by Zoey Derrick
We spent last night heavy on each other and light on the conversation until we fell asleep. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
“Of course.”
Tristan has the day off from filming today. He’d expected to lose the day off after yesterday’s incident with the set and them calling it before anything was filmed. But when he called to check in, they told him he wasn’t on the call sheet today. So he shrugged and hung up the phone.
We climb into the car and I’m driving. I start heading north and west. It doesn’t take long for him to figure out where we’re going. “My hand still hurts, Cams, I really don’t want to have to punch him again,” he says, completely serious, but there is a hint of a smile in his voice.
“You won’t need to. We’re not staying, but there is something I need to do.”
“Oh?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
******
Tristan
******
Half an hour later we’re pulling into the driveway of the ranch where Bobby is living, and before Cami or I can get out of the car, the front door opens and Bobby steps out onto the patio. I can tell even from here that his nose is jacked up. I feel a little guilty about it, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering him any. His eyes grow wide in shock as he takes in the scene before him.
Cami climbs out of the car and I’m a little slower to follow her; she’s not moving fast, by any means, but I’m not sure what her plan is. Today she is in skinny jeans, a cute butterfly t-shirt and a pink hoodie, topped off with pink Chucks. She looks so much like a teenager, but it’s cute and refreshing to see.
She climbs up the six steps to the porch, where he stands looking very much like a rancher and not a CEO.
She stops at the top of the steps and waits for me to reach the bottom. “You can thank Tristan for this later,” she says; her voice is soft and not angry. Then, before Bobby or I can even register what she’s doing, it’s already started.
“Whoa. Where’s this coming from?” he says as he wraps his arms around his daughter, who’s wrapped him up in her own arms. He has one hand on the back of her head and the other along her back. He begins to play with her hair as she squeezes him. He kisses the top of her head. I can see the tears forming in his eyes as he looks over to me and mouths, Thank you.
“Don’t thank him just yet.” I can’t stop the laugh that escapes. “This doesn’t mean I forgive you or that I’m over what you’ve done.”
“I’d expect nothing less.” Bobby’s voice is heavy with emotion.
“It is simply a start. It is the hug I should’ve given you seven years ago.” She looks up at him, and even I can read the puzzled look on his face. “The day I left for college. I know now what I was too blind to see then.”
“What’s that?”
“You were trying and I didn’t see it. But you have to understand that you never gave me any indication that you were.”
“I was, but you never saw it. Do you guys want to come in?” he asks both of us. I don’t answer; I let Cami decide.
“Not today. But what do you mean, I never saw it?”
“Cami, I mean I was there, at your graduation, both of them.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asks, but her voice is hesitant.
Bobby gives her a half smile that looks just like the one that she gives me. “Because I knew you’d be mad and I didn’t want you to have to explain to your friends, and more importantly, I didn’t want to ruin the most important days of your life by being there. I knew how much you hated me, I didn’t want your hate for me overshadowing your biggest days.”
“But I hated you even more for not being there.”
“But I was there, and you have all you need in that package to prove it. So maybe we can start with you not hating me for not being there?”
“I will try,” she says. The emotions are still heavy in her voice. She hugs him again and I see him smile.
“Thank you, Cameron,” he says and kisses her head once more.
Cami climbs into the passenger seat of the car when we leave, a few minutes after their last hug. “I have to go to the airport.”
“Where are you going?” Panic seeps through me.
“Los Angeles.”
“What for?” I say, turning to look at her.
“I need to deal with Vincent and my anger about him knowing and never telling me.”
“Are you sure you want to do all of this?”
“Tristan, I have to.”
“Why?”
“Because our talks yesterday made me see that I can’t ever move on to being truly happy unless I take care of everything I can, and I have to do it quickly or it will only grow and fester.”
“You’re afraid it will come between us.” I look at her, but she looks out the passenger window.
“It already has, and I don’t want it to happen again.”
In that moment, Cami grew up just a little bit more, right in front of my eyes. She’s not running away from it; she is running headfirst into it, and I have nothing but respect for her.
“Today is my only day off. After this, I am filming for the next thirteen days, and honestly I really would rather you wait. Calm down a bit?”
She smiles at me. “Depends, what did you have in mind?”
“Oh, I don’t know. A little of this, a little of that.... A whole lot of something else.”
“Tristan Michaels, you’re a pervert.”
I snort. “Look who’s talking.”
She busts out laughing. “It’s all your fault, I can’t get enough of you.”
And just like that, all of our fighting washes away and we’re right back to the Tristan and Cami we were before this whole mess started.
TWENTY
Two weeks later…
******
Cami
******
With a few days left to go in Montana, Beau and Naomi show up to hang out with me and Jo. Tristan told me that the last few days of filming are always the worst because they will try to cram in everything that’s left to film, plus reshooting and redoing scenes that need changes done. He told me last night that this is the easier part of filming this movie because all the stunt work is done; they just have to film the in-between stuff.
