“Come inagain, Montgomery.”
The annoyance in his tone was almost enough to deter me.Almost.
Gulping, I opened the door and stepped inside. Allan spared me a glance, held up a finger, and kept talking.
“Dammit, Walt, this feature on the kid is big.”
A feature. That was good. I’d board a spaceship to do one on a freaking alien if I had to.
“Massachusetts’s own success story,” Allan continued. “How long has it been since we had such a huge success story?”
I studied my boss while he paced with his hand on his hip. The old-school editor had a bark that caused terror among the Springfield Sentinel’s staff. He had the bite to match, too. While I was a tad wary of the man, I couldn’t help being amused by his appearance. Allan looked as stressed as he perpetually sounded. His shirt was always rumpled, his tie ever-loose, and the tail stained with whatever meal he’d last eaten. His gray hair constantly stuck out at all angles, too.
“Yeah, the last big one we had out of our beloved state was Lincoln Ford. That was a whole decade ago. No one can do this feature but us!”
Lincoln Ford.
The name made my breath catch, which caused my exhale to come out as a choked sound. The noise caught Allan’s attention. Those laser-sharp eyes cut to me again, and I looked away, pretending to study the various awards he had on his wall. But the damage was already done.
It was like someone yanked the floor from under me, and I plunged into a sea of memories. Green eyes I could never forget, softening whenever they landed on me. My heart hammered with anticipation as the face I loved inched closer to mine. Warm summer nights wrapped in strong arms. A teasing smile that always made my stomach flutter. Laughter. Young love. Hopefor a future together. It all rushed back in overwhelming waves. Somehow, I yanked myself back to the present.
Stop thinking about him.
He’s dead to me.
He had been, for quite some time. I absolutely refused to get sucked into memories of my ex-boyfriend from when I was a stupid kid.
“Jesus, Walt,” Allan groaned.
I guess that meant the golden child—or should I say, reporter—wasn’t going to make it home. Good for me… hopefully.
“Whatever, Walt,” Allan said with an air of resignation and hung up. Running his fingers through his hair, he added, “Montgomery, get that guy…” He snapped his fingers. “Er… the new kid.”
I ground my molars. He’d give Mark the big assignment over me?Five years, dammit!“Mark—and he won’t be necessary.”
Allan’s eyebrows shot up. His expression asked how dare I not jump at his command. “He won’t?” he asked dryly.
“No, because I’m here, and I can take Walt’s place. I can do the feature.”
Silence.
Allan sat down slowly. As he leaned back in his chair, it groaned under his weight. The way he steepled his fingers and stared at me with unreadable eyes made me sweat a little.
“It’s in Los Angeles.”
My eyes darted from side to side. “I… uh…I can be on a plane to anywhere you need me to be by this afternoon.” Yes, I was close to wilting under the hardass’s stare, but I refused to go down without a fight. That fight to scrape and crawl far away from the ridiculous gossip column to a real journalism career.So close.
“Huh,” was all he grunted.
“Huh, I’ve got the assignment… or…?”
“You’re entertainment, Montgomery.”
I almost scoffed out loud. As I stared at him, I hoped he didn’t mean that the way it sounded. There was no way he was implying that my writing the gossip column made me a joke. Taking a deep breath, I reined in my tongue. It could be as sharp as Allan’s sometimes, and I couldn’t let it ruin this opportunity for me.
“I’m a journalist,” I cooly corrected.
“Do you even know what a term like…sackmeans in football?”
