Morning Man
Page 26
Dayna pulled her head back, startled. “He’s getting Dub’s show?”
“Dub Birmingham no longer works at Hot Country One-oh-three,” she said, folding her arms. “It’s come to my attention that he was involved in unethical activity at the station.” Bonnie looked at Tack. “You were absolutely right. He slashed Dayna’s car tires.”
“That was Dub?” Dayna was flummoxed. “How’d you find out?”
He heaved a sigh. “Dub started shooting his mouth off and it got me thinking he might have been the one behind all that shit. And then CJ heard–”
“Wait a minute. You talked to CJ?”
“Yeah. While you were away, we kind of, well, I don’t know. Let’s just say we’ll never be fishing buddies, but I guess he’s an okay guy.”
She clutched at her chest. “Be still my beating heart.”
“CJ heard Dub was feeding stories to The Rumormill. On top of that, he sent your tape to the PD in Calgary hoping you’d take the bait and he’d get his old job back.”
“No. Way.”
“It seems that he and that Dawson guy go way back. Dub called in a favor.”
“B-but I talked to Dub when I called the station looking for you. He told me you’d already left but that he’d relay the message.”
“He never gave me any message. What did you say to him?”
“That I missed you and that I’d come home if you wanted me to,” she said, saddened that she’d relied on her saboteur to salvage her relationship with the man she loved.
“Tack called me last night and conveyed his suspicions,” Bonnie affirmed. “What the staff don’t know is that I quietly had a security camera installed this spring to prevent incidents like this from happening. I checked the surveillance tape and sure enough, there was Dub, jabbing a pocketknife into your all-season radials during his smoke break.”
“So, you’ve fired the creep, right?” Dayna asked.
“We came to an agreement that is a combination of termination and resignation,” she said with a faint smile. “Turns out, he had some sort of unfortunate mishap last night that will require his jaw to be wired shut for the next several weeks.”
Tack started laughing. “Well, ain’t that a fucking shame.”
“Que sera sera,” Bonnie said, dismissing it with a wave of her hand. “As long as all is well with you two and I’m not losing my morning team, then there’s nothing at all to worry about. And speaking of which,” she said, pausing to rustle in her bag, “I happen to have that contract saying you’ll both agree to stay at Hot Country One-oh-three and do Wake Up with Tack and Dayna for three more years.”
Dayna looked up at him and smiled. “Well, I know I’m not going anywhere,” she said, snuggling closer to him. “I’ll sign on the dotted line if you will.”
He shook his head and looked at Bonnie. “Sorry, boss. No can do.”
“If you want a lawyer to review it first, I’m fine with that,” she said.
“It won’t make a difference. I’m afraid I can’t sign those papers.”
Dayna took a step back. “Now what? And don’t start that bullshit about not believing in contracts.”
“I’m sorry, sugar. I just can’t agree to do Wake Up with Tack and Dayna for another three years.”
“What?” she said shakily, deeply troubled by what she was hearing. “I thought we had this all settled. That you weren’t going to leave.”
“Hey,” he said, reaching for her hand and pulling her close again. “I never said I wouldn’t commit to working with you for another three years. Hell, I never even said I wouldn’t commit to staying at the station for another three years.”
“But you just said–”
“What I said was that I couldn’t sign a contract stating we had to do Wake Up with Tack and Dayna every morning for another three years,” he said with a knowing smile. “It would be much better if the contract gave us the authority to change the name of our show if and when we wanted. Say, sometime early next year?”
She planted her hand on her hip, growing more disturbed by Tack’s frustrating stall tactics. “And just what, pray tell, would we ever want to change it to?”
He shrugged. “Well, I know this might sound crazy and I know we haven’t talked about it yet, but I’ve been thinking that Collins & Collins has a real nice ring.”
Her heart skipped a beat, suddenly realizing the gravity of what he was proposing. Forever. Staring up into his twinkling blue eyes, she was beyond certain that he’d be her partner for better or for worse. “Oh really, cowboy?” She huffed in mock annoyance. “What makes you so damn sure I’m gonna want to change my name?”
“Because I love you and because I know you better than anyone,” he said with a distinct cockiness. “You’ll do it.”
“Hmph.” She folded her arms. “Yeah, you’re right. I probably will.”
* * * *
Tack jumped down from the truck bed, leaving Dayna sitting on the tailgate. “Stay with me on this,” he said, taking backward strides through the tall grass with his arms held out in front of him. “We’ll put the living room here with a big picture window overlooking the reservoir. Here’s the couch, a couple of chairs, and, of course, my new sixty-inch TV,” he said with a giant grin, drawing it in the air. “And over here, we put a dining room suite and right beside it, a good-sized, open kitchen.”
She laughed, swinging her legs freely. “As long as it has a fridge for beer and a phone for ordering takeout, that’s all I need.”
