Rachel ignored the comment that he wanted her gone. Her voice softened. “What are you planning to do with the second floor?”
The upstairs wasn’t part of the deal with the network. “Nothing you need to worry about. Just get the first floor done so things can get back to normal.”
She studied him for a moment, and damn if his body didn’t tighten with unwanted awareness. “Do you promise to keep your eyes closed?”
“What?”
She took his hand. He started to tug it away, but she held tight and he relaxed into her grasp. Relaxed into her gaze and the sensation of her hand in his. “I’ll take you through to the upstairs but you can’t look. Really, it makes a difference with the reveal.”
“Doesn’t play as well for the camera?” He couldn’t stop the snide tone of his voice, but then realized he sounded like a jerk. “Yes, I promise.”
“You’ll appreciate it more if it’s a complete surprise. You have to trust me.” She tugged him toward the door. Stu glared at them but she ignored him and looked at Beck. “Cover your eyes. No peeking.”
It would have been easy to open his eyes and sneak a look through his fingers—it was his damn place, after all—but Beck had been raised to keep his word. He could hear workers’ voices and the clanging of metal as he crossed the floor and followed Rachel up the stairs.
Dust and cobwebs had collected in the big, open space. The broom and mop he’d brought up a few days ago were propped against the wall. He’d work off his frustrations up here today, and then it’d be one more day closer to getting his daughter back. Getting his life back.
Rachel stopped beside him, close enough that he could feel her heat. “Are you going to tell me what’s really wrong?”
A full-blown rant was burning in his chest, ready to burst from his throat. But it wouldn’t make any difference. Rachel and her crew weren’t leaving yet, so all he could do now was stay out of their way and stay away from Rachel, because she was still a temptation every minute they were together.
Maybe he should go to Hershey for the next week.
He blew out a frustrated breath. No, he wasn’t running away. He’d stopped running away years ago. He turned to face her. “Holly called me in the middle of the night sobbing her heart out.”
“Oh, no. Is she all right?”
“Yes.” He wasn’t going to let her concerned expression soften him, though. “But not really. She’s homesick. Because I sent her away.”
“Because I’m here.” Yeah, they’d talked about it on the boat.
“Because I didn’t want her mixed up with TV cameras and probing questions and rumors spread as truth.”
Her jaw tightened. “So you said.”
He couldn’t stop the anger and frustration that wouldn’t release its grip. He couldn’t stop hearing Holly’s sobs. “It’s my job as her father to protect her from things like that. Things that you brought to Lakeside.”
She leaned in to him. “So it’s my fault? My boss and your brother made a deal and that makes it my fault?”
“Yes!” he exploded. But then he sighed, because he knew it wasn’t her fault. Not any more than it was his, because he could have bowed out and let one of his brothers take over, but Beck hadn’t wanted to lose even more control over his place than he already had. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “No. Sorry. It’s the situation I’m angry with. And I’m not going to be over it until she’s back home, and you and your TV crew are out of here.”
Her response was softer than he expected after his blowup. “I know this is an inconvenience, but you’re going to have a finished bar at the end of it. We’re going to be here until the project is done, so you’ll have to find a way to deal with it.” She smoothed a hand down his arm. “And homesickness is normal. I’m sure she would have felt that way no matter what reason you let her go to a fun park with people you trust, with a friend she loves.”
“Yeah, I guess.” He could see the hurt in Rachel’s expression, and he didn’t like that he put it there. “This is going to be Holly’s space up here. I need to get it ready for her.”
Her eyes sparkled with interest. “What are your plans?”
He shrugged. “Two separate spaces, actually. My office will be in this small area by the stairs.”
“Are you going to close up the fire pole opening?”
“Yeah.” He wanted to stay angry because he still didn’t like his life being ruled by Rachel’s crew. But he’d gotten used to talking with her, running ideas by her, and so his thoughts came out automatically. “And the rest of the space will be Holly’s. She’ll be grown and gone before I know it.” And his heart hurt at the thought. “But for now, she can hang out up here when I’m working downstairs. Do her homework, watch TV, get some sleep. I don’t plan on working late during the week for long, but it’ll take a little while to find the right manager. After that I’ll probably stay to close only on Friday and Saturday nights, and she’ll stay over with Mom and Pop then.”
“Quite a balancing act.”
He’d been working toward this for years. “I’ll make it work.”
“I know you will.” She glanced at her watch. “Are you going to pick me up tonight?”
He grimaced. The fancy Bradford party. “Shit. I almost forgot.”
“I’m not looking forward to it, either, but we’ve got to do this thing whether we like it or not.”
“This whole situation has gotten out of hand. I like you, Rachel, but I don’t like your life. I hate the cameras and the need to be ‘on’ all the time. People other than you are running your life. They’re running my life now, too. I don’t know how you do it, but I can’t. I’m keeping my distance.” From her. From everything reality-show related.
