Kyle and some of the other crew happily helped themselves and then set up on the hood of Kyle’s truck, where he had his laptop. The guys regularly gathered around to watch videos on the Internet of the latest cat video or skateboarding mishap. Scott usually joined them, after he’d done the family thing with Gen and Wallace.
“Hey, you. Pregnant yet?” Scott ruffled her hair as he grabbed a pastrami sandwich. The way these two looked at each other, he was surprised it hadn’t happened through osmosis.
“Not yet,” Gen said. “But we practice enough.”
He’d walked right into that one, hadn’t he? “Right.”
“I don’t think we practice enough. Probably we need to practice more, till we get it right.” Wallace kissed Gen’s temple.
“Well, that’s my cue.” Scott turned towards the guys when he heard a shout from one of them.
“Wait a minute. That’s Scott!” Pedro shouted. “Isn’t it?”
“Sure looks like him,” Kyle said. “Hey, it sure is. Scott! C’mere!”
They were all huddling around the laptop screen, shoving each other out of the way when Scott joined them. “What is it?”
No one said anything, just stared from him to the screen. His eyes turned to the screen, where he saw—crap, was that the night of the fire? Someone had filmed him carrying Diana out of the house. The worst thing about the video was the free show she gave everyone in her skimpy lingerie before he’d managed to throw a blanket on her.
“Wait. How—?” Scott asked.
“Someone filmed the rescue,” Pedro said.
“And what a rescue!” Kyle elbowed him. “Why didn’t you tell us? Who is this girl? Is she single? Where can I meet her?”
Scott scrubbed a hand down his face. Man, this was not good. “Aw, man. That’s Mrs. Paulsen’s granddaughter. Diana. And she’s going to be pissed.”
Wallace and Gen had walked over to the commotion.
“What’s this?” Wallace stared at the screen.
“It’s a video of your little bro being the hero that he is,” Pedro said and clapped Scott on the back.
“Stop,” Scott protested. “I’m no hero. Just doing my job.”
“No one told me that’s what firefighters get to do,” Kyle said. “Hell man, sign me up.”
“Fireman hero rescues sleeping beauty,” Gen said from behind him.
Scott turned to her. “What did I just say? It’s my job.”
She pointed to the screen. “No. That’s what the video is titled.”
“What!” Scott took a closer look. Sure enough, some bozo had loaded this amateur adult film and given it a title worthy of a B rated movie. He cursed loudly a few times, and then excused himself when Gen quirked an eyebrow in his direction. “How can I get this off?”
All eyes turned to him, making him feel like a newborn kitty. Helpless. Clueless. “Uh, you don’t. Dude, this has gone viral,” Kyle said.
Viral. One word he didn’t want to hear right now.
“Look at this one. Someone set this one to music,” Pedro said. He’d clicked over to another channel and apparently someone else had edited the film to include the Freek’n You.
Yet another video had set it to “All About That Bass” and purposely kept freezing on a part of the video in which the filmmaker had zoomed in on Diana’s curvaceous ass.
“Great,” Scott said, raking a hand through his hair.
“Not like it’s your fault.” Wallace pointed out. “Some idiot with a camera and way too much free time on his hands.”
“Yeah,” Scott said, even if somewhere, somehow, this would all come back to bite him in the ass.
3
Diana bought a few clothes to get her through the rest of the summer. Mandy had boxed up some of the clothes Diana had left behind in their shared apartment. Not that there would be anything that fit. At the local thrift shop, she’d found jeans and t-shirts and one cute white sundress. She couldn’t afford a new laptop yet, but she’d happened upon an old Alphasmart lying in a corner of the store. She’d paid twenty dollars and now had a dinosaur of a word processor.
Best of all, she’d finally won the lunch argument with Gran, begging and turning it around so that Diana sounded like the one who needed company. She instructed Gran to be ready by noon, and precisely at eleven fifty-five a.m. she emerged from her bedroom dressed in a mid-length floral dress like something out of the eighties with a matching wide brimmed hat.
