Rockies Retreat: Destination: Desire, Book 5 (12 page)

“Nothing’s wrong.” Because he should be thrilled about this news—as his agent had said in the note—but he wasn’t. “You know my last trilogy? Not the new serial killer one, but—”

“The
Sinister
series?” she filled in. “Of course. Creepy as hell.”

His lips twitched, but he couldn’t quite manage a real smile. “One of the cable channels wants to make a TV show out of it.”

“But you don’t look happy.” She leaned back in her seat, her gaze considering. “They want you to write scripts for it.”

“Nailed it one guess.” He tucked the contract into its holder. He’d have to read it more carefully later. “They even want to fly a rep here to talk to me about it.”

“Tell them no,” she burst out.

That brought his head up, and he stared at her. “What?”

Her lips pursed and she looked up at the cloudless blue sky, as if she didn’t know how or what to say to him. She almost looked like she wanted to cry.

“Hey. Talk to me.” He tapped his sandal against hers.

“You take on too much, Neil.” Her tone was somewhere between exasperated and concerned. “Right now, you’re managing to keep everything together, meet all your obligations, but how long will that last if you can’t or won’t say no to anyone?” She held up her hand like she wanted to ward off any response he had. “You told me once that Vi was your number one priority, and I believed you. But what’s your number two priority? What’s number three? You only have so many hours in a day—are you spending them on what’s most important to you? If not, you need to either turn down some offers or farm them out.”

He drummed his fingers on the armrest. “It’s so ingrained when you’re a struggling writer, not to say no to any good opportunity. What if that chance never comes up again? What if you said no to the thing that would launch you into superstardom?”

“Newsflash, Graves.” She swatted his knee. “You’re already a superstar. Do you need more money?”

“No. Having Violet right out of college meant I never got to have the chance to be reckless and crazy with my money like most people who experience early success. Everything went to making sure she had what she needed, then to making sure she had college paid for, then to making sure I had retirement set aside so she wasn’t stuck taking care of me when I’m too old to work. Every dime of my royalties has gone to savings or investments.” He paused. “Okay, I have a classic Mustang convertible too. One toy’s not too much.”

“Well, you no longer have to say yes. Or if you say yes, it can be on your terms.” She swung her arm in an expansive arc. “Let them make the TV show and pay you handsomely for it, but maybe recommend another writer. It’s okay to delegate.”

“You’re rocking my world with your wild and stress-free ideas,” he drawled. And he’d honestly never considered turning over his work for someone else to mess with. When he wrote the script, he had at least some control in how his novels translated to the big screen.

But what if he could maintain some creative oversight without being involved in the day-to-day operation of the television show? All he had to do was tell his agent he wanted to renegotiate the contract terms. The man made a good amount of cash from his percentage of Neil’s earnings—it was okay to make him earn it.

“You’re thinking about it. Good, keep doing that because I’m totally right.” Laurel patted his wrist. “I’m going to swim some more.”

She hopped up, kissed him with lingering sweetness, and went to join Vi and Ruth in the water. He settled deeper into his seat and took a swig of beer, considering how he might make this TV gig work.

And he already felt better just realizing he wouldn’t be burdened with one more good thing. “Huh.”

Chapter Nine

“We only have a week left, baby.” Neil poked his head into Violet’s room, taking in the piles of stones of various shapes and sizes that seemed to have grown exponentially in the months they’d been here. “You may want to start weeding out your collection and decide which ones will come with us and which will be released back into the wild.”

She threw herself in front of him, clamping her hands on each side of the doorframe to block his way. “They’re all coming with me.”

“Vi, that’s crazy.” Shaking his head, he stepped back. “What are you going to do with all of these rocks?”

“If they don’t go back to LA, I don’t go back to LA,” she snapped as she rushed by him and flounced out of the house, slamming the screen door behind her.

He projected his voice so he knew she heard him. “Violet Marie, this discussion is not finished.”

“I have to babysit now,” she yelled without turning around. “I’ll be back later. Then you can finish ruining my life.”

