“Well, it could’ve been worse and been a cheek or something.”
“I bet this was the worst date you ever had.”
With a straight face, she said, “Our relationship did get off to a rocky start.”
“I deserve that pun.”
She smiled at him. “So do I get dinner on the second date?”
Chapter Eight
In the living room Whitney smelled the heady scent of Ben’s pink roses. Shannon had moved the vase of flowers from the table in the foyer to set then on the end table next to her. Whitney appreciated Ben’s thoughtfulness in having the flowers delivered so quickly after she’d arrived home from the hospital. She intended to tell him so when she spoke to him.
While relaxing on the dark blue leather couch, she said to Shannon, “I love getting flowers, but wish I’d gotten them without having to first fall off a mountain.”
Shannon grinned at Whitney. “Oh now, it’s a mountain you fell from. On future climbing trips, you better have a secure rope around your waist so you don’t fall.”
The phone rang before Whitney could tell Shannon what Gary had found after he investigated the trail. Shannon ordered, “Don’t move. I’ll get it for you.”
Shannon hurried back from the kitchen with the cordless phone. As Shannon handed it to her, Whitney said, “This is nice getting waited on. I should fall more often.”
“Hey, don’t get used to it. My service is for a short duration.”
She laughed as she took the phone, and glanced at the caller ID. “It’s Molly.”
Shannon frowned. “Great. She’s probably going to offer you more money to return to New York. We better get busy on our business.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going back.” That part of her life was over, and she had no desire to return to New York to live. “Hi, Molly.”
“Hi, I saw what happened on our competitor’s late night news. How are you after being air lifted to the hospital?” Molly asked.
“I have twenty-five stitches, a few bruises but at least nothing’s broken.” She leaned against the back of the couch. She felt a bit dizzy. “I saw it on our local news, but never expected you’d see it in New York. And how did you know I’d be home?”
“I called the hospital first and they said you were released this morning.” Molly cleared her throat. “I have a favor.”
She figures since I flew on a helicopter, I can now fly on a regular plane to visit and maybe end up staying to work in New York. “No, thank you.”
Molly laughed. “You said no before hearing the favor. It’s not what you think. I’d love for you to be on the show when you’re all recovered. The Bold News could do a segment on the worst first dates. I thought we could lead off with you and have others on. What do you think?”
She couldn’t do that to Ben. “It’s a great idea but you don’t need me and can still find plenty of people with horrible first dates.”
“Not as unique as yours.”
“Ben already feels terrible about what happened. It’d be mean to go on TV to chat about how I got hurt on the first date with him.” Should she tell Molly about Jack? Sure, that was one way to get off the topic of humiliating Ben. “Something interesting came out of it, though.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“The paramedic was a guy I’ve been talking to on the phone, but we hadn’t met in person. His name’s Jack and he works with Casey. He actually asked me to dinner last night, but I already had the date with Ben.”
Molly squealed. “That makes the story even better. You had a chance to go out with the paramedic but didn’t. Then you two hooked up anyhow. You were meant to meet him last night. You have to say yes and be on the show.”
Her phone beeped signaling someone else wanted to talk to her. She was thankful for the excuse to get off the line and away from her friend’s crazy story ideas. “Molly, I have another call but thank you for calling. I’ll talk to you soon. I promise. Bye.”
Before Molly could argue, she hung up and picked up the waiting line. “Hello.”
“Hey, Whitney.”
She smiled and a warmth spread over her limbs at the deep quality of Jack’s voice. “Hi, Jack. Your ears must be burning because I was just talking about you.”
“Good stuff, I hope.”
“Yes, it was all good. Thanks for taking care of me before I got to the hospital.”
“You’re welcome. It was my pleasure rescuing such a beautiful woman. How are you feeling this morning?”
What a sweet man to call her. Of course, she’d label any guy sweet if he called her beautiful. Jack was so thoughtful to call her. “I have a headache and my body is sore, but it could’ve been worse so I’m not complaining.”
“We made the news but I’m guessing you heard about it.”
“I watched it last night in my hospital room. I can’t believe it was on the news. Is that really the most exciting bit of news they’ve got to air around here?” If she’d been the producer, an Air Care story would have made her news too, but she preferred to pass off her own story as nothing worth reporting.
“I know you can’t go out right now and need to rest, but I’d like to come over. We can watch a movie or something. I’ll bring dinner.”
Immediate panic hit her. The idea of dating was all well and good until she came face to face with it. Getting up the nerve to go with Ben to the resort had been hard, and that hadn’t turned out so great. Now she had to make a decision whether to see Jack. She’d thought about it a little after she had talked to him several times on the phone. Okay, maybe more than a little, but now she hesitated in answering. Just because she’d gone out with Ben, she didn’t know if she was ready to date another guy. Oh Rob, why did you die? I want you here.
“I don’t know, Jack.”
“No need to say anything more,” he said quickly, but she heard the regret in his voice. “I guess I better let you get some rest.”
“Wait,” she said quickly. “I need to explain. Last night was the first time I’d gone out with anyone for a long time.”
