One Thing I Know

by Kara Isaac

  Thought about it. Dreamed about it. Visualized it. And it didn’t help, as her luck would have it, that the PR train was heading to Madison next week and he would be on his home turf. “Yes.” Rachel groaned. “It’s so ridiculous. There’s no way in a million years it could ever happen. But then he looks at me with these all-seeing blue-gray eyes and I almost keel over.”

  “Why wouldn’t it happen? You’re a catch!”

  Rachel choked back a bitter laugh. “His star is on the rise. You said it yourself. Lacey thinks it’s only a matter of time before he’s a really big deal. I have nothing next to that. Not to mention I was so rude to him the first couple of times we met.”

  “Sounds like a good start. Give him a bit of a run for his money. Bit of a chase. Guys like that.” Anna flopped back in her chair. “Lord knows I had to make Cam think he had one on his hands, even though if he’d proposed on the second date I would’ve hightailed it off to Vegas in a heartbeat.”

  An image of Cam and Anna being married by Elvis popped into Rachel’s head, causing a spurt of laughter to burst out.

  “You laugh, but Cam is crazy about Elvis, and I would’ve married that man dressed as Priscilla if it would make him happy.”

  “Has he been to Graceland?”

  Anna grinned at her. “He makes a pilgrimage every year.”

  “He does not!”

  “Everyone has their faults. Look at you, lining up as a Packers or Badgers supporter.”

  “What? Who?”

  Anna shook her head. “Oh Rachel. If you’re going to go fall in love with a sports guy from Wisconsin, you’re going to have to learn up on the football teams. Green Bay Packers and UW Badgers.”

  “I don’t do football.”

  Anna shook her head. “Oh but you will, my friend, you will.”

  She guessed it couldn’t hurt to Google them when she got home. Hold on. What was she doing? She didn’t care about stupid football teams; she needed to write a book. That was it. That was the whole reason for this whole crazy thing.

  Anna was still staring at her with an irritating smile on her lips. “You were thinking about it. I saw you. You’re a goner.”

  Secrets and relationships can’t coexist in the long term. Eventually you will have to choose one over the other.

  Her own advice, which had been so easy to type onto the screen when she had no skin in the game, was coming back to haunt her.

  - 24 -

  “Lucas, my main man. How’s it going?”

  Lucas winced at the sound of Brad’s voice. He knew he shouldn’t have answered the call without checking the screen. “Fine. Thanks.” Swinging open his door, he jumped out of his truck.

  “Look, no pressure, but I need to know how you’re doing with Donna.” At least Brad was kind enough not to torment them both with small talk.

  Lucas shifted on his feet. “You know how things like this are, Brad. Two steps forward, one step back.” Closing the door with a thump, he leaned against the side of the vehicle and scuffed a couple of pebbles with the toe of his boot.

  “So you’re making progress on finding out, then? That nice little piece of assistant given you some good leads?” Brad’s interest was piqued.

  Lucas’s neck prickled at the way Brad’s voice had lingered over the first three letters of “assistant.” “Well . . . not exactly.”

  “I get what you’re saying, Lucas, but I have to be honest with you and let you know that I don’t have months to wait around for you to get the job done. I want you on the team, I really do, but I have other options. So if you’re not going to be able to deliver for me, just tell me.”

  Lucas shot out a breath, kicked another stone, and watched as it skittered and bounced across the parking lot. “Brad, of course I want to deliver, if there’s something there. But nothing I’ve seen and heard indicates Donna is lying.”

  Brad let out an ominous chuckle. “Lucas, I love that you small-town folk are so trusting, but I’m telling you as someone who hasn’t gotten where he is without a good radar for secrets, there’s something.”

  “Why don’t you tell me more about that, since you worked at Randolph when Donna signed her first book deal?” Lucas threw it out there. Brad’s LinkedIn profile hadn’t contained any mention of a job at Randolph, but he couldn’t think of any reason Donna would have had to lie to him about that.

