Ellery Mountain 3 - The Carpenter and the Actor
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Authors: Rj Scott
The Carpenter and the Actor ISBN # 978-1-78184-321-5
©Copyright RJ Scott 2013
Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright April 2013 Edited by Stacey Birkel
Total-E-Bound Publishing
A Total-E-Bound Publication
www.total-e-bound.comThis is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.
Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.
The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.
Warning:
This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a
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free excerpt
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Ellery Mountain
THE CARPENTER AND THE ACTOR
RJ Scott
Book three in the Ellery Mountain Series
Jason is hiding and it is only when he meets Kieran that he finds home.
Dedication
For everyone who reads Ellery. And always my family. And to LeeAnn Pratt for the wonderfully named Norma-Jean’s Clip and Curl. Thank you.
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
iPod: Apple, Inc.
Ford: Ford Motor Company
Pagani Zonda: Pagani Automobili S.p.A.
GQ
: Condé Nast Publications
Kindle: Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazing Grace
: John Newton
Daffy Duck: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Google: Google, Inc.
Coke: Coca-Cola Company
Hoover: The Hoover Company
TMZ
: Time Warner
Skype: Microsoft Corporation
Jason McInnery pulled another blanket from the pile at the bottom of his bed and used it to block up any small space around him that could let in the cold. When he’d gone for rustic he hadn’t realised he was getting the equivalent of sleeping in a tent. No heating that he could get to work, two in the morning and sleep had so far eluded him. The hot water bottle he’d found in the cupboard above the sink was still warm, but at this point it really needed to have the water replaced with steaming boiling heat. That would mean getting out of bed though and placing his feet on the icy cold wooden floor.
“So not going there,” he muttered to himself. The new blanket helped and finally he had a cocoon that at least meant he wasn’t shivering. No wonder the cabin had been cheap to rent if it didn’t come with working heat. He knew he should have stopped at the chain motel he’d seen just outside Ellery. But no, his idea of hiding was self-imposed isolation halfway up the mountain and twenty minutes’ drive from the town he’d been born in. He should have gone to his parents’ house in Las Vegas and got some of that desert sun.
Freaking paparazzi. They knew where his parents lived, and would assume it was one of the places he would go. Hell, he was lucky they hadn’t followed him to Ellery, or had any inkling he would go back to the town he’d left before he was old enough to remember it. His cell phone sounded and he rooted around under the covers where he’d pushed his only link to his other life. The life where he was a popular, successful, openly gay actor who had charmed his way into millions of hearts on a successful TV comedy and in two kids’ films. The actor with the brother who had died. The screen lit brightly and the name wasn’t a surprise.
“Hey, Mom,” he answered. The cell was warm from where it had been wrapped in the quilt. Midnight at his mom’s place meant his dad snoring in bed and his night-owl mom watching recorded shows. “It’s two a.m., you know.”
“There was a show on, and I was thinking about you.”
“You need to stop watching those gossip shows, Mom,” he said patiently. “I can’t help it, J. It’s everywhere.”
Jason shifted deeper under the covers and sighed inwardly. He’d grown a thicker skin now. Having his private life plastered over magazines and TV shows was part and parcel of the whole celebrity lifestyle. That didn’t mean it had got any easier over the last seven years since the small comedy show he starred in had gone ballistic. And hell, it wasn’t ever going to get any easier for his poor mom. Not only had Ben died with too many secrets and too many lies twisted around him, but Jason had been smacked around the face with the fallout of his brother’s actions and his own subsequent arrest.
“I’m fine, Mom,” he said gently.
“I just wanted to…” She didn’t finish the sentence. Jason’s throat tightened with emotion. He didn’t call her on phoning him this late—she’d wanted to hear his voice. Losing Ben had destroyed his parents. Maybe he should have gone home to Vegas and forgotten the fact that doing so would have put his mom and dad in the spotlight. They were struggling as it was.
“I can be home by tomorrow,” Jason offered. He could get tickets and be on a plane in a few hours. Hell, it would probably be warmer on a plane anyway.
“No, Jason, we talked about this. I love you—I just wanted to tell you.”
“I love you too, Mom.”
With the call finished, he clutched the cell to his chest and pulled the blankets up and over his head. Grief balled in his chest and not for the first time since he’d left LA, he wondered what the hell had made him come to Ellery. He may as well have stuck a pin in a map as a way of deciding where to hide out.
He had three weeks. Three weeks until the next season started filming. Ellery was as good a place as any.
Loud noises woke him to bright sunlight streaming through the large windows and he glanced at his cell phone. The screen showed it was just after seven a.m. He’d banked five hours’ sleep, but he still felt like complete shit. His dreams had been filled with Ben and a scene that was something like a film, with him and Ben running. He hated the running dream—it never failed to leave him frustrated and tired beyond reason and had occurred on too many occasions recently. Rolling onto his side, away from the window, he screwed his eyes tight shut and willed sleep to happen.
