See Jane Fall (21 page)

“You’re daydreamin’ now. Aye, I see it.” She
smiled, tilting her head to the side. “How’re things with
Lars?”

Jane winced, lifting her cup to her lips and
sipping slowly.

“Paul said he saw you two nippin’ at the
park on Monday night before the fireworks.”

“It wouldn’t have worked out.” Jane said
softly, looking meaningfully at the cottage before taking another
bitter sip of coffee. “I broke it off. I told him I needed time,
but it was really just letting him go, saving him the trouble of
having to break things off with me once he met her and—”

“Wait a bleedin’ moment. You’re not sayin’—
I mean, Lars doesn’t— Jane, does Lars have an eye for that…that…?”
Maggie’s face was getting flushed and indignant.

“She wants
him
. I know that for sure.
So, it’s just a matter of time, and he certainly seemed captivated
with her yesterday. I’ve seen all of this before. I can’t compete,
Maggie. You saw her.”

“Aye! An’
heard
her too!”

“Well, she’s not like that around him.
Sara’s very good at showing a different face to different people.
To him, she’s beautiful, adorable, hanging on his words, flattering
him. With me? Angry. Demanding. But, he’ll never see that side of
her. She’ll make sure of it. She’ll be charming.”

Maggie lifted the tray off the hood of her
car, opening her car door and putting the cups gently on the
passenger seat. “She’s charmin’ and I’m English. We’ll just see
about this, Jane. She’s puir trouble and no mistake.”

Maggie bussed Jane on the cheek before
sitting down in her car. Jane watched as her friend pulled away,
then turned back into the house, when she heard Maggie call from
her car window. “Janie! The Prairie’s closed all day tomorrow, but
we’ll still have euchre tomorrow night! Tell her to go t’the devil
if she doesna like it!”

Jane smiled broadly at Maggie, waving as she
drove away. Jane had no idea where Maggie was headed, but it sure
felt good to have someone in her corner for once.

***

Lars wasn’t surprised to see Maggie walk into
the small office with coffee. She came by now and then with a few
cups for the Lindstroms when the Prairie Dawn was quiet.

“Maggie May!” Lars’s pop was a big fan of
Maggie’s.

“Heya, Mr. Lindstrom. I had two extra
coffees and dinna want them to go to waste. I figure you can fight
over ’em.” She put the tray holding two cups on his father’s desk
and winked at him.

Nils looked up from a transportation
schedule he was reviewing, and Lars could practically see the
sparks fly between the pretty redheaded barista and his brother,
but per usual, Nils did nothing but nod at her before going back to
what he was doing. “Pop,” said Nils, still looking at the schedule.
“You remember I’m taking a vacation day tomorrow, right?”

“Yup. Lars’ll handle the talent and I’ll
drive the others. Where you—”

“Did you want the other coffee, Nils?”
interrupted Maggie with her back to Lars.

“Sure,” said Nils, standing up. “What’d you
bring?”

“Leftovers. Cap for your Pop. Light and
sweet for you. Jane, the wee, sweet lassie took the black one. The
pain in the arse took the latte. And that’s all there is.”

“The-the what?” Lars stood up from the
loveseat in front of his father’s desk, staring at Maggie’s back.
She couldn’t be talking about Samara, could she?

Maggie looked around at Lars with a
meaningful purse to her lips then glanced at his father.

“Oh. Sorry, Mr. Lindstrom. The
talent
,” she amended, smiling sweetly at Mr. Lindstrom. “The
smokin’, screamin’, cursin’ pain in the arse of talent who treats
our Jane like rubbish. That one.”

“
Samara
?” demanded Lars, crossing his
arms over his chest. The same Samara who was so easygoing and funny
in the car yesterday? Who liked the cottage far more than Jane
thought she would? What in the world was Maggie going on about?

“Aye. The very one.”

Nils stood up and moved closer to Maggie,
searching her face, his stance defensive and anxious. “She scream
and curse at
you
, Maggie May?”

Maggie took a deep breath and tapped her
index finger on her chin, considering. “Aye, she did. She said ‘Do
ye own a clock?’ and she asked ‘Stare much? Did ye at least get me
feckin’ coffee right, Jane?’ Oh, wait. I guess she actually said
that last part to Jane.”