  There was a pause at the other end. “I’m impressed. You have been doing your research. Yes. You’re right. I was on the marketing team. She came to our attention after a blog post she wrote went viral. It was all very odd. Soon after we approached her, I heard that the deal wasn’t going to happen. That she wasn’t suitable. Then suddenly it was back on, but only the VP of marketing was privy to the details.”

  “Why didn’t you just say so in the beginning?” He didn’t appreciate being played like he was some kind of puppet on a string. Not to mention that every time he was around Rachel, he found himself losing his grasp on all the reasons why he wanted what Brad was offering.

  “I guess I didn’t want you to think I might have some kind of personal vendetta or something from back then. To be honest, I didn’t think that much of it at the time. Publishing is full of quirks, and I left soon after.”

  His explanation conveniently omitted the “falling-out” Donna had mentioned. “She’s approached me about possibly cowriting a book based on the tour.” Lucas winced as the words fell out of his mouth. He hadn’t been intending to mention that. Donna had only mentioned it in an offhand way. Joked that she was having trouble coming up with an idea for the final book in her contract and they should join forces.

  Silence for a couple of seconds. “Are you still on board with me on this, Lucas? A couple of weeks on tour is one thing, but a book? That’s forever. Do you really want to be permanently connected to her if she is hiding some kind of double life?”

  A memory blindsided Lucas. Coming home from school. Finding his father carrying suitcases out of the house, his mother pleading with him that they could work it out. His dad peeling out of the driveway without a backward glance. Leaving them behind for a life he’d built without them.

  A bitter stew rose in his throat. Brad might be crass, but he was right. If Donna wasn’t who she said she was, then people deserved to know. “Of course not.”

  Rachel’s face appeared again. The laughter in her eyes as she teased him, the whisper of her hand as she helped him with the mic. The way she bit her lip when she was concentrating. The total vulnerability in her eyes when she’d told him about her mom.

  He shook it away. Surely that made him the best person to do this, to try and find out. Because he cared about the truth, not just about bagging a big career move.

  “Good man. So what next?”

  “They’re in Madison this week, so I should have plenty of time to do some digging.”

  “But you’re still thinking the hot assistant is your best bet?”

  “Yeah.” Lucas could barely force the word out.

  “Great, great. Keep in touch. Ciao.”

  Lucas shoved his phone back in his pocket and slammed the back door with a crunch. He was doing the right thing, he was. But if so, why did he feel like he needed to take a shower before his workout?

  His pocket buzzed again. Could the guy not leave him alone? Yanking it out, he put it to his ear. “Yes, Brad.” His words landed harshly. Probably not the best way to talk to the guy who held his dream in the palm of his hand.

  “Who’s Brad?” Scott’s voice rolled across the line.

  “Oh, just some guy at work.”

  “Is now a bad time? I can call back later.” The stress vibrating off his brother’s voice contradicted his words.

  “No, of course not. What’s up?” Lucas slumped back against the door of his truck. At this rate, his gym hour would be up without him having progressed beyond the parking lot.

  “We’re at the hospital.”

  Lucas was reopening the truck door before he’d even fully registere
d what Scott had said. “What?!”

  “It’s nothing serious. Joey fell out of a tree and broke his arm. Nice and clean, though.”

  Well, it had to happen sooner or later. His nephew’s utter lack of fear, combined with a deeply held belief that gravity didn’t apply to him, made that a certainty.

  Throwing his gym bag back in the passenger side, he slipped his key into the ignition.

  “The thing is . . . I, um, I forgot to pay our health insurance last month.”

  Lucas stilled, key partly turned. He had never heard his brother sound so defeated. “Forgot, Scott, or couldn’t?”

  A shuddering sigh was his only response.

  Starting the truck, Lucas backed out of the lot. “Okay. I’ll need to stop at the bank on my way. How much do you need?”

  “They’re saying they need a grand up front.” His brother answered the question but didn’t. Lucas would bet his truck the insurance could take a number in a long line of bills that were knocking on his brother’s door. “And Luc, um, Grace doesn’t know.”

