Page 21 of Catching Coy
“So here’s my advice then.” She twisted the phone cord around her finger.
“Finally.”
“Just keep me.” She wished he could see her smile, that she could nudge him with her elbow and show she was teasing.
“You ever sign up to be onThe Catchbefore, Bells?”
“Good gravy, no. I’ve always been happy in my cheap seat on Roxy’s couch.”
“Has anyone ever told you how cute it is when you food swear?” Bellamy’s heart twittered at the warmth in his voice.
A knock sounded on the door. “Cheese curds,” Bellamy whispered, grinning at the laugh Coy gave her. “I gotta go.” She hung up before he could say anything else. She bounded across the room, pulling open the door to see Agnes.
“Yeah?”
“Lily said she thought she heard a phone ring up here.” Agnes raised an eyebrow.
“Roxy. She said the guys down at her house broke something and asked if I’d check on it in the morning. She didn’t think you’d mind if she dialed right in since she signed the non-disclosures too.” Bellamy leaned against the door.
“Well, you know I can’t let you go down and look—unless Coy’s out tomorrow.” Agnes studied Bellamy like she saw right through the excuses. Made Bellamy wonder how much Agnes had known about Gunner and Mae.
Bellamy shrugged indifferently, channeling the way Bristol had stood earlier that evening with her shoulders back and her expression impassive, like she didn’t care one way or the other. She wanted to ask Coy if that’s why he’d chosen Willa in the end. Though it was likely a mask, Bristol didn’t seem to care.
“Let me know when he and Zane head out for the day, and I’ll go down then.”
Agnes let out a soft laugh. “Sounds good.” She turned, shaking her head as she left, and walked back down the hallway to the stairs that led to the third floor, where most of the crew was staying.
Bellamy shut the door and leaned against it, smiling even though she didn’t think she’d gotten anything past Agnes. Hearing Coy’s voice, even though he hadn’t given her any reassurances, had soothed her nerves. The memory of his laugh, how he’d called her food-swears cute—maybe it would be enough to get her through another few days of this.
* * *
“I never thoughtI’d say that seventy-five degrees felt warm.”
Bellamy laughed as she jumped from where she sat behind her desk and hurried to the front door, where her mother, Kendra Hansen, had just stepped through.
“It was sixty-two in Ketchikan inAugust.” Kendra gave a shudder as Bellamy put her arms around her.
“Mom.” Bellamy’s voice shook with laughter. “You’re the only person in a fifty-mile radius who is bemoaning the fact that it’s only seventy-five and not ninety, like it’s been all week.”
“Anna Adams would agree,” Kendra said as she stepped out of the embrace, speaking of Roxy’s mom.
“Mrs. Adams doesn’t live in Wyoming anymore.”
“Smart woman.”
Bellamy beckoned to a crew member who had Kendra’s suitcase and led her mother toward the stairs. “Listen to you whine. You’d never know you were born and raised here in Little River.” Shetskedher mother and then winked as they mounted the stairs. “I figured you wouldn’t want to open up your house just for a few weeks, so you get my apartment.”
“Bell, you know how I feel about sharing a bed with you.” Kendra wrinkled her nose.
“First of all, Ido notsnore, and I don’t move that much. Second, I don’t get to sleep in my apartment. I have to stay on the second floor with the other women.” She grimaced, smiling when Kendra’s eyebrows jumped up.
“This boy is worth it?” Kendra lowered her voice, but that didn’t mean that the cameraman following them wouldn’t pick it up with the crazy-good mics on the cameras. Bellamy knew from watching the show that even the barest of whispers somehow got picked up.
Bellamy took her mom’s hand and squeezed it. “I think so.”
“You’re a brave girl, sweetie. And if things don’t work out with Coy, I’ve got a boy down in Arizona I think you’d be very interested to meet.”
Bellamy slapped her mom softly on the arm and opened the apartment.