Neil swore under his breath. These outbursts had become more frequent in the last couple of weeks. The closer they got to the end of summer, the moodier she’d become. She was more prone to lash out over little things, and had had a few epic meltdowns. He was uncertain if this was just a part of being a teenager, or if something direr was wrong. Should he confront her about her attitude or let it blow over?

If he were brutally honest, he’d admit he was avoiding that argument. He feared her explosions might have something to do with his deepening relationship with Laurel—this was the first time Vi had ever gotten to know someone he’d dated since he split up with her mother. He was scared to death he was going to have to choose between the two females in his life that meant the most to him, and he didn’t want to face that.

Not yet.

He figured chasing her down and confronting her in front of Helen, her family, and probably Ruth, would only exacerbate the problem and make communication impossible, so he’d have to wait until she returned. Which was several hours from now.

Going over to Laurel’s held some appeal, but he wasn’t really in the mood for company. Frankly, he’d like a snifter of good scotch and a way to make all his problems evaporate for a while. Since that was unlikely to happen, he might as well try to write.

Try
was the operative word.

Mostly it was a lesson in frustration of attempting to figure out what was up with Vi and what the hell he should do about this thing he had going on with Laurel. Ask her to date long-distance? See if she was available for a standing hook-up any time she happened to be in southern California? What would she want, if anything?

And how would their choices about the future affect his child? Would breaking things off with Laurel at the end of summer be better for Violet? She seemed to adore Laurel, but maybe she’d changed her mind and didn’t know how to tell him. She’d been doing so well, been happy and carefree, but seemed to have regressed. Only instead of grief-stricken, now she was angry.

Yeah, it was definitely time to have a talk with his daughter. He hoped this was nothing more than a growing pain, but he had to know for sure.

For all of their sakes.

Laurel sat on her porch, ostensibly to sketch the mountains, but her paper was mostly filled with little doodles of Gloria and Ruth, Mateo and Jina, Neil and Violet. Those last two had the biggest drawings. She didn’t want to forget any of the people she’d met here. It had been a golden summer, perfect in many ways. She wanted to capture it somehow so it couldn’t escape her, so she wouldn’t forget a single moment. Her heart squeezed at the thought of it ending.

A door slammed, and she looked up, startled.

Violet came storming up the dirt road, swiping at her cheeks.

After tossing her sketchbook aside, Laurel rose and held out her hand. “Hey, honey. Come here. What’s up?”

Vi made a beeline for her, throwing herself into Laurel’s arms and sobbing as if her heart might break. They sank down on the porch steps, and Laurel rocked the teen, stroking her hair and crooning reassurances. She had no idea what might be wrong, but whatever it was wasn’t good.

“He’s so mean sometimes,” Vi choked out.

Eyebrows arching, Laurel asked, “Your dad?”

The girl nodded, her dark locks rustling against Laurel’s shirt. “He won’t let me take all the rocks Ruth and I collected. I just want something to remind me of here when we have to go back to that place.”

The last word came out as a vicious snarl. “You mean LA?”

“I hate it there.” A fresh round of sobs had Vi burrowing into Laurel’s shirt.

Laurel blinked. “What’s wrong with LA, sweetie? It’s not just because you’re in a new school, is it?”

“The school sucks. I have no friends. None. Not even one.” Vi’s voice hardened. “The teachers are even worse.”

“All of the teachers?” Laurel leaned back to get a look at her face.

“Yes!” Her chin jutted mulishly. “The English teacher is the worst. He’s an asshole.”

Since Violet wasn’t prone to swearing, Laurel’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “What’s he been doing?”

A million possibilities, each worse than the next, pelted through her mind. Had this man touched Vi? Teachers having affairs with students popped up on the news with alarming frequency these days. Cold dread knotted in Laurel’s gut.
Oh God. Oh. God.
She didn’t know how to handle this. She wasn’t a parent. But if Vi felt comfortable telling her about it, she wouldn’t silence her. So she sat and waited for the girl to speak, her palms slicked with sweat.