“How do I look?” she asked Diana.
Like you just stepped out of a time machine? “Lovely.” She stood up. “I’ll get my keys.”
They drove to the diner, while Diana wondered how long it had been since Gran had left the house. Did she realize the dress was a little over the top for a visit to the diner? But the important thing was that they were out of the house, and Gran would get some fresh air. Maybe even see some people she hadn’t seen in ages. Mama’s Diner was full on Sunday afternoon, and as they walked in, Diana could sense every eye turn in their direction. They were probably all shocked to see Gran out of the house. Why hadn’t any one of them thought to ask Gran out for lunch or to church or even a Sunday stroll? Did people stroll anymore? Whatever, this little town of busybodies should have realized Gran was staying inside far too much.
“Betty!” A white haired lady near the front called out.
“Em, dear.” Gran embraced Em. “How long has it been?”
“Ages,” Em said and turned to Diana. Except she didn’t meet Diana’s eyes, just sort of glanced in her general direction. “And this must be your lovely granddaughter.”
“It is,” Gran said, pushing Diana to the front. “Say hello, Diana.”
Feeling twelve again, Diana smiled. “Uh, hello.”
“Two for lunch?” Em asked, grabbing menus and leading them to a table in the rear.
“Just us womenfolk,” Gran said, adjusting her hat.
She really needed to get out more. People didn’t talk like that in the twenty-first century. Well, this was step one. Baby steps, baby steps. They ordered off the menu, while people kept coming by to say hello to Gran.
“See how much everyone has missed you?” Diana nudged Gran.
“This is a small town, dear. They all remember me, and they don’t need to see me every day to know I exist.”
“Yes, well, maybe you need to meet new people. You know, people your own age.”
“New people? Why would I want to do that?”
“There’s a whole world out there, Gran. Starlight Hill isn’t exactly a mecca, or a melting pot.”
“I never said it was.”
It was important for Mom to believe that Gran had an active social calendar. “What about bingo? I mean, wouldn’t you like to play bingo with some of your friends?”
“Bingo? My heavens, dear, how old do you think I am? No, I don’t want to play bingo.” Gran fanned herself with the menu. “Maybe when I’m dead.”
A woman approached their table, dressed in a pinstriped power suit and wearing a Chamber of Commerce name tag which read, ‘Ophelia Lyndstrom.’
“Hello, Betty,” she hugged Gran and then leaned in to Diana. “I just wanted to say, dear, don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. You’re young and beautiful now. I’m not judging.”
Ophelia waved and left before Diana could ask what that meant. She wore jeans and a boyfriend t-shirt. A quick downward check revealed her girls were still right where they should be. Strapped down tight.
“What was that about?” she asked Gran.
“I don’t know. She’s a strange one. She’s the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Junior League, and the PTA. Something else too but I lost track. Personally, I think she plans on taking over the world one meeting at a time.”
Gran and her hyperbole. She’d missed her so much and best of all she hadn’t seen any signs of her acting anything other than her normal self, so she wasn’t sure what Mom was so up in arms about. After lunch, Gran ordered a big slice of fresh strawberry pie
and while they waited Diana pulled out her phone and checked her email. Her thumb swiped through all the spam and found one from her sister Mandy. The subject line was not what she would normally expect. It simply read: WTF?
She opened the email to find a link to an Internet video with a cryptic short sentence: Is this who I think it is? Because it sure looks like you. How dare you hold out on me!?
Diana clicked on the link but what she saw displayed couldn’t be happening. Her breathing slowed and she would swear her heart slammed to a full stop. No. No. No. Someone had filmed the rescue! Of all the lousy, crappy things to do to a person. The video showed her clothing—and lack of it—her bare naked legs dangling as Scott carried her out of the motel. And holy shit, was that her exposed nipple?
Diana grabbed her water glass and took a big gulp.