The knocking on his door was part of a dream—it had to be. No one would be knocking on the door of this remote cabin at ass o’clock in the morning for any reason he could imagine.
Groaning, he shifted until he could listen with both ears. The knocking wasn’t stopping. This wasn’t the short, sharp knock of someone at the door. This was repetitive and noisy and…hell, right outside his window. What the fuck was happening? Pulling the blankets back over his head, he attempted to sleep. When that didn’t block out the banging, he searched on his phone for an app that could produce white noise. When that didn’t work either, he gave up sleeping as a bad thing.
What the hell
? Grumpy, uncoordinated and tired, he clambered off his bed and got twisted in the five blankets he’d laid over his quilt. Tripping unceremoniously to the floor, he cursed the parentage of whoever had pulled him from sleep. The banging hadn’t stopped—if anything it became louder the nearer he got to the window, and when he pushed the catch to open it, he was overwhelmed with the sound of a drill and a hammer.
“What the hell!” he shouted over the noise. He couldn’t see the face of the person in control of the drilling, but he could see a figure hunched over the steps leading up to his cabin. Wood lay around him in disarray and there was a bucket of nails and a pile of fresh wood. For a second Jason imagined grabbing the nearest thing to him, the bedside lamp, and throwing it at his early morning torturer to get his attention. Then an episode of some hospital drama had him recalling the sight of a drill passing through flesh and he didn’t want to be that kind of distraction. Huffing to himself, he pulled on jeans over his boxers and shrugged on a sweater.
He threw open the front door, crossed his arms and stood in the doorway. The man doing the work wasn’t looking his way, but any minute now he would register that Jason was there. Then Jason’s work would be done. The idiot would stop drilling and hammering, and Jason could go back to bed.
When that didn’t work, Jason moved the few steps to pass into the worker’s peripheral vision then stood in a similar arms-crossed-over-his-chest stance. The guy obviously registered he was being watched since, suddenly and quite spectacularly, he jumped to his feet, narrowly avoiding the still whirring drill as it fell from his hand and impaled itself into the mud and grass.
Jason simply raised an eyebrow in that expression he’d perfected for his role as the dry, sardonic café owner on the comedy series
Late Last Night
.
“And the reason you are making this much noise outside my cabin at dawn is…?” He waited patiently as the man stood with his hand still on his chest and his mouth open. Evidently, he was more than just a little surprised that Jason was there.
“Shit,” he said. “Sorry. I didn’t know… No one said… Hell.”
“Sentences work,” Jason prompted.
“Brenda didn’t tell me this cabin was occupied. It’s the most remote we have and no one is close enough to be worried about the noise. The weather was good when I woke up so I thought I would beat the promised rain and get a head start on my work.” The man dropped his hand and shook his head. “I can only apologise, but this week we got behind and Daniel and I have been working on the staff cabin, and so today was the first day I had to get this fixed. I needed to get a head start—”
“So you said,” Jason interrupted. He wasn’t sure the other man had even stopped to draw a breath.
“Daniel said—Daniel is the son of the owner, Brenda—he said we should clear the work on this cabin, because the last person said the hot water and heating had an issue and this step needed fixing because the top slat had come loose—”
“Okay,” Jason said. He held up a hand to stop the other man from rambling on about absolutely everything in his head. “Can you leave this now, and maybe come and take a look at the heating? I was freezing my balls off last night.”
“Shit. Damn, sorry I cursed. Of course I can look at that, although I might need Daniel up here with me. Kieran,” he added then waited expectantly. Jason was still catching up with the whole explanation of someone called Daniel and his mom and the broken step and the fact that there was a reason why the heating was broken. He realised this man, obviously called Kieran, was waiting for him to identify himself. Evidently he wasn’t familiar enough under the beard and messy hair for Kieran to recognise him. Then he stepped out of the shadow of the door and porch just as Kieran tripped over discarded wood, stumbled back and flailed as he windmilled to keep himself upright.
Okay, so Jason had had people scream, cry and laugh when they saw him, but never almost fallen over before. Not that the guy appeared to recognise him. Taking the two steps to the ground, he grabbed hold of Kieran and helped him stand.
Kieran pulled away from Jason’s grip and brushed himself down. “Sorry,” he said. “Jeez, that’s all I seem to be saying to you.” He was looking up at Jason with a smile that reached cornflower blue eyes. He couldn’t have been much more than five nine, with spiky blond hair and a slim build, and he was smiling so hard that Jason felt an answering smile that he couldn’t have controlled even if he’d wanted to. Grinning back, he extended his hand.
“Jason,” he said.
“Okay, sir.” Kieran nodded. He picked up his tools then looked pointedly at the cabin. “Let me take a look at the heating.”
