“Time for dessert.” I smiled at her. Scooping her up in my arms, I carried her toward the bedroom where I could take my time. It wasn’t a cave, but it would have to do for tonight. The rest we’d figure out as it came along.

CHAPTER 17

Violet

Out the window of the 15th floor of the Fame! Network’s headquarters, you’d never know it was February. The sun shown down from the bright blue sky just like it did every single day of the year in L.A. On the street below, palm trees stood stock still in the completely windless mid-afternoon sunshine.

“You ready?” A co-worker poked her head into my cubicle. I hadn’t exactly worked my way into the corner office yet. But at least my cube had a view.

“Yes!” I stood up, a hand at my stomach to still the frantically flapping butterflies. Honestly, I felt super close to vomiting. I’d barely slept the night before, arriving into LAX at midnight west coast time. And the night before that, with Heath in his cabin? Not so much sleeping then, either.

My stomach flipped for a whole other reason. What that man did to me. I missed him so much already and we’d only been apart for 24 hours. Or was it less than that? I couldn’t do the time zone math, not on that little sleep.

However long it had been, it was too long. I so wanted to be back in his arms, fly right back there and film this show. We’d get to capture Vermont in the springtime. I bet it would be teeming with life after the winter, thawing and warming right up with flowers and birds and bees. Heath and I would join right in.

But I needed to focus. It would take every last ounce of brain cell power to make my pitch. I walked down the carpeted hallway, my Louboutin heels strutting their stuff. Shoulders back, chin up, I needed to own this. I needed to pitch the shit out of these executives.

“Hello everyone!” I entered the room, bright and enthusiastic.

“There she is!” My boss turned and smiled at me, or at least as much of a smile as he ever managed which really looked more like a cold survey. Sam sat by his side, looking slightly smug.

“You survived!” another co-worker congratulated me, rising to give me air-kisses on each cheek.

“Good to see you,” another greeted me, giving me a once-over. “I’d heard you’d gone native.”

“Oh, right.” I laughed it off, getting a vivid mental picture of the reindeer hat I’d taken to wearing around town. It got cold there, people! Reindeer hat cold!

But now wasn’t the time to get defensive, now was the time to sell. Our boss, the head production manager for our team, convened the meeting with me, him, Sam and five other people seated around a conference table. So much rode on the next half hour. My hands shook, but I drank a Pellegrino and reminded myself I was one tough cookie. I didn’t back down. I knew how to rise to a challenge.

And rose I did, after I got the nod. I stood and started telling them about Watson. Our little film crew had done an amazing job putting together footage, using the sights and scenes of rural Vermont to tell the story. I let the images play out behind me as I spoke to them from the heart.

“Imagine a place where you can fall in love. A place where you can completely be yourself. Where everywhere you look there’s something breathtakingly beautiful. I give you Watson, Vermont.”

I told them about the organic farm and crazy local Mad Mountain ski resort. I passed around hard ciders, shipped from Vermont the week before, now chilled and ready for them to enjoy as I told them about the local brewery. I showed them footage of ice skating and sledding, of covered bridges and mountains.

“And best of all are the people.” I could see them as I spoke, Helga winking to me as she danced to Bruno Mars, Dave talking passionately about the beauty of youth hockey. And Heath, of course, building his own cabin and making furniture so unique yet classic at the same time.

“We’ve found the real Stars Hollow,” I began my wrap up. “We’ve found the set of the Gilmore Girls, the town everyone wishes they were from. The kind of place where everyone knows your name. We’ve got a hit show on our hands here. I can’t wait to make it with you.”

I sat down, adrenaline still pumping through me. But even with the rush, I could tell the reaction in the room was…tepid. Polite clapping. I got a couple of nods and smiles. A few people tapped at their phones, already moving on to the next business of the day.

Didn’t they feel it? The potential? The magic? I noticed my boss hadn’t even touched his hard cider. Uh-oh.

I turned to Sam, clammy nervousness making its way up into my throat.

“Or…” He brought his hands to the table and rose up to standing. “We could go in another direction.” With a point and a click he opened a different file on the laptop connected to the screen. “You’ve heard from Violet. Now let me show you something different. Something a little more exciting. More juicy.” One by one, the faces around the table grew more attentive, focusing up and on what Sam had to offer.

What was he talking about?

“Get ready to feast your eyes on a secret. A scandal.” Sam stood in his element, dishing dirt, loving every second of it. I had no fucking clue what he meant, but he was a master at it and he had everyone’s complete attention. “Wealth, privilege, celebrity status, all hidden away. Under wraps. Until now.”

And there, in all his shirtless glory, appeared Heath on the screen. Massive and ripped, he stood with a blowtorch in his hands looking giant and sexy as hell.

“He can blow my torch,” the woman sitting next to me murmured.

That feeling I’d had earlier like I might throw up? It came back. Big time.

But Sam was just getting started. “What would you say if I told you I had an exposé on my hands? An epic one?”

“You want hot?” He splashed another image of Heath up on the screen, looking giant and muscled. When had he gotten all that footage of him? And always without his shirt?

“You want wealth and privilege?” Sam asked. An image of the quintessential older businessman flashed on the screen, hair slicked back as he lounged in an opulent office. “Meet Richard Kavanaugh, CEO of Kavanaugh Industries and one of the wealthiest men in the world. He passed away a year ago, leaving a cool billion to his children.”

“Including this mountain man.” Up went another yummier than yummy photo of Heath, in plaid, his profile silhouetted against a snow-capped mountain range. “Whose name happens to be Heathcliff.”

Now I was having trouble breathing, literally. I tried to take a sip of my water but all I did was choke and gasp. No one even noticed, they were so rapt with attention on Sam’s pitch.

“Not enough, you say?” Sam was loving every second of this. He had everyone right where he wanted them, eating out of the palm of his hand. “How about some royalty?”

An elegant elderly woman flashed onto the screen, looking like the queen of England. “Meet the Baroness of Warwick. She’s Heath’s paternal grandmother.”

Another image arose that caused a collective gasp from the room. It was the equivalent of TV gold: Dutchess Kate and Prince William. With the Baroness. At a polo match. All of them wearing hats.

“And there’s more,” Sam gloated, bringing up a photo of the baroness holding Princess Charlotte, the royal baby. THE ROYAL BABY!

“Not enough for you?” Sam practically roared over the twitters and yelps of excitement. “How about we add a celebrity into the story?”

Up popped a photo of rockstar Ash Black onto the screen, standing there smiling with his fiancé. Everyone knew that story, how the notorious bad boy rocker had had his heart tamed by the children’s librarian. But now Sam had gone too far. How would he tie that to Heath?

“Look in the back,” Sam instructed us, zooming in as if on a crime scene. He drew a circle on the touch screen—and voila. Heath was standing behind them at what looked like a black tie event.

“It’s the mountain man! Heath! He’s Ash’s brother!”

“What?” Now I exclaimed with the rest of the room.

“That?

?s right.” Sam nodded his head, drinking in the attention, adding more photos into the mix. A picture of them from when they were younger, standing with their father at some sort of a charity event. Another picture from another year, again at a black tie gala.

“Remember last year when Ash went off the grid? Everyone thought he was in rehab? He was in Vermont with his brother Heath! Hot Off the Grid!”

Oohs and aahs arose from the room.

“There are so many layers here!” Sam exclaimed in rapture. “At the very least, this is a Fame! Insider Exclusive.” He referred to the hour-long exposés our network ran, focusing in on intrigue and scandal. The last one had re-opened the Natalie Wood debacle, airing supposedly new evidence regarding her death.

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