  “Got it.” Lucas flipped his indicator to turn onto East Washington Avenue. It would be killing his brother to be keeping the reality of their situation from Grace. He was the most honest guy he knew.

  He had to find a way to get some money in. His family depended on it. He’d sell his house, but in the current market he doubted he’d even get enough to pay off the mortgage, let alone enough to help Scott. His savings were all he could offer, which might cover an insurance bill and some back taxes, but they certainly weren’t up to saving Scott’s ranch.

  Either the Brad option or the Donna option had to pay some dividends. He was going to need to decide soon which way to jump, and that meant he needed to stay objective. Which could only happen if he kept his distance from the woman who had the ability to unravel the knots he’d tied around his heart with a glance.

  - 25 -

  “Want to know how many billboards of you I counted on the way in from the airport?” Rachel leaned against the wall beside Studio 1 and gave Lucas a smirk.

  “Not at all.” Rachel and Donna had been in the station for all of ninety seconds and Lucas was already losing the battle to remain aloof and objective.

  “Madison is proud of their homeboy. There are worse things in life.” She looked through the glass to where Bree and Jack hosted the lunchtime show. “Is this the studio you usually broadcast from?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  She shrugged. “You referred to it at some point as a closet. Even Donna’s closet isn’t this big.”

  “Well, you’re right. My place is a little smaller.” He held his thumb and pointer finger about an inch apart. “Ethan and I, we don’t need much space when it’s just the two of us.”

  She quirked an eyebrow at him. “The two of you prefer something a bit more intimate, huh? To give each other back rubs during the show maybe?” Her eyes sparkled.

  “That’s enough sass out of you, Miss Somers.”

  “I’m just saying.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Here you are, Madison’s most eligible bachelor and all these poor women ringing up, trying to win your heart, probably don’t imagine you’re all cozied up with Ethan the whole time.”

  “I’m not cozied up with Ethan.” He growled the words.

  Rachel clamped her lips together, but from the twitching of her mouth to the shaking of the shoulders, she was having a hard time keeping back the laughter. At least Donna was too busy on the phone to hear the aspersions her assistant was casting.

  “Come on.” He marched ten yards up the hall and threw open the door to Studio 2.

  “See?” He pointed at the tiny production booth. “Ethan sits in there and I,” he gestured at the seat right in front of them, “sit here. Though when we debrief he sits there.” He quirked his own mischievous smile back at her as he gestured at the only other spot in the small room. “So I guess we could have a game of footsies if we wanted.”

  Rachel spun around, taking in the cramped space. Her perfume smelled like flowers and summer. “I like what you’ve done with the place.” She gestured to the red-and-white Badgers pennant hung on the wall, directly underneath Ethan’s old moth-eaten moose head.

  Lucas took a step back, then a half step, until he stopped by the curved edge of his desk. What a genius! He wasn’t asking for trouble inviting Rachel into a small, intimate space, where the most they could ever be from each other was all of about two feet. No, not at all.

  His carefully laid plans involving being cool and professional and never being alone with her all dashed in the first few seconds by his big mouth.

  “So when you and Donna are doing the show, this is where you are?” She ran her fingers along the console, leaning over on tiptoes to look at the side where Ethan sometimes sat. Pulling back, she perched on a clear space on his desk, toes swishing along the ground as she swung her legs.

  Lucas fisted his hands in his pockets. He couldn’t sit down, not in his own seat. It would put him directly eye height with her chest, and his end of the desk was stacked with papers. The fridge broke the silence with its whirring hum. A drink! “Would you like something to drink?” Hopefully Ethan had it stocked with more than just cheap beer.

  “Sure.”

  Reprieve. Lucas skirted around his end of the desk, ducked under the moose’s nose, and pulled open the tiny bar fridge shoved between two filing cabinets. Pay dirt. Grabbing two sodas, he passed one to Rachel over the console and leaned back in Ethan’s chair as he cracked his own open. Perfect. The instrument panel between them meant she only came into view at shoulder height.

