Even though Josephine had people who were meant to handle this kind of thing for her, she loved the promise of seeing him again so soon. And so she agreed with a soft, satisfied smile.
She might have fallen asleep on the short drive to her hotel, but honestly, the whole night had felt like something straight out of a dream, making it hard to discern reality from events only imagined.
A short while later, Dan pulled the truck to a standstill outside the hotel’s big, swinging glass doors and put it into park. “I guess this officially concludes our tour,” he said with a small frown.
“We got here way too fast,” she mumbled, unbuckling her seatbelt with heavy fingers and hesitating to reach for the door handle.
“You know…” Dan twisted toward her on the seat bench. “I got so caught up playing tour guide that we forgot to play actor.”
“What do you—Oh.” And just like that, Josephine was wide awake again. She’d asked him to give her the best kiss of her life. What he didn’t know is that he already had.
As promised earlier, he leaned toward her and cupped her cheeks in each of his hands, using his thumb to caress her lower lip. “I could kiss you forever,” he murmured.
“Prove it,” Jo whispered before crushing her lips to his.
Perhaps fireworks lit in the night sky or maybe a stampede of moose raced past the hotel, but she was too caught up in this perfect moment with Dan to notice anything beyond the two of them and the tingling places where their mouths and hearts connected.
She pulled back only when she absolutely needed to come up for air and rested her forehead against Dan’s mouth. “I need to get to bed.”
“I know you do.” He offered her a quick peck. “Forever definitely wasn’t long enough.”
Jo groped for the door handle, then pushed it open to let a cold torrent of wind into the cab. “I knew you’d be great at acting,” she told him. “Good night, Dan. Thank you for a wonderful time.”
“That definitely wasn’t acting, but I’m glad you enjoyed it. Good night, my dear, sweet Josephine.” Dan’s eyes held hers as she pushed the door closed behind her and forced herself to turn away. A moment later, the truck roared to life and slowly pulled away.
What a night!
She floated through the lobby and toward the elevator, feeling as if she could float all the way up to her ninth-floor room if only these pesky ceilings weren’t in the way.
Jo had come to Alaska for what she’d hoped would be the role of a lifetime, but she hadn’t expected the part to be that of Dan Rockwell’s new girlfriend.
Role of a lifetime, indeed.
Normally filming delays frustrated her beyond measure, but for the sake of her new relationship, she hoped the set faced many, many unexpected hiccoughs. She needed time to get to know Dan even better, to see where they might go on this journey together.
Absentmindedly, she drifted into her room and fell back onto the bed. As she lay there, basking in the glow of a perfect evening, her cell phone began to ring with a familiar dulcet tone that she instantly recognized as the ringtone assigned to her publicist, Nadine.
“Hello,” Jo answered cheerily.
Nadine, on the other hand, was not at all happy. “What the heck were you doing tonight? Schmoozing with some local in Anchorage’s ghetto?”
Jo’s heart sank. “What?”
But her publicist only picked up steam from there. “There are dozens and dozens of pictures of you riding around town with this guy, and the latest seems to be you making out with him in front of your hotel. Please tell me he’s not spending the night. You’ve got a good girl image to maintain.”
“It’s not an image. I am a good girl. And am I not allowed to go out with a friend?” Her thoughts returned to the magical night she’d shared with Dan, only this time she looked at it from a different perspective—from the prying eyes of an outsider who would do and say anything to make a few extra bucks at her expense. For Nadine to be this worked up already, it had to be bad. Real bad.
“Josephine, we’ve been over this before. You don’t have time for distractions, and do you really want to stain your reputation with some nobody? What happened to John? You two were great together. If you really must date somebody, why not him?”
Josephine sighed and closed her eyes as she rubbed at her temples and listened to Nadine’s never-ending lecture. Why had she even bothered to pick up the phone? Couldn’t she at least enjoy one perfect night without the whole world crashing down around her?
Tomorrow would not be a good or easy day…
Dan stared at his phone, unblinking. He’d just woken up, but already, his social media accounts and email had already blown up even worse than they did each year for his birthday.
“Josephine Hannah’s Trailer Park Tryst!” the headlines read, and attached were pictures of her and Dan driving through Mountain View and kissing good night in his truck when he dropped her off at her hotel.
Oh, no. She must be so upset, he thought, taking a deep breath before clicking into the article. This had been exactly what she’d feared would come of dating him, and less than twenty-four hours in, already it had happened. He couldn’t remember seeing anyone tail them last night, but apparently he’d been too enamored of his date to notice.
Forcing his attention back to the gossip site, he began to read the mosquitos’ take on his and Josephine’s fledgling relationship:
Tuesday night, Josephine Hannah was spotted joyriding around the poorest parts of Anchorage with an unidentified man. And while she might be mourning the demise of her relationship with celebrated Hollywood hottie John Law, did she really need to slum it on the rebound?
