Hero for Hire

by Cat Johnson

  “Thank you.” I disconnected the call in a daze that I was soon knocked out of by the overwhelming desire to get to Jamey.

  No matter what was or wasn’t between us, I had to thank him. Even if he was with someone else now, he’d given me a gift I couldn’t ignore.

  But why had he done this for me if he was with someone else now? Guilt? Generosity? Tax deduction?

  Standing in the feed shed guessing wasn’t helping anything. I had to get to the lot.

  Dad would be there already with the horses. We were the stock contractors on record for the film. They’d let me through the gate.

  As the adrenaline pumping through my veins made my hands shake, I finished filling the feed buckets and grabbed the handles of the cart.

  I had to feed and water these horses fast so I could get in the truck. I had somebody I needed to see.

  TWENTY-THREE

  JAMEY

  “Well, hey there, cowboy. Don’t you look snazzy.”

  I turned at the familiar voice and saw Maisie’s dad Charles in front of me, an amused smirk on his face as he looked me up and down.

  I could only imagine what he was thinking. The costume department had outfitted me in quite a get up—from the snakeskin boots to the big cowboy hat and the even bigger belt buckle. And don’t get me started on the shirt with the pearl snaps and the embroidered cuffs.

  I’d seen Charles Holtz at work many times while I’d been at the horse farm and never once had he been dressed like I was now.

  Hollywood. I stifled my opinion since they were paying me well to dress like the Cowboy Cody doll from my movie come to life.

  “Mr. Holtz. Nice to see you again. What are you doing here?”

  “Circle H is supplying the horses for your movie. Lucky for you I picked which ones to bring. I wouldn’t put it past Maisie to have sent you Lucifer to ride instead of Stardust.”

  My eyelids drifted shut as I drew in a breath. When I opened them again I saw him watching me. “I know. She has every right to be angry with me and so do you. It’s my fault Charlie and Maisie were on that ridiculous gossip site. My fault the photographer was at Charlie’s school, and trespassed on your property, and endangered the horses. And I’m sorry.”

  He let out a gruff laugh. “That’s what you think she’s upset about? That’s not it. Don’t you know anything about women, boy?”

  My brows rose. “Apparently not.”

  “She’s mad because you up and left.”

  “I was trying to stay away from her so the paparazzi would leave her alone.”

  “Did these paparazzi tap your phone too so you can’t call or text and ask how she’s doing?” he asked, one sandy brow cocked high beneath the brim of his John Deere baseball cap.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I should have. But I thought she wouldn’t want to hear from me. She was so upset that day I left.”

  His blue eyes that reminded me so much of Maisie’s widened. “Yeah. Upset you were leaving.”

  I shook my head at how stupid I was.

  “I thought she was upset over the photos.” I bit out a curse. “Now she’ll never want to talk to me.”

  “Eh. I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

  “You think?” I asked, raising my gaze to him.

  “I know.” He looked past me and tipped his chin. “I think that’s her truck now.”

  “What?” I spun just in time to see Maisie behind the wheel of her pick-up speeding toward me.

  That was right before I got an uncomfortably close look at the truck’s grill as she slammed on the brakes and stopped barely a foot from me.

  The driver’s side door swung wide and she jumped down. We made eye contact over the hood as she said, breathless, “Hi.”

  “Hi.” I didn’t know why she was here but I was sure glad to see her.

  “The lawyer called.”

  Understanding dawned. “Oh. They gave you my name.”

  “Yeah.” She took one step forward and bit her lip. “I had to thank you in person. You made my dream come true. And I want you to know I’m forever grateful for what you did and you’re welcome at the camp anytime . . . even though you are with someone else now. I’m fine with it.”

  There were tears in her eyes and a mist was beginning to form in mine from watching the emotions run through her. Then the last part of what she’d said registered. “Wait, what are you talking about? I’m not with someone else.”

  “I saw the picture of you with that blonde on Instagram.” She swallowed hard and looked less than fine. She looked miserable.

  I frowned and pawed through my memory. Then it hit me.

  “That’s Rick’s sister. She was in town with her husband for the engagement party. She’s a fan and wanted a pic—” I didn’t have time to finish my sentence because Maisie was around the hood and crashing against me in a hard full body hug before I could get the words out.

  I hugged her back, wrapping her up in my arms and squeezing like there was no tomorrow. Only now, maybe there could be.

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t call or text. I thought you were mad at me about the photographer. I was going to get in touch. I swear. I was going to drive over to your place and see you soon. I just wanted to have my plan in place to get the paparazzi off your back. I thought if I had a way to make them leave you and Charlie alone, you’d forgive me.”

  She pulled back and looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “I wasn’t mad about the photographer, you silly man.” She delivered a half-hearted slap to my chest. “I was upset that you left.”

  “Humph. Told you.”

  I ignored her father’s mumbled comment behind me and instead pressed her face between my palms.

  “I’m a stupid man, Maisie. I’m not good at this relationship stuff. But I’ll get better at it. I promise. If you’ll let me try. Will you give me another chance?”