“What’s the matter, dear?” Gran asked. “You look so pale. Did that chili not agree with you? I told you it was probably too spicy.”
“I’m fine,” Diana managed to say. She turned to the people seated nearby and suddenly all those indulgent smiles and nods took on a whole other meaning. Maybe these people had seen her—pretty much all of her.
I’ll explain later, Diana typed back to Mandy and hit ‘send.’
She had to get this video down before Gran heard about it. From her experience, it wouldn’t be easy but it had to be done. She’d given the folks that night enough of a show without having to re-live the moment on the Internet over and over again for all stinking eternity.
Diana had to get to the bottom of this video, find the source, and tamp it down. Scrunch it. Kill it. Destroy it. She dropped Gran off at the house, and explained she had a few errands to run. Then she drove to the fire station. Maybe someone there could explain the meaning of this to her. Someone by the name of Scott. Handsome buns of steel Scott, who would probably be ecstatic over all the new female conquests he would make from this single video. Nothing like being a hot hero firefighter to get a man laid. Other than having a rescue recorded on video and broadcast to the world.
Never mind that she was the one being showcased in her altogether.
Outside, there was a firefighter washing the big engine truck. “Can I help you?”
She strutted up to him. It wasn’t Scott, but another handsome man—seriously, was it a job requirement to be gorgeous to be a firefighter in this town? He wasn’t wearing a shirt, but that had absolutely no effect on her whatsoever.
“I’m looking for Scott.”
“He’s on his forty-eight off. You won’t find him here.” He went back to the truck.
Apparently she bored him. “Can you help me?”
“Help you do what?”
She considered asking this man for help with the video, but then again maybe he didn’t know about it. Yet. He certainly wasn’t giving her the once-over or anything like that. “Just tell me where I can find him.”
This time he did study her a little, probably trying to determine if she was psychotic. “He works for his brother on his days off. Think they’re up at the Jones property today.”
“Thanks.” She turned to go, then stopped and spun around. “Wait. Where’s the Jones house?”
He squinted at her. “Who are you, again?”
Was she seriously that forgettable? “I’m Diana. You know, you guys uh, rescued me the other night. From the fire.”
He nodded. “Ah. Got it. I thought you looked familiar, but you know, you’re wearing clothes.”
Diana scoffed and narrowed her eyes at him, but he’d gone right back to the truck.
“The Jones house is at the top of the hill. Merlot Road,” he said, pointing.
“I want you to know, I usually wear a bathrobe!” Diana stomped back to her car and threw the door open.
She drove like a bat out of hell to Merlot Road until she caught sight of a construction crew. This was clearly the place. Most of the trucks had Pacific Construction placards on the side of them. More men, most of them with their shirts off, which again had absolutely no effect on her. Then she spotted Scott near a retaining wall, lifting what looked like the side of a building. She broke out in a little sweat because of this heat, possibly, and stared a little bit too long at his hard body. He wore well-worn blue jeans, a tool belt hanging low around his hips, his long muscular looking legs tapering up to those tight buns. He seemed to be the only one with his shirt still on, and she would have to imagine the rock hard abs underneath it.
She stopped the car, got out and marched right up to him. “Hey.”
He turned to her, and his eyes immediately registered recognition. Oh good, she wasn’t forgettable to everyone. “Hi.”
“Um, we need to talk.” She folded her arms and glanced around at the rest of the crew. Most of them were openly staring. She cleared her throat. “Got a minute?”
“Yeah,” he said and followed her to the edge of the work site.
She glanced up at all six foot-whatever of solid muscle and brawn. “We have a problem.”
He drew a forearm across his forehead, wiping sweat away. This caused his espresso brown hairs to spike up a little bit and his green eyes to pop out. “Yeah, I know.”
“While I realize this must be like a dream come true for you, we need to get that video down.”
He flinched. “Like a—what did you say?”
She threw up her hands. “Hero firefighter rescues damsel in distress!”
