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Again, he recognized this wasn’t the story he needed. Again, he walked toward Tracy, stepping onto the bridge.
She eyed him expectantly, waiting for him to say something.
“You have a nice singing voice.” He should have kept silent. Silence had served him well at the Lampoon. Silence created spaces others rushed to fill. But silence lacked the smiles and laughter and jokes he’d missed. “It’s the truth.” May as well fill the hole he was digging with her with something.
“Truth?” Tracy fixed him with a look that said she recognized what he was filling that hole with. “You introduced yourself as Chad Healy. Not Chad Healy Bostwick.”
“Healy is my legal name. My mom was angry with my dad the day I was born. She left his name off the birth certificate.” And she’d been angry with Dad the day she’d died, furious that he’d never given up cigars and had developed cancer. After reading his father’s last wishes concerning the Lampoon, Chad could understand how she felt.
With a wave of her hand, Tracy let the issue of his name drop. “What are you doing out here? Did Leona kick you out?” She didn’t mince words, but she also didn’t seem to realize her speech had smoothed since her acapella performance.
“No.” He leaned on the railing next to her. “I’m searching for the angle I want to take on my story.” Were there more crotchety people like Leona in town? Did it have more to offer than good coffee and reputedly good wine?
“You? Searching?” So much passion. It radiated from the disbelief in her blue eyes to her expressive hands. He never would’ve guessed all that emotion had been hiding behind the black bakery apron. “Your columns slant one way—one way!” She jabbed her finger at him, stopping just short of poking his shoulder. “You put people down. Is that why you were fired?”
The F-word hit him below the belt and shook his ego at knee level. Nowhere had it been reported he’d been let go. The terms of his leaving were part of his termination contract. Sure, some in the press had speculated he needed time to grieve. But no one had guessed the truth until Tracy. “I still own nearly half the company.” He couldn’t keep the anger from his voice.
His anger didn’t stop her from punching back, saying baldly, “Ownership didn’t stop them from firing you.”
There was a truth for him. “Apparently, my dad wanted to take the Lampoon in a different direction. My services no longer fit what they were looking for.” He hadn’t said it out loud before. The words—though spoken quietly—seemed to ricochet between them like a flat rock bouncing across a smooth river.
“Ahh.” Tracy glanced downstream. “You were phased out.”
“I’m guessing from your tone you’ve experienced this.”
Her sharp nod confirmed it.
“But I bet you weren’t downsized by your father from the grave.” If he’d known what Dad had up his hospital gown, he would’ve walked away six months ago when the old man had gone completely on life support.
No. The thought sickened him. That was hurt talking. Chad had loved his father.
Despite that love being wasted on a man with no heart, he wouldn’t have changed anything he’d done for him in the last year. But he would’ve been better prepared for betrayal. “It’s why I’m starting my own magazine. And Harmony Valley is the perfect launch vehicle.” He hoped.
She’d retreated metaphorically when he’d told her about dear old dad phasing him out, but at the mention of the town she bounced back for another round. “Harmony Valley isn’t what you write about. No nightclub. No spa. No chichi hangouts.”
“So far, I love that it’s different.” Charm, checkers, a cast of personalities. The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced there was more than enough to work with here. He might write more than one column.
Tracy frowned at him and half glanced over her shoulder toward downtown, as if thinking about making a break for it.
He didn’t want her to go. “You want to protect the town from me? Convince me it doesn’t deserve a send-up.”
She frowned the way she did everything else—wholeheartedly. Her shoulders rolled toward him, her hands fluttered, her eyes narrowed. He realized why he liked watching her. Every expression was a full-body experience, as if to make up for her brevity of speech.
“I’m not helping you. Ask Mayor Larry or Agnes.”
He shook his head, not calling her out on what he suspected was the real reason she didn’t want to convince him—she’d have to talk—because that was his ace in the hole. With her speech challenges, she’d never win a verbal argument with him. And if that line of thinking wasn’t worthy of an entrepreneur trying to claw his way to the top, Chad didn’t know what was. “The mayor wants to give me the dog and pony show.”