  “Yes. Of course.” She laughed. “And not just because you gave me a million dollars.”

  “Wait. What’s this about a million dollars?” her father asked.

  I let out a laugh and shot him a glance over my shoulder. “We’ll catch you up as soon as I do one thing.”

  I turned back to her and leaned low and right there where we’d met a month ago, kissed the woman fate had dropped in front of my truck that day.

  Little had I known then when she was cursing me out that I’d be completely head over heels in love with her now.

  Fate’s funny that way.

  EPILOGUE

  JAMEY

  “This is pretty amazing.” I sat behind the steering wheel of Maisie’s truck and gazed at the miracle in front of me.

  Where six months ago there had been nothing but overgrown grass, there now stood two newly built bungalows that slept six each and a common building, complete with kitchen and dining facilities inside.

  “You’re pretty amazing.” Maisie leaned over from the passenger seat and pressed a kiss to the corner of my mouth.

  Not willing to let her get away with that bullshit kiss, I palmed the back of her head and kissed her properly.

  When I pulled back and got a look at the need in her heavily lidded eyes I dropped my hold. “No more of that here before we do something obscene in public.”

  “This isn’t public. It’s my property, or rather Kamp for Kids’ property technically. But either way, we’re alone.”

  “Not quite true.” I drew in a breath and glanced around us.

  We weren’t alone.

  I’d spotted the car along the road this morning when I’d arrived. The same car I’d first seen months ago. And if I wasn’t mistaken, that glint I’d just seen behind the common building was a camera lens reflecting the sunlight.

  When I’d returned to the farm after the movie had wrapped, so had the paparazzi. But this time, instead of calling in Jon and Zane’s security team to chase them away, I let them come.

  It was all part of my plan. I’d waited for the time to be right and, finally, it was.

  I
reached for the handle on the door and glanced at Maisie. “Stay here. Okay?”

  “Where are you going? What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to invite the photographer hiding over there in for a closer look.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “Trust me.” I gave her one last peck and then let myself out of the truck.

  I strode toward where I suspected the photographer was hiding. My suspicions were confirmed when I heard, “Shit!”

  That was followed by the sound of branches snapping and feet running.

  “You don’t have to run away. I just want to talk to you!” I shouted. The noise of the hasty retreat stopped, so I figured I had time to explain myself. “I have a proposition for you.”

  After a few seconds, he called back, “What is it?”

  “Can you come out so we can talk face to face?”

  He laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I’ve seen you fight.”

  That had me laughing. I leaned against the corner of the building since this might take a while. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. According to my old trainer, Hollywood has made me soft and I’m out of shape.”

  There was a pause before he said, “What did you want to talk about?”

  “I was going to invite you to have a look around the new facilities here. And give you permission to take as many pictures as you’d like of the buildings, even of me. Close up. No telephoto lens required. I’ll even answer questions and tell you exactly what’s going on here and why. You’ll have the exclusive. Nobody else has been out here yet to see this.”

  “What’s the catch?”

  “You stop stalking my girlfriend. You stop bothering her son. You steer clear of the kids who are going to be staying here for a couple of weeks. If you have a question, you come to me and ask it and if I’m able, I’ll answer. You want a picture, you come to me to get it. And when you sell these pictures and the story, you give them the real facts so they don’t make shit up.”

  “That it?” he asked.

  Almost, but not quite. “Are you in contact with the other photographers?”

  There was always a swarm around me in LA. That there was only one here now was pretty amazing.

  Or maybe not. The others probably didn’t want to waste their time sitting along a road in Norco just to catch me driving into the driveway. They’d likely soon realized they couldn’t see much from the road.

  But this one photographer was particularly tenacious—and obviously not above breaking the law and trespassing to get the shot. I could have him arrested. But I chose to keep my enemies close. Fingers crossed my plan worked.

  “Yeah, I know a few,” he answered.

  “Will you pass the same offer on to them? Tell them that I’m a decent guy. And if they’re not dicks to me, I won’t be one to them?”

  He laughed. “Yeah, I guess I can do that for you. Can’t guarantee they’ll listen.”

  That was okay. I had plans for them too. Invitations to a press day and tour after our first session of camp ended, when the kids were gone.

  Jon had been right. If the paparazzi were going to print things about me anyway, I might as well try to steer them in a direction that would be useful.

  Hopefully the media coverage would help Maisie get some corporate bookings. Phase two was on the back burner, plans for expansion if business proved more than the current facilities could handle.

  I heard the crunch of feet and then, finally, the photographer emerged from behind a bush. I took a single step forward, hands in my pockets so I didn’t look threatening as I said, “Nice to meet you . . . I’m sorry, what’s your name?”

  “Jack Gross.”

  I nodded. “Hi, Jack. I’m Jamey.”

  He laughed. “Yeah. I know.”

  “So, come on. Take your shots. The light should be good. Although I would like to put on my sunglasses so I’m not squinting in the pictures, if you don’t mind.” I pulled them from the neck of my T-shirt and slid them on.

  He lifted the camera. “Sure. Whatever.”

  I figured it would be best to start outside. He probably wouldn’t have trusted me enough to go inside right away anyway.

