Chapter 34 ZACHERY TURNS ON A DIME
Chapter 34
Z ACHERY T URNS ON A D IME
I don’t have to talk to Kelsey to know she and Randy hit it off.
It’s all over her face.
They pull up in a green truck, dust blowing behind it, as I sit on the upstairs deck, using my phone to research a director Jester sent me, work that normally goes to Kelsey.
They shouldn’t be able to see me up here. They’ve been gone all day, and the light is fading.
Randy stops the truck, then rushes around the front and opens the door for Kelsey.
They don’t do that in Hollywood, not unless it’s a driver or a valet. Even so, I’m hit with a bite of regret that he’s more courteous with her than I am.
She steps out with a huge smile, giddy as a schoolgirl.
Randy takes her hand as they head up the steps to the front door.
Thankfully, that’s below me and I can’t see him kiss her, if he does. That’s Hallmark third base, but maybe Kelsey’s thrown it out the window again.
The last person who kissed her was me.
I crank the music in my earbuds to ensure I can’t hear anything, including if they go up to her room. I close my eyes to the darkening sky. This is what I’m here for. Kelsey. To watch over her.
I’m doing my job.
My job was not what I did a few nights ago. Absolutely not.
But that’s the vision that comes back to me.
Her dress, falling to the floor.
Her body, trembling in my arms.
My hands, covering every inch of her.
I shouldn’t have done it. I’ll never get the thought of her out of my head.
I try to switch to some other woman, anyone. Claudia Bonatello, for example. She’s an A-list actress now. I see videos of her all the time.
But I can’t. I can picture scenes from her last movie, just nothing from real life. My memories are fuzzy on the edges, like a pixelated image from an old video game.
And I can’t conjure any emotion for her. Probably because there never was any.
I don’t seduce these women with any agenda, despite what Desdemona thinks. If there’s no chemistry when I take them out for a premiere or a festival, then I leave them be. But often, it’s nice, feeling like I’m a real part of the Hollywood game. The woman in my bed is the bonus, even better if she didn’t really need me in the first place.
Hands on my shoulders startle me hard enough that I jump out of my chair. I yank my earbuds out. Dust rises up as the truck drives away.
“You were lost in thought!” Kelsey says.
“I was.” I tuck my earbuds in my pocket. “How did it go?”
She sits in a rocking chair next to me, her toe setting the chair in motion. “It got better.”
It got more than better. That’s plain. “Did you make the wreaths?”
“Yes, and thank you for the videos. They saved my bacon.”
“Did they turn out well?”
“Everyone thought they were lovely. Randy helped. Then we had lunch, then we set up the tents for the hayride on Wednesday. Then we had dinner, too.”
“That’s an auspicious beginning.”
“There were rough patches. But in the end, I think he has an idea for his future that sounds pretty nice.”
I shift on the chair, suddenly feeling the uncomfortable hardness of the seat. “And what’s that?”
“This house.” She gestures to the wall behind us. “His brother, Jack, took a different property, and his sister prefers living in town, so this will be his when he’s ready to take it over.”
“Isn’t it generating income as a rental?”
She draws a knee up to her chin and wraps her arms around her shin. “He’s hoping to marry and run it as a bed-and-breakfast. He has plans to turn the library downstairs into a children’s room, and block off it and the master downstairs so that the upstairs is devoted to holding guests.”
That sounds like a nightmare. “So, you would always have strangers tromping through your house?”
“That’s what all bed-and-breakfasts do. And even though you live in a small town, you’re always meeting new people. It wouldn’t get boring.”
She’s bought into the idea. That’s clear. “So that’s what you’d do? Marry the local lumberjack and host a B and B?”
She frowns. “Does that sound so terrible?”
“What about your talent, Kelsey? You make movie magic.”
“Only when the Demon approves. And gets the credit.”
“But it’s what you love. I’ve seen your face light up when you find a perfect pairing.”
“Only for them to refuse the script!” She drops her leg, sitting up tall. “I thought you were on my side on this! Why did you come if you’re going to trash the good thing I find?”
“You’ve known this guy, what, twenty-four hours?”
“I’m not marrying him, Zachery. I haven’t even kissed him yet.”
This makes me feel better. I force my tone to come down. “Why not?”
She rocks the chair. “I’m on Hallmark bases.” Her eyes light up. “We hit first base and it was pure accident, just like the meet-cute. He reached for a chip, and I reached for my glass, and our fingers touched!”
