I close my eyes and drop my head to my hand. “Shit. I think he saw me watching him.”
Morgan says, “I doubt he can see that it was you.”
Rod steps back to the window. “Unless he has X-ray vision as one of his super strengths.”
“Now I do need to go down there.” I leave Morgan’s office.
“Hadley, no!” Morgan yells. I stride down the hall to my office and pick up my buzzing phone. Finn.
I almost drop it as I put it on my desk. I turn to Morgan. “I don’t know what to do!”
She sighs. “Maybe you should go talk to him. Just so that he doesn’t storm the gym tonight looking for you,” Morgan mutters. “I’ll come with you.”
Rod walks into my office. “No, I will.”
I say, “Rod, you can, but I want you to stay near the building. I don’t want you and Finn getting into a fight in the parking lot.”
He nods his head toward the door and puts his hands in his pockets. “Let’s roll.”
I answer my now constant-ringing phone as we walk to the elevator.
“Becks! I need to see you! Please. I’m so sorry about last night!”
“I’ll be down in three.” I snap my phone shut as Rod irritably punches the button for the lobby and the doors close.
“I mean it, Rod. Stay away. Just be there. That’s all. It’s just Finn.”
“Yeah. ‘Just Finn’ embarrassed the fuck out of you and broke your heart last night.”
“I know, but he wouldn’t ever physically hurt me.”
He inclines his head towards mine and looks hard at me. “Sometimes that hurts less.”
I retreat my gaze to the silver doors in front of us to escape his glare. “Rod, please? I’ll call you know if I need you.”
“You’d better, Hadley. I mean it, too. I’m usually an easy-going guy, but enough is fucking enough. I’m not putting up with his shit anymore. You can hate me, but I don’t care. You don’t deserve to be treated that way. I again agree with the wench upstairs, so that takes a lot to admit.”
I glance up at him. “Rod, why do you care about me so much?”
He frowns. “Because I do, so shut the fuck up.” I roll my eyes as I smile.
The doors slide open and we walk out into the lobby. I see Finn anxiously pacing and peering into the window from outside on the sidewalk. I nod and smile at the security guards at the desk. Neither one looks familiar.
“Why don’t you stay in here, Rod? I’ll be back.”
“Outside, Hadley. That was the deal.”
“Rod, it might piss him off if you’re with me.”
“I don’t give a fuck!” I cringe and look around us, hoping he didn’t offend someone. I take a deep breath as I pull open the glass door and he follows me out.
CHAPTER 18
FINN
It’s Monday morning and my head is pounding. I didn’t get any sleep last night and I had to be up early for this fucking meeting. It’s a good thing Ricky laid out my suit and tie because I would’ve shown up wearing my shorts and Richmond PD T-shirt I swiped from him a couple years ago.
Trying to be covert, I sit at the corner of the table in the rear of the conference room, sipping at a black coffee to wake me up, but it’s not helping. I don’t greet my coworkers who enter the room, but they feel the need to barrage me with good morning bylines. Not being anywhere near sociable and to not encourage any tedious banter, I mumble curt acknowledgments without making eye contact.
I want to call Becks, but then again I don’t. I don’t want to leave generic messages for her to become even more upset about. On the other hand, I want to keep calling her until she picks up her phone and beg her to forgive me, and tell her that I love her. How can I make it up to her? I’ll do anything.
I smell her perfume before she takes her seat beside me. “Good morning to you, Finn. Rough weekend?”
Raising my eyes to Cara as I also lift my mug to my mouth, I reply, “You could say that.”
“Woman troubles?” she asks with a smirk.
I eye her skeptically. “No. Why?” I lie. How does she know?
Her eyes flicker over me. “Like you don’t have women beating down your door every weekend.”
“I don’t.” Cara is one of our interns. She has short, light blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles. I notice she’s wearing a black top that is kind of low cut. She’s definitely Ricky’s type. We’ve become friends, but I haven’t told her about Becks.
