Catch a Falling Star (In Love in the Limelight Book 3)

by Geralyn Corcillo

  His gut clenched as he realized that she thought he was doing the exact same thing to her now.

  “I need to find Wendy,” he told the girls. “She took off. I don't know if she saw what I did or whether she didn't, but she's really mad at me. I hurt her. I have to find her and explain.”

  Erin looked at him, saying nothing. Tanasa looked at him. Then she spoke. “She's not here.”

  “I know. She went camping with you guys last weekend, right? Up at Creekstone Canyon?”

  Tanasa and Erin started laughing. “Yeah. She came all decked out like we were going to be climbing Mount Fu Manchu or something like that. She didn't even know about the cabins and everything.”

  “But she wanted to try camping on her own, with all her gear?” The prickles racing down his spine told Colin he was close to finding out what he needed to know.

  “We talked about it. Is that where she is, do you think? Do you think she tried to go camping all on her own?”

  “It's one possibility,” he said, nodding.

  “Uh-oh.”

  Colin felt like she'd dumped ice down the back of his neck. “What? What is it?”

  “Well ...” Tanasa stopped talking and bit her lip. Both her lips.

  “It's okay,” he said. “It's all right. What happened?”

  “Well, you know how she's always telling us to express ourselves and be the people who we want to be?”

  Colin smiled with encouragement. God, at least he hoped it was encouragement and not any of the terror he was starting to feel. “Yeah … I tell kids that all the time.”

  “We were in the main cabin, the big one, looking at all the maps on the wall. And I really wanted to impress Wendy. I wanted to sound like I knew what I was talking about. So I told her about a trail that veered off from the camp. A trail that hikers take when they want to hike into the mountains, but not in a big group, you know, like it always is at the camp.”

  “Okay,” Colin said, nodding.

  “But ...”

  “It's okay. But what?”

  “I made it all up.”

  This time Colin saw Erin take Tanasa's hand and hold it in both of hers under the table.

  “You made up everything about the trail?”

  She nodded. “I've never been camping before. I never went with my school up there. Only the clubs ever go. But I told her I did. And that my brother did. I told her about a famous secret trail, but I made it up.”

  “Well,” Colin said easily, even though his heart was racing a thousand miles a second, “that's not so bad. I mean, hikers hike through the woods, trail or no trail, right?”

  Tanasa finally seemed to let out a breath. “Yeah. I guess they do.”

  “Where did you tell her the trail was?”

  “I told her it veered off the main Creekstone trail behind the lodge, in about a mile up the path.”

  Colin was still nodding as he stood up.

  “I never thought she'd actually take it!” she wailed. “In the rain! By herself!”

  Colin sat back down and leaned in toward her. “It's okay. Wendy is tough. And smart. She's going to be fine. And I bet she's having the time of her life.”

  “You think?”

  “I think.”

  * * * * *

  Wendy opened her eyes and found herself staring into cobalt blue eyes filled with concern. The guy with the eyes looked on the scruffy side, but his hands were on her shoulders and he seemed strong. There was something sort of feral about him, but then again, his face looked kind.

  Wendy tried to lever herself up onto her elbows.

  The guy moved back a little, and man, he was kind of incredibly hot.

  Good garbanzo beans, was she dreaming?

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Every one of Wendy's muscles stiffened. The guy spoke. She wasn't dreaming. Oh, why the by-jingo had she decided it was a good idea to take a nap under a pine tree on a mountain? And what kind of random guy just FINDS you sleeping under a pine tree on a mountain in a rain storm?

  Wait.

  Wendy noticed it wasn't raining anymore. But it was still all gray and cold. In the middle of nowhere. Good God, didn't the Zodiac Killer target campers? And wasn't he never caught?! But wasn't this guy way too young? But what if he were the Zodiac Killer's kid? Or a copycat? Oh, no!

  Wendy's eyes got wide and she opened her mouth to scream.

  “It's okay,” he rushed to say, putting his hands up, palms facing her. “I'm not going to hurt you.”

  Wendy tried to scrabble back away from him and knocked her head into the trunk of the pine tree. “Ow!”

