Love Believes (Sully Point, Book 5) (7 page)

She parked on the street in front of Julia's and
realized she didn't know if Julia would be in yet. Fortunately, she was sitting
at her desk, and jumped up to come unlock the door for Beth.

"I didn't expect you this early."

"I am determined to get that office under
control today, so I thought I'd better start first thing this morning."

"Good idea," Julia said. "Do you
want coffee?"

"Not right now. I'll come down later for a
break and get some then."

"Great velvet blazer by the way."

"Thanks!"

Beth went upstairs and began to go through some of
the stacks of paper she'd created yesterday. She had been working steadily for
some time when Mr. Christopher entered the room.

"Good morning, Beth. Early start?"

"Yes. How are you today--what is that?"

"The tablet. I took it home with me last
night."

"You worked on it? On your own?" She was
somewhat incredulous. He'd been a disaster at it yesterday.

"I took your advice and played some games on
it, and that helped me get the hang of working with it. I've decided you might
be right about using it for my notes. It's quite easy to get them in
here."

Beth smiled at him. "I'm impressed. I was
sure you'd refuse to try it anymore. I clearly misjudged you."

He gave her a smile and then turned to go. She
sighed mentally. He really was sexy in his black clothes, jacket over one arm,
walking away from her. He glanced back at her.

"Was there something else?"

"What? Oh, no, nothing." Had he heard
her sigh?

"I'll see you later. I'm going over to the Playhouse
to meet with Milton. Should be back in an hour."

Get a grip, girl, she said to herself. He is so
off limits!

She was deep in the spreadsheet that would show
all Playhouse costs, when she heard footsteps on the stairs. Her pulse
quickened a bit as she realized she'd be seeing Mr. Christopher in a minute.

But it wasn't Mr. Christopher.

Chapter 3

Andy Benton, the director from L.A. strode into
the office and up to her desk. She scrambled to her feet in a state of complete
and utter shock. He couldn't be here!

"Who the hell do you think you are? Nobody
leaves me a message and walks out on a part like that. Nobody! I don't know
what you think you're doing here in this pissant little town, but you need to
come back to L.A. and do my show. Everyone involved expected to see you as the
lead, after I told them I had the next big talent. I made up an excuse for this
week, but this is nuts."

"How," her voice faltered. She took a
deep breath and released it slowly. "How did you find me?"

"Your neighbor. You told her you were
visiting your famous writer brother. Took me about two seconds on the computer.
Then when I got into this godforsaken village, I made some phone calls. Plus I ran
into a woman on the street who told me where you were working."

Maelynne! Beth thought with rising anger.

"I'm not letting some idiotic little wannabe
actress make me lose face. I told them you'd be in the show and you will be!
Now, when are you going to get your ass back to L.A.?"

Shaking, Beth straightened her shoulders and folded
her arms across her chest. "No," she said. "I'm not going back.
You need to leave. Now."

There was a slight tremor in her voice, but it was
barely noticeable and for that Beth was glad. She didn't want to appear weak to
this sorry excuse for a man.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing? I
can crush you! You'll never work as an actress anywhere ever again. You're
coming with me or you'll regret it."

"I said no, and I meant it. Please
leave."

"Listen to me, you stupid--"

"That's enough!" Mr. Christopher said as
he walked quickly into the room. "I overheard everything, and the lady
asked you to leave. Get out of here."

Benton stared in shock at the other man.
"What the--I don't know who you are, buddy, but--"

With a crash he fell to the floor as Mr. Christopher
swung and punched him in the face.

"William!" Beth burst out. "What
did you do?"

Mr. Christopher shook his hand carefully. "I
hit him. And maybe I broke a bone in my hand."

She hurried around the desk to cradle his hand
gently in hers. "I have no idea if you did or not. We'd better get you x-rayed.
But what do we do about him?"

"Let's call your brother."

"I never told Sam what happened between
Benton and me. He won't know what's going on."

"My hand is probably fine. Why don't you run
downstairs and see if Julia has any ice? I'll stay here with him. I think he's
coming around."

