Chapter Twenty-Two
It had been three days since Delaney had left for LA and all Colt had received was one lousy text. He got it—she had major problems. But it felt like shades of Lisa all over again. This was the way it started. Girl has career crisis, finds man to latch on to, then dumps him as soon as she resolves her professional problems.
It wasn’t like he didn’t have his own job issues to focus on. It had been a while since he’d talked to Ben and hadn’t heard a word more on the subject. For all he knew Pond had been cleared and Colt’s pink slip was in the mail. Still, all he could think about was Delaney.
The judge had issued a clarification, ruling that Delaney had to take “Delaney Scott” off all her existing merchandise, which would cost her a fortune. So much so that it put her company at risk until she could get capital. Luckily, investors had been impressed with her new designs, but she had to stop the bleeding before anyone would commit.
He knew she had a lot of meetings set up and planned to squeeze in house hunting. To his mind that meant she’d move back to Los Angeles. It made sense. She’d been away from the business end of her company for nearly a year. He suspected that this was a wake-up call to return to the mother ship.
“I lost six pounds.” Carrie Jo came into his office and he blinked up at her.
“Yeah? Weight Watchers?”
“No diet, really. I cut my portions and have been walking in the evenings.”
“You look good, Carrie Jo.” She’d always been hot to him with or without the extra pounds.
She sprawled out on his sofa. “You in here feeling sorry for yourself?”
“What makes you think that?”
“Colt, I’ve known you since before you could drive. And for the record: I don’t think Delaney is anything like Lisa.”
“Who said she was?”
She snorted. “You’re like one of Lisa’s bad songs. One woman does you wrong and you think they’re all alike.”
“You saw that fashion show. Did you happen to notice the Who’s Who list of people sitting in the audience? I don’t exactly fit in with that crowd.”
“No, you don’t. And the little I know of Delaney, neither does she. She needs those people for her business, which doesn’t necessarily make her one of them. From what I can tell, she fits in to this little town just fine. Her clothes may be better than the rest of ours, but there’s nothing about her that’s pretentious or snobby.”
“Her company is based in Los Angeles.”
“So? You’ll both have to commute. Have phone sex. Or Skype sex. With technology the possibilities are endless.”
He shook his head. “It won’t work.”
“It’ll work if you want it to work, if you make it work, which means letting go of what Lisa did to you.”
Colt didn’t know if he could do that. She’d just walked away without so much as a phone call, not only taking a piece of his heart with her but eviscerating his trust. How do you let that go?
Josh popped his head into Colt’s office. “I looked for your gatekeeper but I see she’s in here.”
Carrie Jo got up from the couch, squeezed by Josh, and cleared her throat. “Do you have an appointment, sir?”
“I don’t need no stinkin’ appointment.” He came in and took her place on the sofa. The love seat got more use than Colt’s couch at home.
“What’s up?” Colt asked, noticing that his brother’s limp was barely noticeable. That last surgery may have done the trick.
“We missed you for Sunday dinner at Mom’s.”
“I had stuff to catch up on.”
Josh gave him a hard look. “You hear from Delaney?”
Colt hitched his shoulders. “I got a text from her Saturday night.” And a missed call Sunday, which he never heard ring. “She’s busy.”
“I would imagine she is. Hannah says this could cost her millions.”
“Yep.” Colt nodded his head.
“But you think she’s running away, like Lisa did?”
“Ah, jeez. I just got an earful from Carrie Jo. Enough, already. It’s not like we were a couple. Whatever she wants to do is fine.”
“Ah, that’s bullshit, Colt. We can all see that you care about her.”
He more than cared about her. This time he didn’t know if a rash of cave diving, BASE jumping, and extreme skiing would fix the damage she could do.
“We truck in two different worlds,” he said. “I knew that from the get-go, so it’s nothing like Lisa. Don’t you have a tour to guide, paperwork to do?”
Josh gave him another one of his penetrating army ranger stares. “You can lie to yourself all you want but you’re not fooling me. I almost lost Hannah because of stupid pride. If Delaney is important to you, which I know she is, man up and make it happen.”
Josh got to his feet and walked out. Good! Colt was tired of everyone telling him how to run his life. The clock on the wall said lunchtime and that’s the only advice he had use for. He hauled his ass out of his chair and walked over to Old Glory for a burger.