She props her elbow on the table, resting her chin on her hand. “How come I don’t believe you?”
I shrug and before I take another sip. “I have no idea.”
“So what did you do all weekend, besides race? You don’t go out on dates?”
“No.” The truth really.
She grins. “Same here. How sorry are we?”
I smile, but my mind is still preoccupied. “Very, I guess.”
She notes, “You look like you didn’t get much sleep.”
“I didn’t.”
“Oh. So, it was one of those kinds of weekends then.”
“Just me and a bottle of Jack.”
“Don’t you know you should never drink alone, silly?”
“No. I guess I missed that newsflash.”
“You should’ve called me. I know Jack quite well. We’re old drinking buddies.” I roll my eyes and she grins.
“Good morning, everyone,” Hank says from the front of the table. “I hope everyone had a great weekend. I know Finn did since I ran into him at the kite festival up north.” He laughs and everyone around the table looks at me and follows suit. Shoot me now.
“Is that your dare for the week, buddy?” Hal Cruise, one of the veteran weekday anchors, laughs loudly from across the table. Dick.
I nod and automatically plaster a smile on my face. “You bet. It was pretty intense.”
“Did your kite have one of those naked chick silhouettes?” Kyle, another intern, asks with a laugh. I smirk at him. That’s actually funny. I like Kyle, though. He’s cool.
“No. It was teddy bears and flowers,” says Darren Matthews, an evening anchor, clapping his hands, and tilting his chair back. Asshole.
I put my hands up. “That’s it. You guessed it. I’m pretty eclectic.”
“Is that the word you’re going with?” He laughs and smacks the table. Fucker.
“Aww. That sounds so cute,” Cara whispers with a small laugh. Right.
“Speaking of dares, I want to talk about new plans for them. It’s the offseason for football, and almost for basketball. Then school will be out for the summer. That leaves us with mostly baseball, hockey and NASCAR. We want to keep our Sports unique. Finn, you’re our go-to since you have your own segment and do most of the field reports. People love you. We want to keep you up-front and busy to keep an edge over the other networks.”
“Okay…” Shit.
“We need to expand our reach for shooting the dares. If someone from outside our viewing area wants to dare you, then we should reach out to them and include them more. That way you have an even bigger fan base; more videos to watch online and keep your reports current, and the thing to watch.”
“Okay. I’m with you so far.”
“That will mean that you’ll be going out of town more and working some weekends.”
And there it is. My weekends with Becks. Fuck. Not good.
Hank nods and says something to Jane, his 500 year-old secretary taking notes. Nice lady. Still, she makes the Crypt Keeper look like a kindergartner.
“Looks like we’ll have to drink the Jack during the week,” Cara whispers.
It also looks like I’ll never see Becks again. I think I’m going to be even more well-acquainted with Jack than I am now, as well. I swallow and stare down at the table in front of me.
Hank’s voice returns to the meeting. “Finn, what’s your dare for this week?”
With all eyes on me, I peer up to him. “Um, I’m not sure yet. I haven’t picked one.”
Darren snickers. “I thought you flew kites! Was the one with the kittens not wild enough for you?”
Sheena Thompkins, an anchor, laughs. “How about getting a good night’s sleep instead of partying all weekend with a new woman each night.” I grimace at her. Does everyone here think I’m a fucking relentless manwhore? Since most of them here know of my best friend, I should reintroduce them to the single version of Ricky Tesco.
Paul Brickman, one of the weather guys, jovially teases, “It won’t involve you, and a bunch of your FemFinnatics, will it? We all know how much those women want to dare you to do shit with the least amount of clothes as possible.” Everyone around me laughs, of course.
All of a sudden, it dawns on me what I need to do. “Hank, I have an idea. Can I talk to you about it after the meeting?”
Hal asks, “What’s wrong, Wilder? You think we’ll all laugh at you about it?”
I distractedly retort, “That’s exactly it, Hal.”