  Though I might have fantasized about it a time or two in past, I hadn’t invited him to a deserted building located in the middle of acres of nothingness so I could kill him and hide the body. But he didn’t know that.

  Jack took his pictures, inside and out. And when I handed him a blank notebook and pen and offered him a seat on the tailgate and an introduction to Maisie, along with an interview, he took me up on it.

  He even acted like a decent human being and a real reporter, asking valid, serious questions about the not-for-profit. He took notes and my hope increased the story might actually be good.

  In the beginning Maisie had looked at me like I was insane, but once she got talking about the kids and the camp she couldn’t have looked happier.

  Even Jack’s questions about our personal life weren’t out of line. So I told him everything, from the chance encounter on the lot, to the lessons for the movie, to how I fell in love with this amazing woman who raised a son on her own while running a business.

  Well, I didn’t exactly tell him everything. I left out that I had bought a ring and was just waiting for the time to be right.

  Maybe I’d throw the paparazzi a bone and drop to one knee on the red carpet at the movie premiere for Cowboy Blue. It seemed fitting. It was the movie that had brought me here to her.

  I watched her now, bright with happiness and animated as she told Jack about her hopes for corporate rentals so she could expand the camp program.

  She was so beautiful. So smart and giving—and she was all mine.

  I leaned over and kissed her cheek. She pulled back and said, “What was that for?”

  “Because I love you.”

  Her expression softened. “I love you too.”

  The snap of the shutter reminded me of our guest. My arm around Maisie, our foreheads touching, I angled my head to glance at Jack. “You get that?”

  “Yup.” He grinned. “That’s going to be a good one.”

  “Good. Send me a copy.”

  “How much you willing to pay?” He grinned.

  “We’ll talk.” I laughed and hopped down from the tailgate. “You get everything you need?”

  This had been fun and all but I was ready to have Jack gone and Maisie all to myself for a few minutes before the festivities began for the camp’s grand opening party this afternoon.

  “Yeah, I got it.” He juggled the camera to his left hand and extended his right one to me. “Thanks, man. This was really decent of you to do this.”

  I shook his hand and smiled. “I told you I was a decent guy.”

  “Pfft. Do you believe everything Hollywood people tell you? Because I don’t.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I’m from Chino, isn’t it?” And I hoped one day very soon, I’d be calling the Circle H home.

  A few more jokes and another handshake and I sent Jack on his way. Then, finally, I was alone with Maisie.

  “That was interesting.” She shot me a glance.

  I pulled her close. “Glad you think so. I don’t want you getting bored.”

  She blew out a laugh. “Yeah, I don’t think there’s any chance of that. But thanks for thinking about me.”

  “I’m always thinking about you. Day. And night. In bed. In the shower. In the truck.”

  “What a coincidence because I’m always thinking about you too. Particularly that one scene where we get to see your butt.”

  I laughed. “Am I ever going to live that down?”

  “Probably not. But it’s okay. It’s a very cute butt.”

  “You have a cute butt too. And I’m gonna grab it.” I chased her as she squealed and ran toward the bunkhouse.

  I caught up to her easily and followed her inside.

  “Ah ha. Now I’ve got you right where I want you.”

  She gig
gled. “And now that you got me, what are you going to do with me?”

  “This.” I closed in on her mouth for a quick hard kiss before I pulled away just far enough to say, “I love you.”

  “And I love you.” She smiled.

  “Good.” I grabbed her hand. “Come on.”

  “What are we doing?” she asked.

  “What do you think?” I grinned and waggled by eyebrows as I tugged her toward one of the beds.

  “You’re bad.”

  “That’s me. Hollywood bad boy. Don’t you read the press?”

  “No, but it seems like I’m going to have to start.” She cocked one brow high.

  “Start later.” I was about to lock the door and pull the curtains to show her how much I loved her when I heard the pick-up truck.

  I groaned, which only made her laugh. “Company’s here.”

  “Yup.” And it was all my fault because I’d invited them. I shot her a glance as I moved to open the door. “Remind me to stop being so social.”

  She followed me out into the sunlight as her father’s truck came to a stop. Charlie jumped out of the back followed by the black and white spotted Aussie cattle dog. The newest addition to the family, Violet looked as excited as the boy.

  “How’s the dog taking to farm life?” I asked.

  “What farm life? Charlie has her so spoiled she’s sleeping in bed with him and has her own chair at the damn dining room table.” She shot me a glance.

  I laughed. “That’s not my fault.”

  “She is a sweetie though,” Maisie admitted.

  “Yup. I’m really happy the production company decided to use a shelter dog in the movie. And I’m very glad you didn’t break up with me when I showed up with her here and gave her to Charlie.”

  She pulled her mouth to one side. “Without asking, I might add. You’re just lucky she’s cute.”

  Maisie might talk tough, but I’d seen her with the dog and she was a softy.

  “Yes, I am. Very lucky.”

  As Charlie chased Violet around the building, the door of the truck finally opened and Maisie’s father stepped down . . . and walked around to open the passenger door to help a woman get out.