“What makes you think...” Her gaze collided with his, simultaneously suspicious and self-conscious. “I won’t?”
Earlier in their conversation, she’d been more focused on the battle and less on her vocabulary. Now she was very much aware of this war of words and she was back to stumbling.
“Tracy.” He captured one of her hands the way his father used to capture his mother’s hand when he wanted her complete attention. “You’re the only one in town who read my columns. You and I are from the same generation.” And he’d much rather be with her than the mayor. “We’re in the same place in our lives. You know what singles want.”
“We’re not the same.” She tugged her hand free. “You’re having a midlife crisis.”
“We can debate that while you give me a tour.” He grinned. Sparring with Tracy and Leona made him happier than he’d been in a long time. At the Lampoon and at home, arguments had been more heated and with higher stakes.
Tracy wasn’t giving in that easily. She put the back of her hand on her forehead. “So young. It’s tragic. Early midlife crisis. It skews your perspective.”
His perspective was fine. But his job would be easier with an inside track. And she was perfect. There was one angle he hadn’t tried with her yet. “The more I know this place—more than a dog and pony show can tell me—the better chance I have of bringing people to visit your brother’s winery. You want to protect his interests, don’t you?”
Her blue eyes widened. “Dirty pool.” She shook the rail, gripping it with fingers that might have wanted to grip his neck. It didn’t take her long to make a decision. “Okay, I’ll sell my soul to the devil and show you around. But only if I can read your column before you publish it.”
He’d bet she didn’t realize her speech had smoothed out again. Regardless, advanced reads weren’t on the negotiating table. She was just like some of Bostwick Lampoon’s sponsors. At least the advertisers he’d lined up for The Happy Bachelor Takes a Different Path weren’t that controlling. For the first time in over a decade, he had creative freedom. He shook his head.
“Then the deal’s off.” Tracy crossed her arms and settled her hip against the rail for a third round of drawing lines in the sand.
She made him smile and that wasn’t inconsequential in these negotiations. He gave her a once over. Everything about her looked soft—faded blue jeans, yellow cotton T-shirt, a tan jacket with a suede collar. But she wasn’t soft or pliant. She was strong and gutsy. “What are you doing working in a bakery?” She was parked in the middle of a retirement town miles from anywhere.
She bumped her hip against the rail repeatedly as if she was hitting her head against a wall. “Not many ad agencies...hire the speech impaired.”
“Oh, woe is you. That’s no excuse.” He looked her up and down once more. “You’re not disabled. It’d be unfair to pit you against someone with a real speech impediment.”
Her arms waved about. Her feet shifted. Her mouth opened and closed and opened again, but nothing came out.
“Maybe you haven’t noticed,” Chad said evenly. “You’ve been talking to me on this bridge more fluently than I heard you speak this morning.” He reached over and tapped her temple near her hidden scar. “You think too much and about the wrong things, except when you don’t think and then the words tumble out.”
She tried to walk past him toward downtown.
“Hold on. We’re still negotiating.”
She stopped.
And then he realized why. He’d caught her arm and pulled her close.
* * *
CHAD HAD INCREDIBLY expressive brown eyes.
In them, Tracy noted a surprised earnestness.
He stared at his hand on her arm as if he couldn’t quite believe he’d taken hold of it.
She couldn’t quite believe it either. Or the earnestness. He didn’t care about Tracy or Harmony Valley. And he was wrong about her not being disabled, wrong about her speaking easier with him. She’d been struggling the entire time he stood nearby. And now they stood face-to-face, inches away from being kissably close.
Tracy licked her lips and inadvertently stared at his, over-thinking, just as he’d accused her.
Luckily, her cell phone rang and Chad released her. She drew a deep breath, filling her lungs with much needed air.
