Chapter Two #3
Unbidden, a flash of the woman he’d just encountered flitted across his vision like a ghost. A very sexy ghost. She, on the other hand… Now, she might be just his type, that is if she didn’t want him to dry up and blow away on the spot. Which was why he needed Cammie’s help.
She kept him out of the news in all the ways that mattered, which, after his breakup with Harley last fall, was nothing short of a Herculean task.
“Trip was fine. Thank the studio for the car for me, but let ’em know I’m gonna just rent a truck. I’ll drop the Porsche back off at the airport on the way.”
“Sounds good, boss,” Cammie said. “I’m sure it’ll feel like being back on set in a truck, won’t it? Playing another role?”
Jace pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes. That was truer than he’d like to admit, but not many people outside Cammie knew his roots were dug deep in Montana soil. On set was more a reminder of that than the other way around.
“How are you doing otherwise?” she asked. “With, you know, everything.”
She was the only one who knew why he was there, at least the on-paper reason.
No one outside the walls of his heart knew he was doubling up on the time away to reassess.
God knew she’d only try to talk him out of leaving acting, and right now, he was vulnerable enough to let himself be talked into damn near anything.
“I’m okay,” he answered. It was mostly true. “But I do have a question for you. Have you seen any leaks about the house or my trip up here?”
“Not one. Why? Is something wrong? I mean, I heard from Anna that there’s already interest in the property out there.”
“I’ll talk to her tomorrow, but you’re sure nothing else?”
His realtor and Cammie were a rockstar team.
Maybe he wouldn’t need to worry too much about renovating the farmhouse if the right buyer was interested.
He wanted to offload this place from his heart more than anything, but he also didn’t want just anyone coming in to snatch it up.
His father had built more than a ranch; he’d built a legacy for someone.
Jace had always wished he’d had the fire to take that on when he was younger. It would be perfect for someone, though.
“I don’t think so. Just a weird interaction with a woman I met here.
A local, I think.” Though now that he had some distance between him and the mystery woman—he really wished he’d gotten her name—he wasn’t at all sure she was from here.
She was walking along the road alone in the middle of the afternoon, the first clue that she didn’t belong, since everyone else had trucks, SUVs, practical vehicles built for the terrain and the weather.
Besides, based on her looks and the sexy-as-hell accent, he was pretty sure she hadn’t grown up around here.
He didn’t know much about Montana nowadays, but generally, everyone was generationally connected to the place.
He was pretty damn sure the woman he met wasn’t, though. So, where was she from?
“I’ll look into it and get back to you. But speaking of women, Jace, there’s something I wanted to run by you. I was going to wait for you to get back, but…”
Something in the pit of his stomach told him to hang up, to not follow through with this line of discussion, but against his better judgment, he found himself exhaling.
“Shoot.”
“Well, you’re aware you’re developing a reputation in Hollywood,” she began.
“I know,” he said, “damn typecasting.” He was pretty sure that wasn’t the type of reputation Cammie was referring to, but there wasn’t a chance in hell he was getting into his dating life with his agent.
“Well, yes, that, too, but the more unfortunate thing is that you are starting to have the reputation of a Hollywood lothario. And this time, it’s getting in the way of a role. A big one.”
Jace froze.
“Which one?”
The silence on the other end said all he needed to know.
He’d been vying for the lead in a superhero franchise that had been whispered about in Hollywood back channels, but like Cammie had just said, no one saw him as anything other than the heartbreaker cowboy.
No one who mattered in Hollywood anyway.
“They’re reaching out, asking where you’re at mentally.”
This was huge. The role he’d wanted, and not only did the query mean they were making the movie—finally—but they were interested in him. A tingle crept up his spine.
“What did they say, Cammie? Did you tell them I’m up here?”
“No, of course not. I told them you’re prepping for a role. Let me be clear, they want to work with you, but they’re not sure you’re at—these are their words, not mine—the right stage of your life and career to take this seriously.”
“Dammit.” He’d been dying to get on a project like this.
Now he had a chance, and his chain dating after a heartbreaking split from Harley was going to stand in his way?
When he was done selling his dad’s estate, he wanted to move on from everything in his past, including hangups around his personal life.
Until then, he’d fake whatever he needed to make this work.
“I’m not sure how my dating life affects my work. ”
“They want a known asset, Jace. If you want to be taken seriously, you need to be serious.”
Shit. She had a point there. “Okay. I’ll think through how to fix this and get back to you.
Let them know I’m taking it as seriously as I can, though.
” Like there was anything more serious than burying his father and the way he’d let the man down.
“And Cammie, drop me a line in the next couple of days if anything pops up on your radar about the property.”
Why he cared was the real question. His cowboy days, off-screen at least, were behind him.
“Will do, Jace. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thanks, Cammie.” He hung up. He inhaled, and a hint of creosote tickled his nose. It was like being injected with a syringe of concentrated nostalgia. Not exactly an antidote for the conflicting emotions making him uneasy.
He was sorry, too, for so many things.
Almost hitting the mystery woman for one.
Letting Harley into his life, absolutely.
Allowing himself to get typecast because of his history on ranches, sure.
The money was good, but Jace was running from that life and had landed square in it, albeit a fake version where he only played a watered-down role of the title he’d held his whole life until then.
It made figuring out how to move on more difficult, that was for certain.
Then there was the biggest regret, sitting square in his view, cramping his vision of what came next.
He’d let his father pass without making things right.
Jace had left because his dad had tried to shove his life onto his son, a life that would have stifled him when he was barely a young man.
But he’d loved the guy for trying to raise a kid without help in rural Montana. It’d been enough, at the time.
Until it wasn’t.
And now?
The possibility of a new role was exciting, or at least he thought so. The idea of getting on a plane headed south made him nauseated, though, and not even the role and what it meant for him was enough to stave off the feeling.
Why couldn’t he be sure what was right or wrong for him?
Which direction was his true north, and which way led straight to damnation?
Hell, the only thing he was certain of was the fact that being home didn’t feel as awful as he’d imagined it would.
The air actually cooled his skin, felt fresh in his lungs.
A decade in LA had made it hard for him to draw a breath.
Now, though, he sucked as much mountain oxygen into his system as he could. Who knew where he’d land next—especially if he didn’t land that project—and he wanted to appreciate what he had while he had it.
You do not get the chance to defend yourself! Not when you show up with your power and your money and take people’s farms out from under them to build huge monstrosities that no one wants here anyway.
Jace kicked at the loose stones around an overgrown grassy patch.
Small violet poppies had pushed up along the deck, and he smiled as a memory warmed his heart.
He’d picked those for his first crush at the tender age of five, and she’d given them back to him a week later, dead, announcing she liked Tommy Reynolds instead.
She and the mystery woman would have a thing or two to agree on, he figured.
No one in town appreciates what you’re trying to do here.
Could it be that his father had warned people his son might be coming home to offload the business? No. His dad hadn’t approved of his choices, but that didn’t mean he wished him ill.
Then what had she meant?
Jace had a sneaking suspicion he’d landed right in the middle of something bigger than him, something that would make finishing his time here, if not an impossibility, at least more interesting than he’d first thought.
With that, and more questions about who his mystery woman was, Jace went to check out his childhood home. Well, what there was of it until demolition crews got there.
It was time to start tearing down his old life so he could build something new, something he could be proud of.
Maybe then he’d know how to feel about the biggest news of his acting career, news that wasn’t nearly as exciting as it should be.