by Dahlia Rose
“Was this all a stunt to get you more of a press rating?” Chance asked. “All this time you have been here just hiding out waiting for it to pinnacle, and then you bring this to my home?” He laughed sarcastically. “I should’ve known, New Yorker through and through and new York model to boot. You are no better than all the rest of them.”
“Chance, I….” Her words stopped, and she looked down.
His heart felt as if someone had punched a hole through it because he believed in her, and this is what he got. By God he had fallen in love with a myth. She was a figment of his imagination. Chance turned to the crowd who watched everything with interest. “This is private property. Get in your vans, your cars, or whatever, and leave now before I have the sheriff out here to throw you off my land. Even better, you have five minutes to be hauling ass down that driveway. If I go inside and get my shotgun and start shooting, in this town it’s fucking legal.”
His threat seemed to work because people were scrambling to get into their vehicles and leave. Chance probably would not have gone through with the threat, but he knew in his mindset right now anything was possible. He looked down at Helen standing there in her tapered suit and the smirk on her face and felt disgust. He never wanted this, and as much as he hated to admit it, this was also his fault. He should have left Desiree in the restaurant after their date and called it a night. Instead now his heart would have to pay for his stupid mistake.
“What about me, Chance?” Desiree asked in a subdued tone.
“You go too, Ms. Paget. I’m sure your agent here can make room for you in the limo,” Chance said sarcastically. He was hurt, and he wanted her to hurt too. He accentuated his country drawl. “Y’all know we country boys ain’t made for you big city types.”
“You won’t even let me explain, will you?” Desiree asked.
“What is there to explain Desiree?” He swept his hands wide. “I come home to a press melee in my driveway, and I am supposed to say what? My life does not need to be in your next press release. So go and do what you do best, be fake for the camera. You are perfect at it because you sure fooled me. I’ll send your things to New York City. I can afford it.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but instead she closed it. Say something! he thought angrily wanting her to defend herself, to say he was wrong, but instead she just turned and walked down the steps and got into the limo quietly. It was just another piece of proof that what he said was the truth. Helen threw him a look of satisfaction, and he in turn threw up his middle finger in her direction. As the car pulled away, he saw Desiree look back in his direction until he could not see her face anymore while the limo went down the long driveway. Her eyes were filled with sadness and maybe hurt. But Chance could not see past the ache in his chest and the burning anger there as well. He walked inside and closed the door. The silence of his house met him and swallowed him whole. Unable to help himself, he turned and punched the wall once then twice, hoping that the real pain would erase the one in his heart.
Chapter Six
“You lied,” Desiree said calmly as the limo drove down the driveway and essentially took her from Chance’s life. She would have told him tonight she loved him. She wanted to wait until they were alone and everything was perfect. There was no chance of that now. Helen had taken that and so did Chance in his own way. He could have believed her but chose to fall back into mistrust.
“Listen, Desiree, your little stunt made you enough press that you can be a model until you are well past the age,” Helen said. “You’ll thank me later for not letting you throw away your career on some cowboy in Montana. I’m not going to lose my biggest moneymaker. I made you, sweetheart, after your mom almost used you up. I put you back in the limelight, so act grateful and shut up.”
“You can leave me in town,” Desiree said.
“What?”
Desiree let her temper flare. “You heard me, Helen. You can leave me in town and take your ass back to New York. Our business is through.”
Helen laughed. “Oh no it…”
“Oh yes it is… sweetheart.” Acid dripped from Desiree’s voice. “You are no better than my mother was. You didn’t think I knew that, but honey . . . sweetie. I also know that you’ve been cheating those new girls that come in. You know the ones you want me to take under my wings. They tell me how much their percentage is. How would you like it if the press happens to get hold of that little bit of information? Or the coke parties you have so those girls don’t know which end is up when the photographers are fucking them. Oh, I know all your tricks, Helen. I was smart enough to stay out of them, but if you don’t release me from my contract and let me be, I am going to make it all known… sweetie.”
