Page 14 of Country Road Romance

Suddenly the entire bar went quiet: there was no music, no chatter, nothing. Everyone was looking at them, and Charlie felt his anger draining away, leaving behind a sick feeling in his stomach.

“What did you just do?” Jared hissed. “What did you justdo?”

Charlie looked at where the homophobe lay sprawled out on the floor. There was no denying the look of vicious glee on his face as he rubbed his jaw. He’d set the trap and Charlie, always willing to look before he leaped, had fallen right into it.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” he managed to stammer out, even though he wasn’t.

Jared rolled his eyes, but Charlie could have sworn that he also looked like he was a little impressed, too.

This is going to get very ugly, very quickly,he thought.

In fact, the several patrons were already fleeing toward the exits, while others were holding up their phones. This included Paul, because of course he wasn’t going to let this opportunity go by. He had his camera up and was recording every horrible second of this, his eyes alight with malicious glee.

Great, just what I needed. A jealous ex making this situation even worse.

“Don’t worry, bigshot. I’m not going to press charges,” the homophobe said as he got to his feet. He gestured at all of the phones held up in their direction. “I think you’ve done enough damage to yourself.”

Well,he thought,fuck.

CHAPTER 5

Dancing with Charlie had been everything that Jared could have imagined and then some, which meant that it was very dangerous. It had been a long time since he’d felt that physically close to someone, and the fact that it was Charlie Garrett of all people…well, that was a complication, but he pushed it away for the moment.

Then the homophobe had come up to them, had shoved Jared just a bit too hard, and everything had turned to shit when Charlie decided to take a swing at him, leading to a stampede toward the exits, to say nothing of the people who’d caught the whole thing on camera.

Oh come on people, calm down, it’s just a little physical altercation, not a bomb threat,Jared thought.

Even though he’d been short with Charlie right after the punch, truth be told he was more than a little impressed with him right then. That guy had been making a nuisance of himself, and he’d basically been asking for it. Then he thought about the impact this would almost certainly have on the film festival, and his mind started racing with thoughts about how Rebecca was going to respond to this. He’d had one job–to keep Charlie Garrett out of trouble–and insead he’d led him right into it.

At least he was doing it for something worthwhile, though. That was the part that made Jared feel conflicted. It also made him wonder whether there was something more to Charlie Garrett than he’d been willing to let himself acknowledge. Beneath the movie star good looks and charm and gloss, he thought he saw something else, some shadow, perhaps, of the lonely little boy that he’d once been, growing up in a holler with a family who didn’t really understand him and didn’t seem to want to.

“Well, your boyfriend certainly put his foot in it, didn’t he?” Paul said, disrupting his troubled thoughts.

Of all the people to be in the bar tonight, why did it have to be him?

“Paul, do you mind?” he asked, turning to face his ex. “I know you don’t have any reason to do me any favors, but please, knock off the recording?”

Unsurprisingly, Paul didn’t even stop what he was doing as Jared was talking. He only stopped once the homophobe got to his feet and left the bar, and Jared had no doubt that he was sending this video to his own social media followers.

“You don’t have to be such an asshole all the time, you know,” he said, “even though I know it’s kind of your brand.”

Paul raised one immaculately-sculpted eyebrow, as if he found all of this immensely funny. Which he almost certainly did, because he wasthatkind of gay.

“It’s so like you to want to make everything about you,” he said in that lazy drawl that Jared had once found incredibly sexy but which was now excruciating. “First you drag this two-bit TV star here so everyone will look at you, and then you act like a whiny little girl whenever it all goes south.” He clicked his tongue. “It’s all so tediously predictable.”

“You know, Charlie’s not the only one who can throw a punch,” he grated out, even though they both knew it was an empty threat.

“Oh Jared, don’t ever change,” Paul said. “Enjoy your time with your new boyfriend, and I’ll enjoy the social media clout this will give me. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even get an article out of it. That way at least one of us will end up being a success as a writer.”

Just this once Jared decided to take the high road.

“Just try to be less of an asshole,” he said and turned back to Charlie, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

How did this guy ever make it in an industry like Hollywood?Jared thought.He always seems so innocent.

“Charlie, we’ve got to get you out of here,” he said.

“That guy…he’s, uh, not going to press charges. He thinks I’ve already done enough damage without that.”

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