The girls and I spend our days shopping, sitting around the house and even horseback riding. We’re now several days into September, and Tristan’s birthday is coming up. “Tristan’s birthday is the twenty-first.”
“What?” Naomi says to me as we’re heading back to the house.
“Yup, next week. We need to plan an epic party for him. Something he won’t expect.”
“Take him back to Tarah,” Jolene says from the back seat.
“I thought about it. Might not be a half-bad idea, actually. But you guys have to come too. Naomi, can you take the time off of work?”
“Work? Oh hell, Cams, I’ve barely worked since I met Trav, I’m not sure I have a job anymore.”
“What?” I turn to look at her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What? Why would I do that?” she says back to me.
Beau cuts in. “Oh, I don’t know, Cami only owns a company more than capable of taking you on her payroll.”
“Thanks, Beau.”
“No problem. At least since you moved me over to Mick’s payroll, it frees you up to replace me.”
I shoot her a look over my shoulder since she is sitting behind Naomi. “Yeah, because I need three assistants.”
“Well, Cami, you know Trav’s agent contract ends at the end of November. Maybe you can get him over to Bold and he can hire me to be his assistant,” Naomi says rather calmly.
“What? You didn’t tell me that,” I say to her.
I reach for my phone and realize that in order to make this happen I need to call Vincent, and it turns my stomach. So I call Trinity instead.
The phone rings twice and she answers. “Hi, Cami.”
�
��Trin, are you aware that Travis Jackson’s agent contract is up at the end of November?”
“No, but shouldn’t you talk to Vinnie about this?”
“Probably, but he didn’t pick up.” No need to tell her that he and I are not talking at the moment. “Get him on it. We need that contract.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that he’s Tristan’s best friend, does it?”
“No, it has everything to do with the fact that we need that contract. It’s a good, consistent one to have. I don’t care what it costs, but get him away from that jackhole of an agent he has now and bring him to us.”
“All right, Cami, I’ll get Vinnie on it. Is this really going to be a fight to get him here?”
“I doubt it. I’ll get Tristan to talk to him, or at least find out what I can about Travis’s standing agent, then we can go from there.”
“Good, call Vinnie next time.” I roll my eyes at Trinity.
“Thanks, Trin.”
We both hang up.
“There, problem solved.” I also make a mental note to discuss Naomi’s financial situation with her later, in private.
“You’re fanatical when you want something, you know that?” Jolene says and laughs.
“Yeah, I guess I am.” The rest of us join in.
“All right, so Tarah it is then?”
“Huh?” Beau says.
“Tristan’s birthday?”
“Oh, yeah, of course.” I look at her again and she’s pre-occupied with her phone.
“Woman, put that crap away.”
“Bitch, please. You should watch yourself when you’re not driving. You’re the same way.” Beau is referring to the fact that I always seem to have my phone in my face, which really isn’t true, but I am not going to argue.
After we get back to the house, I call the hotel in Tarah, only to find out that our penthouse suite is booked for two weeks starting next Wednesday. I try quickly to think of something else to talk about with the girls before the guys come home and I draw a blank.
I head out to the kitchen, where the girls are waiting on me. I hope that maybe with their help we can come up with something new.
“Tarah is out.”
“What? Why?” Beau says, but I see a smirk on Jolene’s face.
“The penthouse is booked starting next Wednesday for two weeks.”
“So why can’t we just get rooms and still hang out for the weekend?” Beau says back.
She’s trying to convince me. “The penthouse is easiest for Travis and Tristan. We can all hang out, have a good time and not have to worry about him being seen.”
“But sweetie, he’s not hiding this time. He’s not trying to get away from everyone who might recognize him,” Naomi says. “It just means that we’d all have to hang out in Blu or on the beach, nothing wrong with that.”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” I say to them.
“See, there you go. So what if he’s seen in Tarah? You know the hotel will keep out the riffraff, and you don’t have to make the reservations in either one of your names. You can do it under your aliases. Or use our names.” Beau gives me a reassuring smile. “Or we could just go back to Bora Bora.”
“All right, I’ll call them back tomorrow.” The girls clap, but something about Jolene’s smirk bugs me.
“Why don’t I take care of the reservations and the flights? This way you don’t have to worry about it.”
The alarm on the door chimes. “Hello,” Tristan calls out.
“Shh,” I hush the girls. “In the kitchen.” But all the girls bust into a fit of giggles and Tristan is quick to hear us. He comes around the corner.
“What is going on here?” None of the girls can stop laughing.
“Nothing, just being girls.”
“Uh huh,” he says as he stalks toward me with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“What?” I shrug my shoulder and produce the goofiest smile I can manage, at least until his arms wrap around me and he gives me a big kiss.
“Get a room,” Beau says, and I flip her off. She laughs.
