“Gabriella Green’s phone,” answered her personal assistant. So her agent wasn’t the only one who’d come to Harvest Ranch.
“Hi, is Gabriella there?”
“Ms. Green cannot be disturbed at the moment.”
Not now. I need her. “If you’ll just tell her it’s Russ, I’m sure she’ll want to speak with me.” Russ hoped he portrayed confidence that he didn’t feel.
The woman pulled the phone away from her face and said, “Gabriella, Russ’s calling.”
Russ could just make out Gabriella’s reply. “Take a message. I don’t want to be disturbed during my treatment.”
The air left Russ’s body as quickly as if someone had punctured holes through his chest. Maybe they had. He ached.
And yet, Gabriella wasn’t done. “I’m scheduled for a cleanse, so tell him I’ll see him on Friday. We’ll do the local thing before leaving town.”
“Ms. Green—”
“I heard,” snapped Russ. He hung up without saying goodbye. Gabriella said she was behind him, said she had his best interest at heart, and in his hour of need, she’d abandoned him. The shaking in his legs had nothing to do with his long bike ride or overused muscles. Dozens of people were counting on him to write, and he was scared of letting them all down.
Alice would help.Normally, she would, but he’d done a pretty good job of messing that up.
He wanted to be with her. The desire to talk to her dragged his heart across the open fields of revelation. Gasping, he hugged his legs to his chest. Every moment since the first moment they’d met, his whole world had been about Alice. Upon waking, he checked the clock to see how long until they were together. Before writing, he’d call just to check in. Before bed, hers was the last face he pictured. And if he could work it out, he was beside her.
Stretching his legs out, he relived the few moments when Alice had been in kissing range. Why didn’t he just go for it?
Gabriella. Gabriella was this siren on the hill, calling out to him, drawing his attention away from what really mattered.
I wish I’d never met Gabriella.
And yet he’d pursued her like a bloodhound. Shallow and pathetic. He was nothing more than a doe-eyed fan who found himself caught up in Gabriella’s glamorous web. He’d committed to writing for her, or with her, or something … he wasn’t quite sure what the arrangement was anymore.
If only Alice would give him a sign. Let him know that she really did love him. He would give up fame and fortune for her, but he wasn’t quite brave enough to gamble on an odd comment from Graham.
What stank was that the best thing he could think to do was give her some space and time. Which meant that Russ, for the first time since he moved to Harvest Ranch, was also alone.
Chapter Eighteen
Alice felt like she had the easiest assignment at the Fall Festival Library Fundraiser. The children’s carnival was always popular, and the fishing booth was a huge success. All she had to do was sit behind a curtain and clip prizes onto the clothespins attached to fishing lines the kids threw over. She didn’t have to wear the silly tiara she’d brought for a costume and smile and pretend that everything was okay when all she really wanted to do was curl up on the couch and watchCrazy Rich Asiansa hundred times.
One of the drawbacks to being behind the curtain was that she could hear every conversation that happened on the other side of the thin cotton. Most of the time, people talked about the festival or told their kids not to spend all their tickets on one booth, but sometimes there was something she wished she hadn’t overheard. Mrs. Millie Douglas and her neighbor were one of those conversations.
“I really thought he’d be here,” said Millie.
“You don’t think he’d show his face, do you? After the things he said about Harvest Ranch.Tsk tsk. If I were him, I’d be tucking my tail between my legs and running for the airport.”
“I’d like to give him a piece of my mind before he goes. That’s all.”
“You and me both.”
The ladies moved on, and Alice dropped her head into her hands. She wanted to defend Russ, to tell the women, and the rest of Harvest Ranch, that Russ would never use the wordspiddly little town. He just wouldn’t.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t until several days after their run-in that she’d thought through the article logically. She’d read every one of his plays, saw them long before Graham did, and the one thing missing in that article was hisvoice. She should have seen it right off the bat, but she had been so hurt and angry that her common sense had hopped a train on an impromptu vacation.
Her next thought was, if he didn’t inspire the article, who had? The answer came as quickly as the clothespin flying over the barrier: Gabriella Green. TV’s good girl had gone rogue and was wreaking havoc on Russ and Harvest Ranch. Like a pillaging army, she targeted their strongholds, like the sense of community and mentality where you watched out for your neighbor.
Alice attached a prize to the clip and gave it a tug to let the child know they’d gotten a bite.
Karleigh poked her head around the sheet. “Hey, I brought you some doughnuts.”