The usual crowd was there, including Rita, who avoided eye contact with him. That couldn’t be good. Colt took a seat at the bar. Boden came out from the kitchen and took his order. At least he had the decency not to ask Colt about Delaney, too caught up with the good-looking brunette filling out a job application.
Halfway through his burger “Crazy about You” came over the sound system. Just what Colt needed. Boden stopped talking to the brunette, opened a panel behind the bar, and the music suddenly changed to a Bruce Springsteen song. A couple of patrons grumbled. Colt bobbed his head at Boden and left without finishing his meal, his mind made up.
After returning to the office, he got on his computer, then went into Jack’s office to ask if he’d cover him. Colt needed a few personal days. The next morning, he got in his truck and drove to Portland.
It took ten hours, but he made it in time to get to the Moda Center before the show opened. Tickets were sold out. He wandered to the back of the stadium, hoping to find a roadie or someone who had access to the talent. Eventually, he latched on to a security guard, whom he showed his police badge to. Pretty unethical, but it got him in the door.
He wandered the bowels of the center, looking for someone who seemed important enough to get him where he wanted to go. A couple of gaffers taped cords to the stage and he managed to get their attention.
“You know Gordon Richards?” he asked, and one of them grunted in the affirmative but kept his eyes on his task. “Can you get him a message for me?” Once again, Colt flashed his badge. That got the guy’s attention.
“Gordon’s busy.” The other one wasn’t impressed. “Show starts in an hour, so unless you’ve got a warrant . . .”
“You want me to pull Lisa Laredo out and make a scene during the show?” he bluffed. “Tell Gordon that Colt Garner is here. That it concerns Ms. Laredo’s future.”
The stagehand got up and stood in Colt’s face. “You know how many whack jobs have used that line in the past? Look, buddy, in ten seconds I’ll have you thrown out on your head. Why don’t you save yourself the embarrassment?”
“Colt?”
Colt’s head jerked up, remembering that voice as if it were yesterday. She looked good, Lisa did. Thinner than he liked, but beautiful.
“You want me to call security?” the stagehand said, showing no surprise that the number-one country act in America was standing next to an empty stage in an empty room in a pair of faded jeans and a college sweatshirt.
“No, he’s a friend.”
A friend? That was a good one.
“Did you come to see the show?” she asked him, a hesitance in her voice.
“I came to talk to you.”
“You could’ve just called.” She shifted her weight from one leg to the other and Colt could tell she was nervous.
“Like I did all those other times when you first left?” She hadn’t even had the decency to tell him where he stood.
“Colt . . . there’s someone else now.”
“Seriously, you think I’m here to get you back?” He laughed. “You want to do this now or in private? Makes no difference to me. I’d like to get on the road before traffic.”
She shuffled again, clearly contemplating what to do. It would be a little strange for her to call security after she’d told the gaffers he was a friend. “Come with me.”
He followed her through a private hallway to a dressing room. The cloying smell from all the flowers gave him a headache. And under the good lighting he could see worry lines around Lisa’s eyes and brackets around her mouth. Stardom had made her road-weary.
She sat at her dressing table and motioned for him to take one of the chairs. He preferred to stand but sat anyway so as not to tower over her. Someone knocked and she curtly told whoever was on the other side of the door to come back later. She seemed so brittle, like she could snap at any minute, and he wondered if she’d always been that way and he’d failed to see it.
Clearing her throat, she leaned forward in her seat. “How much do you want?”
He jolted at her bluntness, having expected her to play the woe-is-me card. “I want an explanation. I want an apology.” Colt had also wanted to ask if she had ever loved him. But oddly, standing here, seeing her now, it didn’t matter to him anymore because he felt nothing for her. Not even a stirring of nostalgia.
She glanced at her watch. “My hair and makeup people will be here soon. Name your price, Colt.”
“You mean to shut me up? There’s no price. Why’d you do it, Lisa? Why’d you steal my song?”
“You gave it to me.” She actually had the gall to say it with a straight face.
“I wrote it for you. There’s a difference.”
A tear ran down the side of her face and she swiped it with the back of her hand. “I was desperate, okay? ‘Lonesome Night’ went platinum and I was finally a star ... everything I had worked for. You don’t know what that’s like, Colt. Arenas filled to capacity with adoring fans. All the music executives, who before wouldn’t give me the time of day, kissed my ass. Musicians I idolized wanted to collaborate. The fame—there’s nothing like it. But I was going to lose it all, be relegated to a one-hit wonder without another hit. And ‘Crazy about You’ . . . Well, it was perfect for me.”
