Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
“Icannot believe you broke your ankle doing ballroom dancing.”
Yeah, neither could Seamus. He’d managed all that bullfighting shit before he’d fallen off a stage doing the cha-cha. “Mom, don’t start. I did the whole shoot, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did the entire shoot, and the last six hours of it, you had a broken fucking ankle.”
He wasn’t sure when Mom had gotten back into L.A., but he was seriously considering firing someone for not warning him. She was amazing, but a bit of a busybody, especially between shoots.
She got bored.
“I’m okay, Mom—”
“Yes, but I don’t like it. Do you need physical therapy? A nurse?”
A nurse? What was he? Three? “Right now, I’m still in a boot for six to eight weeks. Two weeks before I can even put weight on it. So, I’m gonna run lines, take some time off, and let Nick and Aaron fight over the kitchen, love on Les’s dogs, and have Topher and Jess pamper me.”
“Well…that’s—”
He shifted, blowing Nick a kiss as the pillow under his foot was put in a better spot. “At least I got the scene done, and I’m not destroying anybody’s schedule.”
He’d been working for a little over six and a half weeks, and man, his bones were tired.
“So, are you going to do anything fun? You’ve got two weeks off. You want to come somewhere with me? We can go down and fly down and see your dad.”
Oh God no. “I love you. I love Dad. I’m not getting on an airplane for a million hours with a broken ankle that’s going to swell, but thanks.”
In fact, he knew for without question that his lover was working in California for three weekends—Anaheim, Sacramento, and Oakland—plus a week off.
So he had a pretty damn good idea what he was going to be doing.
“Ah, yes, swelling. Well, do you need me to just come and stay with you?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m going to hook up with Dawson.”
“Oh, the bullrider?”
“No, Mom. He’s a bull fighter, and—”
“Oh, he’s the guy who’s like a rodeo clown.”
His eyes went wide. “Yes. Except if you ever meet him, never call him that because he’ll yell at you. He’s cowboy protection.”
“That works for me. I don’t care.” He could see Mom’s shrug in his mind. “Does he wear makeup? Is it cool?”
“He does not wear makeup. He is really cool though and kind of gorgeous.”
Mom’s laugh was warm, and it made him relax back into his chair. “Well, good. You should spend some time together. I’m in town until next Wednesday, and I’d love to meet him.”
“He works Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then has a week off and then does it again. But I’m sure I can arrange to get us tickets, or he can.” How hard could it be? Most of these riders had huge families.
“Excellent. Make sure you get tickets for me and for Robin.”
“I know. Topher has to come too. I’ll just see if I can’t get some kind of a package from the league for like ten seats.”
“Should I ask Stephanie?”
Oh, God no. “Sure. Sure, we’ll all go.”
“I like it. Check to see if they have something VIP. That way you can put your foot up.” Sometimes Mom was incredibly good at day-to-day things.
“Good idea. I’ll ask.”
“Excellent.” She chuckled. “And make reservations for someplace nice for dinner over this week. Topher and Robin can sit somewhere else for that, okay? I want a chance to actually talk to that fellow of yours.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll do my best. We’ll find somewhere. In fact, I’ll let you make the reservations for Sunday evening.”
“Perfect. Steaks, burgers, barbecue? Oh, Thai? How does he feel about Thai?”
Seamus rolled his eyes and smiled. His ankle was throbbing, and so was his head. “I have no idea. We haven’t ever discussed Thai, but he likes Vietnamese, so we should be good to go.”
If he talked to Dawson and found out that that was not cool, he would call.
Well, he wouldn’t call Mom, Jessica would. Jessica had a lovely relationship with Mom’s PA.
He said his pleasantries and hung up the phone, rolling his eyes. “God, she got that news quick!”
“Are you kidding? There are already pictures of you getting unloaded at the ER from the car.” Topher plopped down on the overstuffed sofa. “Besides, Jessica has a list. She calls Stephanie first, then your mom, then your dad.”
Right. Dammit. “Dawson needs to be on that list.”
“Whoa-hoo, damn. Dawson’s made the list.” Nick came by and handed him a smoothie. “It’s got collagen in it. It’ll help you heal.”
“Does it taste nasty? I don’t know if I want it if it tastes nasty.”
“The collagen is flavorless. It tastes like your normal banana chocolate smoothie with protein powder.”
“Ah, sweet.” He sucked at it, and yeah, it was good. “What bloody time is it?”
“Kind of early late,” Christopher said, and Seamus stared at him like, “What the fuck does that mean?”