She shook her head and he wanted to bury his fingers in the silky hair that danced around her face. So much for wanting to keep his distance. “Did you forget we agreed to pretend to be a couple until filming is done? You agreed. This whole media blitz is for you as much as it is for me.”
He hated to admit she was right. His family expected him to cooperate, to commit to this to the end. He held back the deep sigh that wanted to escape. “Yes, I’ll pick you up.”
“It’s just pretend. For the camera. Nothing about this is real.”
Holly’s sobbing last night was real. “I’ll smile, and hold your hand, and dance with you. But don’t expect any more than that.”
She cleared her throat. “Try to have fun tonight. Mia said my fans can’t wait to see us all dressed up for the party.”
He liked dressing up slightly more than he liked being in front of the camera. He liked being judged by strangers even less. He grimaced. “Ginny said the village page is in love with the idea of us being in love.”
Rachel let out a low, slow chuckle. “See you tonight.” He stood there like a fool and watched her walk away from him and down the stairs.
He was not in love with Rachel Bradford.
But he could be if he let himself.
…
“I wish I was there.”
Beck smiled at Holly’s pouting face on his cell phone screen. He’d been afraid that once she saw everything that was going on, she might get more homesick, but it looked like she’d recovered completely. All the Dillons were standing behind her, getting their own look at the party. “There aren’t any other kids here, anyway.”
“Daddy, you look so handsome!”
“Thanks.” It wasn’t as bad as he thought to put on a suit and tie tonight. And, once his family had made their token complaints, he thought they didn’t mind all that much, either. “Okay, here’s a sweep of the room. Look at all the people. I think this is the biggest party I’ve ever been to. What do you think?”
“It’s so pretty and fancy. Look at all the fairy lights. I wish I was there!”
“I told you. No kids allowed. I see Grand
ma and Pop. Hold on and you can say hi.”
Mom and Pop were hanging around on one side of the huge banquet room with the rest of the Colburns and their friends. The Bradfords and their group had congregated on the other side, with very little mingling between the groups. The long table of hors d’oeuvres was across the front wall. A band was setting up along the back. How had Rachel’s mother arranged all this on such short notice?
He passed his phone over to his parents so they could say hi to Holly. “You guys look so pretty,” Holly told them. “I wish I was there,” she repeated when Beck got the phone back. She tilted her phone so he could see the hotel pool. “No, I guess I don’t. I’m having a lot of fun here.”
“I’m glad, sweetheart.”
“I’m sorry I called you last night. I don’t know why I was crying.”
“You can call me any time. You know that?”
“Yeah. Love you, Daddy.”
“I’ll let you get back to the fun.”
“Wait. Where’s Rachel? I want to see her before you hang up.”
“Hmm. I don’t see her.” Her crew had swept her away shortly after they got there. Then he got a peek of blonde hair and a burst of blue. “Hold on. I see her now.”
She was still talking with Mia and Stu. Glen and Russ were filming Ethan and Helen Bradford tapping their champagne flutes together. “I think she’s busy right now.”
He hadn’t noticed before that there was a bar serving beer on the side of the room where the Colburns had gathered, while there was a champagne bar on the Bradford side. Was that to encourage the groups to mingle, or to keep them apart?
Rachel turned and saw him then. The bright smile on her face made him forget all about the disparity in drink choices. She waved him over. “Hi.”
Beck turned the phone so Holly could see Rachel. The royal blue of her dress matched the streak in her hair almost exactly. The dress followed her subtle curves perfectly. It didn’t matter if he’d vowed to keep his distance. He wanted his hands on her. Now. Instead, he waved to her crew and then lifted his phone.
“Hey. Holly wants to say hi before she goes back to the pool.”
Rachel took the phone and beamed at his daughter. “Hey there. You look like you’re having fun.”
“It’s so much fun.” Holly rattled on, telling Rachel everything she’d been doing in the week she’d been gone.
Holly was getting too close to Rachel. Her heart would be broken when Rachel left Lakeside. How could he have let his daughter get attached to someone who wasn’t going to hang around?
“I don’t know.” Rachel had replied to something Holly had asked. “If not, I’ll be back when The Salvage Station has its grand opening.”
Holly must have wanted to know if Rachel would still be in Lakeside when she came back next weekend. It would be better if Rachel was gone by then. Holly didn’t need to bond with Rachel any more than she already had. And neither did he.
The band had finished warming up by the time he said goodbye to Holly. He turned to Rachel again to ask her to dance. They began playing an old classic. Beck never paid attention enough to know the name, but he recognized a good slow dance tune when he heard one. And he knew slow dancing had been born so two people could get their hands on each other.
“Would you like to dance?”
She smiled at him, and he wanted to kiss those deep red lips. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’d rather be back in my room knitting.”
He raised his brows. “Knitting?” Somehow he couldn’t see her in a rocking chair with a couple of knitting needles in her lap.
“It soothes me.” She shrugged. “Something to do with my hands.”
He took one of her soft hands between his and he could smell the faint floral scent she often wore. “I can think of something else you could do with your hands.”
