Hooked (13 page)

To hell with that. She’d keep her pride and walk. With the money she’d saved, she could pursue that Masters Degree she’d always promised herself she’d get. Then maybe she’d go teach communications at a college somewhere. Though picturing an entire college class full of bubbly bimbos wanting to be weather girls or whatever job they could get on air twisted Annie’s gut even more.

Annie drew in a breath. She hoped that would calm her and quiet her imaginings careening through her head about the end of her career as she knew it.

“So, what’s on the agenda for today?” Besides Chelsea…

“We’d like you to throw together a piece on the death of Luke Carpenter’s father.”

That stopped Annie’s self-pitying right in its track. Nothing like the cold dose of reality to put things in perspective. “Um, okay.”

“Yeah, I want to really play it up. It’s a great story—”

She frowned. “A great story?”

“Yeah, the dedication of a rider completing his final ride in the short go before flying to his dying father’s side to say goodbye.”

Annie’s gaze narrowed. “He didn’t know about his father until after he’d finished his short-go ride. And they drove home, he didn’t fly.”

Her boss dismissed the details with a wave of a hand. “Whatever. You handle the details, but make it good. The viewers eat up personal stories like this one. They get the blood and sweat in every ride. Today we get to take advantage of the tears too.”

Heartless bastard. Annie felt her jaw clenching again. “I’ll work on it.”

“I want it on air today. We’ll run it during the intermission.”

“Today.” Annie swallowed away her anger. She’d like to see the new Annie, AKA Chelsea, throw together a spot in mere hours and get it on air. In spite of Joe’s calculating coldness, Annie would make this something that both the network and more importantly, Luke, would be proud to have aired. No way Chelsea could do that.

She blew out a breath. “Okay, well I better get going on this then.”

Her boss nodded. “Great. I look forward to seeing it.”

Then he rose from his seat and pulled his cell phone out. Joe left the room and Annie assumed she was dismissed. She turned to her cameraman, who’d been fiddling with one of his lights the whole time.

“Carl, you available to help me with this?”

“Of course. Whatever you need.”

The list of what she needed running in her head was too long to mention. “Thanks. I guess we’d better get to work.”

“You’ve already got the script in your head, don’t you?” Carl grinned at her.

He knew her too well. She shrugged. “Kind of. A rough draft anyway.”

Carl shook his head. “That’s why I love working with you. Nothing throws you. Just get it done, no matter what.”

That wasn’t exactly true. Chelsea had thrown her. Hell, Luke had thrown Annie too. Her feelings for him. That night of sex she would never forget. And the sight of Lilly’s hands all over him in the church pew, not to mention the killer looks Lilly had been shooting Annie when she’d seen her with Luke.

Speaking of Luke. Annie reached into her bag for her cell. “I better get a hold of Luke and give him a heads up about this story. Things should be settled down now that the funeral is over.”

“How was that anyway?”

She frowned at Carl. “How was what? The funeral?”

“Yeah. I had a side job. There was no way I could have made it, as much as I would have liked to have been there.”

Annie would never forget that funeral. She remembered one of the toughest men she knew shaking in her arms. “There was a really nice turn out for Mr. Carpenter. There wasn’t a seat left in the church for the service. I was happy to see that, for Luke’s family’s sake.”

“Yeah, he was a good man, Charles Carpenter. You never think of champions like that ever dying. Especially not so young.”

“Champions…” In the middle of that anger about her bubbly, blond replacement, and the anguish of leaving Luke in Lilly’s possession, Annie had temporarily forgotten that Luke’s father had been a champion tie-down roper back in his day. “That’s the angle we’ll take. We’ll focus on Charles Carpenter’s career. Dammit. I wish we had more time. I bet there are some great old pictures or maybe even some footage in the station’s archives.”

Carl whipped out his phone. “I think I can help there.”

“Who are you calling?”

He glanced up from pushing buttons. “My daughter just started interning at the station. I told you, remember?”

“You think she could find us something to use?” Annie’s heart kicked into high gear with excitement. She glanced at the time display on her cell phone. “And can she find it in the next few hours?”