  The Mountain Dew bubbled down his throat, icy cold.

  “Why don’t you drink?” Rachel didn’t even look at him as she asked the question, piercing the pennant with her gaze as she took a sip from her can.

  Lucas coughed and spluttered, the fizz hitting his nose. “To prove I’m nothing like my dad.” The words fumbled out of his mouth. The truth. But he’d never admitted it that bluntly to anyone.

  Rachel ran a finger around the rim of her can, a Mona Lisa smile on her face.

  “What?”

  She looked across at him, brown eyes shadowed. “I was just thinking how ironic it is.”

  “What?”

  “Well, that you don’t drink to prove you’re nothing like your dad, while I do, to prove I’m nothing like mine.”

  The haunted look on her face robbed him of his breath. “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, well, life happens.” She took a slug this time, then swallowed. “Have you seen yours since he left?”

  He opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. How did she know? He didn’t talk about his dad to anyone. Except . . . that time with Donna. Was nothing sacred?

  He looked across at her.

  Eyes stricken, cheeks flushed. Realizing that maybe she wasn’t supposed to know. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.” She stuttered a little, falling over her words. “Donna, Donna just mentioned it in passing and . . .” She trailed off, studying the top of the can clenched between her hands.

  “It’s okay.” And weirdly enough, it was. Sure, it had been a personal conversation, but it was hardly like he was alone in having a deadbeat dad. In Donna’s world it was probably a case of draw a ticket and get in line. “Sorry, I was just surprised. It’s not exactly a state secret. It’s, um . . .” Now it was his turn to study the silver circular can lid. “It’s complicated.” Not that it was. He’d been perfectly happy not even knowing if his father was dead or alive, then Scott had to go and try to build some kind of bridge to nowhere.

  She looked at him, all big eyes and woebegone face. Lord help him, she was going to be his undoing. He chucked his soda can in the bin and stood, striding back around to her side of the room.

  “Hey.” Now she studied the tips of her shoes. Or maybe his, which could really use a clean. “Rach.” His hand reached out, tugged a wayward lock of hair behind her ear. It was soft and silky and—he shoved his hand back in h
is pocket before it could get him into any more trouble. “So my dad was a loser. We managed without him.” He tried to put a smile in his voice. “Some crazy people even seem to think I still turned out okay.”

  She looked up at him, the mist of a smile in her cheeks. “They do say there’s a fool born every minute.”

  “Ow, straight to the heart.” Lucas clutched his chest. “Here I am being all vulnerable and bam, she just socks it to me.”

  She pushed herself off the desk and landed within inches of him. Tilting her head, she looked up at him with mischief in her eyes. “Okay, you’re right. I’ll say something nice.”

  Lucas crossed his arms. “Go for it.”

  She crooked a finger. “Come closer.”

  He leaned down. Her shampoo smelled like apples and his heart was beating so hard, he wouldn’t be surprised if he woke up with a bruise on his chest.

  She leaned in, her hand reaching up to his shirt and tugging him even closer. “I’m really sorry your football team wears pink.” She whispered the words. Then she turned and tried to dodge past him, but his arm flew out and caught her around the waist and reeled her in like a fish at the end of the line.

  “You didn’t just do that. You did not just insult the mighty Badgers.”

  Rachel was laughing, and he suddenly realized that she was flush up against him, her face tilted up and her lips so close to his he could feel her breath on his face.

  “Are you going to take it back?” Lucas had his left palm planted firmly on the small of her back, but his right hand traveled up her side. Rachel swallowed but shook her head. But her gaze wasn’t on his eyes. It was firmly on his lips. The chemistry arched between them.

  He was going to kiss her. Lucas knew it with the same certainty that he’d known the Astros were going to win the World Series. It had been a long time since he had kissed anyone. And something instinctive told him it had been a long time for Rachel, too.

  He let out his breath slowly. He couldn’t kiss her when he was still on the fence about what he was going to do. And if Donna was hiding something, he certainly didn’t want the way that he got to it to be by taking advantage of Rachel.