Nick hooted. “That means it’s after supper time. Not late enough to go to bed, and Dawson is probably still working.”
“Yeah, I should text him though. Maybe that way he can call me when he gets off.”
Seamus pulled out his phone so he could text Dawson. His fingers flew—at least his hands weren’t hurt, just his ankle.
He sent
Hey, call me when you get off work, huh?
He didn’t want Dawson to see about his accident on the internet or through somebody texting him. He wanted to talk to him about it himself, and then he wanted to talk to him about Mom.
He wasn’t sure if Dawson was at the “let’s meet Seamus’s mom” place.
Hell, he wasn’t sure if he was at the “let Dawson meet Mom” place, although yeah, he kind of was.
So he called Jessica, who he left a voicemail for. She didn’t have to work twenty-four-seven, after all.
“Hey, sweetheart, it’s just me. I need ten tickets to the Anaheim Sunday performance of the bullriding.
Then I need tickets for me, Chris, Nick, and you and whoever you’d like to bring if you want to come for all the other dates that they’re in California.
Cool? Cool. Holler if you have any questions or if you need me to talk to somebody. Love you. Bye!”
“I love how you talk to her like she’s your sister.”
Seamus shrugged it off. Topher was probably right. “You know, she’s been around for a long time. Yeah, I guess I do.”
He wasn’t worried about it.
“He treats us all like family.” Nick added, offering Seamus a warm smile. “You, me, Jess. Maybe not Stephanie, but that’s because she controls the purse strings, too.”
“Hey, I treat Stephanie like family, just sort of like a maiden aunt who is always out to get me, but that’s okay.”
His ankle was throbbing, and he was trying not to show it.
They’d given him Tylenol and had offered him even better stuff, which always amazed him.
Pissed him off a little bit, too. He knew that if a female co-star got hurt, they didn’t offer her anything for the pain.
That was one of his pet causes—equality in medicine.
But maybe he ought to just finish off his smoothie, put his foot up, and doze until Dawson called.
Because Dawson would call.
“You want some of that CBD oil, Seamus? I could put a few drops in your smoothie.”
Oh, there was an idea—nothing that would make him weird, but something that would take the edge off the actual throbbing. “Yeah, that sounds great. It’s really giving me a hard time.”
By the time Nick had finished wrestling over him, and Topher sat down to put his foot in Chris’s lap and covered him with a blanket and all the other stuff, he was dozing off. And he didn’t wake up until Topher tapped his good leg way up above the knee and told him Dawson was on the phone.
“Hey.” Seamus answered the phone, his voice sounding sleepy even to himself. “I was having a nap.”
“You’re never going to get to sleep tonight, honey, if you keep napping during the day.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll probably sleep pretty good as long as I take a pill. I guess no one’s told you the news.”
“I just got out of the showers and checked my phone. I’m fixin’ to go out to dinner, but I wanted to call and see what was what. Your text sounded serious.” Dawson did sound concerned about him. He hated that he’d worried the guy, but he was a little worried about himself, too.
“Yeah, I had an accident on set. My ankle.”
He heard Dawson’s suck in a breath. “Are you okay? I mean, is it serious?”
“It’s broken. I can’t believe I did all that bull fighting stuff and then killed myself doing some dancing.”
Dawson hooted. “Oh good lord, honey. What on earth were you thinking?”
“Obviously that I was more coordinated than I am. So, when I come to your event here in California, I’ll be in a boot at the very least. Probably in a boot and crutches.”
“Well, that sucks. Does that mean you’re not going to be able to have sex?” He could hear Dawson’s laughter in his voice.
“Oh, there’s no way. By the time you get here, if I have to elevate it on pillows while we do the nasty, it’s gonna happen.”
“Okay, ew.” Christopher eased out from beside him, making sure not to jostle him and put the pillow back in place. “I’m just going to…” He pointed over his shoulder before he turned around to walk away.
“Was that Chris?”
“Yeah, he was very kindly acting as my pillow for my poor foot. Nick gave up on me God knows when and went away, I think, but only after I drank his smoothie.”
“Hmm, I bet Topher goes and sees Nick now. So, what else was it you wanted to talk to me about? I mean, this sucks, and I hate that you’re hurting, but you sounded way too serious about this upcoming trip to California.”
Dawson was getting really good at reading him. It was kind of stunning.
“Oi, yeah, well, my mom called. She saw about my accident on the news, and she’s in town right now, so she wants to come over and take care of me.”
“And I take it this is a bad thing?”