There seemed to be some kind of a tick in his jaw and he shook his head slowly. “I’m no hero. I want that video down as much as you do.”
“You do?” That was difficult to believe, just looking at him. He screamed testosterone and sex. Sweaty, raw sex. Some of that headboard banging sex Mandy had just had to put into Diana’s thoughts so that it could rise to the surface right now.
“Why would I want that up? It’s embarrassing.”
“For me!”
“Look, I get that. I’m sorry some idiot thought it would be funny to put it up.”
She folded her arms across her chest, and did her best to look intimidating. “So it wasn’t you or one of your buddies?”
“Hell no, it wasn’t me and none of my friends would do that because they know me.”
“Unless they thought it might help you with the ladies.”
That’s when Scott did something that surprised Diana. He rolled his eyes.
“It’s gone viral, you know.” Diana pressed.
“Yeah,” he said. “Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do now. We can get the original poster to take it down, but chasing every one of them down?”
She’d been afraid of that same scenario. It would be like chasing sand in the ocean. The effect of ripples along the water. Impossible to stop or contain. “So what do we do about it?”
“We?”
He flashed her the easy smile she remembered. The boy had grown into a man and damn, he was fine. He knew it too, which was so irritating. “We’re both on the same side. We want that stupid video taken down.”
“I’ll talk to my lieutenant. See if there’s maybe something we can do about it. Coming from the department that might mean something.”
Finally, some good news. “Good! That’s great. Um, thanks.”
“I’m not promising anything. But you’re welcome.” His voice was so deep and sensual he might as well have said ‘take off all your clothes.’
Her cheeks felt hot and flushed, thanks to this oppressive July heat. Crap, was she blushing? She turned her back to him in case she was, but thought she could feel his eyes boring into her backside. She reconsidered and turned back around. Sure enough, his head was cocked and he was openly staring at her ass.
She waited until his eyes slowly rose to meet hers. “One last favor?”
“Why not.”
She jutted her chin in the direction of the workers, the ones who’d been staring the entire time. They unanimously turned their backs to her at once. Classy. “Would you tell those guys I had a bathrobe? Tell them I had one
but that there wasn’t any time for it.”
“The fuzzy one with the ducks on it?”
“How do you know about it?”
He looked at the ground, then back up at her. “Sorry to say, the ducks didn’t make it. Too much water.”
“Ha! You’re cute.” She pointed a finger in his direction. “That bathrobe is who I am, mister, and don’t you forget it. The lingerie was just—”
“I know,” he interrupted her. “You were working it.”
“No. Writing, remember? I was working.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.”
This time she really did blush.
* * *
On Tuesday, Scott arrived at the firehouse early so he could have a talk with Ty. Personally, he was done with that video nearly as much as Diana seemed to be. He’d seen it at least a dozen times since the first day, and each time it got worse. There were way too many versions out, most of them now set to music. The comment section was out of control on some of them, with remarks like, ‘Hurry, I’ve got a fire in my pants!’ and other racier ones he only hoped his mother would never see.
He found Ty in his office, doing his least favorite thing. Sitting behind a desk. This usually put him in a lousy mood, but Scott had no choice in the timing. They needed to get a handle on this video.
He walked in and shut the door.
“What is it now?” Ty threw him the Death Stare.
A former marine, Ty managed to scare off most new hires with nothing more than an eyebrow quirk. But not Scott. And even though Scott realized Ty thought he was nothing but a pussy Army boy, Ty did seem to give him a begrudging kind of respect for his service.
Scott took a seat. “By now you’ve seen the video.”
He smirked. “I think my favorite one is set to ‘Someday My Prince Will Come.’ Have you come yet, soldier?”
“No, and I’m not likely to unless we get that video down.”
Ty actually looked up from his laptop. “Interesting. Leave it to a sniper to set his sights on a target so far out of reach. I have to believe there’s a lot of low hanging fruit as a result of that video.”
THE STARLIGHT HILL COMPLETE COLLECTION: 1-8 Page 64