me.” She had a feeling the rest of this story wasn’t going to go well. At least not well for her or her insecurity.

  “I wasn’t old enough to see it because it was rated R. So my friend got his older brother to buy the tickets for us and we slipped in behind an older couple, you know, pretending like they were our mom and dad.” He grinned wide. “And now we’re starring together.”

  “We are.” But for how much longer would they continue to cast her as the love interest when the hero was a decade younger than she was?

  Not long was her guess. She could buy herself a few more years with enough Botox and line fillers, maybe a little collagen in her lips and the right hairstyle, but that wouldn’t work forever.

  Soon she’d start to get roles as the star’s mother. Or worse, grandmother.

  Hollywood was a real bastard and the viewing public its fickle mistress. Which is why it was important to strike while the iron was still hot. Before her career cooled to the point she’d have to take action to keep it on life support.

  Deciding to move on from the gloomy future she’d envisioned, she glanced at Jamey. “Your swelling is way down.”

  He nodded. “You see that? I thought so too. Now it’s just the bruise.”

  “And Jeannie can cover that no problem.”

  “Exactly. Today’s scenes should be fine. I think we’re in the clear.”

  They were scheduled to shoot another flashback scene. This one depicting when she and Jamey first saw each other after he gets back from deployment.

  “Howard wouldn’t have scheduled them if he didn’t think so,” Sierra agreed.

  “What happened really is a blessing.”

  She frowned and shot him a glance. “How’s that?”

  “If Rick didn’t punch me, we never would have had to rearrange the schedule to shoot the flashbacks earlier. We would have shot it as planned and that wasn’t with the real SEALs and all their kick ass military shit.”

  “You’re correct there.”

  Jamey shook his head. “Rick really is amazing.”

  Sierra smiled. The hero worship in this bromance was starting to reach a comedic level. “Yup. Amazing.”

  “You two have been together a while.”

  “A couple of years.” She nodded.

  “That’s forever in Hollywood.” He grinned.

  She laughed. “We spent a considerable amout of that time on the east coast. I have a house in Miami and was working on a film shooting in Virginia when we met.”

  He nodded, as if that explained the longevity of the relationship.

  “How come you’re not dating?” she asked.

  The hottest new actor to hit the big screen in years should have at least the rumor of a girlfriend, if not a sex tape making the rounds on the internet by now.

  He let out a snort. “Who has the time?”

  She laughed. “True.”

  “Maybe I should date Jeannie. I see her more than any other woman in my life besides you.”

  Sierra noticed Jamey hadn’t suggested they date. She chose to assume that was because she was with Rick and not because she was too old to be in his dating pool, while the twenty-something Jeannie was right there in the zone.

  She knew he was just making a joke but she figured he should know the deal anyway. “I think Jeannie’s girlfriend might take issue with you two dating.”

  His eyes widened as he turned to stare at her. “No!”

  “Yes.” Sierra laughed.

  “Wow.” And with that Jamey’s horny male mind was no doubt filled with lesbian fantasies.

  Sierra shook her head. God bless ’em, the men in her life were so predictable.

  And speaking of the men in her life . . . Rick came trotting up to them. “Hey, you’ll never guess what Howard wanted to talk to me about when he pulled me away after the screening.”

  “Um, I probably never will guess so why don’t you tell us?” she said.

  “He wants me to do press with you.”

  “Well, you’re my security so you of course will be traveling with me—”

  Rick shaking his head interrupted her. “No. He wants me on camera.”

  Maybe the men in her life weren’t as predictable as she’d assumed.

  “On camera?” she asked.

  “Yeah. He’s trying to set up some sort of promo shoot at Coronado for Jamey and me,” Rick continued, looking as excited as Jamey.

  Jamey’s mouth dropped open. “Holy shit. For real? I get to go to the base where the SEALs train, with you?”

  “Yup.” Rick nodded. “You even get to run the obstacle course.”

  “The one you run in BUD/S? No way!” Jamey’s eyes popped wide.

  The two were like boys on Christmas morning. And what did that make her?

  Right now she felt suspiciously like their mommy.

  They walked off ahead, Rick as animated as Jamey as they talked.

  He loved this shit. Absolutely and completely.

  But what happened when there were no more SEAL scenes to shoot? No more promos on Navy bases to do? What then?

  When it was back to hours of non-eventful boring old guard duty, Rick was going to be more miserable than he had been before.

  He might not be able to see that far ahead but she could and she dreaded that day.

  She didn’t want to think about it but she had to, because it wasn’t all that far away.

  CHAPTER 15

  Coronado. This was the place where SEALs were made. It was also where many a candidate’s dreams were crushed.

  Rick stood on the grinder.

  The place where he’d stood so many years ago and gotten his trident at graduation. The place he’d mustered daily regardless of heat or rain or cold. The place where he’d dropped and gave the instructors as many push-ups as it took to make them happy.

  The infamous brass bell where so many candidates had rung out, giving up when things had gotten too tough, was located purposefully within sight of the grinder where so much activity happened.

  He saw the small sign that spelled out the dose of cold hard truth they’d all lived during that period—the only easy day was yesterday.

