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“Hey, Archer,” he said, keeping his voice light and breezy, like he hadn’t just been fantasizing about the man’s little sister. “How’s my favorite client?”
Archer laughed. “I know you say that to all your clients.”
He grinned at that. “At the moment I’m speaking to them, every client is my favorite.” However, he didn’t pick up for all of them on the first ring like he did for Archer. He didn’t need to tell the star ofShock Tacticsthat—they both knew it. They were also busy guys with no time to waste. “What’s up?”
He was ready with pen and paper to take down whatever was vital from the call, but Arch surprised him. “Great job on the interview.”
“Wait, you read theSea Shell?”
Arch laughed. “Jay,everybodyin Carmel-by-the-Sea reads theSea Shell. I don’t like to boast, but I thought my sister did a great job.”
“I did too,” he said, not letting Arch know how much she’d kept back. And how grateful he was. Jay kept waiting for Arch to talk business, but he never did. After a couple of minutes of catching up, he said he had to get going and congratulated Jay again on the profile.
Jay hung up a little bemused. He was not the kind of guy who underestimatedanything,but clearly he hadn’t quite grasped the local power of theSea Shell.
He picked up the paper and read the other articles: The reopening of the town’s oldest bakery after extensive renovations; a fire put out by a team of volunteers up in the valley after hiking teenagers lost control of their campfire. He turned to a full page devoted to a local animal shelter. It was becoming so full of homeless animals that it was running out of funding. There was a community-wide drive to try to keep it afloat. His gaze immediately landed on a real pity ad for a homeless dog. A scrappy little stray stared out at him with what appeared to be entreaty. The dog had the most soulful dark eyes, and as he stared at the photo, Jay couldn’t help but think of that kid with a hard life looking for a break. That kid who’d been a scrappy little stray too.
He would have kept staring at that poor dog, but his phone rang again. He smiled when he saw the name. It had been a while since he’d heard from Smith Sullivan, who was currently working on a screenplay while he and Valentina looked forward to the birth of their first child. He couldn’t imagine he was having any work problems, but Jay picked up his pen again as he greeted his friend and client.
“Jay,” Smith said, “I just finished reading your profile piece in theSea Shell. It was really great. Cool photo, too. Though you know you’re going to have every sculptor in California trying to sell you something for your garden.” He laughed.
Jay shook his head. “Smith, you don’t even live in Carmel-by-the-Sea. How on earth did you get a copy of theSea Shell?”
“I subscribe online. I wouldn’t miss an issue of that any more than I’d miss an issue ofVariety.”
Again, Jay waited for Smith to talk business, but it never happened. Once they’d caught up on Valentina’s pregnancy andhow his writing was progressing, Smith said he had to go—they had a friend’s birthday party to attend. After he hung up, Jay’s bemusement deepened. He had to accept that everybody in Carmel, or who had any association with Carmel, apparently, read theSea Shell. And maybe some of his clients valued their friendship more than he’d given them credit for. He smiled. He really did owe Erin a lot.
He picked up his phone and found her number. She answered after two rings. At the sound of her voice, he felt an instant warmth and connection and understood immediately why he had told her so much about himself. She was just so easy to talk to.
“I owe you the biggest bunch of flowers in Carmel. In California! How come you didn’t include all those personal details I shared with you?”
There was a pause and then he heard the click of a door closing. He suspected she was still at the office and was giving herself some privacy. In a low voice, she said, “I wasn’t sure you actually intended to say all those things for public consumption. Even I kind of forgot we were on the record and weren’t just having a conversation friend to friend. But if you ever do decide you want to go public with the story of your upbringing and the heroic effort you put into carving out such a successful career, then I would love to write it for you. I think it could be really inspiring. Something that could touch a lot of people.”
Jay let her words sink in. Instead of replying with the first thing that came to mind, as usual, he allowed himself a moment. The wordsfriend to friendandheroic efforthad had a strange effect on him. And he realized that, although he’d thought she’d saved him from himself by not including those details in the story, speaking it out loud was part of a healing journey. One where he accepted his upbringing and made peace with it.Otherwise, how would the good stuff be able to climb over his mile-high walls?
“I think you might be right—and you are the only person I would let tell that story. But I need some more time. Is that okay?”
Full of understanding, she replied, “Absolutely.”
His gaze returned to the photo of the rescue dog and he smiled.
Erin asked, “Are you still there?”
“I’m just looking at the picture of your rescue dog of the week. He looks like a feisty little scrapper.”
He heard the rustle of paper as she turned to the same page. “Aww,” she said. “What a character. It’s so sad—I heard that if they don’t find a home for him soon, they’re going to have to put him down.”
Jay didn’t want to hear that. “You’re kidding. Why?”
“He’s young, but he’s had a hard life, and apparently he’s a little nervous, so people don’t really warm to him. They can’t keep him at the shelter indefinitely—there’s not enough funding.”
“I’ll send them some cash as soon as I get off the phone.” He paused. For once, money didn’t seem like enough. Of course he would help solve the problem of funding. But it wouldn’t necessarily mean that this cute mutt would find the right home. What if someone careless adopted him? Or someone who didn’t have the right skills to help him feel at ease?
He looked back at the photo and again found himself speaking his thoughts aloud to Erin. “He reminds me of myself. A young scrapper who needed socializing.”
With a chuckle, she said, “I don’t know that you’ve ever needed help socializing, but I do know it’s a nice evening for a drive. Maybe you should go look at him.”
Jay silently shook his head. He didn’t have the time—he had to get ready for his trip to LA to deal with the feud between his client and the director of the blockbuster he was shooting. There were a million things he needed to do before his flight. And yet he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the dog. There was just something about him that had got Jay, hook, line, and sinker. Besides, as Erin had pointed out, itwasa nice night for a drive.