‘”They’ll just think you are a washed up ex-model trying to get back at your agent. This stunt proves it.” Helen smirked.
Desiree’s next words wiped the smirk from her face. “”Yes, but I have the documents to prove it, the girls contracts you had me hold in my safe so that when the IRS comes looking they were not in the office. Oh, and a few nasty little photographs that some old photographers happen to show me to get me in the mood and forgot about. You are the bad side of modeling, Helen, and I know you are going to get caught eventually. It’s up to you when and how. By me or maybe get a few years more before someone throws you in jail.”
Helen looked at her, and Desiree met her eye-to-eye and didn’t turn away. Even though she did not have Chance, she was going to stick to her commitment and make a new life for herself. In the last few weeks with a man who loved her, she let the person she was inside shine through, and nothing was going to take that away from her.
Helen tapped the window panel of the limo. “Diver stop in town at the closest motel.”
When he pulled up and stopped, Desiree smiled brightly at her now ex-agent. “This is the end of our road, Helen. You can bite me. Please make sure that all my money from those final shoots are in my account, and I expect to see papers coming to me saying that all contracts are null and void. Oh, if a penny of my money is missing, I am going to burn you. Have a safe trip back to New York. Toodles!”
She got out, slammed the door, and went into the hotel to book a room for the night. The cashier looked at her curiously but said nothing as he handed her the key. Desiree walked down the stone path to the room and unlocked the door. Like when she started, she didn’t even have a change of clothes as she sat on the bed. I don’t have Chance either, she thought, and the pain came flooding in. Why couldn’t he believe in me just a little bit, she wondered as tears streaked down her cheeks. She took off her skirt and kept on her shirt and panties before climbing under the covers in the dingy little motel room. Tomorrow she would start to build a life in Randolph, Montana. Maybe in that time, she would be able to rebuild the pieces of her heart as well.
* * * *
Four weeks later, the days had turned progressively colder. Desiree was dressed in tight jeans and ski boots with a thick sleeveless jacket over her tight pink sweater. She was walking out of the post office looking at a stack of mail from her P. O. Box when she spotted Harvey putting bags in the back of the truck. Their eyes met for only an instant, and his widened. She whirled around quickly walking down the sidewalk to the diner for breakfast. Please, let him not have seen me! Please, let him not have seen me! Chance didn’t know she was still in Randolph. No one did. She took extra care not to be around on the days she knew he or his guys would be in town. Lucky for her, she had lived around them long enough to know their schedule.
“Stop right there, honey. There is no hiding your face in a town this small,” Harvey said behind her and halted her footsteps.
Desiree whirled around. “Yeah, well how come I’ve been doing it so long without you knowing?”
Harvey just pulled her into a hug. “You are a sight for sore eyes. Are you telling me you never left?”
She shook her head grateful for the hug from a man she called a friend. “No, I stayed in a motel from the same night Helen showed
up, and I’ve been in town ever since.”
“Yeah, I heard about that in detail.” Harvey took her hand. “You come on. We’ll get a cup of coffee and talk.”
In the diner, Harvey ordered a cup of coffee, and she ordered her usual, a three stack of pancakes, herbal tea, and fruit.
“You have a usual now?” Harvey said with a grin.
“I have a usual. I bought that little building across from Sally Mae’s beauty salon. I’m turning the upstairs into an apartment, and I am making the downstairs a photography studio.” I already have a few clients lined up,” Desiree said with pride.
“Get the hell out?” Harvey said amazed. How the hell have you been doing that right under our noses?”
“I tend not to be walking around when I know you guys are in town.” She smiled sadly. “I know your routine. I wasn’t ready for anyone to know yet.”
“You did a damn good job,” Harvey said with a smile. “How are you really?”
“I’m good, well I’m surviving, and I am happy to be away from New York,” Desiree said. “The other stuff will heal in time.”