He moved back several feet and staked out invisible walls. “This is the bathroom. We’ll get his-and-hers sinks so you can keep all your girly stuff on your own damn side. Plus, we’ll put in one of those oversized whirlpool tubs. Wouldn’t you love that?”
“How about a shower stall for two with massaging shower heads? Convenient when we’re both getting ready for work with the added bonus of being real fun for unwinding afterwards.” She bounced her eyebrows playfully.
“We don’t have enough room for both,” he replied matter-of-factly.
“How come you get a sixty-inch TV and I can’t have massaging shower heads?”
“Because you’ll never be in danger of being replaced by a TV someday.”
She giggled. “Good point.”
He continued the virtual tour. “Here’s the office, doubling as a guest room in case your family or friends come for a short visit. Emphasis on the short,” he said with a grin as he stepped farther back. “And finally, the piece de resistance. Our bedroom.”
“Is it big enough for a king?”
He nodded. “It’s big enough for whatever you want to put in it, sugar.”
“The only thing I want in my bedroom is you,” she said. “And you’re definitely king-sized.”
“We’ll have more than enough room for you, me and our bed. How’s that?”
“Wonderful.” She clapped. “I’m the luckiest girl in the world.”
Tack jogged back to the truck and hopped up on the tailgate beside her. “So, what do you think? Trish says once everything goes through with the financing, they can put shovels in the ground by November. We’ll be moving in as soon as March.”
“I think I’m really excited we’re actually going to do this.”
“Me too,” he said. “It’s gonna be a great spot for us. And after we move in, the first thing we’ll do…” He stopped, his thoughts temporarily hijacked by her beautiful brown eyes. “Make that the second thing we’ll do, is get ourselves a couple of friendly ol’ dogs to run around the yard.”
“Dogs? I love dogs.”
“Yep, I see us with two big black Labs. We’ll call ’em Reagan and Roosevelt.”
She laughed. “You really have been thinking about this for some time, haven’t you? Okay, fair’s fair. You get to name our dogs, I get to name our kids.”
“Whoa…kids?”
“Well, yeah. Don’t you want a li’l curly-haired cowboy running around someday too?”
“Sure I do,” he sai
d, instantly warmed by the idea of fatherhood. “I guess my fantasy of our life together didn’t quite reach that far into the future yet.”
“See? That’s why you need me, Tack. I’m always one step ahead of you.”
“I do need you.” He looked out at the imaginary footprint of their family home. “And we’re gonna need an addition. Maybe even a second story.”
“No rush,” she said, reclining on the truck bed with a tantalizing smile. “I imagine we’ll need another year or two of quality practice before we’re ready to make a baby.”
He stretched out alongside Dayna, placing his hand on her stomach as he envisioned how blissfully happy they’d be when that time came. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“The practicing part or the baby-making part?”
“Both.” He took off his cap and rested his head against her shoulder as she stroked his hair. Love really is a wonderful thing.
“What time is Abel expecting us?”
He snuggled in and closed his eyes, basking in her loving touch and the warmth of the mid-morning sun beaming down on them. “I said we’d be at the Roadhouse around noon to grab a bite. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when we ask him about baking us a red velvet wedding cake.”
“Not to mention when we tell him about the savings bonds we set up for his kids. Four grand apiece is a nice little chunk of change to give them a leg up.”
“Abel’s going to flip out. I’m so glad we could help out his family this way.”
“And to think, all that hard-earned money is thanks to Bonnie’s hare-brained scheme to keep us apart.”
“Eight very long, very frustrating weeks that damn near killed us.” He shuddered, tightening his embrace around her. “I’m so glad this summer’s over.”
“Oh, it wasn’t all that bad,” Dayna said, pressing her cheek against the top of his head. “Overall, I’d have to say things turned out pretty well for us.”
Tack smiled. “Sugar, it couldn’t get much better than this.”
About Barbara Kellyn
http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=authors&authors_id=187
Barbara Kellyn has come a long way from writing copy, reading news and playing “church lady music” on the odd Sunday morning shift at a small rural radio station. Little did she realize that her first job would turn her into a country fan for life–or that it would make great fodder for a future novel.
Morning Man is Barbara’s second book following on the heels of The Company She Keeps. Before realizing her dream of publishing her fiction, she worked in radio for six years before building a career as a writer and editor in the communications industry. While she doesn’t miss pulling the weekend shift, she still looks back fondly on those early radio years–even the fugly news booth that smelled like feet.
Barbara Kellyn lives in central Canada and can be contacted on Facebook and Twitter. She’d love to hear what you thought about Morning Man, personally thank you for purchasing this book, and swap red velvet cake recipes.
Barbara’s Website:
www.BarbaraKellyn.com
Reader email:
Barbarakellyn@gmail.com
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