“Ms. Jackson, this is Sue Gaines from Three Filmers Productions.” The woman spoke with a smoothly modulated voice Tracy envied. “You sent in an application a few weeks ago for a producer job?”
“Yes.” Tracy braced herself for the worst. It was rare for her to get good news about a job application.
“Congratulations. You’ve made the short list of candidates we’re considering for the position.”
“What?” Tracy reached for the railing to steady herself. “No.”
Chad didn’t pretend to hide his curiosity. He tilted his head and contemplated her expression with all the seriousness of a doctor she’d once met at a speech research facility.
“Yes.” Sue chuckled. “For this next round, we’re asking all applicants to create a three minute video segment that tells us who you are. You may feature people and things that are important to you or that shaped who you are. But you must be on screen for at least two of the three minutes.”
On screen? Tracy did a quick visual inventory of her body parts and surroundings, because she felt as cold as if she’d fallen in the river. This was an exercise she couldn’t do. She’d have to turn them down. Responses formed in her head—so grateful, have to decline, chickening out.
Meanwhile, Sue was barreling on quite happily. “You’ll present your video in two weeks to the interview panel in our offices. I’ll send everything you need to know in a confirmation email. Good luck!”
“What’s wrong?” Chad asked when Tracy disconnected the call. “You look like you lost everything in the stock market.”
Tracy shook her head, still feeling cold. “I got a call-back interview. At a film production company.”
“Don’t you want the job?”
“Yes.” Tracy longed for the mental challenge and sense of purpose the job offered. “But...” Be on screen? “They want me to...make a video. About what makes me...me.” That was going to be one quiet film.
Chad shrugged off her fears. “Everybody makes video résumés nowadays. Besides, didn’t you say you used to work at an ad agency? This should be right up your alley.”
“They want me. To be in the film.” Tracy tilted her head back and stared at the sky. It was a clear blue, happy sky. A sky that promised smooth sailing. Not trusting it, Tracy dropped her gaze to her sneakers. “Me. In the film. Talking.” A sense of foreboding crept up her calves like delicate, determined spider legs, threatening her equilibrium. “I’m going to decline.” As soon as Sue sent the confirmation email. Because Tracy had been unable to spit out the words on the phone.
Words spit about her head now: Coward. Fraidy-cat. Spineless jellyfish. Loser.
She hated those descriptors.
Chad bent his knees to peer into her eyes. “You’re quitting?”
Quitter. Yep, that was appropriate, too.
Tracy clenched her fists, hating that label, as well. “At least, I’ll have my dignity...if I bail on the interview. You, Chad the Blackmailer, don’t...have dignity or respect. Certainly not mine.” She dodged around him and his penetrating gaze, heading toward the bakery as she tossed over her shoulder, “Besides...technically, I can’t quit if I’m not hired.” That smoothly uttered sentence was a fluke, just like that job offer. She’d learned not to get her hopes up over flukes. There’d been the copywriting job last month the recruiter said she was perfect for. Tracy had sat across from her prospective boss unable to do more than nod her head and offer monosyllabic answers.
“And here I thought you were brave.” Chad matched her escape pace perfectly, his tone just as hard on Tracy as she was on herself.
“And I thought you were honorable,” Tracy flung back at him. It was easier to argue with him than to deal with the doubts churning in her stomach.
“I have a code. I’ll take that over honor any day.” He hurried ahead, as if he couldn’t wait to get back to the town proper and find that story. “There’s nothing wrong with it, but do you really want to make coffee the rest of your life?”
She didn’t, of course. And that was what was killing her inside.
And then she saw what had him walking so fast. Roxie Knight had parked her old red truck on the corner. The truck bed was filled with small cages. Each one had a chicken in it.
Tracy told herself not to worry. Chickens might be trendy and Chad might be sneaky, but chickens didn’t fly with the bachelor crowd.
CHAPTER SIX (#ulink_a5a930b7-6df5-5e6b-8474-a9ede8ecff0f)
AN ELDERLY WOMAN with short, wiry blue hair in stained blue coveralls and driving around with a truckload of chickens.