Nils furrowed his brow looking at Lars. “I
don’t like it. I don’t care if she’s talent or not. She has no
cause to curse at Maggie. I don’t care who the heck she is.”

Maggie smiled at Nils, her face softening.
“Dinna worry for me, Nils. All that fuss was for Jane, not me.”

Lars wasn’t sure what to make of this new
information, but he didn’t like it. Suddenly Maggie turned to him,
pulling at his arm. “Come for a walk to the Prairie Dawn, Lars.
I’ll make you a coffee. Whatever you like.”

Lars watched as Maggie met Nils’s eyes,
staring at each other as though they were exchanging some secret
information.

Maggie sighed as they headed out the door,
walking the short distance to her café.

“Can’t figure you two out to save my damn
life,” said Lars, glancing at her.

She crossed her arms. “I dinna want to talk
about Nils.”

“Well, it sure seems you’re spoiling to talk
about something.”

“No wait. I do want to say somethin’ about
Nils. He never offered me anythin’ but friendship. Never kissed me
in public, at the park, durin’ the fireworks, in front of the whole
town.”

Lars rolled his eyes. “You’re talking about
me and Jane.”

“Aye, I am.”

“Then you don’t know what you’re talking
about. She broke things off, Maggie, not me. She’s not interested.
I promise you she’s not. She said as much yesterday and barely
looked at me after. Blamed it on work. Blamed it on her cousin.
But, come on, I know when I’m being blown off.
I
do it often
enough.”

“If you think that’s a blow off, you’re
daft. You’re a bloody fool.”

“Am I?”

“You are.”

“Well, thanks for that. Great talk. I think
I’ll head back to the office and get my own cup of crappy
coffee.”

Maggie put her hand on his arm. “I dinna
mean to rile you, Lars. Maybe she
does
need a break, while
her slag cousin’s in town. You wouldn’t believe what she puts up
with.”

“You know what, Maggie? Jane pushed me away.
Not the other way around. And Samara? Well, I hate to break it to
you, but, Samara’s gracious and warm; she’s beautiful and charming.
I’m not saying you didn’t see and hear what you think you saw and
heard. But, maybe you took it out of context, Maggie. You know,
cousins are like siblings. They can be rough on each other. It’s
not our business to judge them.”

“Och! Ye think I’m judgin’ them unfairly?”
Maggie’s accent had a tendency to deepen when she was upset. “All
the times ye lads called yer Jenny a feckin’ bitch, I just turned a
blind eye.”

Lars bristled even hearing the words come
out of Maggie’s mouth. No way, no how any of the Lindstrom men
would use that kind of language in conjunction with his sister.
‘You’re saying that’s the sort of language Samara and Jane used
with each other?”

“Not with each other. One uses it. The other
takes it.” They had arrived at the Prairie Dawn and Maggie stopped,
her hand on the door, looking up at Lars. “Will you do me a favor?
Keep your eyes open. Dinna be taken in by a pretty face and pretty
ways.”

“Wow. It’s like you can’t even give her a
chance, just because she’s really pretty. I’m surprised at you,
Maggie.”

Maggie’s brow furrowed as she stared at him,
as stunned as if he’d slapped her. For a minute he thought she
might tell him off for the accusation in his words, but her face
softened, concerned. “I’m your friend, Lars. I’m tellin’ you, give
our Jane a wee bit o’ time. If you like her, dinna give up on her
yet. That’s all I’m sayin’.”

She patted his arm gently then opened the
door. Lars trailed behind her.

Maggie had no reason to lie to him. She was
a trusted family friend. But he couldn’t reconcile the picture she
was painting of Samara with the breathtakingly beautiful, engaging
young woman he had met yesterday. And he wasn’t about to base his
opinion of her on hearsay, even if the source was trusted and
well-intentioned.

It still bothered him quite a lot that Jane
had broken things off—his anger toward her was strong and
authentic. He’d genuinely liked her snappy retorts and funny
observations, pretty green eyes and soft brown curls. Despite how
different the two women were in appearance, he really
didn’t
want Jane any less after meeting Samara. Jane had felt organic in
his life, like a missing puzzle piece. There was strength and
certainty in how easily he had fallen for her; in how comfortable
and right and hot it felt being with her, in how
possible
she felt to him.