We didn’t get a good shot of his face, but we did see him sticking his tongue down Jo-Han’s throat for all to see in front of an Anchorage hotel late that evening. Whether they went in together is anyone’s guess. This reporter says, “DUH!”
You heard it here first. Good girl Jo-Han is no more. Looks like she traded her long coveted V-card to get down and dirty with some rando, making her like every other fame-craved wannabe out there. So much for that sweet girl next door vibe!
Wow, that article had not been kind to him, but even worse, it had said horrible things about Josephine. He looked at the grinning thumbnail photo next to the writer’s byline. If he ever saw this jerk in public, he was going to have a few very strong words for him.
Right now, though, he needed to talk to Josephine, to make sure she was okay. She’d no doubt seen the news by now, so why hadn’t she called him?
He pressed on her contact info and waited for the line to connect, but it went straight to voicemail.
“Jo,” he said, practically out of breath from the shock. “I saw the article and want to make sure you’re doing okay. Call me.”
As soon as he hung up, he sent a text.
Delivery failed, the notification said with an angry red exclamation point.
So he tried again and again to no avail.
Then he called a second time, but rather than getting Josephine’s voicemail, he was greeted by the operator’s alert that she was sorry, but this line had been disconnected.
Dan swore under his breath and looked back toward the news site. The comments on the article were even worse than those made by that vile reporter. He was only able to read about half a dozen before his stomach churned with bile, threatening to spew at any moment.
But that didn’t matter. Not to Dan.
There were only two questions that mattered now:
Where had Josephine gone?
And was she okay?
Chapter 10
Jo dragged herself onto set the following morning. She’d been up all night reading the horrible things people had written about her and about Dan, the unflattering pictures that painted her as a very different type of woman than who she actually was.
Why couldn’t she enjoy dating like everyone else? And why did people who called themselves her fans enjoy dragging her through the mud like this
? Her success as an actress had been built in part on her image as the sweetheart good girl next door. If everyone saw her differently now, would she still be offered roles as good as the ones she’d enjoyed in the past? Would directors still want to cast her?
One thing was for certain: she should have listened to her head and not her heart. Dan told her she didn’t have to be scared, but he’d never lived her life. He hadn’t seen firsthand just how destructive gossip and speculation could be.
He’d told her to take a chance, and she had. Well, so much for that.
Things were over now. They were over.
The film crew shot her quizzical glances as she tromped her way toward her trailer, but nobody said anything to her directly—thank goodness. Jo walked as quickly as she could without actually running and eliciting further judgment from the extras, hands, and staff around her. She could handle people once she was the heroine of the movie again, but as long as she was her own fragile self, she needed to hide.
Unfortunately, someone was already waiting for her outside of her trailer with an overwhelming expression of sympathy stretched across her pretty features. Lolly Winston.
“Good morning,” Lolly said, taking a few hesitant steps toward her. “How are you doing?”
“Just great,” Jo answered with a frown. “Super.”
“I saw the articles,” Lolly said.
“Figures.” Would it be rude to close the door in her new friend’s face? Probably. Okay, definitely.
She knew Lolly was here to help, but nothing could help other than distance and time—and even that wasn’t guaranteed.
Lolly took a hesitant step forward with her hands held out as if she were trying to calm a wild animal. “My cousin-in-law is a good man. He cares for you. He didn’t want any of this to happen.”
“Yeah, but it still did,” Jo snapped back. She didn’t owe Lolly an explanation. Why did she even need one when the painful reason was there for all the world with an Internet connection to see?
Lolly frowned and shook her head, but carried on nonetheless. “He wants to talk to you, but said you weren’t answering his calls.”
Actually, Josephine had gone one step further by blocking Dan’s number, but she wasn’t about to admit that. As much as she liked Dan, she needed to put him aside and move on—move back—to where she was supposed to be. She felt awful for the things everyone had said about him, too. They never would have called him trailer trash, creep, or any of the other many awful terms they’d used to describe him, if not for his attachment to Josephine.
She should have known better than to invite anyone from the outside into the circus that had become her life. From now on, she needed to date only actors, or—better yet—not date anyone at all.
Perhaps if she took a lifelong vow of celibacy, her reputation could go back to the way it was before. She hated that it mattered so much, but she couldn’t change the way she felt or the things that were required for continued success in her career.
“Lolly,” she told the woman, who looked as if she were about to cry on Josephine’s behalf. “I appreciate you coming by, but there’s really nothing you can do. Dan and I are over. We should have never begun in the first place.”
Josephine stomped up the stairs into her trailer and pulled the door shut behind her. And then she finally allowed herself to cry.
Dan groped about for the phone in his pocket the second it started to ring. He didn’t even glance at the screen before accepting the call. “Jo?” he asked hopefully.
“Lolly,” his cousin-in-law answered. “I went to see her, but it’s not good news.”
“Can I see her? Will she at least talk to me?” he begged. He would do whatever it took to see Josephine again. He needed Lolly to understand that, to help him.
Lolly sucked in a deep breath, and when she spoke again her voice was soft, broken—just like Dan’s heart. “She was pretty clear about it being over. I’m sorry.”