This would be fun.
Chad’s inner voice had him veering away from Tracy and the disappointment he felt over her fear of a challenge. He didn’t want to think about Tracy or why he cared what happened to her. He called out a greeting to the old woman, ignoring Tracy’s parting shot of, “Be nice!” and introducing himself.
“I’m Roxie.” The old woman adjusted the hang of her coveralls, wheezing as if she’d just run a race. “You must be that reporter people are talking about.” She tightened a strap that held her cages down with hands that seemed plumper than fit her thin, petite frame.
Interest in a story was elbowed aside by the alarm flashing in his head, the one experienced during years spent raised by elderly parents. Roxie’s shortness of breath. Her poor circulation. Was her skin pale because she didn’t get outdoors? That was the argument his mother had made when Chad had asked her to see a doctor. Too late, it turned out.
“You don’t talk much.” Roxie hit him with a sideways glance. “Are you a friend of Tracy’s? From one of those clinics she goes to?”
“No.” Chad drew back. She thought he had speech difficulties? “I was distracted by all your chickens.” He hoped to be distracted by whatever reason she had a truckload of fowl, distracted enough to ignore what he saw as warning signs in her health.
“I’m taking them to the farmers market. Getting dotty in my old age.” She gasped for breath. “Let too many roosters in the hen house and ended up with too many chickens. Or so my daughter says. She made me promise—” Wheeze. “—to get rid of them all last time she visited.” Panting, Roxie climbed unsteadily onto the rear bumper and untied a small cage with a small blue-gray speckled hen. “The load unbalanced when I came around the corner. I’ve just got one cage too many. Poor Henrietta.” She slumped over the tailgate, balancing the cage on the fender. “Whew. You’d think we were at a high elevation. I can’t seem to catch my breath.”
“Let me help.” He placed a steadying touch at the small of her back. “Give me Henrietta.” Once the hen was on the ground, Chad took Roxie’s hand and helped her down.
Roxie’s was cold. Her grip weak. Up close, her skin had an unhealthy tinge to it.
Mom, you don’t look so well. Let’s go to the doctor.
Tension pinched between his shoulder blades. “You shouldn’t be doing this trip alone.” Roxie shouldn’t be doing it at all. She should be seeking medical attention.
It’s none of your business. That’s what his mother had said. I may be slowing down, but everyone slows down at my age.
He was looking at Roxie, but that didn’t stop an image of his mother’s face from coming to mind and replacing hers.
I could be wrong. I’m not a doctor.
It didn’t feel wrong. And he would have appreciated anyone who could’ve made his mother see a doctor. Maybe then she’d still be alive. Maybe then he wouldn’t be alone and empty.
“I’m glad you offered to come.” Roxie smiled up at him mid-wheeze. “Won’t take more than an hour. My friend Marty says he’ll sell them for me, so it’s just a drop-off.”
“But...”
“Get a move on.” Roxie pressed her keys into his hands, picked up Henrietta’s cage and walked around the truck to the passenger side, huffing and puffing like a six-pack-a-day smoker.
Chad was dumbfounded. This was just like earlier when Eunice and Tracy left him—a stranger—with a baby. What was it about Harmony Valley that inspired such trust in their fellow man? Didn’t they realize the world was a dangerous place?
And yet... His reporter instincts stood on end—this is the story. Chad stood still, rejecting the idea. He didn’t write smarmy, feel-good pieces. He didn’t do good deeds, like pointing out to someone they might be sick. Or driving them to the doctor. There must be someone in town who’d drive Roxie.
Although no one in the bakery had been willing to drive him a few blocks. The only volunteer driver, the petite woman—Aggie/Agnes—was probably still busy taking Mildred to her doctor’s appointment.
Roxie got in with a mighty door slam and a raspy gasp.
The chickens in the back startled, clucked and stared at Chad as if to say, “Get a move on!”