She leaned in to him with a small smile. “Are you flirting with me?”
Was he flirting with her? “It’s my job tonight, right? Show the public we’re having that nonexistent fling?” He almost thought a small burst of disappointment flashed across her face.
At that moment, Stu nudged him as he walked by. “Come on, Romeo. Get Juliet out on the dance floor.”
Rachel rolled her eyes and took Beck’s arm. He’d barely had the chance to get her in his arms when she looked over his shoulder and frowned. “What’s the matter?”
“Have you noticed the murmuring that’s going on?”
He hadn’t, but now that she’d pointed it out, there were a lot of unhappy faces on both sides of the banquet room. Nasty looks were thrown. Even his mom was frowning. “I never thought there really was some kind of Bradford and Colburn feud going on. But now I wonder.”
“Stu’s been interviewing people. He’s probably stirring up problems on purpose.”
Beck couldn’t stay quiet about the drinks. “Well, it probably didn’t help that one side of the room got champagne and the other got beer.”
“What? Really?”
It was obvious to him. “Take a look.”
“There was supposed to be a full bar on both ends.”
“Look for yourself.”
“It may not have been intentional,” Rachel said, obviously trying to give her parents the benefit of the doubt. Beck wasn’t sure he’d be able to. “It may be the way the crowd naturally navigated.”
He took a step back. “Are you saying my family is a crude beer-drinking crowd?”
She frowned as if she weren’t sure if he were angry or not. He wasn’t sure, either.
“I never used the term crude, but there may be some truth to the drink preference.”
“Then again, your family seems to be guarding the champagne table, so no one else could get through if they wanted to.” He took another look at the Colburn side. “Though to be honest, it looks like the Colburns are possessive of their beer as well.”
The last thing he wanted was to have bad feelings about drink selections cause a scene that would spread across social media. Lakeside wouldn’t look good at the end of the night. He pulled Rachel close, as if he were going to slow dance, but instead made the embrace a long, warm hug. He’d show all these idiots that a Bradford and a Colburn could get along. And he was selfish enough to hold her for a moment more, take in her soft scent and her smooth body while he still could.
When he made himself step away, he said, “Excuse me, I’m going to get some champagne. Would you like a flute?”
“Actually,” she smiled, eyes beaming. “I’d love a beer.”
…
Rachel had a terse word with her mother and the misunderstanding was quickly resolved. The bars at both ends of the room were stocked with not only champagne and beer, but wine and liquor and non-alcoholic beverages as well.
Now that the drinks were flowing more freely, she didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.
Their families were different. That was part of the reason they’d become so antagonistic to each other as teenagers trying to find themselves. She’d never considered how being a Bradford or a Colburn had defined them both growing up. She’d never thought of it as a feud exactly, but it was possible their families’ attitudes had fueled the way she and Beckett thought about each other. And they’d treated each other accordingly.
Her family was a big reason she hadn’t returned to Lakeside in so long. They weren’t bad people, but their vision was narrow. Rachel saw the world through a wider lens than they did.
Or did she?
Had her own view of life become so narrow she couldn’t see beyond the goal she’d set for herself so long ago? She took another gulp of beer—when did she get another one?—and forced a smile when Ethan and Helen came up to her.
“Where’s Colburn?” Ethan asked.
“Which one? There are a bunch of them here.”
Her brother huffed.
“Your buddy. You two are enjoying yourselves, aren’t you?”
Too much. And still not as much as she wanted. “Nothing wrong with enjoying myself. You should try it sometime.”
Helen’s eyes grew big. “Do you ever think about how your actions affect your family? The way you flaunt your relationship with a junkman pretending to be a bartender. ”
“Where do you get off talking about Beckett like that? Or any of the Colburns. They’re good people.”
“You make time for someone else’s family, but not for your own brother. You could come look at the new condo units.” Ethan knocked back his drink, then waved the empty glass in her face. “It wouldn’t take much time for you to give me some ideas on how to update the interiors. Instead of spending all your time helping the Colburns, for God’s sake.”
“It’s my job.”
“I’m your brother.”
She told herself that he would never appreciate free design help. He’d just expect more. But as Ethan turned away, she felt a twinge of guilt. Had she gone so far in her efforts to be free from her family that she’d alienated them more than they deserved?
She glanced around, looking for Beckett. He’d gone with his parents to help his father get home. She shouldn’t have felt so much relief when she saw him heading for her.
“Great party, Bradford,” Beckett announced. People around them turned to stare.
He slipped his arm around Rachel’s waist. She leaned in to him without even thinking about it. Phones came out again and she was tired of wondering if the publicity angle was the only reason Beckett had touched her tonight.
A disconcerting buzz rose behind them. Four men in their twenties or early thirties stood nearly chest to puffed-out chest, as if they were the Jets and the Sharks from West Side Story. Rachel couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the words sounded low and menacing on both sides.
The Goodbye Guy (The Men of Lakeside) Page 16
