Page 31 of Sandbar Summer (Summer Cottage #3)
Chapter Twenty
Goldie
Goldie was out in the world again. At least a little. She’d been all over town helping during the setup. And Joe convinced her to come to dinner.
Goldie wasn’t trying to disguise herself, but she also wasn’t giving full movie star vibes. She banked on the fact that the biggest names in country music were crawling all over Irish Hills. She was an afterthought.
Hope had set her up at a corner table in the back. No one was paying attention to her. She wasn’t exactly sure how to feel about that. Regardless, it was nice to see the fruits of their work over the last day.
“Wow, your old boyfriend there, proposing to that teenager. Kind of gross if you ask me.”
Goldie laughed. Drake was too old for River Ann, but she was hardly a teen.
“She’s not a teenager, but she is half his age, but only a third of his age if you go by how old he says he is.”
“What kind of math is that now?”
“Hollywood male math, trust me, it’s indecipherable.”
“I’d say you did well here, Miss Hayes.”
“Thank you.”
Hope came to their table with a bottle of wine.
“Cherry Creek’s best.” Hope poured them both a glass.
“Cherry Creek?”
“Yep, we have several wineries in the area, a regular Napa Valley in Lenawee County.”
“There’s a lot more here to love than I realized,” Goldie said as she took a sip of the wine.
It was better than she’d expected. Over her wine glass she caught a glance between Hope and Joe.
Oh, oops. She was in “like,” maybe in “lust,” but not in love with Joe Cassidy.
She didn’t mean to imply that! Plus, she had a life to get back to in L.A.
after the nonsense with Victor fanboys died down.
For tonight, she’d enjoy success with her friends. Libby’s work for Irish Hills was nothing short of a miracle. Hope would already be a sensation if this place was in L.A. But now that it was getting some love from the country music crowd, hopefully the locals would also discover it.
The idea of leaving her old friends, not to mention the pure joy that was being in J.J.’s orbit, formed a dark cloud in Goldie’s mind. Still, her life was there, not here.
But for now, she’d laugh with her friends, flirt with Joe, and enjoy wine from Michigan, of all places!
Her phone, however, had other plans. It started vibrating. Over and over and over again.
She was about to pull it out of her purse to see why.
At that moment, J.J. appeared with a look of concern.
“Hey, Sister, there’s a group there, waiting for a table. They do not look like the country music crowd.” J.J. had blocked their view but now slowly slid to the side for Goldie to get a better look. “They’re wearing superhero t-shirts.”
“Shoot, I’m probably in the background of some of these shots getting posted. I really did let my guard down.”
“Hope says you can sneak out that way through the kitchen.”
“Come on, I’ll get you out of here,” Joe said.
So much for eating a meal in public. The fanboys were relentless. Joe stood first. He was twice her size. He easily blocked the view for any gawking diners as they slid behind the bar and back to Hope’s bustling kitchen.
“This way,” Hope said. And she opened a screen door at the back of the kitchen and held it open for them. Joe went out first and looked left and right like they were in a spy movie.
“Thanks, Hope.”
“Yep, I’ll try to slow them up, get ‘em seated, and serve ‘em slow.”
Joe reached his hand out and led Goldie as they walked around the restaurant to the sidewalk. Goldie liked holding hands with Joe. Even though she did not like the fact that they had to flee the restaurant.
The truck was in sight when another group of fans jumped between them and her escape.
“Found her!”
“Will you sign this? Can we get a selfie? Are you going to do a Steely Ann standalone movie?”
“Uh, what?” Goldie tried to decipher the rapid-fire questions.
Joe pulled her behind him as if they were actually throwing stuff at her like they had at the convention. She’d expected vegetables flying, not autograph requests.
“I’ll sign. It’s okay.”
Joe reluctantly stood down as she signed a t-shirt and autograph book and then posed for a picture.
“Thank you! Oh my, God!” The fans were thrilled, apparently. And after they got what they’d come for, they moved out of the way for Joe and Goldie to get to the truck.
They looked like the same VSU fan contingent, but they sure didn’t act like the typical VSU fan, blaming Goldie for ruining, well, everything.
“That was weird.”
“Well, they clearly love your work.”
“Yeah, but they didn’t hurl insults or accuse me of destroying their entire superhero world.”
“A more mature mutation of Victor fanboy?”
“Maybe.”
It was then that she remembered her phone had been blowing up earlier.
As Joe weaved through the relatively congested traffic situation in downtown Irish Hills, she pulled out her phone.
There were missed calls from Hedda. And several texts from Tally.
She decided to call Tally first. Let the agent wait.
Tally answered immediately. “Oh good, I need to know how you want me to respond, schedule-wise and all that?”
“To what?”
“Well, in the last twenty-four hours, you’ve got twelve endorsement requests, six talk show appearance requests, a script, and two requests from the head of the VSU and, uh, yeah, the new CEO of Disney.”
“What, how?”
“I don’t know. It’s all I can do to keep up.”
“Okay, you’ve forwarded everything important to my private email?”
“Yes, I didn’t bother you with the stuff I know you’re not into.”
“Okay, just keep doing that. And I’ll check back in after I sort it out.”
She hung up with Tally.
“Good news?” Joe asked.
“I don’t know. I’d been untouchable for the last few weeks, and now all of a sudden, I’m the belle of the ball. And I’m not even there.”
She dialed Hedda, who was technically not her agent.
“Well, there she is, the woman of the hour.”
“Hedda, what is going on? I’m being flooded with offers, and a pack of fanboys just asked for autographs instead of asking for my head on a platter.”
“I told you how I was going to ask around about how your scenes looked in Trevor’s mess of a movie?”
“Yes.”
“Well, a couple of things on that front. Trevor Sunday has been fired for myriad reasons. To begin with, after seeing the dailies, the studio became incredibly concerned about having him at the helm of a huge tent pole movie in the VSU franchise.”
“Can’t say I’m sad about that.”
“But wait, there’s more.”
“Yeah?”
“The best thing about the mess of a movie was you.”
“What?”
“Yeah, the only scenes that work are the scenes you’re in. And your big line, it’s perfection. The rest of it is crap, total crap. But you save what’s left. So much so that the powers that be in the VSU want to talk about Steely Ann having her own movie.”
“And this is widely known now?”
“Yes, it broke in the Hollywood Reporter. I’ve been trying to get you on the phone for hours.”
“Karma rarely works this fast.”
“I need you back in town now.”
“Laying low seems to be working well for me. Why don’t I extend into the fall?”
“Striking while the iron is hot is also a thing, and the iron is white hot for you right now.”
“Listen, we haven’t even signed an agreement.”
“Another reason for you to take a meeting with me. I’ll make sure to work around your schedule.”
Goldie’s schedule was wide open. But she wasn’t going to let Hedda know that.
“I’ll have Tally reach out with availability.”
“So, you’re coming back to town?”
“Early next week work?”
“Perfect, see you then.”
They ended the call.
“Headed back to Hollywood, eh?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“I got the gist. What about the hotel?”
“I haven’t thought that far out. We don’t have bookings yet. There’s a lot to do on your end for maintenance. I can’t imagine it will be ready until next season, realistically?”
“True.”
She didn’t want to bring up the other elephant in the room, their budding relationship.
Except it wasn’t a relationship. They’d kissed. They’d flirted. She was too old and too jaded to think it was some sort of great love.
He didn’t bring it up, either.
Goldie needed to get back to her life, or else she’d have no life to get back to. Hedda was right. The iron was hot. And she had been around long enough to know, when it happened, you jumped.