I have to hold myself back from saying, “And remember when you fell to pieces when I touched you? How we almost flew into the sun?”
But I swallow it. It has to remain unsaid. She asked for my help that night, and I gave it, like the work emails I’ve written on her behalf, like the wreath videos I sent.
It’s all the same. Moments between friends.
“I’m glad,” I say. “Maybe whoever wrote the first Hallmark movie knew what he was talking about, and everyone copied it because it was true.”
Kelsey sighs with a dreamy smile. “Between the free labor and the way lunch started, I thought I was going to be cutting and running on this one. But it completely turned around.”
“Life can do that.”
“It can.” She rocks a little longer. “I’m sorry it turned the wrong way for you.”
“It’s fine. I wasn’t made for movies.”
“I think you were totally made for movies. It just went the wrong direction.”
She’s really pushing on this. “My life is fine.”
“Is it, though? A long stream of women without attachments.” She goes quiet for a minute, and I wonder if she’s now counting herself as one of them.
“By most any standard, I have lived the dream.”
“But what are you living now? Do you want to settle down? Your sister got married. Do your parents ever ask about that?”
They don’t, not anymore. “Dad kids me about all the actresses. I think he might be half-proud.”
“And your mom?”
I don’t talk about my mother much with Kelsey. She knows the basics, that my mother was a Broadway singer but never felt she reached the pinnacle she hoped for. Her career, by all accounts, was also fine, the kind most people dream of. But she was never the lead in anything huge, never nominated for a Tony. Sometimes I think she was almost relieved to fall in love with Dad and move to LA and have a family. The pressure was off.
Until I started singing lessons. Her joy when I did school plays and performed in choir was one of my driving forces. She sat in on every lesson, every rehearsal, and never missed a single performance. I became her everything.
Now, she looks pained if I sing so much as “Happy Birthday” to her.
I had the dream, too. It’s not that she forced something on me I didn’t want. But other opportunities came faster, movie roles, stardom. I thought she’d be thrilled that I wasn’t leaving California.
But I noticed that her face never lit up the same when she saw me after signing that first movie contract.
I disappointed her. I disappointed myself.
I realize time has passed, but Kelsey doesn’t press for an answer. “She wanted me to sing,” I say. “She’ll never get over that I didn’t.”
Kelsey sits up. “You still can.”
“You think I didn’t knock on those doors?” I haven’t admitted this to anyone. “Nobody wants an industry joke bringing negative publicity to their theater.”
“When was the last time you tried? The reputation fades.”
“Not as long as I continue walking the red carpet and keep the tabloids busy with their hilarious headlines.”
It doesn’t happen all the time, but if a photographer gets just the right shot, they exploit it fully.
Beer Junket Bimbo? Zach Carter’s Latest Starlet Reenacts the Famous Nip Slip
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Kelsey sinks back against the chair. “Why do you do it, then? You could let it all fade out.”
That’s just it. I don’t want to fade. “That would be giving up.”
She nods, her hair glowing from the window light. It’s full dark out now. “I get that. I would do a lot of questionable things to avoid going home to Alabama.”
“You think my dates are questionable?” It’s fine for the tabloids to think that, even for my dad to think it. But not Kelsey.
“No, no. Having been the recipient of the full Zachery treatment, I’m very confident that you are an absolute gentleman other than not realizing the extent of your power.”
My heart speeds up. What does she mean by that? “So, I’m absolved?”
“Fully. I was really talking about my own life. Working for Desdemona sometimes feels like being the evil mastermind’s apprentice.”
“I’m definitely not enjoying it like I used to. She’s getting more desperate as she becomes increasingly irrelevant.”
“You think so?”
“Kelsey, you’re the one making all the good calls. She’s skating on your talent to bolster her reputation.”
“Then why does she make me so miserable?”
“Fear.”
Kelsey rests her chin on her knee. “Maybe we both need a change.”
We both say it at the same time.
“Jester.”
“We can’t leave him,” Kelsey says. “Although he’s been with Desdemona longer than either of us.”
“He does seem immune to her brutality.”
“Maybe his colorful clothes are a force field. Her harsh words invert into birdsong and giggles.”
This makes me laugh. “He definitely makes it work.”
She stands and pats my shoulder. “Speaking of which, I better go see if there are any fires to put out. Thank you for being so much help, Zachery. I don’t know how I would be managing on this trip without you.”
She kisses the top of my head and goes back inside.
Her day turned on a dime.
And because of that, so did mine. Just the wrong direction.