He cursed under his breath, then rushed to apologize for this gaffe. “Thanks for letting me know,” he managed to mumble before hanging up.
So it was over.
Just like that.
They’d hardly had any time together at all, but already it was enough to know that Josephine was special, that they could have found the forever kind of love together.
Mosquitos was too kind a work for the cruel, gossiping photojournalists who had ruined their chances at happily ever after. Dan wanted to scream.
Instead, the sirens in his firehouse screamed for him.
“The old paint factory on Whitney and Post,” his buddy, Ted, shouted as he crammed into his gear. “Let’s go.”
Dan went into autopilot. He’d done this many times before, and people were counting on him and his station mates now. After suiting up, he hopped into the truck and let it carry him toward the blaze.
Sure enough, the factory in the Northwest corner of town had already turned into a raging fire. That was what happened when so much accelerant was jammed into one old building. It was the worst one he’d seen in quite some time. He’d need his head on straight to act fast and minimize damage.
He went where his captain instructed, sliding his visor down over his face while carrying an axe. Ted was ordered to help work the hose.
Dan pushed into the building. The chemical smoke was already thick and black, clinging to the air like a deadly fog. His job was to make sure no one was inside, to check as quickly and thoroughly as possible and then get the heck out of there.
He stayed along the outer wall, tracing his way with his hands, using his other senses since it was near impossible to see through the smoke. A loud snap sounded from above as a fiery beam broke loose from the ceiling and fell too close to Dan for his comfort.
He had to get out of there. Now!
There was no more time to explore without risking his own life. He had to move as quickly as he could back the way he came.
Another loud snap sounded from above. This one was even closer than the last. Dan lunged to the side just in time to avoid the brunt of the falling debris.
Pain shot through his leg. He hadn’t made it all the way clear.
There, in the midst of this roaring blaze, his left leg was trapped beneath something long and heavy.
He tugged and twisted, but still he couldn’t break free.
Was this how it would all end?
Chapter 11
Josephine threw herself into her scenes that day. The director didn’t have any special praise, but he also didn’t give her a hard time about her performance, either. If only she could leave the old Jo behind and become her character forever. Her character had a simple life, and Josephine knew her happily ever after was coming soon.
Because it was all right there in the blessed script.
Funny how words could both bring someone to life and then destroy them in the very same breath. She never wanted to look at another gossip site for as long as she lived. Perhaps she’d delete her social media, too.
Only Nadine would never let that happen. She already had a plan for additional outings and appearances to “reframe the narrative” and move them past their Trailer Park Tryst scandal.
How come other celebrities could do things a million times more unsavory and be praised for it? Why did everyone have to hold Jo to an impossible standard?
Yes, she loved acting, but she was also a living, breathing human being. She wanted all the same things as everyone else—career satisfaction, comfort, friendship, love. How come no one could understand that? How come everyone just wouldn’t let her be already?
Lolly came and found Jo while she was paying a visit to the craft services table for a quick bite between scenes. “Have you heard?”
Josephine swallowed the last bit of a big juicy strawberry down fast and widened her eyes at Lolly.
The other woman looked as if she were going to cry again. Apparently Jo’s breakup with Dan had hit the singer just as hard as it had the former couple themselves.
>
“There was an accident,” Lolly said without preamble. “With Dan.”
It took Josephine a moment to realize what her friend had just revealed. Still, she couldn’t believe it. “What?” she whispered, unable to give the word any more strength than that.
Lolly shook her head. Her whole body shook, too. “There was a fire. Dan got hurt. I don’t know how bad, but he’s at the hospital now. My husband called me and said the family was gathering there.”
She hesitated before lifting her eyes to Jo’s. “Do you want to come?”
Jo didn’t have to think twice. Not just because she still cared a great deal for Dan, but also because this was clearly all her fault. If she’d just agreed to see him, to give him closure, he wouldn’t have been distracted and probably wouldn’t have gotten hurt. If he didn’t make it, because of her…
Oh my gosh! She couldn’t even finish that thought. No, that would not happen. It couldn’t.
“Yes, yes, I’m coming!” She tossed her napkin in the trash and rushed out of the set with Lolly at her side.
How she wished she could turn back time and make it so that she and Dan had never met. She could have skipped the Halloween party, avoided going downtown, refused the film altogether—anything to protect Dan from the dangers Josephine had brought with her when she stepped haphazardly into his life.
The gossip article felt so small by comparison. With Nadine and her team working tirelessly on Jo’s behalf, her reputation would be flawless again in no time.
But what about Dan?
He could have found someone else. He could have been happy. He was happy before he’d met Josephine, enjoying his adventurous job and close-knit family.
But then Jo had shown up and ruined everything.
“Dear God,” she began to pray, but didn’t know how to finish. She just hoped God knew what she meant, knew that Dan needed Him now.
The Alaska Sunrise Romances: A 9-Book Sweet Romance Collection Page 62