“You haven’t asked how Chance is,” Harvey pointed out.
“How is he?”
“A bear, a bastard, a combination of them both and more,” Harvey replied. “He punched a hole in the wall the first night, and he has gotten worse. We don’t even eat in the kitchen anymore. We stay outta his way. He misses you. You should come back.”
“He said all he wanted to say that evening.” Desiree took a sip of her tea to warm up the chill that was now around her heart. “He sent me away. I didn’t leave. He wouldn’t even listen to my side.”
“What was your side?”
“I’m still here aren’t I?” Desiree pointed out. “That says it all. I made a life here like I said I would regardless of Chance or not. I loved him, and he sent me away instead of listening.”
“Did you tell him you loved him?”
“I didn’t get the opportunity to.”
“Do you still love him?”
“I do, but I can’t go back.” Harvey opened his mouth to say something else, but Desiree cut him off. “Let it go, Harvey. We can talk about something else.”
“Who’s doing the renovations on your new building?” Harvey asked.
Desiree clapped her hands with excitement. “You will have to see it, Harvey! Carl Moses and his people are doing it. They made me an awesome darkroom, and I have a front desk and everything. I even hired Sally Mae’s daughter Jolene to be my receptionist. She is eighteen and looking for a job. Oh, and Carl is taking me to The Moosehead tonight so I can see some really cool memorabilia they have. I’m going to take pictures of it for the Bicentennial magazine the mayor is planning on doing.”
“Who…what did you say?” Harvey asked.
“About the magazine?”
“No, I mean about Carl and him taking you to the Moosehead,” Harvey said. “Honey, he ain’t taking you to see memorabilia. That is a date.”
Desiree scoffed. “Oh, please it’s not. Carl even said so. He said it’s just us being friends. He has been a great person to talk to.”
“Uh-huh.” Harvey got up and gave her a peck on the cheek before he put his hat on his head. “I gotta go, honey. I’ve already been gone way too long, and the new Chance will be itching to chew me out.”
“Okay, come by and see the studio sometime.” Desiree hesitated before saying. “Please don’t tell him I’m here, Harvey. I know he’s your best friend, but give me a little more time okay?”
Harvey gave her a nod before he walked out of the diner. Desiree sat back and looked through her mail and the magazine while she ate her breakfast. Everything she was doing from the taste of her fruit to the words she read seemed to blend together because her mind was on Chance. She missed him so much she ached sometimes. There was more than once she opened her cell phone to call him but slammed it shut. He told her to leave, and that broke her heart. She would have to make do without him and fill her life with her new business and making a home in Randolph.
* * * *
Harvey slammed in the door, and Chance looked up from the bills on the kitchen table he was working on.
“Your trips into town are getting longer and longer. Did ya forget you got work here too?” Chance snapped. He almost regretted his attitude, almost. But lately he was in no mood for people or playing with niceties.
“Shut your pie hole, Chance. I’m back, aren’t I?” Harvey snapped right back. “You better get rid of that sour ass mood before you are running a ranch by yourself. The guys are planning to chew their legs off and escape.”
“I’ll hire more,” Chance said without sympathy.
“Yeah, but none as good as the crew you have,” Harvey replied. He poured a cup of coffee from the pot and sat at the table. “Hey!” Chance said when he snatched the spreadsheet from his hand. Harvey looked down at the series of number while he commented, “So guess who I saw in town.”
“I really don’t care,” Chance said.
“Oh, you don’t care that I saw Desiree, and she never even left town when your stupid ass sent her away?”
Chance felt his heart skip a beat, and he looked at Harvey. “What did you say?’
“Well I gotta go. You said you didn’t care, so I’ll head on to work.” Harvey made a move to leave.