But, she’d made her feelings clear. She
didn’t trust him and she didn’t want him. And if Jane didn’t want
to be with him, well hell, why
shouldn’t
he feel free to
pursue Samara? Oh, he knew full and well that Samara would be a
fling; there was nothing organic about
her
in Lars’s
world—their relationship would amount to nothing more than a night
or two of sex; she would return to New York, and that’s where
things would end. Lars had no illusions. She was a supermodel
living in New York, and he was a tour guide in Montana. But, why
should he deny himself pleasure when Jane was giving him nothing to
hope for?

One complication to this, however, was that
he knew beyond any shadow of doubt that if he touched Samara, if he
even started down that road, he’d be playing into Jane’s biggest
fears, and whatever chance he might have had to win her back would
be lost, entirely, irrevocably lost.
Possible
would be
impossible
and worse than rejection, Jane would hate
him.

His head hurt from thinking.

Maggie asked what he wanted and he ordered a
black coffee with a shot of espresso, leaning with his back up
against the bar. Maggie’s words passed through his head:
Don’t
give up on her yet.

He just wished Jane had given him a reason
not to.

***

Maybe it’s time to start sayin
’
no.

Jane
wished
she had said a big,
old-fashioned “no” to riding with Sara and Lars this morning, but
Sara was making a point. She had called the Lindstroms, insisting
that she and Jane wanted to ride separately from the rest of her
team, which meant that while Mr. Lindstrom drove the rest of the
crew in the van, Lars had picked up Jane and Sara in his truck.

They all had to sit together in the front
seat, and Sara spent the entire time pressed up against Lars,
giggling and touching his arm, asking him about the other
celebrities he had met over the years, while Jane busied herself
with her phone or stared out the window. It was a singular type of
torture to overhear the conversation as Lars told her cousin
animated stories, leaving Jane out entirely. The only upswing was
that it solidified her decision not to go to Jackson Hole, and even
helped fortify her courage to break the news to Sara. Her challenge
now was to keep the news to herself for as long as possible so that
Sara’s mood on the shoot days wouldn’t be affected.

Let’s just get through Wednesday and
Thursday first. Friday will be here soon enough.

When they got to the Sheepeater Cliffs, Jane
jumped out of the truck before Lars even opened his door and
watched from a distance as Sara insisted that he show her to her
trailer, personally. Lars had looked back at Jane, giving her an
inscrutable look, but Jane looked away, heading to the
Trend
people to get an idea of how they wanted to start the day. She
ignored the ache of longing in her heart as she watched Lars walk
away with Samara.

You knew how this would go, Jane, and you
protected yourself as best you could. No regrets this time.

***

Shoot days were always a day of heavy
casualties. They started early, ended late, and everyone had to be
on their toes, from Samara and her crew to the photographers,
stylists and assistants from
Trend
. Losing focus could mean
losing the perfect light, the perfect shot. The pressure to do
everything perfectly was relentless until the day was over, and it
was up to Jane to keep Samara’s team on their collective game.

Sebastian was the first to be fired, quickly
followed by Margot, then Shanelle. Margot and Shanelle were
re-hired when Sara realized she couldn’t finish her hair on her
own, and she needed to be sewn into one of her outfits. By midday,
Sebastian was mopping his sweaty forehead, nervously pacing pack
and forth in front of Sara’s trailer, and Jane asked herself for
the hundredth time why he always wore silk when it didn’t breathe
well.

“Sebastian, invest in some linen,” she
quipped.

“Very funny, Jane. See how you feel when
you’re fired.”

“Oh, I’ve already been fired twice
today.”

“JANE! WATER! NOW!” Sara called from her
trailer.

“But, obviously, it didn’t stick.” She
punched Sebastian playfully on a silken arm. “Chin up, pal. She’ll
retract it by dinnertime.”

Trend
’s stylist, Amy, pulled Jane
aside as she approached the Kraft table for a bottle of water. “She
going to be ready soon, Jane?”

“Makeup’s done. Hair’s almost done. Margot’s
sewing her in. You know Samara.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “I know
of
Samara. All I really
know
is you, Janie, and you make things
easy, kid.”

Jane grinned. “I do my part.” She grabbed a
water bottle then picked up another one, offering it to Amy and
gesturing to the landscape. “It’s a great concept,” Jane told the
stylist.