Ellery Mountain 3 - The Carpenter and the Actor (2 page)

Kieran swallowed the remainder of his beer in one go, much to the amusement of Finn. He couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid. Apparently everyone else here tonight knew of the man in cabin seventeen. Jason McInnery was an actor and a singer and last year’s co-host of some big awards show. They not only all knew that, including Finn’s partner Max, but were shocked that Kieran didn’t know him, or recognise him. Why would he recognise this Jason? Yes, the guy was gorgeous and sexy and had a piercing hazel gaze that looked right through you. Yes, he was fit and toned. Yes, hell yes, he was tall and when he smiled his whole face lit up. Yes, he was exactly the type of man Kieran would ogle on the TV. But, even with all that, Kieran hadn’t put two and two together.

“You can’t blame me. If I was walking around in Hollywood then, yeah, I may have got it. But why is a famous actor staying at Ellery Cabins?” he asked, bemused.
“Why not?” Daniel defended quickly. “The cabins are remote luxury and the Smokys are stunning.”
“You know I don’t mean why did he choose Ellery itself?” Kieran said. “I meant, why is he on his own in a remote setting? Shouldn’t he be on a beach somewhere sipping Mai Tais with a model on his arm?”
“Probably escaping the crap,” Max offered. Finn nodded in agreement. He’d squeezed into the two-seater sofa in Kieran’s apartment next to his built boyfriend and was cuddled in close. Less demonstrative but equally as happy, Daniel and Luke sat side by side on the other sofa. Which left Kieran on his own on the single chair.
“What crap?” The words tumbled out before he could catch himself and stop saying something.
“Don’t you read anything useful on that machine of yours?” Luke laughed. Kieran narrowed his gaze at him.
“I use my netbook for designing. I don’t spend all my time on the Internet reading gossip or watching TV,” Kieran defended himself. Nope. He spent all of his free time in his garage with his tools and his iPod.
“I think he’s serious,” Max said thoughtfully. “He really doesn’t know Jason.” “Call yourself gay?” Finn grinned and elbowed Max in the side.
“You’ve never heard of Jason McInnery? Openly gay actor? Brother who died?” Daniel asked. “Hell, I was overseas and even I heard of him.”
“Of course I know
who
he is,” Kieran said irritated. “I just never imagined he was the type of man who would, firstly, land on our doorstep and, secondly, offer me coffee while wrapped in a blanket. Not just in a blanket but looking rough, with three days of stubble and bed hair that makes Finn’s look tamed. I didn’t recognise him when I first saw him, is all.” Kieran wasn’t sure why he was defending himself.
“He probably needs somewhere to hide for a few weeks,” Daniel said. “He lost his brother really recently, I think. Hang on…” He pulled out his cell and after a few taps and an intense look of concentration, he handed it to Kieran. The screen held a list of links to news items about the actor in cabin seventeen and it would take only seconds for Kieran to click on them and find out what had happened to the exhausted-looking man to make him hide up in the mountains. Cabins at Ellery were perfect places to relax, springboards to the Smoky Mountains, with trails and climbing and water activities. It was also the perfect place to close you off from the real world and find what his dad would call inner peace.
Suddenly determined, he ignored the links and pressed the off button before passing the cell back to Daniel.
“I don’t want to read that,” he said firmly. Something in Jason’s tired eyes this morning spoke of somebody on the edge. Exhaustion and sadness and other emotions that Kieran couldn’t even begin to identify had flickered in Jason’s gaze. Reading all the gossip and stories online smacked of prying and talking behind the man’s back. There was something very wrong in gossiping now that he’d met the man.
Daniel took the phone. His expression was questioning but he didn’t call Kieran on what he had just done. He changed the subject away from Jason McInnery and back to the big project that the group was involved in. Kieran pushed the unsettling questions in his head to one side and tried to concentrate.
“Planning passed most of the things I wanted, but the new roof and the other work isn’t cheap. Contractors got us some quotes in,” Daniel said. He pulled a sheaf of papers out of a laptop bag and passed them around for everyone. Kieran was last to see and he didn’t have to ask why everyone looked less than happy when he glanced at the bottom line figure. Two hundred thousand more than they had thought.
“Ouch,” Kieran said softly. He looked up and exchanged commiserating looks with Daniel. His friend’s idea of a place where young soldiers with PTSD could go to get help when they came back from the theatre of war was a good one. “I have about eight in savings,” he immediately offered. It didn’t matter that he was saving the money for a reason. His life plans could wait a while. Daniel’s home was a worthy project and one he supported one hundred per cent.
“I have another ten,” Finn added just as quickly.
“I have the proceeds from selling the apartment,” Luke interjected. “Maybe twentyeight or so.”
Max began to talk, but Daniel interrupted, “No, guys—no more. You’ve all put too much into this. I’m thinking we can lose some of the bells and whistles, like the therapy pool that Liam wanted.”
Doctor Liam Wolfe had worked out a plan of physical therapy support alongside the emotional support he and Daniel wanted to offer. The house idea wasn’t planned to cater to those with serious physical injuries. The idea was that they would be able to handle minor issues with various levels of rehab. Kieran wasn’t happy at the idea of compromise, but they could get to what they wanted in the end.
“So we start small,” Kieran said simply, “and work our way up to it.” Grabbing his netbook, he opened the spreadsheet program and started a new page. “We need to work some figures.”
The men concentrated on number crunching for about ten minutes before they got to a point that they were happy with. Only then did Kieran close down the computer and help himself to another beer. The men decided on a date for the next meeting that wouldn’t clash with their Friday beer night.
“So Max has this friend…” Finn began.
“No, Finn,” Max said immediately.
“He’ll love him. He worked with Max in the city. A paramedic—tall, dark red hair…”
Kieran tuned back into the conversation and didn’t take long to realise that everyone was looking at him.
“I’m not into red hair,” he said.
“He’s coming into Ellery for a meeting with the doc next week, something about maybe moving here for a job. Tell him, Max.”
“He’s a nice guy,” Max said dutifully.
“Everything.” Finn prodded his boyfriend in his side and Kieran hated the matchmaking gleam in his friend’s eye.
“Spare me the details. Just because you and Dan are ridiculously loved up doesn’t mean I have to be.”
“You’re the last one,” Daniel pointed out. Kieran threw him a dirty look and narrowed his eyes.
“Well, you go out with Tall, Red-haired and Available then.”
“I said we’d all catch up for a beer or a coffee,” Finn summarised. “Then you can meet him. He has these gorgeous emerald eyes and freckles. He’s kind of sexy.” Max coughed pointedly and Finn leaned into him with a grin. “I meant Kieran would find him sexy.”
“Okay, coffee is good.” What was wrong with him? The chances of meeting a gay man in Ellery outside of his friends and their partners were slim to none. He should be jumping at the chance of meeting this paramedic who sounded, like the kind of guy he might be interested in—one that had a job and was breathing.
“Great,” Finn enthused. He changed the subject to something that Kieran tuned out of. There was nothing like enthusiasm in him, and he put it down to being tired. He’d been up late three nights in a row finishing off his latest project. Add in the early mornings at the cabin and he was screwed.
Yawning widely, he slid down in the chair a little more and laid his head back against the support. The sound of friends speaking around him was a nice background to let him think. He hadn’t recognised Jason. Hell, he didn’t know anything about Jason, apart from the fact that Jason had definitely checked him out when he was fixing the heating. What if the tall, gorgeous actor liked his men short with blond hair and a mouth that was often seconds in front of his brain?
Probably not.