  “It's okay. Please, don't move. You might be hurt. I mean, besides smacking your head. Please, don't do that again. Please.”

  He reached out as if to touch her head and Wendy pulled back, mushing herself as much as she could up against the tree.

  “Look, sorry. Please, hold still.” He looked over his shoulder. “Lisa!” he called into the woods. Then he took a deep breath and shouted again. “Lisa! Come here! I found her!”

  He looked back to Wendy. “I'm not going to hurt you,” he said again, backing away but keeping an eye on her.

  In less than a minute, Wendy heard hurried movement through the wet woods until a woman skidded into their presence.

  “Is she—”

  But then the young woman with shortish coppery hair interrupted herself in mid-sentence.

  “What the what? Oh, my God,” she fairly shouted. “You have to be kidding me!”

  The guy stood and faced her. “Lisa? What's the matter?”

  “Are you BLIND? Do you know who that is?”

  The guy looked back down to Wendy. “She looks familiar, I think. Does she work at HEYA?”

  “No, she doesn't work at HEYA!”

  “What's HEYA?” But then Wendy slapped her hand over her mouth. Why was she talking to these people? They seemed nuts. Absolutely looney tunes.

  The guy looked down at her. “Helping Everyone Young Achieve. It's a kids' rec center downtown.”

  Wendy pulled her hand away from her lips. “Oh … are you guys here using the camp? Are there a bunch of kids out here, too?”

  The guy furrowed his brow. “Are you talking about Creekside Canyon Camp?”

  “Yeah … why?” Wendy's heart started racing again. Oh, God! What if these two were predators? Maybe they were looking for kids to snatch! And Wendy just gave away their location!

  “Do you even know where you are?” the guy asked. “We're nowhere even close to Creekside.”

  “We're not?”

  “What on earth is going on here?” the woman—Lisa—yelled.

  She yelled a lot.

  “This is crazy.” She honed in on Wendy and took a step toward her. “Are we being punked? Are we on TV or something?”

  The guy turned to look at Lisa, his eyes wide enough to let Wendy know that she wasn't the only one who thought Lisa might be seriously cuckoo.

  “Lisa? You know we're in the woods, right?”

  “Jack! She's Wendy Hunter! Goddamned Wendy Hunter!”

  Jack looked back down at Wendy. “Are you Wendy Hunter?” he asked.

  But Wendy didn't say anything. Were these weirdos going to kidnap her now and hold her for ransom?

  Lisa looked at her and then sighed. She sank down onto her knees next to Wendy. “Hey,” she said quietly. “I'm sorry I shouted. I didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay?”

  Wendy nodded.

  “I mean, something bizarre is going on here, but I think I get it that you're as freaked out by us as we are by you.”

  “I'm not freaked out,” the guy—Jack—said. “I just want to make sure she's not hurt. Or help her if she is.”

  “How did you know I was here?” Wendy's eyes were skittering between the two.

  “We were hiking,” Jack said.

  “And we saw you fall out of the tree,” Lisa added, looking up, then back down to Wendy. “It looks like you fell a ways. Jack's been h
iking for, like, a million years and he's all certified with first-aid training. Do you mind if he checks you out, to see if you're okay?”

  Wendy considered the two of them. Kind of an incongruous pair. The guy looked like he was quicksilver on the mountain, but the woman? She looked like a kid on a field trip. Dirty, messed about, out of her element, but giving it the old college try. She definitely got an A for effort. But what was she doing out here? “I'm okay. Really. But … why were you upset that it's me?”

  “Oh,” Lisa said. “Sorry. It's just that … well, Jack and I hiked up here today in the rain to try to get some alone time, you know? Away from the media, all cozy in a tent.”

  Wendy crinkled her forehead, then she remembered something. She looked at them again. “Holy smokes. You're Lisa Flyte. Aren't you? And Jack Hawkins?”

  Lisa nodded. “I mean, I know I've been courting publicity for the last few years. And it's worked like gangbusters. But today, this weekend, I really wanted it to be me and Jack alone for a few days. Hell, hours, even. All alone. But then we run into you. You're, like, super famous. AND you happen to be trending everywhere at the moment.” She sighed. “Sorry. Let's make sure you're okay.”