Todd Matthews, one of my fellow sportscasters, says, “Wait a minute. Is it going to be you doing water aerobics with those elderly ladies again? Because that was frickin’ hilarious!”
Paul Stoltz, another anchor, adds, “They just wanted to see you wet in those little shorts! All those grannies were checking you out the whole time!”
Sylvia Weekly, who does traffic, laughs. “Well, that one lady could not keep her hands off of him! Maybe she’s the one who gives him the hickeys!”
It’s definite. Someone needs to call Ricky and tell him I’m holding hostages, so shoot to kill.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of doing this dare before. It’s perfect. It kills two birds with one stone, that’s for sure.
I just pray it’s enough.
We step out into the hall outside of Hank’s office and he says, “That is a great dare, if that’s what you really want to do, Finn. Are you sure you want to do that, though? It may upset some of your more…avid…fans.”
“Yep. I thought about that, but I don’t think it’ll upset a whole lot of people. They’ll eventually get over it.”
“I do like it, though. It’s very unusual. Definitely edgy. They’ll see another side of you, that’s a given.”
“Yes, I know. Fans or not, I have to do it. It’ll be great.”
“Okay, then. How are you doing? You look like you had a hard night.”
“Yeah. I did.” I don’t offer more than that as Hank studies my face.
“How is Hadley doing? Is she okay?”
“Um, yes and no.” I give him a contrite smile. “We’re working on it.”
He nods while his eyes hover over my face. “I think I’m going to switch you out with Todd for noon, if you don’t mind doing his 11. You could use some sleep.”
“I do need some sleep, but I’ll have to work on my dare today.”
He laughs. “That’s true. Still, take a nap afterward.”
That probably won’t happen. “Will do.”
“I hope it works out for you. Let me know how things are going with you both. I don’t want to pry. I’m just concerned, as is Rita. Hadley seems like a lovely woman.”
“She is.”
“We hope one day we’ll formally get to meet her.”
I glance down to his dark blue, paisley tie. “Yes. You will. I’ll bring her to our next event.” Will I?
“Okay.” He inhales and says, “They called about the shoot for the dare collaboration setup. I’ll need you to go to Philadelphia Wednesday morning. I know it’s a drive and so close to Easter, but it should wrap up Friday morning.” I nod, feeling depressed again. “Milo will go with you, of course, and we’ll send Kyle as your assistant.”
This sucks. “That’ll be great.”
Hank checks his watch. “Go make your arrangements to set up your dare shoot. While you do that, I’ll fill Milo in about your dare today and the trip Wednesday, and then update Todd about noon. Don’t forget that you have to shoot new promos for The Wild Side at Chimborazo Park this afternoon before you start your dare.”
“I’m on it.”
“Oh. For your dare, do you think it’ll be a problem to get your camera crew in there?”
I shove my hands into my pockets and turn to leave. “No. I think they’ll love it.”
I just hope my target audience loves it, too.
“I guess we’re going to be road trip buddies.”
“Huh?”
Cara’s eyes fly over my face as she leans against my desk in the office I share with Todd and Tony. “I’m going with you and Milo to Philly.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Oh. I thought Kyle was going?”
“His parents are coming in from out of town. He asked Hank if another intern could take his spot. I was available.”
“Okay. I’ll warn you, though. Milo snores.”
She laughs. “I’ll keep that in mind. What about you? Are you going to keep me up all night?” How come that sounds like a come-on? Ricky would know for sure if it were. Cara has always been friendly with me, so I don’t want to read too much into it.
I glance over to Tony’s tall filing cabinet, suddenly feeling awkward. “I don’t think so.”
She grins. “So, you’re not telling me what this dare is?”
I pick up my dare folder from my desk and flip through it. “Nope. It’s a secret.”
“I thought we were friends! You’re going to keep a secret from me? That’s not a great basis for an excellent friendship.”
“Well, if I tell you, then I’ll have to tell everyone’s uncle’s brother’s cousin’s aunt’s neighbor.”