“That didn’t turn out so well,” he said with a sarcastic chuckle. “If you go out with me, I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt.”
She took a deep breath. Poor Ben. He wasn’t likely to live this down for a long time. “It’s like this…you know my husband died in Iraq. Right after he died, my mother became ill so I left New York to take care of her. She just passed away a few weeks ago.”
“You’ve been through a lot. I’m so sorry for your losses.”
“Thank you,” she said to the standard condolence. “I asked Rob not to go to Iraq, but he was determined to cover the news there.”
“I assumed your husband was a soldier,” Jack said slowly, his voice sounded distant like he was lost in thought. “Casey never said he was a reporter. Was... was your husband Rob Benson?”
“Yes, I guess you saw him on the news.”
“When Casey said your last name, it never occurred to me that you were Rob’s widow. Well, Casey hadn’t told me his name. Casey just said you were a widow and he died in Iraq…” Jack paused for a long moment.
Whitney waited for him to finish, because he obviously had more to day. The way his voice dropped off told her something was on his mind. Finally, when he didn’t say anything for several moments, Whitney said his name. “Jack?”
“I was a pilot in Iraq working for the media,” he said, continuing on as if he’d never stopped. “I flew Rob several times. He was a terrific guy. I’m sorry what happened to him.”
Her throat became painfully tight. “Did he ever talk about me?”
“Yeah, he did. He always talked about how beautiful you were, and how much he loved you. He wanted to make it up to you that he was gone for so long. He loved his job but hated to be away from you.”
“Did he ever mention how I never wanted him to be there?”
“No. But I was surprised he took the assignment because he talked about you several times. I could tell he m
issed you a lot.”
Whitney blinked against the hot tears and swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. She forced herself to speak. “Thanks, Jack.”
“I can’t believe I never realized I knew your husband when we talked. And it’s something how we live in the same town and we met each other.”
“It is a surprise. A nice one.” Whitney took a deep breath and forced herself to smile. “So, why are you a paramedic now instead of the helicopter pilot?”
“I only fly for enjoyment these days. For now, I like being a paramedic.”
“And for that I’m thankful,” she said drily.
“I better get off here and let you get some rest.” He paused for a moment. “If you need anything, I’ll be happy to run to the store for you.”
“That’s kind of you. My sisters are fussing over me so I can’t think of anything I need. Do you always follow up with your patients like this?”
“Just the ones with beautiful green eyes named Whitney.”
“I’m glad.”
“I’ll call in a few days. Take care of yourself and rest a lot.”
“I will. Thank you again, Jack. Good-bye.”
Regan and Shannon walked into the room as she hung up .
“How do you feel?” Regan asked with a concerned look on her face.
“My whole body hurts but it’s hard to feel bad after a phone call from Jack. He’s very nice.”
Regan grinned. “Shannon and I should have saved our money for the skydiving session and taken you hiking instead. Now you have two guys interested in you.”
“And both fly,” Whitney said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe it.”
Shannon laughed and sat next to her on the couch. “I think you’re meant to get over your fear of flying. Don’t keep us in suspense. Are you going to see Jack? I mean on a date.”
She shrugged. “Maybe sometime. I don’t know. I admit I’m attracted to him, but—”
“Rob’s not coming back,” Regan said gently, cutting her off. “He’d want you to enjoy life again.”
Whitney gulped, trying to get a grip before she started crying. It had been hard, especially talking to Jack and hearing what Rob had told him. “I just found out Jack knew Rob because he flew a helicopter in Iraq for a year.”
Regan plopped down on the brown recliner that had been their dad’s favorite chair. “Casey must not know because he never mentioned Jack being a pilot there.”
“Rob talked about me to Jack.” She repeated what Rob had said about her to Jack.
“Of course, he did,” Regan said and continued, “He loved you a lot.”
Shannon patted her arm. “What did Molly want? I heard you say something about bad first dates.”
“She wants me to be on The Bold News about my first date with Ben. She plans to have a show about the worst first dates. I’m not going to do it. Unless…”
Regan leaned forward. “Unless what? That it’s okay with Ben?”
“I’d checked with Ben first, but not sure I’d do it anyhow. With Molly wanting me back, I’ve realized how much I’ve missed working as a producer.” Whitney glanced at Shannon “You mentioned us doing a cable TV show the first day we started talking about having our own business. I know you two didn’t want to work at a resort year round, so I’m thinking we should do a talk show.”
Regan clapped her hands. “I love it. A talk show has so many possibilities.”
“It means a big commitment doing a type of talk show. We could do a morning half hour show around ten o’clock. We should get women to watch us after they get the kids off to school, load the dishwasher, do laundry, you know get some household things out of the way and are ready to watch something where they might learn something. They’d feel guilty watching something just for entertainment, but could justify watching a program that also contained useful information. We want to educate and be fun. We could have two tape days per week for our five half hour shows.”
Shannon raised her eyebrows. “How much will this cost?”
Whitney smiled. “That’s where you come in. All of us will be some type of producer. I’m thinking you’d be great as the line producer. You would be in charge of supervising our budget and making sure we stay within it.”
