Chapter 9
Colton
“A corkscrew never pulled a man out of a hole.”
~ Papa Duke
“Hmph,” I grunted as I tightened the last lug nut on the spare tire I’d just put on.
Sweat dripped down the back of my neck as I stood. The mid-day Texas sun was unrelenting. After grabbing the handkerchief that I always carried in my back pocket I wiped my brow and neck and exhaled loudly.
There were just days when nothing went right, and today was turning out to be the mother of all of those days.
All week, I’d been counting the hours, the minutes, the seconds until I could get back to Wishing Well, get back to Bella. Last night I’d barely slept because I was so excited to be so close to the finish line of the marathon that the past seven days had been. This morning when I’d gotten to the airport everything seemed to be smooth sailing. I got through security in record time, I was in the first group to board and they announced that they were on schedule.
It wasn’t until ten minutes past the time that we were supposed to have taken off that I started to get the feeling things weren’t exactly “on schedule” as previously promised. Once forty-five minutes passed, the rumblings around the cabin had turned from sporadic grumblings to full-on vocalized complaints.
Finally, after an hour we were informed that there was an electrical issue with the plane and we all needed to exit and make our way to terminal seven to board our new flight. Apparently none of my fellow fliers were experiencing the same urgency that I was because everyone disembarked at a snail’s pace. It was all I could do not to yell, “Go! Just go!” I wasn’t normally an impatient person but this past week it was like I was crawling out of my own skin. It felt like a magnetic force was pulling every cell in my body home. To Bella.
On the way to our new, not-electrically-challenged plane I was stopped by a mother and daughter who asked if I would take a picture with them. They’d been huge fans of Fairytale Love and said that they were rooting for me to find my true love on Claiming Colton. I posed for selfies with them and signed their Kindle covers, which was a new one for me but definitely better than some body parts that I’d been requested to sign. The entire time I was smiling and going along with their predictions of what kind of woman I would end up with, but what I really wanted to do was tell them that I’d already found my true love. That role had been filled.
Two layovers later, I arrived at DFW. Only six hours later than my original flight was scheduled to land. The one break I’d gotten was that my luggage was there before I was, so I hadn’t had to wait around in baggage claim. I thought things might be looking up and headed to long-term parking. Then, about twenty miles outside of Wishing Well, I got a flat tire.
I threw my flat in the bed of my truck when my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered it as I secured my lug wrench and jack in my toolbox. “Hey Mia, I’m about twenty minutes out, but like I said I have a stop I need to make before I—”
“Colton I really need you to come to set as soon as you get in town. We’re already behind schedule,” Mia interrupted me, her tone was stressed and overwhelmed. “Cast and crew are here. Everyone is ready to go. We’re just waiting on you.”
I’d been working with Mia for years. She’s been a part of the production on every show that I’ve done. She started as a PA and has worked her way up. She’s always been accommodating, professional, levelheaded, and easy going. In that time everything that could go wrong had. Equipment not working, cast and crew being difficult or just not showing up, the entire production getting food poisoning on a fairly deserted island, etc. She was the poster child of calm, cool, and collected.
All day I’d been keeping her apprised of where I was and what my modified ETAs were. I’d told her since I left for this trip that I needed at least an hour when I got back in town before I’d be ready to shoot anything. As much as I wanted to tell her that everyone would just have to keep waiting, I knew that I couldn’t. It was unprofessional and inconsiderate. Two things that I always tried my best not to be. Even if it did mean postponing seeing Bella.
I hadn’t even got a chance to tell her anything about the show. Chances were she knew. Not much stayed secret in Wishing Well. Not that it should matter to her. She was married and had a family. I knew I was being ridiculous, but something didn’t sit right with me dating women in front of her. I at least wanted the chance to tell her what was going on. I wanted her to hear it from me, why I was doing the show, and it had nothing to do with wanting to find love.
“Alright.” My jaw tensed and I could feel a headache starting at my shoulders and spreading to the back of my head. I rubbed the base of my neck. “I’ll go straight there.”
“Thanks, Colt. I’ll text you the address.”
“K, see you soon.” I was lowering the phone when I heard her speaking and I put it back up to my ear.
It was just in time to hear her finish her thought. “…I’m worried.”
“You’re worried?” I had no idea what she was talking about. Did she think that the numbers would be bad? On my pre-press tour people seemed like they were excited, but maybe she knew something I didn’t.
“Yes.” She lowered her voice and the background noise that had sounded like she was in a crowded room now quieted. “I’ve been distracted this past week with…well my own stuff, and things have been crazy trying to pull this all together, so I haven’t really been checking in with you. You sound like you’re…I’m not sure, just off, or distracted. Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Mia had enough to worry about. She didn’t need to add my issues to the list. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure, I can see if I can push back—”
“No, don’t do that. I’ll see you soon.” I hung up before she had a chance to dig any deeper with her concern shovel. If she was able to break the surface of my emotional ground, I was afraid of what she would unearth.
Bella and I had been estranged for years, a few more hours weren’t going to hurt. That wasn’t strictly true. They were going to be painful as hell for me, but I didn’t think they would do any more damage to our tenuous, non-existent relationship. And even if they did, there was nothing I could do about it. I’d made a commitment and I needed to honor it. I couldn’t do that if all I was thinking about was Bella. For the next few hours I needed to be present and be in the moment.
I jumped back in my truck with renewed determination to try to focus on the show and put the beautiful blonde that had stolen my heart in second grade, out of my mind. Or at least shift her to the back burner until I could do something about it.
Just as the engine roared to life a ding sounded indicating I’d received a message. Looking down I saw that it was from Mia sending me the address I needed to go to. 815 Willow Lane. I did a double take, certain that I must be reading it wrong.
What the hell…?
It looked like Bella just got moved to the front burner and I’d be having a much harder time keeping my new goal not to think of her, because Mia had just texted me to go to her house.