Jason climbed the last hundred feet or so with belaboured breathing and a cramp in his side. He hadn’t realised just how out of condition he was. He ate right and used the gym to keep his muscles in shape, but actual fitness was sadly lacking. Finally at the top, he collapsed on the grass and leant back against a stone. Pulling a bottle of water out of his rucksack, he settled in for a morning of admiring the view from the very top of Ellery Peak and out to the Smokys beyond. He could make out the road as it wound its way up the mountain. Every so often the sun would glint on the metal of the three cars left in the small parking area at the end of the road, one of which was his rental Ford—nothing too flashy or expensive, or that screamed ‘actor on a break’. The view was stunning—breathtaking actually. He wished he’d brought a camera up with him just to try to capture the majesty of this beautiful mountain range. Instead, he decided his cell would at least get him a photo he could send to his mom and dad.

Moving the phone around, he finally settled on the peaks framing each side and the view down to the river at the base of the valley between. After clicking for the image, he was pleased that it gave at least some idea of what he was seeing to his parents.

“You’d have loved it here,” he murmured. Then he caught himself. Only weird people sat in isolation under an early morning sun at the top of a mountain and started a conversation with their dead brother. He was right, though—Ben would have loved it here. He’d always been the energetic hiking type, always the thrill seeker, looking for the ultimate natural high. The Pagani Zonda had just been the next way to get faster.

“Two hundred miles an hour, Jase.”
“It’s a gorgeous car.”
“It’s stunning. You want to go for a spin?”
“Where are you going to take it that means you can get anything up to two hundred in the

That had been the last real conversation they’d had. Closer than a lot of brothers, Ben had followed Jason to LA, had been a successful property developer. He’d made money and he’d spent it on girlfriends, cars and parties. He’d been young and had lived life. Twentyseven had been too young for him to die. That was the one fact that Jason and the papers agreed on.

Back in the here and now, Jason pulled his knees up and curled his arms around them. The headlines had been stark, the paparazzi fallout huge. Nearly a year had passed and he still he didn’t have a handle on the loss of his brother, or on the betrayals. The stories came out of the woodwork. The autopsy had shown his brother had had prescription painkillers in his system. He hadn’t even known Ben was fighting a prescription medication addiction—no one had, not even Ben’s girlfriend Tasha.

So had it been a good idea to come here? He wasn’t reading scripts or on talk shows, or having to be funny for everyone he met. Here in Ellery—and here, on top of the mountain on his own—he was alone and he could think.

