Snowed In

by Tricia Wentworth

Play to Win

  CHAPTER 21

  Sunday, Beckett took her to church. No, not to marry her, though the thought was growing on him. He used to wonder how you knew that one person was it for you—for the rest of your life. How you decided or how you “knew.” But now that he knew Jordyn, when he thought about what life would be like without her, he felt like the days would all be cloudy without her brightness. She shined so bright he didn’t even remember what the cloudy days were like.

  The fact that he actually thought crap like that scared him. He was not romantic. He hadn’t probably ever felt emotionally attached to a woman who wasn’t his mom or his sister or his aunt. But for some reason, Jordyn was different. He could feel it. And man, he didn’t want her to go. Watching football with her all day yesterday was a blast and felt like a new tradition starting. He wanted her there every Saturday. In fact, he wanted her there all the time, and not just for her cooking either.

  So he took her to church in Picketts Sunday morning. He would be the first to tell you he wasn’t always the best Christian man, but despite his past decisions, he did believe, and so did Jordyn. So church seemed like common ground, a normal thing to do. He went most Sundays, half because he wanted to and half because, if he didn’t, Rose would come find him and drag him there.

  Aunt Rose had even asked on Friday, making sure Beckett was bringing her. They had skipped the previous week, since Beckett had been unsure if Jordyn was really ready for all that. But today’s visit would be Jordyn’s last step in becoming acclimated to Picketts. And, of course, Rose knew that when she asked. After Jordyn came with him to church, she was as good as gold here. Practically a local. Rose was pushy.

  His church wasn’t perfect. There was a crew of little old women who called themselves the Pink Ladies, like off the movie Greece. They gave him the stink eye whenever he saw them—his reputation being well known after all. And since it was a small town, everyone knew a lot of one another’s sins. If the preacher said something about addiction, eyes would automatically roam to Mr. Graver, one of the town drunks. So it was your typical church. A little bit of hypocrisy, but a big dose of love. You just couldn’t let the town gossips ruin the message for ya. He’d learned that from experience. But if you thought about it, they were all works in progress, weren’t they? So expecting everyone who walked in those church doors to be perfect would be ludicrous, but he wasn’t going to be the one to tell the self-proclaimed Pink Ladies that. They scared the hell out of him.

  This Sunday happened to be communion Sunday, so in addition to the usual communion, they all brought breakfast foods and had a little feast with their communion following the service. Much like the Last Supper scripture that was recited for the actual communion, they sat around long tables, did communion, and then ate a potluck of breakfast foods.

  Jordyn had loved the idea, and they went a little crazy bringing food with them. It was times like these, when she got excited over something as silly as baking for other people or game snacks, he realized again how utterly alone she usually was. But she didn’t feel sorry for herself or mope. Instead, she rocked the hell out of her independence. It was refreshing how she didn’t let any obstacle get in her way. Even if that obstacle was his rude ex-girlfriend.

  Following the church service, Jordyn made new friends with at least ten little old ladies who “hadn’t had a cinnamon roll that good in a long time.” Rose was feigning being mad at Jordyn for holding out on her about her real baking skills. And Jordyn had half of the Pink Ladies eating out of her hand.

  While Jordyn finished up talking to probably her hundredth admirer, the guys, Mason, and some of the others gave him crap about the infamous college hoodie Jordyn had worn/stolen. And he fielded lots of questions about whether Jordyn was really living with him. He assured everyone she had her own room and that she would’ve been at a hotel, but she got hurt and then stuck at his place as the storm hit. Otherwise he’d be expecting a not-so-random visit from the Pink Ladies any day now. He’d like to avoid them at all costs.

  He was terrified for their husbands honestly. Not only were these ladies vicious, but they could smell fear. It was like an extra police force in town. They took it upon themselves to make sure everyone was toeing the line—when they weren’t grabbing coffee and gossiping about the town, that is. He wouldn’t even put it past them to have a police scanner.

  He also answered a ton of questions about the commercial. Everyone in town was excited. There was going to be a lot of traffic in Picketts with the camera crews and what not. Stuff like that just didn’t happen here, so everyone had questions. Jordyn helped with taking a lot of those questions and explained the vision behind the commercial. If people didn’t like her before, they definitely did after that.

  Though they were a bit of a scandal for being in the tabloids, Picketts adored Jordyn. The cowboy-preacher man had given a sermon that morning on the theme of “choosing to love others anyway,” and it got Beckett to thinking that choosing to love Jordyn wasn’t going to be hard at all. It’d be the easiest decision of his life if only he’d let himself do it. His problem was that this five-foot-five fireball of a woman had all the power to bring him to his knees. Was he really ready to hand over that kind of power? Was he really ready for all that?

  ****

  She sighed in the pickup on the way back to Beckett’s house.

  “Was that an ‘I’m worrying and upset’ sigh, or was that a happy sigh?” Beckett asked with a smirk.

  She smiled. “A happy one. That was just so much fun. Before that first time you took me into Rose’s, I swore to myself I would not fall for this town. Small towns have been nothing but heartache for me.”