“We have one, thanks,” Tristan says as he pulls away from me. I look over, and Tyson and Jolene are in a similar embrace and I suddenly feel awful that Mick and Travis are absent from this equation.
“I should be done on set day after tomorrow. But I will have to wait until they release me before we can leave Montana.”
“Good, that’s a day or two ahead of schedule.”
“Thank God. This movie hasn’t been one of my favorites,” he says as he strips out of his jeans and t-shirt.
“Why is that?”
“Not used to it. All the pyro crap, it’s annoying and I’d just rather be done with it all. I probably could’ve been done by now had it not been for all the damn retakes.” He smiles at me.
“So, I need your help,” I tell Tristan as we’re getting ready to climb into bed.
“Oh, with what?”
“Well, it has come to my attention — two things, actually, that I need some help with.” I smile.
“What would those two things be?”
“First of all, I found out today that Naomi is on the verge of losing her job because of all the traveling we keep putting on her, plus Travis too.”
“So she needs a job so she can be around us whenever she wants. Give her one.”
“I thought about it. As it is, I have Jolene and Rayne in the office for assistants. I’m not sure I can afford another one, at least not without raising some eyebrows at the office. Giving all my girlfriends jobs.”
“Well you have Beau, too.”
“No, she is on my personal payroll. I do not pay her through Bold. I pay her through the money I make from Bold. The same thing I do with Mick. They are both disassociated with Bold in that respect.”
“Okay, so I’ll hire her as my assistant.”
I smirk at him. “You really think that will fly with me?”
He snorts. “Why not? It’s not like I’d be working her to death.”
I laugh. “This is true, but I usually handle most of your stuff, and anything I don’t do, you do yourself. Are you really sure you can relinquish that to someone else?”
He ponders the idea for a moment and then he shakes his head. “No, probably not.”
“So that leads me into the second part of what I need your help with.” He cocks an eyebrow at me. “I’ve learned from a rather reliable source that one of our good friends has an agent contract expiring in November.”
“You mean Travis?” I give him a quizzical look. “If you want my help in convincing him to switch to Bold, forget it. You don’t need it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Cams, seriously? You can’t figure it out for yourself? Travis has been very impatiently waiting for his contract to expire for the last two years. He hates his agent, and he blames his agent for the crap movies he keeps getting stuck into.”
“Rebound wasn’t that bad.”
“Please, Cams, that movie was bad. At least for what Trav is capable of. He needs a better agent, capable of getting him the roles he wants to play verses the roles he has to play to stay in the business. Would you happen to know of any one like that?” His eyes grow wide, mocking me.
“I already talked to Trinity about it.”
He climbs up on the bed, crawling across it to get to me. “What did she say?”
“She told me to call Vincent.”
“Oh.”
“But I managed to fill her in on it. She said she’d tell Vincent and get him working on it. I just wanted you to talk Trav into it, but I doubt that is something that needs to be done at this point.” He shakes his head at me then pulls me closer to him and I climb on the bed, knees to knees. He takes my head in his hands.
“No, not really, but I will let him know to be on the lookout for Vinnie’s call, or someone’s from within the Bold organization. I’m not sure Vinnie will take him on personally, but—” He kisses me. “I’
m sure it can be arranged.”
“Good, then he can hire Naomi as his assistant, she has a job and can go where he goes.” I kiss him.
“Then it’s settled.”
I laugh and he kisses me, twisting so that I’m laid out on the bed beneath him, and his hands go to work ridding me of the shirt I just put on and our conversation is over. Nothing else matters but he and I.
TWENTY-ONE
“I’ve got the reservations,” Beau says the next morning as soon as the boys leave the house.
“Oh good, when do we leave?”
“Tuesday. I figured we’d be in Tarah by Wednesday. Then—” She points around the room. “—we’re leaving on Tuesday morning.”
“When you say ‘we’re,’ what are you implying?”
“I mean we — us girls and the guys. You and Tristan will stay until the following Tuesday. We’ll all be there for his birthday, then you and he can have a few days alone.”
I roll my eyes. “That’s not necessary.”
“Shut up, it’s settled. This way you guys can have some alone time. A week after you’ll get back, he’s due in New York for that romantic comedy he’s filming. Don’t ask me the name because that’s your job.” She smirks. “Not mine.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I say. I notice Naomi sitting out on the porch with a cup of tea in her hands. “Can you guys excuse me a minute?”
“Of course.”
I grab a cup of coffee and go out on the porch to talk to Naomi.
“Hey, girl.”
“Hey.”
“What’s up?” I ask her.
“Nothing, it’s gorgeous out here. I miss these kinds of days in Phoenix.” I sit down next to her and take in the view of the mountains.
“Me too. Hey, I wanted to talk to you without the other girls.”
“If this is about my job, don’t worry about it.”
“But I am worried about it, Naomi. It’s my job to worry about it. We drag you around to all of these places and I guess I never stopped to think about how this would effect you,” I tell her.