Page 4 of Country Road Romance

A brief moment of uncomfortable silence ensued, and then the publicist–whose name Jared still didn’t know–broke in.

“Are you two going to just stand there making goo goo eyes at each other, or are we going to get to the hotel? We don’t have all day, you know.” She gestured at the largely empty airportparking lot. “And it’s not going to be too much longer before this place starts up and the reporters show up.”

“Of course, of course,” Jared said. “That was really rude of me. Right this way.”

“Don’t worry about your luggage,” the publicist said. “I’ll make sure that it gets to the hotel right after you do.” She gave the bed of the truck a very dismissive look. “I wouldn’t want to see any of it get…damaged.”

Jared felt a momentary bit of embarrassment, because it was true that he hadn’t cleaned it out before coming out here.

“Thanks, Sheri,” Charlie said. “I knew I could count on you.”

The next minute the two of them were getting into the truck. Jared noted with approval that Charlie didn’t need any help getting in; in fact, he looked like he’d been doing it his whole life. Before Sheri could make any more sarcastic comments they were barrelling down the hill and toward the city.

I just hope this ride goes quickly,Jared thought.Because I don’t want to spend the rest of my day babysitting.

“Thanks for coming out to get me,” Charlie said, his voice a deep rumble. “I’m sure that you had other things that you’d rather be doing than going out of your way to come up here.”

Jared was a bit taken aback by this offering of gratitude, but he managed to stammer out something that he thought was at least somewhat gracious.

“You don’t like me very much, do you?” Charlie asked.

The blunt honesty of the question took Jared aback, and he couldn’t think of anything to say. Instead he just kept his eyes on the road ahead.

“It’s okay, you know,” Charlie went on. “I’m used to it. There are a lot of people around here who kind of don’t like it that I went and made something of myself, got out of my little podunk town.” Out of the corner of his eye Jared saw Charlie shrug. “I guess I can understand where they’re coming from. And then, ofcourse, there are the ones who don’t like it that one of the most famous people to come out of West Virginia is a queer. That rubs some of them the wrong way, believe me.”

“I’m not one of those, you can be sure,” Jared said, gritting his teeth. “But as it happens you’re right. I’m not a big fan. You talk a big game about being proud of where you came from, and yet you almost never come back here, and when you do it’s just to helicopter in, do a good deed or two, and then leave. Not exactly what one would expect of a proud son of the Mountain State, is it?”

Even though he didn’t look to see what the effects of his words were, he was conscious of Charlie stiffening beside him. He waited for a Hollywood-sized explosion or tantrum, but none came. Instead, the star just sighed.

“I guess you’re right,” he said defeatedly. “I’m just another big shot celebrity without much substance.”

Jared was so surprised by the fact that Charlie didn’t even put up a fight that he could think of nothing further to say, and the rest of the ride proceeded in a tense silence. When they got to the hotel Charlie got out, his face still an expressionless mask. There was no sign of the gregarious guy of a half hour before. In fact, he almost acted like a robot.

Well, what did you expect?Jared thought.You treated him like he was dirt, and he responded accordingly. You can’t really blame him for that.

What really surprised Jared, however, was how guilty Charlie looked, almost as if he was hiding something. There was no time to ask him about what it might be, however, because before Jared could even offer anything resembling an apology, Charlie was gone.

That definitely could have gone better,Jared thought.Rebecca is not going to be happy about this. At all.

CHAPTER 2

Well, that could certainly have gone better,Charlie thought to himself as he walked into the hotel and went up to the front desk.Of course, I can’t really blame the guy. From his point of view I’m just another arrogant celebrity who cut and ran as soon as I could and never looked back. If I was in his shoes,I’dhate me.

Charlie had wanted to tell Jared about all of the times that he’d tried to start various projects in one part of the state or another, only to be stymied by either recalcitrant leaders reluctant to be seen taking money or joining up with a gay celebrity, no matter how famous or successful they were. Or about all of the times that a project had fallen through because a bunch of protesters showed up, and Sheri, bless her heart, had said that it was just too damaging to his brand to be associated with it.

“Remember, Charlie,” she’d said. “Your fanbase is Midwest moms. They don’t want their golden boy to get caught up in a lot of drama. They don’t care that you’re gay. Just don’t make a big deal out of it.”

She’d made sure that all of those efforts, and all of Charlie’s snarky comments about them in interviews, were swept safelyunder the rug and that the only image anyone saw of Charlie Garrett was one that had been carefully curated and approved by the executives of the Romance Network and by Sheri herself. These days it really took some digging to get to some of his more indiscrete moments, and Sheri and the other powers-that-be kept him on a very tight leash.

But, of course, he hadn’t said any of that to Jared, had he? Instead, he’d just sat there and let him say those things, and now here they were. It was a frustrating position to be in, but he was used to it by now. Or as used to it as he was likely to be.

He walked up to the front desk, hoping in a distant way that the receptionist wouldn’t recognize him and that he could enjoy a moment of anonymity. Unfortunately that hope was immediately dashed, and he wasn’t surprised at this, either. It was just the way his day was going.

“Oh my God!” she said with that southern West Virginia twang that immediately made him feel at home. “You’re Charlie Garrett. They said that you were going to be arriving sometime today, but I had no idea it was going to be while I was on shift.” There was such transparent joy in her face that he couldn’t bring himself to feel aggrieved, not even when she asked for a selfie (even though, as she confided to him, that was against the hotel rules).

Fortunately, she didn’t belabor the whole thing, for which he was grateful. He was already quite tired, and he really just wanted to get into his room as quickly as possible, so that he could have a little bit of peace and quiet before the real chaos started. The Mountain State Queer Film Festival was only slated to take place during the weekend, and he knew that he was going to be busy almost the entire time.

It would have been nice to have some time to explore Huntington and the surrounding area, but when he’d proposed this to Sheri, she’d let him know in no uncertain terms that hemustnotgo off on his own for any reason. Doing so would only risk things going off the rails, and that was to be avoided at all costs.

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