“Okay, Whit, what’s my title? I want an impressive one,” Regan said.
“Yours better be the producer getting the dough for this TV show,” Shannon said in a worried tone. “Where’s the money coming from?”
“We’ll get advertisers. After we sell our show to the local television network, we can work on getting sponsors. We do have to make a pilot to show.” Whitney tapped the table with her fingernail. “Oh yeah, before we pitch our show, we need to register our concepts with the Writers Guild of America. We need to protect ourselves from theft. Regan, you can tell the attorneys when we pitch our show, the date and to whom. We want to safeguard our intellectual property before anyone hears our pitch.”
Regan narrowed her green eyes, “You don’t have a title for me, do you?”
“Of course, I do.” Whitney was happy to see Regan’s relief at her reassurance. “You’re going to be our research or coordinating producer. You’ll find potential stories for us to feature on our show. Interviewing our guests before they appear is important. We need someone like you to get as much information from them as possible.”
Regan hugged Whitney. “I love it. I feel so important.”
“None of this is definite. I’m just making suggestions. I’ll be what is called the show runner which is the producer taking care of moment-to-moment and day-to-day details of the show. What do you two think so far?”
“I think we should do it,” Shannon said.
Regan rubbed her chin. “I don’t know. I like my title, but I’m thinking since Whit has two pilots interested in her, maybe we should provide a transportation service.”
Shannon raised her eyebrows. “I hope you’re kidding because it’s a crazy idea. For one thing, Ben and Jack aren’t going to want to work for us to fly people. We might not be able to pay them. Another thing we’d have the expense and maintenance of the planes and have to worry about insurance coverage.”
“You always shoot down my ideas. I don’t think you like me.” Regan whined, pouting.
Whitney laughed. “Shannon, she’s kidding. But for a moment, Regan, you had me worried. I thought you could be serious.”
Shannon threw a cranberry colored pillow at Regan. “Okay, you can provide comic relief on our show.”
Regan clutched the pillow to her chest. “I’d like to do a program on middle children and how wonderful we are.”
“Actually I like that… talking about the order of children in a family.” At this point, anything her sisters suggested to talk about on a show would thrill her. Having a business decided made her feel happy. She hadn’t felt this satisfied for a long time.
Shannon jumped up and said, “I’ll get paper and we can get busy on this. I’ll write down some of the other things you mentioned that needs to be done.”
“You’re just showing off, so Whit gives you another title.”
Shannon giggled. “I have a feeling we’ll all end up with lots of titles.”
“Eventually when we’re a big success,” Whitney said, “we’ll have to hire extra people.”
“I’ll get some coffee,” Regan said, “and the princess can rest on her throne.”
Shannon returned with her paper and pen. “Remember how when you were little you insisted you were not our sister but a princess for a faraway land. You wanted us to call you Princess Whitney. And if we treated you like a princess, you said you’d take us along when your real family came for you.”
Whitney glanced between Shannon and Regan. “Hey, you two were jealous I had such a creative imagination.”
Regan rolled her eyes. “Is that what you call stupidity? Okay, I’m kidding.”
Shannon put her coffee cup on the end table. “I remember how one summer Mom wanted to get rid of y
ou two, so she signed you up for several vacation Bible schools.”
“Shannon, you went with us to Bible school.” Regan gave Whitney coffee and looked directly at her. “Remember how Shannon acted superior to us because she got to help with the group singing.”
“I went to one, not three.” Shannon clicked her pen. “Okay, I’m ready to write ideas down.”
“If we do the worst date ever thing, we could show a clip of The Class when Duncan backs up his car and runs over Lina after their first date. Remember she ends up being in a wheelchair for six months.” Regan sighed. “I loved that show. I’m still mad they canceled it.”
Turning her head to Shannon, Whitney said, “With Caitlyn in high school, you can talk about when to start checking out colleges. Also I’m thinking a lot of kids need extra help with their subjects so you can explain when a child needs tutoring.”
Shannon gave her a pleased look. “Perfect. While Caitlyn and I research colleges, I can use what I learn to help other parents. The tutoring topic will be a breeze.”
While Shannon jotted down the ideas, Regan said, “I’m such a Hollywood news junkie—”
“And a magazine junkie.” Shannon raised her head to smile at Regan.
“I was going to say a food junkie which is so unfair since you have a great shape,” Whitney said. Regan definitely had fast metabolism. Even as a child, she’d take second helpings and stayed thin.
Regan ignored their comments and cleared her throat. “As I was saying, I could mention how young girls Caitlyn’s age sometimes idolize the female celebrities who drink, party, do drugs, have car accidents and aren’t responsible for their mistakes. They’re bad role models for the average teenage girl.”
Whitney nodded. “Girls are influenced by the young corrupt Hollywood stars.” She paused for a moment. “We have to include cooking. I’m thinking both of you can make the exact same thing, but one will do it from scratch and one will use a shortcut. Like Regan can make cinnamon rolls from scratch like Mom used to, and Shannon can use one of those frozen bread loaves for the dough and go from there.”
“Or muffins and one uses a mix.” Shannon finished her coffee. “We can take home what we make.”
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