“I’m sure gonna ask her to try.”

As Carl connected with his daughter, their potential savior for today, adrenaline began to surge through Annie. She was going to make this the best damn piece the network had ever seen. That would show them.

“We thought we’d have two of you,” Annie grumbled beneath her breath in a tone to mock her idiot boss and the youth-oriented network that had hired him and Chelsea. “Ha! She is no me.”

This tribute to Luke’s father would prove that.

Annie whipped open her own phone and scrolled down the contact list, through all the riders’ numbers until she hit upon Luke. Then her heart beat harder for a different reason. She dreaded calling him as much as she anticipated it. They were still in that weird place after their night together. But they had promised each other that their professional lives would not change because of it and this was a professional matter. She needed to at least let him know, if not get his approval, for the piece about his father.

She pushed the button and waited. Annie realized she was having trouble breathing normally as she anticipated hearing Luke answer the phone. When she did hear the deep timbre of his voice, it was only his voicemail message coming on.

He must be busy, too busy to answer her call. There had to be a lot to do there on the ranch, especially with his father gone. It wasn’t like he was avoiding her call or anything. Was it?

The insecurity-fueled thoughts in her brain buzzed with a noise that vied with her ability to think rationally and tried to make her crazy. Thoughts like how men didn’t respect women who called them or that he might think she’s bothering him or stalking him filled her brain.

Annie forced herself to leave a message—whether it was coherent or not was up for debate—then she closed the phone. The time on the display flashed at her again, a reminder of her impossible deadline. She didn’t have the leisure of being paranoid now. She had a piece to do.

Chapter Twelve

“Mom. I got that.”

Luke’s mother struggled down the stairs with a suitcase that probably weighed nearly as much as she did. She relinquished control of the handle to him. “Thanks, sweetie.”

“What is in this thing?” He grabbed the railing with one hand as the weight of the suitcase pulled on his other hand, just as the cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He’d have to remember to check that and see who had been calling. Right now, it was all he could do to not topple down the stairs. How the hell had his mother thought she’d be able to carry this herself? With her superwoman complex, Luke really couldn’t trust her to be alone. It had been the right decision he’d made to stick around.

“Some of your father’s old clothes that are still in good shape.”

Luke set the bag down on the floor and stared at his mother. “You’re clearing out his stuff already?”

The funeral had only been the day before yesterday. He normally admired his mother’s efficiency, but this was one case where he’d rather she drag her feet a little. Everything was moving at the speed of light, and though Luke was used to that from his career—or rather his former career—it was all too fast right now.

“The church is having a rummage sale next weekend. This stuff isn’t doing us any good sitting here gathering dust in the closet. The sooner I can get it over there, the sooner the committee can get it sorted, hung and tagged.” She acted like they were talking about any old junk, not his father’s things. Then again, people all dealt with their grief in their own way. Maybe this, keeping busy, was the way she dealt.

Luke needed to find his own way to deal because so far what he was doing wasn’t working so well.

Accepting this was what his mother needed to do, Luke picked up the bag again. “All right. I’ll put this in the truck for you.”

“Thanks, honey. I’ll run up and get the other one.”

There was more? He set the suitcase back down on the floor with a thud. “Mom, wait. I’ll get that one too.”

She continued up the stairs. “No need. It’s much smaller.”

He somehow doubted that. With a sigh, Luke set off up the stairs. He stumbled to a stop in the room his mother and father had shared for as long as he could remember. There were piles of clothes everywhere. Yet at closer look, the chaos appeared to be laid out in orderly groupings.

His mother noticed his gaze moving from one towering mountain of clothing to another. She pointed to one. “That pile on the bed is things that will fit you and that you might get some use out of. The pile on the floor is things that are just too worn out so that’s all for the garbage. And that pile on the desk isn’t in good enough shape to sell at the church sale, but we can drop it off at the men’s shelter next time one of us is going out that way.”

Luke drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All right. I’ll get some big trash bags to put the garbage and donations in.”