“Did it ever occur to you that you could’ve asked me if you could perform it and give me a writer’s credit? As the singer, you still would’ve gotten the glory.”
“You were so angry with me, Colt. You would’ve said no just to spite me.”
He was ashamed to admit it, but she was probably right. “So you took it and claimed it was your song?”
More tears ran down her face and a sob escaped her. “It’s nominated for a CMA. If you out me now it’ll ruin me. I’ll never work in Nashville again.”
He stared at her, finding it hard to fathom how she could steal from the person who loved her to get adoration from people she didn’t even know. People who would drop her like a hot potato if she didn’t get enough radio play. He tried to hate her, he really did. But all he could summon for her was pity.
“I’m not going to out you,” he finally said, and realized that what he’d needed was to face her. Look her in the eye when she told him what he’d known all along. “You’ll have to live with the lie while the people who care for me know the truth. At least give your next royalty earnings to charity.”
With that he walked out of her dressing room, out of the arena, into the parking lot, feeling a cool blast of evening air and infinitely lighter than when he’d gotten there.
* * *
The condo was a short sale, which meant Delaney could get it for a steal. At least for Venice Beach, where real estate cost a bundle, especially a home set on the beach. It had endless windows of white-water views, twenty-four-hour concierge service, a master closet as large as Hannah’s shop, and was less than seventeen miles from her warehouse. Karen had a lead on an office building that could serve as corporate headquarters and studio space only a few minutes away.
Walking through the modern apartment, appreciating the gleaming hardwood floors, she took a moment to exhale. After back-to-back emergency meetings over the last four days it looked as if the publicity from the fashion show may have saved her ass as far as the court’s appalling clarification. Her marketing people were confident she could simply change the labels on her Delaney Scott shoes and handbags and still keep the same price points as long as the consumer knew she was the designer. Of course, the labor involved would be a major financial hit. The whole fiasco had convinced her it was time to move into the role of running her business.
Hiding out in Glory Junction, leisurely working on her designs, had been a luxury she simply could no longer afford. It was time to focus. Time to name her company and time to come back to the real world.
“For this price, it won’t stay on the market long.” The real estate agent’s voice echoed across the empty living room.
Delaney nodded, knowing the truth of that statement. “I’d like to at least sleep on it.” And call Colt. She needed to tell him what was going on.
When she reached him that afternoon from her hotel room it was on his cell and she could hear road noise in the background. “Where are you?”
“Driving home from Portland.”
“Oregon? What were you doing there?”
“Long story,” he said. “How’s it going in LA? Will you be able to recuperate from the setback?”
“I think so, as long as the investor money comes through. I looked at a condo today.”
He was quiet, then finally said, “Yeah, I figured you’d do that. Are you even coming back?” She heard the tension in his voice, but they’d talked about this. She’d always been upfront about returning to Los Angeles.
“Of course I am,” she said.
“Right. I guess I’ll see you whenever.”
“Colt, you’re acting childish. I hoped we could have a real conversation about this, work something out.”
He let out a sigh. “You like the condo?”
“It’s beautiful.” But it wasn’t Glory Junction. In the year she’d lived in the little town it had become home. While the condominium was luxurious and conveniently located, it felt like a hotel. And without Colt—not to have him there every day—she would feel an enormous void. A void that would break her heart.
“Does it have good security? What kind of neighborhood is it in?”
“It’s safe, Colt. Would you like to see it? I could send you a link.”
“I’m driving, but yeah, send me a link.”
“You don’t want to tell me why you went to Portland? Does it have to do with work?” She assumed it had something to do with a criminal investigation.
He hesitated, then said, “To see Lisa. She had a show there.”
Delaney had trouble swallowing as she sucked in that piece of information. A lot of emotions hit her all at once. Jealousy being the predominant one. “Why?”
“I confronted her about the song.”
Delaney let out a whoosh of relief. It was good that he’d done that, part of the healing process. “Is she going to give you the credit you deserve?”
“I don’t care about that, Delaney. I just wanted her to know how I felt about it, what kind of person it made her in my eyes. It’s done now. I can move on.”
She wondered if moving on included them. Could he trust her with his heart? Too afraid to ask, she said, “How far are you from home?”