Beth glanced at the man on the floor, shuddered,
and then raced out of the office. Mr. Christopher had hit Benton! And, she
remembered, she'd called him William.

Deciding not to think on that just yet, she ran
into the kitchen where Julia was making coffee.

"Ready for some coffee? What's wrong?"
Julia asked after one look at Beth's face.

"Ice! I need ice for Mr. Christopher's hand.
He, uh, hurt it."

"In the fridge here." Julia handed a
kitchen towel to Beth who filled it with ice. "I thought I heard you guys
yelling again. Everything okay?"

"Uh, no, I mean yes, everything is fine. We
weren't yelling."

"But I thought I heard--"

"Gotta get this up to him," Beth said, and
ran for the stairs.

When she got into the office, Benton was sitting
on a chair, rubbing his jaw. He was glaring at William, but saying nothing.

"I think we're clear now, right Benton? Ms.
Carter will be staying here, involving herself with the family business. You'll
be leaving."

Beth enjoyed hearing the icy, firm tones in
William's voice directed at Benton.

"All right. But don't ever think you'll work
in L.A., Carter. You're done for out there." He stood up and clearly looked
as if he wanted to say more, but one look from William and he ended up stalking
out of the room and down the stairs.

They both listened for the front door to open and
close, and then they let out gusty sighs of relief at the same time. Looking at
each other they started to laugh, while Beth handed over the ice pack.

"That was...unexpected," he said.
"I came up right after him and heard it all. I wouldn't have stepped in
and interfered but he sounded like he was potentially dangerous. I didn't want
anything to happen to you."

"Thanks, I think you were right."

"Did you call me William?" he asked
without preliminary.

Startled, she said, "Yes. I did. Sorry about
that. I won't--"

"No, I liked it. You can call me that
whenever you want. It is my name after all."

"Oh."

"Unless you'd rather call me Mr. Christopher."

"No, I'd like to call you William."

"Fine, that's good. Fine." He looked
down at the ice pack on his hand. "I suppose I should go get this looked
at."

"Let's ask Julia where you should go. Maybe
there's some kind of clinic nearby," Beth said. She knew she'd been
blushing, and just hoped he hadn't noticed. It was only a name for goodness
sake!

They trooped downstairs, where Julia rushed over
to ask what had happened.

"I hit something," he replied.

"An accident?"

"No, it was on purpose. The jaw of that
fellow who just left."

Julia looked from Beth to William and back to
Beth. "Who was he? I hadn't seen him come in and he surprised me when he
came downstairs."

"He was nobody," Beth said quickly.

"Beth, you might as well tell her,"
William said. "Remember what he said? He ran into Maelynne, I would bet.
She's the one who told him you were here. It will be all over town that a man
was asking about you. You need to clear it up with your family."

"Damn, just...damn."

Julia watched Beth's face but didn't say anything
else.

"Look, I'll tell you everything, but I need
to tell my brother and sister first, or they will be totally pissed at me.
Plus, we need to get William to a doctor to look at his hand. Is there a walk-in
clinic somewhere?"

Julia nodded. "Go over to Doc Watson's
office, just off the square, the street that runs next to the movie theater. He
can fix you up."

"I'll drive you over there, William,"
Beth said. "After all, it was my honor you were defending. Tell you what,
Julia. Why don't you call Maggie and Sam and see if they have time to come over
here. I'll talk to all three of you when I get back."

"I can do that. You have me very
curious."

Beth ran upstairs to grab her handbag and then led
the way out to her car.

"Nice car," William said.

"It belongs to Sam, just a loaner I'm
afraid."

They caught Doc Watson as he was leaving his
office on a coffee break. "Come on in, I can get coffee later. Let's see
what we have here," he said.

He took one look at William's hand and chuckled.
"Hit something did you? Or was it someone?"

"A person, yes."

"Thought so." He manipulated the hand to
a few winces. "I don't think anything is broken, but let's get an x-ray to
be sure. Walk out that door there, through the walkway into the building next
door. They have the testing equipment over there. A new feature in town since
the Grainger Foundation got started."