  It was almost impossible to absorb all the things assaulting him at once. Sights. Sounds. Smells. Memories.

  “You miss this,” Sierra said next to him.

  “This?” Rick laughed, sweeping a hand to indicate their surroundings. “No.” He looked over at Sierra and saw the doubt in her expression. “I promise you, there is nothing about BUD/S that I miss.”

  Not the sleep deprivation. Not the sugar cookies. Not the drown proofing. Not the master chief’s shouting.

  He saw a class run by. A tight formation full of energized candidates who answered the cadence loud and clear, proving this was just the beginning of their training day and not near the end.

  Okay, maybe he did miss that. Not the miles of running, but rather the camaraderie. The feeling of being part of a team. Part of a group with a shared purpose, all dedicated to something bigger than themselves.

  He glanced again at Sierra and saw her still watching him.

  She’d been doing that a lot lately—watching him. In fact, it had been happening since they’d shot those night scenes. That was over a month ago now.

  He had the distinct feeling she was waiting for something. For what, he didn’t know. Maybe for him to lose his cool again and punch somebody?

  If that were the case she needn’t have worried. If he ever did punch Jamey again, it would because the kid was so close up his ass every moment that Rick couldn’t stop without Jamey running into the back of him.

  The only reason he wasn’t here with them now was because he was getting his makeup put on for today’s promo shoot.

  Yeah, Rick understood the importance of makeup for actors in the movies, but for running the O-course? Ridiculous.

  Needless to say Rick had refused the offer. He didn’t care what Jeannie said about the camera and the sunligh
t washing him out.

  That’s all he needed, makeup mixed with the sweat running into his eyes and the sand blowing in his face while he tried to cross Burma Bridge on the obstacle course. No, thank you.

  “Come on.” He reached for and grabbed Sierra’s hand.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “To the beach.”

  Hopefully there’d be a BUD/S class there doing something torturous. Rolling in the surf in full uniform. Carrying one of those heavy ass logs he’d had to for hours at a time. Running with a boat held over their heads.

  Any of those things would show Sierra he wasn’t lying about not missing his time at Coronado before he’d gotten assigned to an east coast team and from there moved on to DEVGRU.

  Although, maybe it didn’t matter if she never did truly understand. That part of his life was over now.

  They didn’t get even as far as the sand when Jamey trotted up to them. With him came a cameraman, a sound guy and assorted other crew whose purpose Rick had yet to figure out.

  “Hey! Ready for the obstacle course?” Jamey asked.

  Sierra looked relieved to be saved from the long trek across the sand Rick had proposed. She was such a city girl.

  Rick turned his attention to Jamey, who was practically vibrating with excitement.

  “Sure,” Rick said. “Are you ready?”

  “Hell, yeah!” Jamey rubbed his hands together. “I can’t wait.”

  Rick laughed, sure the kid’s tune would change at about the third obstacle. “Okay. Let’s hit it. We can walk over.” He paused and glanced down at Sierra’s impractical heels, then took a look at all the crew and their equipment. “Or maybe we should drive over.”

  Alone, he never would have thought twice about heading to the O-course on foot. Today, he was definitely not alone.

  They drove the short way to the obstacle course set up on the sand and everyone piled out of the vehicles.

  Rick waited next to Jamey as the crew got their shit together. “So I’ll go first so you can see the procedure. Then I’ll walk alongside you while you go through it. Okay?”

  “Okay. Got it. Let’s do this.”

  Rick looked forward to seeing what happened to all that enthusiasm later, after Jamey had faced the infamous course.

  “All righty.” Rick slipped off his sunglasses and took his cell phone out of one of the pockets of his camouflage pants—a remnant of his active-duty past. He handed both to Sierra. “Hold these for me?”

  “Sure.” As she took the items, he could see even through the lenses of her sunglasses that her gaze swept him from head to toe.

  Was she checking him out? His lips twitched with a smile. He was going to have to start wearing cammies more often if that was all it took to get Sierra’s motor running.

  He delivered a wink. “See you in a few minutes.”

  With Jamey standing next to him at the course’s start looking excited, Rick asked, “You gonna time me?”

  It wasn’t being able to just finish the course that was important. Candidates were judged by how fast they could complete it.

  Jamey stared blankly at Rick.

  “I got you.” Jeannie, the make-up girl of all people, held up her cell phone to show Rick the timer app was open. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  At the moment, he trusted Jeannie to remember to hit start on the timer more than Jamey in his excited state, so Rick nodded.

  He drew in a breath and took off for the first obstacle.

  It was the tires. A piece of cake, but that was part of the challenge. The course started out deceptively easy and got hella hard fast.

  He navigated the tires easily and jumped right into the parallel bars for the Hand Walk.

  It had been years since he’d been here and run this course, but it came right back to him. He’d run it so often as a candidate his muscles remembered what to do. He ran it without having to think.

  As he moved from one obstacle to the next—the low wall, then the rope climb up and over the high wall—he was aware of the crowd of people following along beside him.

