my phone dinged with an alert, and I jumped.
The moment I did, he took a step back and the moment was over. Once the bubble we’d been floating in popped, I suddenly felt very self-conscious. I’d been about to kiss him. Or he’d been about to kiss me. I didn’t know which and I had no idea if I should address it or ignore it.
Another ding sounded and I took that as a sign to ignore it. I looked down and saw that Randy had sent us tapes of potential hosts.
“I’ve got to get back. I need to go over some tapes.” My heart was still beating a mile a minute and I noticed that my hand was trembling as I held my phone.
“Is everything okay?”
“It will be.” I said in faith. “We lost our host and field producer. But we’re going to find backups. Don’t worry.”
“I wasn’t worried.”
“Oh, okay. Good.” I wished I had the same contained confidence that he had.
“Why don’t you do it?”
“What?”
“Why don’t you host it? The camera loves you.”
How did he know that? Had he seen the show? Had he googled me? If he had, then had he seen the sex tape?
No, I reprimanded myself. It didn’t matter if he had. That was not the important thing. The important thing was I had a job to do and I couldn’t be distracted by Jackson Briggs.
“I’m not…I prefer to be behind the camera.”
He remained quiet for a beat, still holding my gaze with his. “I think we’d make a good team.”
So did my lady parts. Which was exactly why I needed to find a replacement.
Chapter 11
Jackson
“People are like books, you can’t judge them by their covers, not the picture on the front or the description on the back. You have to read all of the chapters of their life to get the full story.”
~ Josephine Grace Clarke
I walked by Josie’s room and saw that the bed was made and there was no sign of her. It didn’t surprise me that she was up for the day since it was past ten. I’d woken up much later than I’d planned.
Sleep had eluded me the past couple of nights with Josie in the house. Not only in the house, but just ten feet away from me. In bed. My mind was stuck on that particular fact. Last night, around one in the morning, I’d gone to her door and pressed my ear to it, just to see if she was awake. I’m not even sure what I’d planned on doing if she had been, but I hadn’t heard anything, so I just went back to my room.
Yesterday, after I’d almost kissed Josie by the water tower we’d come home and she’d gone into her room to work, and stayed there all night. I’d never been a paranoid person, but the thought had crossed my mind that her hibernation may have been to avoid me. I told myself that I was being ridiculous, she was working. Still, I couldn’t shake the suspicion.
Running my hands through my hair, I headed downstairs, hoping I’d find her in the kitchen.
As I walked down the hallway, I saw the sun shining through the large bay windows above the sink as a delicious aroma of brewed coffee beans floated through the air. My dad would be on his second cup by now since he woke hours before the sunrise at 3:30 a.m.
I walked into the kitchen and found my mom sitting at the breakfast nook knitting, but Josie was nowhere to be found.
My stomach knotted in disappointment.
Without so much as lifting her head from her needlework, my mom announced, “She’s not here.”
“Who?” I asked lamely.
She raised her head and gave me her classic you-know-exactly-who-I’m-talking-about look. Instead of answering me, she continued, “She walked over to Mia’s for a meeting.”
I crossed to the cabinet and grabbed a mug. I tried to ignore my body’s response to hearing that news, but the knot of disappointment wasn’t loosening. If anything, it was growing tighter. I was leaving tomorrow, and from the way Josie shut down after I’d suggested that she step in as the host, I guessed there was no way she’d be joining me.
Which meant today might be my last chance to see her. I had another job lined up after this one, and one after that. I wasn’t going to be in the country for the foreseeable future. So I had today. And realistically, I only had half of that. Sunday dinner was a big