Within minutes, the hand had been x-rayed and Doc
Watson was looking at the result. "You were lucky. No bones broken. Keep
ice on it today. Should be fine." He sent them on their way with a smile.

"Nice doctor," William said. "A no
nonsense kind of man."

They drove back to the office in silence as Beth
tried to think of the best way to tell the story to Maggie and Sam. Finally,
she decided to just be honest. She walked into Julia's Place and saw Sam, Anna,
Maggie and Eric sitting on the curved couches in the bay window. Julia was
bringing in cups of coffee and Cody was right behind her with a tray of
cookies.

"I didn't expect such a crowd," Beth
said as she sat down.

"You don't hear of Mr. Christopher beating up
on someone very often. We thought we should all be here," Cody said.

As they turned to face her, Beth took a deep
breath and began her story about the director named Andy Benton. She saw
outrage on Sam's face and confusion on Maggie's, who probably couldn't believe
someone could be so awful.

"So you see, I had to figure it out, figure
out what to do. Then I realized there was no way I'd sleep with him for a job,
and that's when I knew I needed to just get out of there. It was the last straw
for me with L.A. and that's when I called you, Sam, for the airplane
tickets."

"That much we understand," Anna said.
"But what happened today?"

"Somehow Benton found me."

"Oh my God, that was me!" Maggie said,
all in a fluster. "Someone called at Sam's house the other day when I was
babysitting Josh. They said they were calling for you, Beth, with a part. The
man sounded so nice, I told him he could reach you at Julia's Place. I never
dreamed...oh Beth, I'm so sorry!"

Beth shook her head. "No, it's not your
fault. It's his fault. But that does explain how he knew to come here. He was
confronting me and telling me I had to come back to L.A. with him and when he
threatened me, William, er, Mr. Christopher, walked in and punched him in the
face."

"Good man," Cody said.

"Excellent," Sam said.

Eric gave a thumb's up.

"Anyway, his hand wasn't broken, so we came
back here to tell all of you the story," Beth finished.

William cleared his throat. "My question is
will he stay away? Sure, I told him off and to never come back, but he was
still mad when left."

"I'm on it," Sam said, grimly. "I
have a protective service and I'll call and have them send some people down
here, just in case. Plus, I'll have them keep track of this Benton for a while,
just to see what he's up to and to make sure he stays away from Sully
Point."

Beth almost spoke up to say her brother was going to
too much trouble, but then she remembered the look on the director's face as he
was leaving. Better to be safe, she realized.

* * * *

William watched her setting food out on the table
from the microwave. She'd insisted on picking up a supper of white lasagna,
with chicken and mushrooms, from Deb's Deli, so he'd have something good for
dinner.

He was surprised at his behavior from earlier.
Never in his adult life had he punched a man in the jaw. But it had been
automatic, to come to Beth's rescue, to keep her safe, to make that jerk pay
for threatening her.

It wasn't like him. Not at all. He rubbed a hand
across his chin and sat back in his chair at the table. Beth handed him a
drink, a glass of white wine.

"I drink Crown Royal," he said gruffly.

"So tonight you drink white wine. You don't
need whiskey. Just sip your wine and relax."

"Hmph."

He tried a bit of the wine and discovered that it
was a dry white, which wasn't bad. Beth hadn't asked him where anything was in
the very modern kitchen, instead looking through cabinets on her own. She
really was beautiful, he thought. And frowned. Nonsense. He couldn't--he
wouldn't--let himself feel something for an actress. It was a hard and fast
rule.

He realized she had only put one place setting at
the table. "Aren't you eating with me?"

She looked at him with widened eyes. "I
wasn't going to, but sure, if you'd like."

"There's plenty of that lasagna here. You
might as well stay and eat."

"Thank you." She sat down and they both
began to eat.

"Good food," he said.

"Yes. I'm impressed by that deli."

"You don't eat like most actresses I've met.
You eat like a real woman."

She laughed. "I have great metabolism. I eat
what I want. And I happen to love food. It's a hobby of mine."