“Get out of that chair, and I will shoot you, Harvey Thorne,” Chance said. He wondered as the weeks went by how come she didn’t call or have someone send for her stuff. He figured she was too ashamed to even want those things anymore, and he had planned to box them up himself and put them in his storage area. But every time he went to take her clothes or makeup or perfume out, he was flooded with thoughts of her, and her smell assaulted him. He couldn’t bear the thought of the final closure. “She’s still in town?”
“Yup, never left, stayed in that grungy motel until she bought the building across from Sally Mae’s, and she is opening up her photography studio,” Harvey explained. “It seems she was being honest about making a life here.”
“Yeah, well I guess there’s a bunch of press all around while she does it,” Chance said in a surly tone. The weeks after she left, his ranch, his name, her face was all over the news until he just stopped watching TV. “Is her new life a reality show?”
“You’re an ass, Chance, and a first class one too. You’ve been in town more than once since she left. Have you seen one camera? She went to extra pains to avoid us when she knew we were in town. She avoids Main street
like a plague,” Harvey snapped. “No, there is no press. She hired Sally’s girl to be a receptionist, and she goes to the diner everyday for her usual breakfast. Yes, you idiot, she has three pancakes and tea every goddamn day. She actually made her life here, and it works. But you couldn’t even give her the benefit of the doubt, could ya? And here we are paying for it and your nasty disposition.”
Harvey slapped the spreadsheet down on the table and walked over to the sink. “Well, buddy, you lost her, and now you gotta deal with it. But don’t worry. Someone will heal her broken heart soon. Carl is taking her to the Moosehead tonight to take pictures or so he said.” Harvey dropped his cup into the sink and stomped to the door. He looked back at Chance. “We all know Carl and the special moves he has. That boy is charmer.”
Harvey slammed the screen door behind him and left Chance to digest what he said. He went from amazement, to shock, and then to fury when he heard Carl’s name associated with Desiree.
“Somebody should’ve told that boy the girl is mine,” Chance muttered and stood so quickly the chair scraped across the floor. He had to see her for himself. He strode to the door and took his Stetson off the hook and put it on his head. “He walked out and saw Harvey standing near the shed. Without missing a step, he called out, “Hold down the fort until I get back. In fact y’all clear out by the time my truck comes up this driveway. Take the rest of the day off.”
“Sure, boss, where are you going?” Harvey c
alled out with a grin on his face.
Chance got in the truck and slammed the door. “To get my woman,” he muttered to no one but himself and peeled out of the driveway, leaving dust in his wake. He made the forty-five minute trip into town in thirty. He knew if one of the highway patrol had seen him, for sure they would have slapped him with a hefty speeding ticket. When he pulled into town, he parked behind the feed store where all the ranchers bought their winter stores of corn for the cattle. He walked around to the main street and stood outside of the store pretending to read the monthly auctions for cattle in Montana.
His eyes soon saw her standing down the street in front of Sally Mae’s talking to the beautician. She tilted her head back and laughed, and she looked so completely different from the night he met her. She was gorgeous still, but now she had an inner beauty that shined through even more since the last few weeks had gone by. It was then Chance knew he had made the biggest mistake of his life sending her away. She had freed herself from a career that she did not love and a life that did not bring her happiness. The metamorphosis of who she was, and now her contentment with the path she was on, showed clearly on her face. He was sorry he missed the transformation. It was his fault. She was meant to be with him, and all he could do was ask for her to take him back.
Chance was about to cross the street when Carl walked up to the two women. He was tall and lean, and he gave them that crooked smile that made women in town want to swoon. Chance wanted to knock his teeth down his throat. He said something to both ladies, and Desiree gave her new friend a quick hug before she walked across the street with Carl. When the man threw his hand around Desiree’s shoulders, that was it. She was his woman, and no man was about to touch his girl.”
“Hey, Chance, how ya doing there, darling? Where are you off to?” Sally Mae called as he passed her.
“Doing good, Sally, and I’m about to go claim what’s mine,” he called back to her.
