Dare to Stay (Puppy Love Romances Book 3)

by Georgia Beers

  “Yes.” Jessica nodded.

  “Good. Then I thought we’d move over to the cat wall and you can tell us about that. Then we’ll move into the dog wing, but I think we’ll just shoot video, no audio. It’s so loud in there. We can do a voiceover later. Then we’ll go outside and you can give a little history of when things came about. When the goat house came along, when the barn was built. We’ll wander to both places and get some good shots of all the animals outside of this building. I think it’s important for people to see that there’s more than just cats and dogs here. The old video tour I watched didn’t really stress that.”

  Jessica watched as Sydney directed her, watched the sparkle of excitement in her eyes, the gentle lifting of the corner of her mouth when she was explaining her reasoning for something, the grand arm gesture when she encompassed the whole of the building. Her enthusiasm for this project was surprisingly contagious, and Jessica felt her own anticipation building, even as she tried not to focus on Sydney’s hands, on the way they’d felt against her skin.

  “How does all that sound?” Sydney finished her pitch, looked from Jessica to Anna, then back, and stayed on Jessica, who mentally shook herself back into the moment.

  “I think it’s perfect,” Anna said before Jessica could even open her mouth. She tried not to be amused when she noticed a very slight bristling on Sydney’s part…and that her gaze didn’t leave Jessica’s. “Updating the tour was a fantastic idea and it’s gonna be amazing.” Anna stepped forward and touched Sydney’s arm again.

  “Okay, then,” Sydney said, again subtly stepping out of Anna’s reach while saying something to Jeff. “Let’s get started.” Jeff moved back a few steps to set up his wide shot. “Hey, Anna, do you think you can get a bottle of water so we have it handy for our talent here?”

  “Oh, of course. Be right back.” And Anna was off.

  Sydney stepped forward, closed a warm hand over her bare forearm. Jessica wet her lips, felt the gloss coating them, reveled in the heat from Sydney’s grip. “Don’t be nervous,” Sydney said quietly, standing in Jessica’s personal space and making the hair on the back of her neck tingle. “I can tell that you are, but I’m telling you not to be. You’re terrific at this. I’ve seen it. Just take a deep breath, relax, and talk to me. Don’t worry about the camera or anybody else. Just talk to me. Okay?”

  Jessica swallowed, then nodded her head. “Okay.”

  “You got this.” Sydney smiled just as Anna arrived with the water. She took a step back, out of Jessica’s space—thank God!—and Jessica felt her lungs suck in air, as if she’d stopped breathing with Sydney so close.

  “Here’s the water,” Anna was saying as she handed the bottle to Sydney and once again touched her for no reason. Jessica felt her jaw clench and couldn’t seem to help it. When she glanced at Sydney, Sydney was looking right at her. Jessica quickly looked down at her notes, flipped through them without really seeing them at all.

  This is getting ridiculous.

  *

  “She’s so good,” Sydney whispered in Connor’s ear as they stood and watched Jessica talking about the barn, when it had been built and why, the animals housed there, and how they’d come to be at Junebug Farms.

  “She really is,” Connor whispered back.

  “I told you.” Sydney could feel Anna’s eyes on her, but didn’t look her way. She was too enraptured by Junebug’s charmingly attractive CEO.

  Jessica hadn’t stuttered once, she’d just kept on talking like she’d memorized a script, except it didn’t sound that way. It sounded perfectly natural, like she was simply having a conversation with Sydney. As soon as she’d begun, the jitters Sydney had noticed seemed to vanish. Jessica spoke with authority and confidence, but remained completely likable and approachable rather than intimidating, like you’d want to go out to coffee with her after the telethon.

  “She looks amazing,” Connor whispered, pulling Sydney out of her thoughts and into the perfect visual of Jessica Barstow standing in the sunshine.