  Jack kneeled down next to Wendy. “Don't mind Lisa,” he advised. “She takes some getting used to. Do you remember the fall? Do you remember how high you were?”

  “I didn't fall.” But all Wendy could think about was how she was trending everywhere. Naked pictures of her were trending everywhere. Oh, God.

  Jack looked in both her eyes. “You didn't?”

  “Well, I did,” Wendy admitted. “But not a fall, fall. You know?”

  “Not exactly.” Jack kept his gaze on her steady. “If it wasn't a fall-fall, what was it?”

  “It means that she didn't really fall that hard,” Lisa explains. “Hello. What else would 'not a fall-fall' mean?”

  Wendy nods. “Yeah. I managed to snag a bunch of branches as I fell. So when I landed, it hurt my butt, but that's about it.”

  “But you passed out.”

  “No, I didn't.” She sighed. “After my climb up the tree ended so badly, I felt like such a failure. And I felt so tired. And these needles are really kind of cushy. So I settled back and fell asleep.”

  Jack held up his hand. “Follow the tip of my finger,” he said.

  Wendy did.

  Jack nodded. “Can I feel along your head, just to make sure?”

  “Okay.” Wendy leaned forward and ducked her head so Jack could feel that there weren't any cracks in her skull.

  He pulled back and stood. “Stand up?”

  Wendy got to her feet.

  “Walk a little bit?”

  Wendy walked. “I'm okay. Really. If I weren't, I'd let you help me, I swear.”

  Lisa looked at her, her face kind of scrunched up. “What are you doing out here? I mean, did you come out here with Colin Scott or something? Were you trying to escape, like us?”

  Wendy let out a bark of laughter. “You mean did I lure him out here because I thought it would be a good place to hide the body?”

  Jack's eyebrows shot up. “Hide the body?”

  “Well, not literally. I guess. I couldn't overpower him or anything. Or even drag him if he were unconscious.” Wendy stopped talking and noticed that Jack and Lisa's eyes were bugging out. “I'm just saying he's not here. And never was,” she rushed to add. “But why would you think he's with me? I came out here to get away from him. To get away from everybody.”

  Lisa tilted her head. “To get away from him? Really?”

  Wendy looked at her squarely. “I know who you are. I've seen your show, but I remember how it all started. The People article when you were in the coma. I was actually in that issue. Your family … they were really a bunch of pricks. So you know what it's like when someone is ... mean. Someone who you thought cared about you.”

  “But ...” Lisa spluttered. “Are you saying Colin's been mean to you? And that he doesn't care?”

  Wendy stared at Lisa. “Are you kidding me?”

  “No. Of course not. I don't get it … he loves you.”

  “If that's love, he can keep it. Or share it with the whole damn world. Whatever.”

  “Okay,” Lisa said. “So maybe what he did was embarrassing, or even gauche, but his heart was in the right place. He's trying to fit into your world.”

  “Fit into my world? By selling nude pictures to my arch nemesis?”

  “It wasn't easy for him, you know,” Lisa said, continuing her defense of Colin. “You could tell. But he did it for you. And his sister is going to get tangled up in this. That can't be easy for him, either.”

  “Oh, big deal,” Wendy said on a huff. “Lola's seen me naked before. Seriously, the woman writes scenes where I have to actually get naked. With her husband, if that isn't crazy weird. But usually not at the same time,” she murmured, reconsidering. “It's all in how it's shot,” she clarified. “We have really good camera people.”

  “Okaaaay …” Lisa said. “But has she seen her brother naked? Her grown-up brother?”

  “What? Eeew, I don't know. Wait—” Wendy swallowed. Then she swallowed again. “Why would you ask whether she's seen her brother naked? Is it ...”

  Every atom in her body was screaming SEX TAPE. Had Colin released pictures from a sex tape he'd made of them?

  Jack moved in closer and took her by the elbows as her knees gave way. “Whoa.” He helped ease her to the ground. “What's wrong, Wendy?”

  “Sex tape,” she whispered hoarsely.