  “And how’s that going for you?” he asked. It sounded like he was joking around and trying to play it cool, but from the way he was looking at her, she also knew he really was interested in her answer.

  She shook her head and reached over to give him a kiss on the cheek. “You are somehow managing to erase my hatred for both small towns and football players all in one go.”

  He grinned, that one dimple popping. He took her hand and gave it a kiss. “Honey, you know I play to win.”

  She laughed. “That you do, Beckett Harper. That you do.”

  And she thought that may be what scared her most . . . .

  ****

  That afternoon they spent every minute together because he wanted to, Jordyn even going with him and riding along in the tractor to do chores. They both knew this was their last day alone. Everyone involved with the commercial showed up some time tomorrow, and they had only three busy and hectic days together left. Which majorly sucked. He just wanted to hang out with her, enjoying the time they had together left, but instead they were slammed with a huge to-do list.

  She gave him the rundown on what the next three days were going to be like. He had contracts and paperwork to sign tomorrow afternoon once everyone arrived. The camera crews were going to do some walking around and checking angles/sunlight for the best shots. Beckett would also do the recordings for the voice-over, which should only take a couple of hours and would be done in a mini recording-studio van the camera team was bringing. Then Tuesday and Wednesday were going to be the long days. Tuesday, Beckett was going to do typical farm tasks; he’d just be followed by about three different cameras. Wednesday, they’d shadow him for morning chores and do some more sunrise shots of the farm, and then any other shots they needed to wrap up.

  And then they’d all be out of his hair, Jordyn included. It would take them a while to go through and choose, out of hours and hours of footage, which shots and stills would be best for the thirty-second commercial. The company filming would give multiple options to AgGroSo, and AgGroSo, or Jordyn specifically, would have to sign off on which one they wanted, or which parts of which ones they wanted. AgGroSo and the filming company would go back and forth numerous times until they all settled on what they preferred. He was glad he got to stay out of that part . . . . It sounded monotonous. And boring
as hell.

  Meanwhile, he could tell Jordyn’s work was piling up. She was doing a good job of keeping up, but with her having to do double duty, she couldn’t do it all. She told him her boss, Walt, had told her to hire an assistant. So if one good thing were to come out of this stupid commercial, at least it was helping Jordyn’s career. Even though he’d secretly love it if she just quit and moved to Picketts. He wasn’t sure what a major in statistics could do in Picketts, but there had to be something, right?

  After they got their schedule for the week figured out, they rode to Picketts to pick up pizza to go from Rose’s. He didn’t want Jordyn to have to cook him supper; he just wanted to spend every second with her. Besides, she had already made her special M&M and chocolate chip cookies. They were his favorite. She had made a triple batch and put the rest in the freezer so he would have some when she was gone.

  And that thought sucked, but neither one of them was avoiding it or acting like it wasn’t going to happen. They were both bummed. Clearly. But they were going to make this work. They had to. Because any other alternative was out of the question.

  “Jordyn?” he asked as they curled up in front of the TV later that night.

  “Yeah?” she said sleepily as she played with the veins on his arm.

  He spoke softly into her forehead. “Thank you for coming. Thank you for hurting your ankle and getting snowed in with me. And thank you for making me do this stupid commercial. You are fixing my bad reputation in more ways than one.”

  “Thank you for forcing me to stay safe that first night. And thank you for proving to me that not all small towns and football players are bad.” She smiled up at him.

  “I don’t want you to leave, honey,” he said honestly with a sigh. He repositioned their bodies on the couch to look her in the eyes, searching for a way out of this separation they were about to geographically experience.

  She smiled but her breathing was unsteady, like she was fighting off tears. “And I don’t want to leave. But it’s less than a month before Christmas, and I think it’ll be good for us. To see how we feel about one another when we aren’t under the same roof.”

  Wow. What mature perspective she had. That must make him immature because he didn’t think a month away from her was going to be “good” at all.

  He smirked. “Storm of the century indeed.”

  He wasn’t talking about the damn snow either.

  Any Part of This

  CHAPTER 22

  Monday morning was the calm before the storm. She had done her best to mentally prepare Beckett for the craziness of the next few days. She knew what was about to go down, and she was feeling the stress. Not just because she was leaving Beckett soon, because that was definitely on the forefront of her mind, but also because she wanted this commercial to match up to the vision she had in her head. She wanted this commercial to be amazing. She wanted to make America cry and bask in a bathtub full of their tears. But the concept was her idea, so doubts about whether or not she could make her dream a reality plagued her. Honor the American farmer and fix Beckett’s reputation . . . . There was a lot riding on her idea. Her brain.

  She didn’t go with Beckett out to do chores because she was busy organizing the arrival times for everyone on a big board she set up in the dining room. There was a team of twenty-five or so people who would all arrive between one and three o’clock in the afternoon. AgGroSo people would be the first to arrive, so they could take care of the contract and the paperwork involved in the commercial. Beckett’s agent would also arrive and be there for that. And then after all the i’s were dotted and the t’s were crossed, it would be go time. The only curveball Jordyn could think of would be Ariana, but she already had a little plan to help that out, though she hopefully wouldn’t have to deal with her until Wednesday anyway.