Kieran allowed Jason in first then followed him. Jason concentrated on opening the wooden slatted blinds and allowing some of the sunlight to filter through then crossed to shut his bedroom door. Out here in the kitchen, dining and seating area, there was nothing of Jason McInnery and he wanted to enjoy a bit longer the fact that Kieran didn’t know who he was.
Kieran was flat on the floor on his belly and his head and shoulders were down a hole in the wooden flooring. Jason hadn’t noticed the trapdoor in the floor, but then by the time he’d arrived here last night it had been dark, and after a drink he’d got himself straight to bed. For all the good that had done him.
“Can you pass me the pipe wrench?” Kieran said. His voice was muffled by the fact that his head was under the cabin, and Jason didn’t quite catch what he was being asked for. Crouching down next to the hole in the floor, he peered past Kieran to what was below. A vast space of nothing was all he could see.
“The what?” he asked.
“The wrench. Long, red and silver, curved top, in the side compartment.”
Jason eyed the toolbag suspiciously. His exposure to tools was restricted to when his character had decided to become a plumber on the show with much hilarity ensuing. Not even the lines he’d learned for the show were going to help him at this point. Finally locating something that looked as if it could be what Kieran needed, he passed it down to the man.
“Thanks,” Kieran replied. With some muttered words, there was much pushing and banging. Then finally Kieran slithered back up and out of the hole and moved to rest on all fours. Thoughtfully, he gazed into the hole. “Think that’s fixed it,” he said. He didn’t sound overly confident.
“So tonight I’m not going to be hugging the quilt for warmth?”
Kieran grimaced. “Let’s turn her on and see if she’s okay,” he offered. After scrambling to stand, he crossed to the heating controls and powered the whole thing down before counting out loud to five then flicking the switch to restart. In an instant, he was back on the floor and with his head down the hole again. Jason watched all this with something akin to amusement. Kieran was so utterly focused on the noises under the floorboards. Jason listened, but he couldn’t actually hear anything. Kieran, on the other hand, appeared to be very happy with whatever was occurring under the cabin and this time when he clambered back up, he had a grin on his face.
“Kieran one, heating zero.” He licked the tip of his finger and drew an imaginary mark in the air. “Anyway, you should wait ten minutes and see if it comes through warm. I’ll be outside. Just give me a shout when you feel the heat.”
“I can make you a coffee,” Jason blurted. Kieran was like a burst of sunshine on a cloudy day and suddenly, and probably impetuously, Jason found he wanted more of it.
“I need to fix the step,” Kieran said. He looked bemused at the offer of a coffee. Jason couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. What a stupid thing to say…
I can make you a coffee
. Who said that to the maintenance man? Even a cute smiling one who talked the hind legs off a donkey and had a body built for Jason’s hands.
Wait
. He was perving on the guy sent to fix his step. A guy who looked to be not long out of school. His head was screwed.
“Sorry.” It was his turn to apologise. “Keep going. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, and I’m sure this has fixed it now.”
With that, he sealed the trapdoor type entry and locked it down with an oddly shaped key. Then, grabbing his bags and with another one of his gorgeously sunny and sexy smiles, he left the cabin and pulled the door shut behind him.
The place seemed less after he had walked out. Like every chance Jason had of some conversation or human contact that didn’t want a thing from him had walked out of the door.
Shit
. He was getting melancholy in his old age. His mom had warned him that when he reached his thirties he would have a different perspective on life. That had been in one of her ‘LA is so fake’ chats, with her adding that it would chew him up and spit him out. How right she’d been, but not for him. Ben had been the one to get so lost that he couldn’t find a way out.
Well, Mom, looks like that day has come
, when a smile from a cute guy with beautiful eyes who probably had a girlfriend made his day.
He made himself a coffee then curled up on the huge leather sofa at the same end of the room as one of the large heaters. There was warmth there, and with the TV on a news channel, he pushed aside the unsettling attraction to a complete stranger and focused on what he was going to do today.
The knock on the door pulled him from his daydream. Smiling to himself, he opened the door, expecting Kieran to be there.
“Daniel Skylar. Kieran said there was an issue with the heating.” A man with brooding eyes and tattoos wrapped around his biceps stood on the doormat.
“Yes, he did… There was… Sorry. It’s early.”
Tall, Dark and Intimidating—Daniel, apparently—nodded. “I apologise for any inconvenience caused, Mr McInnery. Of course Ellery Cabins will not be charging you for your first night in compensation.”
“You don’t need to do that,” Jason protested.
Daniel frowned. Jason realised his mistake. Who the hell turned down free accommodation?
“We want all our guests to be comfortable.”
“Then, thank you.”
“If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to dial zero on the phone.” Daniel nodded and began to walk away.
“I have one question,” Jason called after him.
Daniel stopped and turned on his heel.
“Kieran, the guy who was here before, does he live in town?”
Daniel nodded. But he gave nothing else away and Jason was fine with that. He was intrigued by five nine of gorgeous, sexy-assed male, and he needed to be hunting that down as soon as he could.