“You have to swear you won’t tell my dad.”

Shit. If anything, the knot in her belly grew tighter. “I promise. But, honey, you have to know if it’s bad enough, I’d want you to tell your dad.”

Vi’s shoulder jerked in a shrug. “My teacher’s just…he makes fun of my writing. Because the famous Neil Graves is my father. He caught me writing part of my book in his class—I was done with the assignment!” A tear streaked down her cheek. “And he made me read it to the whole class, then he went on and on about how we had a budding novelist on our hands, only he said it in a mean way, and the whole class laughed at me.”

“Wow, what a dick.” Okay, it was bad, but not as bad as Laurel had feared. She didn’t know if she should be relieved or not, but fear gave way to righteous anger. How dare some motherfucker mock Violet? Especially considering her writing was
good
. The teacher sounded like a frustrated, failed artist who needed to drag everyone down into failure with him.

Violet huffed out a soggy laugh. “Right? He’s a super-dick.”

Choosing her words as carefully as possible, Laurel said, “For what it’s worth, I think you should talk to your dad. He’d tear that teacher to pieces.”

“I know.” The teen’s world-weary sigh was worthy of someone three times her age. “But he’s had a crazy year, and I didn’t want to be a bigger pain for him, you know? It was already a lot that he had me in his house all the time.”

“You know he loves you, Violet.” Laurel cupped her jaw. “He would crawl over broken glass for you. It’s been a tough year for both of you, and he still would have wanted to know if a teacher was being a fuckwit bully.”

“I know.” Vi quickly swiped at her cheeks and smoothed her hair. “Ruth is coming up the road. We’re supposed to babysit the twins for a couple of hours so Helen and Pedro can work.”

“Maybe you should cancel, just this once.”

Biting her lip, she shook her head. “No. I want to hang out with my friend.” Her voice cracked. “Before I have to go back to not having any.”

“Honey.” Laurel took the girl’s hands and squeezed. “Promise me you’ll think about telling your dad how unhappy you are in LA. It would matter to him a lot.”

“I promise.”

She gave her best do-not-bullshit-me look. “Really, really?”

Vi’s chuckle was watery. “Yes, really, really.”

Then she stood and jogged over to meet Ruth. The two turned to wave goodbye to Laurel and cut across the grass toward the Cho-Diaz family’s cabin. Once the girls vanished, Laurel waited for about five more minutes and then went in search of Neil. She wasn’t going to break her promise to his daughter, but if they’d had a blow-up over the rock collection, he was going to be upset. He’d hide it better than Violet, but that didn’t mean he’d feel any less pain.

“Hey.” She pushed the screen door aside and walked in. “I just spoke to Vi. You okay?”

“I’m not sure.” He rubbed his forehead and recounted his side of what had happened. Then he swallowed and confessed, “What if she has a problem with us being together? I haven’t introduced her to any of my lady friends since the divorce. She knew they existed, but that’s not the same. Or is this about Cara dying, some new stage of the grieving process? God, I don’t know.”

Wow, he was way off. She had to choose her words carefully, so she kept her word to Vi, but didn’t leave Neil in the dark. It sucked to be in the middle of a rock-hard place situation.

“You said she’s gotten worse the closer she gets to the end of summer.”

He rose and began to pace. “Yeah, but Vi’s not going to freak this badly for this long just because she’ll miss everyone.”

“True enough.” She pressed her lips together. “But when you leave here, you go back to LA.”

“So?” He hunched his shoulders.

Yep, there was no way to clue him in without violating his daughter’s trust, and she just couldn’t do that. She tried a more direct approach. All she could do was get them to talk, but she wasn’t telling tales. “It’s not just a teen girl thing, Neil. It’s not going to work itself out.”

“Why?” He spun to face her. “What do you know that you haven’t told me?”