  “Sex tape?” Lisa hunkered down next to Wendy. “What do you mean?”

  “What do I mean?”

  “Yeah,” Jack said. “Why are you bringing up a sex tape?”

  Wendy looked at both of them. “I didn't bring it up.”

  “Yes, you did.” Both Jack and Lisa said this at the same time.

  Jack cleared his throat and looked at Wendy. “I think maybe you might have a head injury.”

  “No, I don't!” And Wendy looked right at Lisa. “You brought it up. You're the one who started talking about Colin getting naked.”

  “Me?” Lisa squawked. “But I thought that's the whole reason you're out here, running away.”

  “I'm running away because of the pictures! Now you're bringing up Colin being naked, too!”

  “Too? Besides who? I'm just talking about Colin.”

  Wendy thought her head would explode. Was this woman insane? And why wasn't Jack at least translating her babble into real-person English? “What about Colin? You're making no sense.”

  Lisa took a deep breath. “I'm talking about the video. About Colin going to A.J. to ask him to take the pictures. I'm talking about A.J. posting naked pictures of Colin Scott all over the place.”

  Wendy's heart thumped. Then stopped. Then thumped.

  Naked pictures of COLIN?

  Wendy slumped back, but the tree trunk behind her kept her propped up. Jack and Lisa and the whole world were spiraling away from her. Naked pictures of him?

  Wendy put her head between her knees. Lisa started to run a hand gently along her upper back.

  Finally, Wendy lifted her head and looked at Lisa. “Are you telling me that Colin sold naked pictures of himself? Just himself? None of me?”

  Lisa looked confused. “Well, yeah. Didn't you see them? Isn't that why you're out here hiding from everyone?”

  Wendy shook her head. “I started to watch. But I couldn't do it. After I saw him tell A.J. he had pictures to sell like last time, I couldn't do it. I ran. I came up here camping with some kids last weekend. Well, to Creekside. I opened this theatre in Watts … anyway, I had all this gear in my trunk, so I drove up here. I ran into the mountain because I thought … I thought it was like last time. I thought it was pictures of me like last time.”

  “But the pictures are like last time,” Lisa said. “Kind of. Colin hired that A.J. guy to take pictures of him to look like the pictures of you. Colin wanted to walk in your shoes and unde
rstand what it must have been like for you. He told A.J. that he wanted to be there for you, even in your worst moments. He said he didn't ever want you to have to go through the bad stuff alone again.”

  Wendy looked at her, feeling stupid. “Really? He said all that?”

  “I'm pretty sure,” Jack said, “that Carney secretly filmed the whole meeting with Colin, hoping to catch him betraying you. But he got something different. But still, he made it go viral.”

  “I want to see it,” Wendy said, sniffing and wiping her nose with her wet sleeve. “I need to get home so I can see it.”

  “I have it here,” Lisa said, “It's on my phone.”

  “There's no signal out here,” Jack reminded her.

  “I downloaded it.”

  Jack looked at Lisa.

  Wendy looked at Lisa.

  Jack spoke. “You downloaded it? A trending video of naked guy pictures?”

  Lisa laughed. “Well, yeah. C'mon, Jack. It's a grand romantic gesture. It … um … resonated with me.”

  And Wendy watched Jack smile into Lisa's eyes.

  “Did it, now?” he asked in a low voice, still smiling.

  “It did,” Lisa said softly.

  “Well,” he said, tapping her on the nose. “Don't keep her waiting. Show her.”

  Lisa reached into her pocket to get her phone. “Wait.” She stood up. She patted the pockets of her windbreakery pants and then her windbreakery jacket. “Damn! It's not here. I must have lost it when I came running. Hang on. I'll retrace my steps. It shouldn't take me long. I had it for sure just before Jack found you.”

  And off she dashed.

  Wendy looked up at Jack. “Is she always so … fired up?”

  “Yep.”

  Wendy nodded. Lisa was a firecracker, all right. But Jack didn't seem to mind. Quite the opposite, in fact. And hadn't Lisa said she was trying to get Jack alone? Wendy looked at Jack watching Lisa.