  “I told you,” Sydney repeated as she took in the image that couldn’t have been more perfect if an Oscar-worthy cinematographer had set it up. The light green of Jessica’s shirt was perfect against the lush darker green of the grass next to the barn. The sun glinted off her auburn hair in such a warm, inviting way, Sydney wouldn’t have been surprised if somebody told her they’d chosen certain strands of it to highlight specifically. It was getting warm out, but Jessica hadn’t yet broken a sweat and her lips somehow managed to stay glossy, much to Bridget’s dismay as she stood nearby, letting out a quiet sigh every so often, probably feeling useless and unnecessary. Her skin tone looked perfect; she wasn’t pale but wasn’t too tan, and she looked so incredibly smooth and inviting. And now that Sydney had actually touched some of the skin under that shirt, she had a hard time not picturing herself doing it again, slower, taking the time to savor. She shook the thought away, not wanting to be that distracted, but also thinking she’d maybe save that image for later on…

  They wrapped the whole thing in under two hours, with minimal retakes and almost no corrections. Sydney didn’t hold back; she walked right up and embraced Jessica in a tight hug, which apparently surprised her at first. Sydney felt Jessica’s arms wrap around her only after a beat or two, but she didn’t care. She was that thrilled with the way things had gone.

  “You were incredible,” she said, her hands on Jessica’s upper arms. “A seasoned pro.”

  “You think so?” Jessica’s face flushed a lovely pink and Sydney decided right then that she wanted—no, needed—to make Jessica blush any chance she could. It was charming.

  “Do I think so? I do. But let’s ask the boss.” She turned to Connor. “Hey, Mr. Baskin, Ms. Barstow here isn’t buying my gushing over how good she was. Want to chime in?”

  “I will happily chime in,” Connor said, his grin wide as he pushed his glasses up his nose with one finger. “You were perfect. Perfect. Couldn’t ask for better. We’ll do some creative editing and it’ll just…” He sliced his flat hand through the air like a wave. “Flow. My editor’s going to think I don’t need him. You watch.”

  Anna stepped into their little circle, stood so close to Sydney she had to take a small step to the side to keep from falling over. Anna’s smile was so obviously forced it made Sydney furrow her brow in confusion. “That was great, Jess. Really great.” Her voice held little inflection at all as she looked at Jessica and Jessica’s jaw muscles bunched under her skin.

  “Thanks,” she said, but didn’t elaborate.

  Anna turned to Sydney, a real smile in place now and the transformation was almost a little creepy. “So. Happy Hour?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Sydney said. “I should probably go back to the station and go over some of this stuff.”

  “Go ahead,” Connor said to her. “I can take care of this. It’s Friday. Go have fun. You’re coming in tomorrow, so I’ll catch you up then.”

  Sydney wanted to shoot him a death glare, but she knew he’d be clueless as to why. He was just being a nice guy, which she understood and appreciated. How could he know she didn’t want to go out with Anna? She watched as Jessica stepped away from them and headed into the barn to coo over Jock. Sydney could still see her, but was pretty sure Jessica could no longer hear them. Which may have been the point.

  “See?” Anna said with a triumphant expression. “I get you all to myself. Let me run inside and grab some things and we’ll go. I can drive you home after.” She dropped her voice and said suggestively, “Or you can come to my place.”

  I have no car! Damn it! Sydney’s brain shrieked at the realization. She had not thought this through. At all. And now she was stuck. She tried to accept her fate as she watched Anna skitter away into the main building. Jeff and Bridget gathered up their stuff and headed toward the van in the parking lot. Ron helped relieve Jessica of her mic (Sydney frowned at that missed opportunity), then followed the other two crew members, and Connor, who was on
his cell, talking to somebody. Jessica sauntered over, her eyes following Anna’s retreat, the expression in them guarded.

  “Hitting Happy Hour, huh?” she asked Sydney.

  “I guess so,” Sydney sighed. “Hey, do you want to come?” She hoped she didn’t sound as desperate as she feared.

  Jessica barked a sarcastic laugh. “Uh, no. No. Thank you, though.”

  Sydney squinted at her, studied the look on her face, analyzed the tone of her voice, noted the complete lack of eye contact. “You’re sure?” She sounded as disappointed as she felt.

  Jessica looked up at her then. “I am. Thank you, though.” She suddenly looked a little…sad. It was the only way Sydney could describe it.

  “Are you okay?” Sydney asked, reaching out to touch her arm, then thinking better of it and letting her hand drop.