“I can’t tell you—I made a promise and I don’t break those. But you really need to talk to Vi about what’s bothering her.” Laurel could only hope Vi forgave her for even saying this much. “Don’t let her weasel out of telling you—it’s important.”

“Okay.” His eyebrows rose and he crossed his arms, irritation radiating from him. “That’s not ominous and vaguely terrifying.”

Laurel matched his pose, notching her chin up. “She considers me a friend and confidante. Do you want her to have the kind of friend that will break promises?”

“I do if she’s in danger,” he snapped back. “Tell me what you know, Laurel. You have no right to keep important information about my daughter from me.”

“I can’t, Neil.” She couldn’t back down on this one. Jesus, their first real fight and it was over his child. What a nightmare. Cold fear quivered in her stomach. “Don’t put me in that kind of position. I didn’t have to say anything to you at all.”

His nostrils flared, and she wasn’t sure what he’d do. It was clear she’d scared him, and fighting with Violet had to have worried him too. They usually had such a good relationship. Would he take his fear out on Laurel, blame her for being the messenger of a more serious problem than teen angst?

“You’re right.” A vein throbbed in his temple, and his tone was little more than grudging. “Thanks for the head’s up. I was planning to have a discussion with her when she got back anyway. I’m glad to know I need to push.”

Laurel wrapped her arms around herself, still not reassured. “I made her promise to consider telling you, but that’s the best I could do.”

He considered her for a long moment before he walked over, pulled her into his embrace, and brushed a kiss over her forehead. “It’s not your fault, sweetheart. I’m not mad at you. I’m just frustrated that Vi’s keeping things from me. She’s never done that before. I’m also not used to her confiding in someone besides me. Or Cara.”

“I’m sorry.” She leaned against him, wishing for all the world that she could make everything better for him. And for Violet. But there was nothing more Laurel could do. It was up to them to work it out. She knew they would. They did have a strong relationship, and they cared enough about each other to do whatever it took to make the other happy. Neil by coming to The Enclave when he hadn’t planned to, Violet by not burdening him with being bullied by her teacher. Sure, Vi was a bit misguided, but she was a teenager. Even the mature ones had a lot to learn.

Still, Laurel hated being so powerless to really help. She guessed that was what being a parent must be like sometimes. It was every bit as scary and overwhelming as it sounded.

“Thank you for being here, for coming to talk to me.” He sifted his fingers through her hair. “I know you didn’t have to.”

She huffed. “If you thought I was the kind of person who’d blithely let your kid do something self-destructive, you’d never have let me near her.”

His chuckle was a rough sound under her ear. “True enough, sweetheart. True enough.”

Whereas her own father had no problem letting young Laurel run with scissors as long as she didn’t disturb his work or his schmoozing with clients.

Neil was waiting for his daughter when she got back from babysitting. What Laurel had said had worried him. He’d been working it over in his mind for the hour she’d been gone. Whatever was the matter with Vi, he needed to know. No matter how serious it was, they’d get through it together. That was what families did.

“Hey.”

She straightened, her gaze reflecting instant wariness. That hurt, because Vi and he had never had that kind of knee-jerk negative reaction to each other. Worse, she looked scared. “Hey, Dad.”

He waved to the other end of the couch. “Have a seat.”

She didn’t move from her spot by the door. “How long am I grounded for?”

“You’re not.” Because it wasn’t retribution for her poor behavior and bad attitude he wanted. He needed information.

Surprise took some of the stiffness out of her shoulders. “I’m not?”

“Nope, but I do think we need to talk.” He shifted so he sat facing her, one knee propped on the sofa.

“Talk? About what?”

He arched an eyebrow and didn’t bother dignifying the question with a verbal response.

Her lips compressed, her fingers bunching into fists at her sides. “I’ll get rid of some of the rocks.”

“It’s not about the rocks, is it?” Trying to maintain a relaxed pose took effort, because he didn’t want her to think he was angry. Nothing would make her clam up faster. “So, why don’t you tell me why the closer we get to going back to LA, the nastier you become? Is there something I need to know?”