She giggles. “Finn, I won’t say anything. You can tell me.” I regard her doubtingly. She rolls her eyes. “Come on!” She playfully pouts and then pulls on my suit jacket sleeve. “Let’s go have a cup of coffee and you can tell me about it.”
“Okay, but it has to be a small cup. I have to be somewhere for lunch.”
“Let’s go then.”
“What’s it with pushy women lately?” I laugh and toss my file back down onto my desk as I follow her to the kitchen.
“What do you mean?” she asks from over her shoulder.
“I mean exactly what I just said.”
“Women? You poor baby. So, you do have a bevy of women forcing you to do things over the weekend that you absolutely don’t want to do. Aww. Who’s pushing the resilient Finn Wilder?”
I smirk at her mockery. “Not all that many women, I can assure you. Actually, just one.” Shit. I said way too much, as usual lately.
She grabs a blue mug from a cabinet and walks over to the coffee pot. “One?”
“Yeah. One.” I mumble, “The only one.”
“Oh? So, you are seeing someone?” she asks, not looking up from pouring coffee.
I inhale and put my hands in my pockets. “Yeah. I am.”
Cara sets her coffee down and walks up to me. “Well, I don’t know how good she is for this handsome face of yours.” She grabs my chin and tilts my head from side to side, inspecting my face. “You look like hell.”
I try to scowl at her. “Gee, thanks.”
She continues to eye me with inflated disdain. “Your eyes are a little bloodshot, you have dark circles, need a shave and you look exhausted. So, tell me about this woman and what she did to make you look this unkempt.” She lets go of my chin, but keeps her gaze on me.
“What do you want to know?” I ask suspiciously. I’m not used to divulging anything about my personal life to anyone, except for Ricky, who knows everything there is to know about me, including being with me while we both were having sex across the room from each other.
“Her name?” I look at her, hesitant whether I really want to talk about this. Hank is right, though. I shouldn’t be keeping Becks a secret from my coworkers anymore.
I take a deep breath as I stare at Cara with minor apprehension. “Hadley.”
She looks shocked. “Hadley? That’s different.” She takes a sip of her coffee. “What’s she like?”
She shrugs. “I’m curious. In the months that I’ve known you, you’ve never mentioned a girlfriend. Is she new?”
I turn away from her and lick my lips, feeling nervous as I glance down at the beige floor. “No. We’ve been together awhile.”
“Wow. Why haven’t you mentioned her before then?” She grins and touches my arm. “Are you not that serious about her?”
I shake my head. “That’s not it. I just like to keep her to myself.”
“Oh. Why? Is she ugly? An FBI agent? A hooker? A blow-up doll? A ghost?”
I laugh in astonishment. “What the hell?”
Grinning, she points at me. “I got you to smile.”
Still smiling, I say, “Because she’s the one thing that I don’t want to share. What’s with all the questions?”
She walks to the counter to retrieve her coffee. “I’m just trying to get to know you better. You keep your life outside of work secret. I don’t think anyone here really knows you.”
I scan the kitchen doorway. “No. They don’t.”
“Why don’t you change that? Tell me more about this mystery woman.” Believe me. She’s a mystery to me, too.
I pace over to the window and look down at the sill. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t really talk about her.”
Cara follows me. “Why?”
I twist my torso away from the window to look at her. “See? You are one of those pushy women!” I laugh.
She folds her free arm over her stomach and angles her head at me. “I guess she’s not that special to you then? Is she?” What?
“No. She is.”
“How long have you been with her?”
I clear my throat and confess, “Uh, well…three years.”
Her face shows her surprise. “Really? Do you live with her?” Ouch.
“No.”
“That’s unusual nowadays.”
“Yeah.” And lonely.
“Are you going to marry her?” And the question of the decade.
I look anxiously around the kitchen. “Um, I thought you wanted to talk about my dare?”
Chasing the Wild Sparks Page 28