  He was used to being watched on the course, they were tested and timed on it weekly during training, but then the people with him were instructors, a medic and other candidates. Not a film crew. But as he executed a practiced belly crawl beneath the logs that were to simulate barbed wire, he really didn’t care who watched him. His eye was on his end goal—a good completion time.

  He climbed up the cargo net and back down again.

  Balancing on the rolling logs felt easier than it used to and a small part of his brain wondered if that was because his balance had improved thanks to his taking up surfing.

  He conquered getting over the logs that made up the Dirty Name and the tightrope of Burma Bridge as easily as if he’d done this course just last month. He moved smoothly through the Weaver, lacing his body over and under the metal bars.

  By the time he reached the vaults he knew he was in the final stretch and poured on the speed.

  Sprinting, he reached the sign to indicate the finish line and yelled, “Time!”

  Bent at the waist and breathing hard, Rick braced his hands on his thighs and glanced up at Jeannie.

  “Nine minutes.”

  “What?” He straightened, his chest still heaving as he tried to catch his breath. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. Well actually, eight minutes and forty-nine seconds.”

  He blew out a curse. Eight minutes and change sounded moderately better than nine, but still, it was way slower than what he’d used to get.

  Gone were the days of a six-minute completion time for him. Well over a decade of years passing and a couple of knee surgeries did that to a guy, he supposed.

  Jamey trotted up to him. “Oh my God. That was amazing. You made it look so easy.”

  He let out a breathy laugh. Easy was not a word he’d use to describe the O-course.

  “You ready?” Rick asked.

  “Yeah.” Jamey nodded.

  Time to kick some civilian ass to make himself feel better about his own time. “All right. Let’s get back to the start.”

  The presence of the film crew had attracted a few on-lookers. Guys in brown shirts and cammies, which told Rick they were candidates.

  They probably had intended on doing a practice run on the course but found the whole Hollywood circus set up down here on the sand instead.

  When he glanced behind him and found Sierra signing an autograph for one guy, he guessed they didn’t mind the interruption in their workout all that much.

  But back to Jamey. He needed to make sure the kid didn’t die or break anything. They still had some shit to do to tie up this movie, not to mention the whole press tour and publicity stuff.

  That was the very reason they were here today. To show the viewing public all the real life military background that had gone into the making of this completely fictional film.

  He supposed the public would appreciate it. Or maybe not. What did he know? He wasn’t an expert in movies or publicity.

  What he was an expert on was this course.

  “Take your time as you go through,” Rick said. “Don’t burn yourself out by trying to sprint in between. Running in the sand is exhausting and you need your strength for the obstacles.”

  He was talking but he wasn’t sure Jamey was listening. The kid was in a sprinter’s stance at the starting line, looking like he was ready to take off for the fifty-yard dash.

  He would learn soon enough. Rick glanced at Jeannie. “Got the timer ready?”

  “Yup.” She nodded. “I’m ready.”

  Short of having a starter’s gun, Rick figured Jamey needed some sort of official go-ahead, so he said, “All right, Jamey. Ready. Set. Go!”

  The kid took off running, doing just as Rick had told him not to do.

  He almost tripped on the tires by trying to take them too fast but he made it through without face planting, which was good.

  Rick had already seen
the results of Pretty Boy having a messed up face. He didn’t need a repeat of that.

  The kid jumped easily over the first wall. No surprise. He was tall and at this point in the course, was still fresh and full of energy.

  That wasn’t going to last.

  “Save yourself in between,” Rick yelled.

  Jamey climbed the wall with the rope easily as well. That obstacle was all about upper body strength, and whether his muscles were more for show or for actual use, Rick had to admit Jamey had good upper body definition.

  Maybe he wasn’t going to do as badly on this course as Rick had predicted. His ego was starting to feel bruised until the kid executed the slowest belly crawl Rick had ever seen.

  That was one of the easier stations in the course, as far as Rick was concerned. Although he supposed civilians didn’t practice crawling under barbed wire so perhaps it was an acquired skill.

  As Jamey ran toward the Cargo Net, Rick remembered his coaching duties. “Stay close to the side on the way up. The rope’s tighter there.”

  Jamey jumped onto the rope and started to climb.

  “Stop at the mid point where it’s marked in red. We can only go halfway up without a medic present since you can die if you fall from the top.”

  That got Jamey’s attention. He paused in his climb and glanced down at Rick, eyes wide.

  So the kid was listening.

  Rick smiled. “Don’t stop now. Get up and get back down. Clock’s ticking.”

  Jamey managed it without falling off, though it wasn’t the fastest climb Rick had ever seen.

  He moved toward the board walking, slipping off as one of the logs rolled when he stepped on it.

  “Start over,” Rick yelled.

  “From the beginning?” Jamey gasped.

  “No. On the log.”

  “Oh.” Jamey blew out a breath and this time took the logs much slower, balancing with his arms extended.

  “You do any surfing?” Rick asked him.

  “No,” Jamey answered, already sounding breathless.

  “Too bad. I think it helps with the board walking.”

  Jamey scowled, almost fell off the last log, but finally made it to the end. Finally learning, or maybe just tiring, he walked rather than ran to the rope climb.