“About an hour away. I took my time, drove down the coast, stopped at Redwood National Park.”
“It sounds wonderful.” But how had he had the time? Her stomach dropped. “Colt, you didn’t lose your job, did you?”
“Nope. Not yet. Jack covered for me. When will you be back?”
“I don’t know yet. The business ... I have to get serious, Colt. I let things go too long. It’s time to take the reins.”
“Okay.” He sounded disappointed but at least he wasn’t being unreasonable. “I’ll see you when I see you.”
“Don’t say it like that. It sounds defeatist.”
“I say it like I see it, Delaney. I’ll call you tonight after I look at your condo link.”
He hung up and she suddenly felt lonelier than she ever had before. In a city of nearly four-million people, how was that even possible? But an emptiness spread through her, making her incredibly melancholy. Homesick, she supposed. For Colt Garner.
The front desk called, letting her know that Karen was waiting in the lobby. She took the elevator down and found her smartly dressed house manager on the phone. Karen gave her the one-minute sign and Delaney turned her attention to the small café in the lobby. She hadn’t had lunch and only a cup of coffee and half a muffin for breakfast. There hadn’t been time.
“That was Fran.” Karen dropped her phone in her purse. “She said the reviews from the Glory Junction show continue to dazzle. The press loved all three collections, but the adventure wear ... they’re crazy about it. We’re getting calls from buyers who want to stock it, stores that don’t even have adventure-wear lines.”
Given how much work Delaney had put in to making the pieces functional for outdoor sports enthusiasts, she thought it funny that retailers would sell them strictly as street clothes. Then again, look how fashionable yoga pants had become. Delaney called them the new mom jeans.
“I have to talk to TJ about that. My guess is that Garner Adventure is going to want exclusivity.”
Karen shot her a get-real look. “You know how much money we’re talking about here?”
“A deal is a deal. Can we eat, Karen? I’m starved.”
Karen glanced at her watch. “We’ve got thirty minutes until our appointment to see the building. In traffic, it’ll take forty-five. Your call.”
Just the memory of LA traffic gave her hives. “Fine. Afterward, though, we’re eating.”
“We’ve got an appointment with your warehouse manager at four and that’s clear across town.”
She missed being able to walk everywhere. “I guess I’ll just starve then.”
They walked to the front of the lobby and Karen gave the valet her name. While they waited for the car, Delaney peeked at her phone, hoping that Colt might’ve had time to look at the link she’d sent him. Maybe the condo and its ocean-front access to world-class surfing would entice him to see the benefits of a long-distance relationship. Of course she didn’t know when he’d ever get a chance to come, since he was stretched so thin as it was. And if her days were anything like they’d been this week, she’d be lucky to find the time to e-mail him. The reality was so depressing, she lost all enthusiasm over seeing the building. The building that by all accounts would be perfect and just happened to be available during a commercial real estate shortage.
The valet parked Karen’s car at the curb and helped both of them in. As Karen predicted, they barely made their appointment due to the stop and go on the freeway. An agent took them through the building, painstakingly showing them every inch of space. It needed work, especially the front facade and the lobby, which hadn’t been updated since the nineties. But it wouldn’t take much. Exterior paint and maybe a chic awning with her company’s logo. Yeah, she needed to get one of those, along with a name. She’d change the flooring in the reception area from marble to something a little warmer, maybe do a television wall where they could loop video of her various collections. Plenty of room for possibilities, she told herself.
But her heart wasn’t in it. It was too busy pining for Colt.
“What do you think?” Karen asked softly.
“It’ll definitely work.” So why wasn’t she more excited? The prospect of finally getting her act together should’ve been thrilling and not filling her with dread. “Everything’s moving so fast, though. Would it be terrible if I took a day or two to think about it?”
“I’d hate for us to lose it,” Karen said. “But you need to be sure that this”—she spread her arms wide to encompass the building—“is your vision.”
What was she doing? Of course it was her vision. The location was superb; the price was right. Just bite the bullet, she told herself.
“You know what? I’m being a wuss. Let’s do it, Let’s sign the lease and put down a deposit.”
“Okay,” Karen agreed, and went off to search for the agent.
Delaney wrote a check and the agent said he would send the lease agreement to her lawyer for signing. It was done. And tomorrow she’d make an offer on the condo.