  Ready or not, the commercial was about to happen. Heartbreak Harper was on his way to showing the world who Beckett Harper was. With any luck, the world would fall for Beckett just as hard and fast as she did and maybe, just maybe, Beckett could leave his reputation in the past. She’d like to think his days of heartbreaking were a thing of the past.

  Or at least she hoped so.

  ****

  He closed the front door and slid down it dramatically until his butt hit the cold floor. She had warned him, but short of a good ol’ Catholic confessional, he felt like he just signed his soul over in paperwork. And then, after the paperwork, there was the voice-over that he was trying to get just right. For this first day only being a half day, he was already shot.

  “I told you it’s a lot to take in.” Jordyn laughed.

  “Are they all gone? Tell me they’re really gone.” He looked from right to left making sure all those scoundrels had truly left.

  There was a lot that went into this commercial business. And Super Bowl commercials were the granddaddy of them all. He wasn’t the only one beat; his agent had been too. There were lots of specifics and logistics about the commercial, but fortunately all the stupid part, the paperwork, was done. He hadn’t signed so many papers since he signed with Denver. And that was for his career, not a thirty-second commercial. How could there be that much to it?

  “Only two more days,” she assured him. “And tomorrow is easier. You’ll just have people with cameras breathing down your neck all day.”

  “I’m used to people breathing down my neck.” He shrugged and moved to the couch, where he could be closer to her.

  She laughed and plopped down next to him. “Yes, but the cameramen are not safeties or corners. You are actually going to have to allow them to get close to you,” she teased.

  “Hmm.” Was she flirting with him right now?

  “I know that’ll be a new concept for you but just try your hardest,” she said with a playful shrug.

  “You sayin’ I’ve got skills, honey?”

  “Like you needed me to tell you that.” She giggled as he kissed her.

  A few moments later when he pulled back, he said, “It was fun seeing you in your element though—bossing everyone around, calling the shots. They all listen and respect you.”

  She looked down as if unsure how to take that compliment. “They’ve all seen me pull some long hours over the years. That respect was earned as I helped Walt grow the company.”

  Beckett had made it a point to be close to her, hold her hand, and brush up against her as often as he could this afternoon. She didn’t seem like she minded. He thought she might try to pull away a bit once everyone arrived, but she didn’t. He liked that. He guessed the tabloids figuring out they were dating had worked out in his favor just this once. They didn’t have to pretend they weren’t dating because everyone clearly already knew they were.

  Not that Jordyn went easy on her job. If anything, she was even more fierce—explaining to the filming crew exactly what her vision was and what kind of shots she wanted. She had pulled tons of photos to show them—ones she had taken herself that he didn’t even know about. Let’s just say she didn’t have to worry about any of them thinking less of her for dating Beckett. She made it clear from the get-go she knew exactly what she was doing. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she had done this sort of thing in the past. But he did know better, and today was probably just as nerve-wracking for her as it was for him.

  “Well, we survived the first day.” He sighed into her hair. Damn, she smelled good.

  “Two more to go.”

  “I have never wanted time to go so fast and at the same time so slow,” he admitted.

  She reached up to kiss him on the cheek. “I know exactly what you mean.”

  ****

  Beckett was not thrilled. Despite her warning, he seemed to have forgotten that the filming for the next day began at 5:00 a.m. She had a big to-go mug of coffee ready, and there was a lone camera man in the kitchen ready for every single shot of the day. Though Beckett’s face wouldn’t be in the commercial, shots of him drinking his coffee, driving a tractor, chipping ice, and the like
were perfectly acceptable. And the filming crew didn’t want to miss a second of Beckett’s day from literally sun up to sun down.

  He was irritated but still introduced himself to the camera guy. Jordyn was glad he wasn’t going to try to ignore that they were there. If they wanted this commercial to be a success, they needed the most realistic footage possible. That involved Beckett feeling as comfortable as possible.

  “Thanks, darlin’.” He kissed her cheek as he grabbed the coffee and headed out the door. “See you at lunch?”

  “You bet,” she said with a grin. “Do try to have some fun today.”

  He snorted and turned back to her with a smile. “Are you doubting my acting skills, Houston?”

  She laughed. “Well, you rarely act your age, so how am I supposed to know?”

  He rolled his eyes. “I’ve got this, honey. We’ve been over this. I’ve got skills.”

  “Yes, you do,” she said, shaking her head, then shutting the door. At least she’d leave him with a smile on his face to start the first day of filming.

  She had a couple meetings with the marketing team this morning, and then she’d just be waiting on Beckett—and getting some last-minute quality time in with that double oven she was going to miss an unsettling amount.

  She was going to be distracted all morning wondering what they were doing and what types of shots the cameramen were taking though. She needed to let go and trust the filming crew even if it was against her natural instincts. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t control this.

  . . . Any part of this.

  ****

  They had all known there was a chance of snow that afternoon, but when it started to snow big, huge snowflakes, the camera crew went nuts. They were giddy about all sorts of shots they could take with the fresh snow. They quickly got the drone in the air and went around finding the best spots to take footage.