  “I’m fine. Just tired. In fact, if you’re done with me, I think I’m going to head inside. I still have some things I need to take care of before I can go home.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Sydney said, but Jessica was already walking away from her. She watched her go, feeling more disappointment than she even expected. She had no time to dwell, though, as Anna was on her way out within the space of a few more seconds.

  “Let’s go!” she said enthusiastically, waving her arm in a come on gesture.

  Sydney was far enough away that she could groan quietly and not be heard by Anna.

  So she did.

  Nine more days and this will be over. Nine more days. You got this.

  Concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other proved difficult, but she managed to do it, walking the path to Anna’s car, resigned to her fate.

  *

  “Oh, my God, this is so ridiculous.”

  Jessica said it aloud into the emptiness of her office, even as she sat in her desk chair facing the window and watched Sydney get into Anna’s car. They sped off to have drinks and probably appetizers and probably a really good time. Her stomach flipped.

  “This has to stop.”

  Another beat went by.

  “Maybe if I just keep saying these things out loud to nobody, the world will change and things will be lovely again.”

  “What things?” Catherine’s voice surprised her, and Jessica spun around in her chair trying not to look as freaked as she felt.

  “Hey, what’s up?” she asked in what felt like a normal voice. What she really wanted to shout was, “How much did you hear?!” She folded her hands on her desk and made an expression she hoped was “friendly and expectant.”

  Catherine squinted at her for a moment before sitting in one of the chairs opposite the desk. “Nothing. I’m heading out and wanted to see how it went.”

  “How what went?”

  Catherine blinked once. Twice. “The filming? Of the tour? For the telethon? Which is next weekend?”

  “Oh. Yeah, that. It went fine.”

  Catherine folded her arms and made a show of getting comfortable. “All right. What’s going on?”

  Jessica held both hands up like a robbery victim. “Nothing. Nothing’s going on at all. I swear.”

  Catherine narrowed her eyes at her, studied her face for so long Jessica started to feel twitchy. Finally, she relented. “Fine. I don’t believe you, but it’s clear you don’t want to talk about it. But seriously, Jess, you’re acting so weird. Promise me you’re okay.”

  Jessica quietly blew out a sigh of relief. “I’m fine. I promise. Just a little stressed out about the telethon. You know how I get.” She forced a smile and changed the subject before Catherine could chip away any further. “What’s going on tonight? Anything?”

  “Emily wants to go to Sling for Happy Hour, so I’m going to meet her there.”

  “You hate that place,” Jessica said, ignoring that Sydney and Anna were most likely there.

  “I know. But she really wants to go, and if I do this now, I win enough points to get us out of there early.”

  “Clever.”

  “I can be.” Catherine stood and looked down at her friend. “You want to join us?”

  With a grimace, softened by a smile, Jessica said, “Absolutely not. I’m fine.”

  Another beat went by before Catherine said, “Okay. If you change your mind, we’ll probably be there for a couple hours.”

  “Thanks.” Jessica watched as Catherine left, then fell back in her chair and groaned.

  A glance at the calendar open on her computer gave her the tiniest bit of comfort.

  Nine more days and this will be over. Nine more days. You got this.

  *

  Happy Hour at Sling was probably busy during the week, but not so much on a Saturday evening. The bar was fairly quiet at this early hour, but Sydney predicted it would fill up quickly with twenty-somethings ready to dance and drink their faces off come eleven o’clock that night.

  She and Anna sat at the bar, and Sydney tried hard not to chug her beer in an attempt to hurry the evening along so she could bow out and go home. Not only would that be rude to Anna, but Sydney hadn’t eaten and chugging a beer or two would have her fairly tipsy within the hour. She didn’t want that. While the idea of numbing her brain to this whole situation sounded somewhat tempting, she didn’t want to put herself in any sort of situation where she couldn’t bob and weave her way around Anna’s attempts to get close to her. Mentally and physically.

  Therefore, it was with great relief that Sydney’s eyes fell on Catherine from Junebug Farms and another woman as they came through the front door. She smiled like a crazy person and waved madly at them. “Hey there, Catherine. Come sit with us.” Somehow, she was able to refrain from actual begging, but it was close.

