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“I don’t know what you mean,” I managed to say as my future dreams caught fire and went up in flames right in front of my eyes. “What billboard?”
“Oh my god, it’s so cool,” he said, reaching for his phone and scrolling through pictures to show me the one he was talking about. It was a photo of him standing in the back of the pickup on the highway with a giant Stallion billboard in the background featuring Cooped Up With Nine. There we were in front of the cabin with our arms around each other like we were the happiest couple in the world.
Except it was all fake.
“Wow.” If my heart wasn’t busy cracking in half, I might have been excited about it.
“Right?” he asked excitedly, pulling the phone back and scrolling through more photos. “I mean, it’s not like it was on a billboard in downtown LA, but it’s still amazing. It was on I-70 outside of Denver. But I totally forgot I took a sunset shot in the mountains too. Let me post that really quickly.” While he busied himself on his phone, I stood up and cleaned away our dinner dishes. Every move felt like it took five times as long and my body weighed twice as much.
“I need to finish installing the sinks tonight before the plumber’s putty dries. I’ll be back in a bit,” I said over my shoulder. It was total bullshit. That wasn’t how plumber’s putty was used, but Cooper didn’t know that.
I headed out of the RV and crossed the clearing to the front porch of the cabin. I heard the RV door open behind me.
“Nine?”
I turned back to see Cooper’s outline in the bright doorway. “Hm?”
“You okay?”
Never. Never would I be okay again. “’Course. Just want to knock these two sinks out so I can install the faucets in the morning before the gas guy gets here and connects the water heater.”
Again, it was bullshit. The faucets didn’t need to be installed before the water heater was connected, but Cooper didn’t know that either.
“You sure?” he asked.
“Get some sleep, babe. I’m sure you’re beat from all the excitement and travel.”
He smiled and nodded. “Okay. Just shout if you need another pair of hands, okay? And wake me up to do the good-night video.”
I lifted my hand to acknowledge what he’d said before I turned and entered the cabin. As soon as the door was closed behind me, I let out a deep, shuddering breath and sat my stupid ass on the floor. I’d allow myself five full minutes to feel like a naive asshole, then I’d get up and move on.
After only a couple of minutes, I realized I’d left the video camera on the table in the RV. I needed it to record the kitchen sink installation, so I headed back across the clearing. When I got close, I heard Cooper’s voice through the open window.
“I already told you, I can’t take the part. They want me to start filming in three weeks, and I’m already contractually obligated to Stallion.”
I stopped in my tracks.
“Mitch, it doesn’t matter if you can get me out of the Stallion deal. I’m not screwing over my friend. Nine is counting on this money as much as I am. I don’t go back on commitments like that no matter how much I might want a role in a damned film.”
I stood there in shock. Not only had Cooper lied to me about not getting the part, but he’d turned it down out of some ridiculous sense of obligation to me. As if me buying a little piece of land in Wyoming was anywhere near as important as him being offered this movie role.
My stomach roiled with a combination of anger and guilt. How dare he make this decision without talking to me? But then again, maybe it was my fault for not telling him he’d been the real reason I’d agreed to do this—the need to pay for Jacks’s surgery.
“Fine. Give me twenty-four hours to sleep on it if you want, but my answer will be the same.” He listened for a minute. “Sure, tomorrow afternoon. Call me after your meeting.”
I snuck back to the cabin without the camera and did the sink installs using my phone camera instead. I focused on talking my way through the tutorials and concentrated on helping other people who might want to know how to install a sink. The familiar cadence of my voice speaking to the camera in an empty room was somehow settling, and when I finally finished both sinks and cleaned up after myself, I felt calmer than I had before.
Before leaving the cabin for the night, I looked around. The windows were in, the flooring was done, the Sheetrock was hung, all plumbing fixtures were now close to being installed and complete, and I only needed to do some tile work before it was time to sand and paint. After that, it wouldn’t take long to install the light fixtures, the kitchen cabinets and appliances, and the countertops.
