Page 54 of Saving Mr. Bell

“Yeah. I’m not sure you even realized who you were speaking to. I asked you to call me back, but…”

I winced. “Sorry. I was a bit of a mess.”

My father turned his head to study me. “What changed?”

“Someone rescued me from myself.”

“Someone?”

“Do you remember Arlo Thomas?”

My father thought for a minute, a frown marring his brow until realization struck. “The documentary maker.”

“The documentary maker,” I agreed, my lips curling into a smile. “I’ve been with him for the last eleven days in a log cabin in Austria.” I studied my father carefully. When there were zero signs of disapproval, I continued. “We’re kind of a thing. Or at least I hope we are. I promised I’d go back. I just need to sort my life out first. He’s been good for me. He helped me rediscover my love of music.”And so much more.

“I see.” A guarded response from my father, which told me nothing. “Did you bump into each other?”

“You could say that.” There were definitely times when the truth didn’t help anyone, and this was one of them. If I told my father that Arlo had pulled some strings to find out my movements, tracked me down to a hotel in Austria, and then waited for me outside a nightclub, my father would be justified in telling me to stay away from him. If everything turned out the way I hoped, I doubted it would be a story we’d be telling people when they asked how we’d gotten together. “Why did you pull the plug on the documentary back then?”

My father reached out and poked one of the tree ornaments—a bell, ironically—to set it swinging, and we both followed its movements. “You were growing too enamored with each other.”

“And you wanted me to be straight?”

He turned his head and pinned me with his gaze. “You might not believe me, and I might not always have gone about it in the best way… Ms. Turner’s appointment is proof of that, but I’ve never wanted you to be anything but happy. Man… woman… donkey… It’s all the same to me.”

I snorted. “Well, the good news is I’m definitely not into donkeys. If it wasn’t the gay thing, what was it?”

“You were too young. And you were both too ambitious at that juncture in your lives. How do you imagine it would have gone if you’d gotten together?”

I gave it some thought, picturing the Arlo I’d met six years ago. I hadn’t been a virgin, but I hadn’t exactly been brimming over with sexual experience either. “I don’t think we would have lasted.”

My father turned to face me. “And do you think you’ll last now?”

I pictured Arlo’s face—the slight lop-sided way he smiled; the way he rolled his eyes; the slight flush that suffused his skin when he got aroused; how he threw himself into any activity, whether it was sledging or playing cards; the way he couldn’t use an axe for shit. “I really hope so.”

My father pulled me into a hug, and I went willingly. I really had been blind for the past few years to believe he was the enemy. I vowed to do better from now on. With everything. My career. My family. And my boyfriend, assuming Arlo would have me. My father rested his chin on top of my head. “I’ll look forward to meeting him. Perhaps he’d be good enough to pretend it’s the first time.”

I laughed. “Temporary amnesia that only affects one period in his life. I’ll tell him, and I’m sure he’ll be happy to oblige.”

“I have one piece of advice for you,” my father said. “Something you might not want to listen to.”

I pulled back so I could see his face. “What?”

“You’ve just sacked your manager and all the other people who work for you.”

“Not all,” I argued. “I still have a bodyguard.” My father’s expression wasn’t quite an eye roll, but I suspected he’d thought about it. “Most,” I conceded.

“So before you disappear again, you need to put things in place. Someone to pick up the pieces if you’re serious about making your own decisions from here on in. Or your reputation might not recover enough for you to have that luxury.”

Just because I didn’t want to hear it, didn’t mean he wasn’t one hundred percent correct. Perhaps I’d been a little hasty in firing Jade, but it had felt too damn good for me to truly regret it.

Chapter Twenty

Arlo

“I’m coming back.”Whatever I did in the cabin, wherever I was, those words kept playing on a loop. I’d believed them for the first three days, any noise from outside making me rush to the window in eager anticipation of watching Rudolf get out of a car and run into my arms. By day four, that confidence had waned. And now it was day seven. An entire week. All without asingle word from Rudolf since he’d replied to the one and only text message I’d sent him.

Sure, I could have called him, but something had stopped me from taking that step. An unwillingness to face the truth? A fear of rejection? I didn’t know. All I knew was that he hadn’t come back. Was he back clubbing? Had he gone straight from my bed into someone else’s? If so, there was no pretending I wasn’t jealous and that it didn’t hurt.

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