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Before I could respond, Solo said. “That’s okay. Don’t worry about it. Sorry I asked. I totally understand not wanting to—”
“That’s fine,” I said before I could change my mind. “But make sure they know to keep it quiet. And I find out any of them are more interested in me than in Shakespeare, I’ll boot their asses out. Fair?”
His grin split his face, punching in a dimple in his young face. “Totes. No worries, man. Thank you.”
He jogged off before I could change my mind, which was probably for the best. The idea of teaching a group of people made me more nervous. As if it was more than just helping a kid with his homework. This would be more like teaching a class, something I hadn’t done outside of a little bit of student teaching during my grad program.
I’d loved it, though. Every single minute.
And now I was doing it for real. I felt the familiar excitement of tackling a new challenge.
Action and inaction. Themes I was familiar with from Hamlet and my own life. I thought of the sexy sheriff and the action I wanted to take with him. All the action.
But he’d been the one to leave without a word. Without so much as a note or text. If anyone needed to take action here, it was him.
I was beginning to recognize I was in a kind of purgatory myself.
So I forced myself to focus on the task at hand which was prepping a Hamlet lesson and pretending I didn’t ache for the handsome sheriff of Aster Valley. He was nothing to me. I neither wanted nor needed him. I had plenty of other things to occupy my mind and heart. Like my work. My efforts with Solo and his friends. The challenging climbing scene I’d be filming on Monday.
There was really no time for sex with Declan Stone anyway. Besides, he really wasn’t all that good at it. It had been fine. Fine. No different than sex with anyone else. I didn’t need someone who wanted nothing to do with me. Who saw me as a pain in the ass and a spoiled brat. I didn’t need a handsome man bossing me around in my own damned bed.
The lady protests too much, methinks.
13
Declan
Getting called out of a warm bed with a hot man pressed tightly against my chest was agony. The morning I’d awoken at Finn’s place to the insistent buzz of my phone, there’d been a near-fatal car accident out on the highway toward Steamboat. I’d raced there directly and had spent hours dealing with all of the horrible aspects of a devastating multi-car accident with multiple injuries.
After all of the victims had been taken home or to the hospital, we’d had to spend even more time managing to collect evidence while also diverting traffic. I’d practically crawled back to the office and spent the rest of the day and evening dealing with the paperwork. That night I’d fallen into bed without even a word to Tess. She’d heard about the accident from Shawn and had simply pressed a homemade sandwich and bottle of lemonade into my hands before urging me to eat it in a big bath before climbing into bed.
I’d slept like a brick.
But the following day was even crazier. Crystobell Edmund had booked a magazine photo shoot on the shore of Hungry Lake, which was a couple of miles outside of Aster Valley but easily accessible via a walking path from town. The tourists walked, biked, or drove there to watch the leading lady strut around in couture gowns and skimpy halter-top bikinis for the photographer.
It was clearly the best of both worlds for the actress. She was able to preen for her adoring public and earn money for the shoot itself. In addition, the film people probably loved the extra media attention it brought. Her adoring fans had their phone cameras out and were no doubt posting like crazy to social media with hashtags like #ComeToAsterValley and #DriveSheriffStoneCrazy or #WhoCaresAboutBoundaries or simply #FreeSideBoobHere.
Deputy Graham and I worked crowd control for several hours while I tried my best not to crane my neck in hopes of a Finn Heller sighting. No luck. It was a Saturday, which may or may not have meant he had the day off. Maybe I’d hear from him that evening, or maybe I’d get called out to Matt’s bar again to drag the sexy actor out to the parking lot one more time.
But that didn’t happen. I didn’t hear from him, and when I was inevitably called to Matt’s bar that night, I managed to ascertain there’d been no Finn in the bar all night.
On Sunday, I was grateful to be off the duty roster. Tess and I went to the diner for breakfast where we ran into Gent and Winter. They invited us to join them at their booth since the place was packed, and I enjoyed the chance to introduce Tess to the famous singer and his husband.