  Anna stiffened slightly, but said nothing as Catherine and her date, Sydney assumed, judging by the fact that they held hands, approached.

  Catherine held out a hand to Sydney and they shook. “Fancy meeting you here,” she said with a grin, then turned to the woman next to her. “This is my girlfriend, Emily. Emily, this is Sydney Taylor.”

  “I know who this is,” Emily said, her face lit up like a child meeting Santa. She grabbed Sydney’s hand and shook it heartily. “I’m a big fan.”

  “Well, thank you. That’s very kind.” Turning back to Catherine, Sydney couldn’t help but say what she was thinking. “I had no idea you played on my team.”

  “It’s a good team.”

  “What can I get you two?” Sydney asked. Anna sat on Sydney’s right and Catherine and Emily took the two stools to her left. Anna sat quietly as Sydney ordered a glass of wine for Catherine and a beer for Emily.

  “So, the tour,” Catherine said after touching her wine glass to Sydney’s bottle as well as Emily’s. Anna looked in the opposite direction, and Sydney squinted at her. “How’d it go?”

  “Amazingly well,” Sydney said, trying to remain as professional as possible rather than gush. “Jessica is really good. Much better than she gives herself credit for.”

  “Yeah, that’s a theme for her.” Catherine chuckled gently and Sydney began to understand that Catherine cared a lot about Jessica. “She’s good at almost anything she sets her mind to.”

  “I told her she’s fantastic in front of the camera.”

  Anna chose that moment to lean in Sydney’s direction. She put a hand on Sydney’s thigh as she did so, addressing the three in a volume a few notches higher than necessary. “I’ve been telling her that since I started working there. She’s the face of Junebug Farms. It only makes sense.”

  Sydney noticed two things in that moment. First, Anna’s hand on her thigh stayed there and seemed a bit more possessive than Sydney was comfortable with. Second, Catherine didn’t look at Anna once as she talked, though Emily did, politely, her face guardedly neutral. Sydney shifted her body on the stool, hoping she made it look like she was merely changing positions and not trying to get Anna’s hand off her leg.

  For the next hour, things went much the same way. Sydney liked both Catherine and Emily. Catherine wa
s intelligent, if a bit on the reserved side. Emily made up for it with a dry wit that had Sydney laughing more than once. Through the whole thing, Sydney had to subtly refute Anna’s not-so-subtle attempts to show them as a couple. It wasn’t an easy line to walk, and by the time she decided she’d stayed long enough and asked Anna to take her back to the station so she could get her car, she was mentally wiped out.

  The drive from the bar to the television station was mercifully short, so there was little time for conversation. As Anna stopped next to Sydney’s car, she asked, “Wanna come to my place?”

  Sydney had to catch herself to keep from turning her down too quickly. “You know what?” she said instead. “I have to pass. I’m exhausted. It’s been a really long day, and I still have a few things I need to get done before I can head home. But thank you.”

  Anna’s disappointment was obvious, but thank God she didn’t argue, and Sydney managed to extricate herself from the passenger’s side before she got caught by anything as awkward as an attempt at a goodnight kiss. Bending down so she could look into the car, she thanked Anna for a nice evening, slammed the door shut, and went inside the station, where she watched out an office window until she was sure Anna was gone. Only then did she head back outside and get into her own car. Man, she wanted to be home.

  How much longer could she do this?

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Sydney was tired. The kind of tired that made her eyes hurt. The kind of tired that made toddlers burst into wracking sobs. The kind of tired where, if she sat down on the staircase to her apartment and leaned just the right way against the banister, she’d be asleep in seconds. That kind of tired.

  She wasn’t complaining, though. This was news. This was the job. This was what she’d worked so hard for since she was old enough to understand what she wanted to be when she grew up. This kind of tired only made her happy with the realization that she was well on her way, that her childhood plans would come to fruition soon. She’d spent yesterday at the station. All day, from 7 a.m. until nearly 10 p.m., editing, writing, doing voiceovers. Today, she’d given herself an extra hour of sleep and went in at eight, but now it was nearly 8 p.m. on Sunday and she realized that she’d had zero weekend. With a weary sigh, she headed up the stairs.