She turned and whipped out a wad of black plastic from somewhere behind her. “No need. I’ve got them. I’ll bring the stuff on the bed to your room if you want. That way you can go through it and put it away when you have time.”

Time wasn’t the issue. His inability to move on was though.

“All right. Just let me load the truck with the two bags for church.”

“Thanks, honey.” She grabbed his father’s old flannel shirt from the top of the pile for the shelter and shook it out before folding it neatly.

Luke grabbed the smaller suitcase from the floor, about to make his escape. It was too much. He needed to get out of there. With one foot already out in the hall, he turned back toward his mother. “I want to get an early start on the afternoon chores after I load the truck.”

“Sure thing, sweetie.” As she continued filling a trash bag with the things that had once belonged to his father, Luke fought the sick feeling in his gut.

At least in the barn he’d find some peace. His mother hadn’t started divesting them of his father’s saddle or ropes, and if she tried, he wouldn’t let her. If nothing else, that one spot would be for Luke and his memories. She’d have to allow him that much.

The rote movements of the daily routine on the ranch were a mixed blessing. On one hand, he could let his mind go blank and just go through the motions of the things he’d done for years with his father, and now alone. On the other hand, memories of his father filled every corner of the barn. Worse, Luke had too much time to think about the rest of the guys. What they might be doing at that very moment. And Annie. Normally he’d be making sure to “accidentally” run into her in the hallway as they all got ready before the event. Or he’d be trying to catch glances of her working. Her smile lighting her face whether she was on camera or off.

The way things had been moving with them, there would have been a good chance he’d have arrived at work with her, though she’d probably want to pretend they hadn’t, which he understood. He let out a big sigh.

Annie may be his biggest regret of all. They had no chance now. Not with her on the road with the tour and him here on the ranch. He’d tried that with Lilly for far too long, and it had failed miserably. He didn’t want to fail with Annie. They were over before they’d ever really got started. That, as much as his sudden retirement while he was still at the high point of his career, stung.

The barn door swung wider and a shadow filled the doorway and blocked the sunlight streaming in.

“Hey.” Through the glare and dust, Luke heard his friend’s familiar voice.

“Hey, Chris.” Luke dumped the bucket of feed he’d had in his hand into Maverick’s dish. In response the horse gave him a soft nicker followed by a snort that sounded more like “about time” than it did “thanks”. Even his livestock wasn’t giving him time to recover from the loss of both his father and his career. Life went on, he supposed. For better or for worse. “So what brings you around?”

Chris shoved his hands in his jacket pockets against the chill in the air. “You about done here?”

“Yeah. Just let me top off his water bucket and then I’m done. Why? What you got in mind?” Any distraction would be welcome at this point.

Chris shrugged. “I don’t know. You want to go into town for a drink?”

In town people would come up to him and want to ask how he was doing. He wasn’t in the mood for that. It had been bad enough when he’d almost had to go with his mother to the church. When she’d come out to the barn to tell him she was taking the truck to drop off the bags and he’d offered to drive her, she’d said she would go alone. That was probably a good thing. He wasn’t in a sociable mood today.

“How about we pick up a couple of six-packs and drink them at your house instead?” Luke glanced hopefully at Chris.

“Sure. We can do that.” Chris continued to watch him in that strange way he had, like he was seeing deeper than Luke wanted him to. “You okay?”

And there was that question again. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Chris planted a boot on a bale of hay and leaned one elbow on his knee, then focused on Luke’s face. “Look, Luke. I’m just going to say it. There’s an event on TV tonight. The one you’d be riding in if nothing had happened. I know it and you know it, so let’s just get it out there in the open.”

Luke’s brow rose. “Okay. So the event’s on TV. They always are. What exactly are we getting out in the open?”

“Your feelings.”

“My feelings? You’ve been watching too many daytime talk shows.” Luke scowled and dragged the hose across the barn floor.

“Joke if you want, but we both know you’d rather things were different. So I guess the question is are we going to get drunk and not watch it and pretend you don’t wish you were there riding tonight? Or are we going to get drunk and watch it and pretend you don’t feel bad that you’re not there?”