Page 17 of Country Road Romance

For a split second Jared thought that Charlie was going to kiss him, and then the moment passed, and they were both just awkwardly looking at each other.

“It sure seems like Rebecca has a strong hold on your career,” Charlie said at last. “I know how that feels. Sheri has something similar to me. I know that she’s hard on me because she wants the best for me and my career, but sometimes I get the feeling she looks at me like someone she’s babysitting. It’s not the bestfeeling in the world. And then she recruited you to do the same thing.”

“I mean, sure, when looked at in a certain light it does seem like I was asked to be your babysitter,” Jared said, feeling like he was groping his way blindly forward. “But I’ve actually sort of enjoyed it.”

Now why did I say that?

Once again there was a moment of tension between them when everything–from a kiss to something else–was on the table, and then there came a knock at the door.

Damn it,Jared thought.Of course someone would have to show up just before the good stuff happened.

“Um…should I get it or should you?” he asked Charlie.

Charlie sighed, his shoulders slumping. “I guess I should get it. It’s almost certainly Sheri.”

Before Charlie could get to his feet, however, there came the familiar beep of a key card, and then Sheri was striding into the room. Her heels click-click-clicked ominously on the floor.

It was her face, though, which made his stomach turn to ice. If looks could kill, both he and Charlie would be dead.

“You,” she said, fixing him in her hard gaze, “out.” She jerked her head, and he seemed to be moving before he even realized that was what he was doing. He tried to give Charlie a reassuring look, but the actor’s eyes were fixed on Sheri.

This isn’t going to be good for either of us,he thought as he scuttled toward the door like a particularly awkward crab.I just hope that Charlie doesn’t let his temper get the better of him this time.

Judging from how terrified Charlie looked, however, he didn’t think that was very likely.

Jared opened the door as quickly as he could–managing to knock the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the floor in the process–and then he was outside, leaning against it. He briefly thought abouteavesdropping, but immediately decided against it. It wouldn’t just be a violation of Charlie’s privacy; he also knew that it wasn’t going to be long before he was getting his own earful from Rebecca.

In fact, as soon as he looked down at his phone he could see that she’d sent him a text.

MEET ME IN THE HOTEL BAR. NOW.

Great. I love it when she uses all caps.

However, there was no getting out of what was to come and so, a few minutes later, he was sitting across from Rebecca who, despite the late hour, looked immaculately put-together. She shook her head and took a long sip of her martini.

“I swear, Jared, sometimes I just don’t know about you. I gave you one job, and you managed to not only not keep Charlie out of trouble, you let him get into a fistfight. What were you thinking?”

Jared shrugged, because that was basically the only thing he could think of to do.

That wasn’t going to be good enough for Rebecca, however.

“You’re going to have to do better than just the patented Jared shrug,” she said. “You really messed up, J, and now we’re all going to have to pitch in to dig Charlie out of the shit.”

He knew it was serious when she referred to him only as “J.” It was one of those things she liked to do when she was really upset with him.

“I don’t know what I was supposed to do,” he said defensively. “He was just defending me, you know. Seriously. The guy was asking for it, Rebecca. He’d been harassing Charlie all day, and then he came to the bar and was pulling the same shit. He even shoved me and…well, I guess that was just too much for Charlie.” He tried to hide how much pleasure he got out of the idea of Charlie defending him, but he didn’t think he was entirely successful.

She sighed and took an even longer sip. “If it’s the guy I’m thinking of, I’m not surprised that things ended up this way. He’s always making an ass of himself. I kind of suspect that Councilman Rhodes puts him up to it.”

“Are you really suggesting that Rhodes is some sort of secret manipulator? The man has the intelligence of a sack of potatoes.”

“Don’t underestimate him, Jared. That’s your problem,” she said, wagging the toothpick at him, “you always think you’re the smartest person in the room, and that makes you careless.”

“You got me there,” he said. “But in my defense, it’s not always easy to be the smartest person in the room.”

“I really don’t think you’re taking this with the seriousness it deserves,” she said. “Charlie’s career could be on the line here.”

She was acting as if he didn’t know that.

---