He texted the image he had taken and watched as the bars indicated it had been sent. He was lucky to get a signal—there was hardly any in the cabins themselves. He waited the requisite few minutes then smiled when his mom texted back.

He fired back a reply—
Love it here, relaxed
—and added a smiley face. She fully embraced the use of emoticons in texting—she’d love the smiley.
Pocketing the cell, he made himself comfortable then placed his ear buds in. Today’s playlist was a blast from the past, a mix of music from a time when Ben was still here, when Jason was the dorky older brother. Humming along to Madonna, he settled his breathing, then, closing his eyes, he moved to lie down. With his beanie pulled down low over his eyes he settled to sleep. The grass was soft, the sun warm, it wasn’t much past breakfast and this was the beginning of his peace…
“Is he dead?”
“He’s asleep.”
“He looks dead.”
“Leave him alone.”
A man’s voice, and a child. They faded as they walked past where Jason was lying. Jason didn’t open his eyes or indicate he was awake. He’d only heard them between two songs and wasn’t even going to acknowledge their existence. They’d want him to talk and as long as he didn’t talk he’d be fine.
He must have dozed off because when he woke to someone shaking him, it was one hell of a surprise.
“Mr McInnery? Jason? Everything okay?”
Jason looked up into green eyes, a concerned expression and the uniform of a cop. Scrambling to stand, he experienced a head rush and the cop held out a hand to steady him. Waiting a few seconds whilst his head unscrambled, he considered why a cop had woken him up.
“I’m fine,” he said quickly.
The cop took a step back and away. “The Fosters were up here and reported a strange homeless guy looking like he’d fallen asleep or something.”
Jason glanced down at his baggy jeans and his old sweatshirt. He wasn’t exactly rocking
GQ
, but he didn’t think he looked homeless. He scrubbed a hand over a week’s worth of stubble then up to his scraggy cream beanie. Maybe he did.
“Don’t tell me you walked all the way from the parking lot to see who it was,” Jason said. He groaned inwardly. Not a good introduction to Ellery if the cops knew who he was and had to be called out to him.
“I needed the exercise.” The cop laughed. “Finn Ryan.” He held out a hand to shake and Jason extended his own hand in welcome.
“I’m so sorry to be a problem on day one.”
“Not at all. The trip up here got me out of a boring budget meeting. I could just as easily have passed it on to a park ranger but decided it was too good an opportunity to miss.” Finn inhaled deeply and stretched his arms above his head. “I love it up here,” he sighed. “I need to make more of an effort to get myself out of town.” Then he turned to Jason and there was reluctance in his voice. “Anyway, now I know that you’re not a vagrant in need of help, I need to return to budgets and plans.” He shrugged then smiled. He appeared to be waiting for something. Probably for Jason to regain the power of rational speech. “Bye.” He turned on his heel.
“Wait,” Jason said abruptly. Connecting to another human after his meditation slash sleeping thing he’d had going on suddenly sounded like heaven. “Would you mind if I walked down with you?”
Finn stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “Sure.”
Jason grabbed up his rucksack and his water bottle and quickly shrugged the pack onto his back. Pulling his beanie more firmly on his head, he jogged the ten or so steps to Finn’s side then decided he could push past the need for silence in his head and actually start a conversation.
“So, Mr Ryan, what is it like being a cop in a town like Ellery?” There. He’d started a conversation. This talking thing was easy.
“Finn, please, and yeah, I’m happy doing what I do in a town I love.”
They talked as they walked down the mountain—walking down was considerably easier than walking up had been. He came to find that Finn was gay, and he had a full-time boyfriend who balanced working in the mayor’s office with being a volunteer firefighter. He also had a gay friend called Daniel and another called Kieran.
“Wait. You mean Daniel and Kieran at the cabins?” Shit. All those weird feelings in his pants for Kieran and the guy was already taken. At least his gaydar had picked up that Kieran was gay. Score one for his well-hidden libido.
“Yeah. Daniel is the son of the half-owner and Kieran works there.”
“Like a handyman.”
“Yeah.”
Finn didn’t pick up on the fact that Jason had slipped up and entirely focused on Kieran. But he was smiling. Finn had a very nice smile.
“So he and Daniel are…what? Together?”
“God no. They wouldn’t last ten minutes. Daniel is all intense bad-ass with tattoos and stuff. Kieran is your typical country boy. They are close friends, but Daniel met Luke a while back and he’s another one lost to a long-term relationship. What about you?”
“What about me?”
By this time they had reached the cars and Jason hoped that by using his patented technique of answering a question with another question he could escape discussing his nonexistent sex life.
“You were an actor and out from day one.”
Oh that question. The one about working as an out actor in the straight-laced—or not— city of LA. That one he could handle.
“I was lucky. On the backs of other actors, I landed a couple good roles, then of course
Late Last Night
.”
“I love that show,” Finn said enthusiastically.
“Thank you.” What else could Jason say? He loved that people enjoyed the show and that they felt they could tell him.
“Are you on a break right now?”
“Back filming in three or so weeks.”
They were by the cop car and Finn pulled out a card with his details. “Every Friday we meet up for beers, my friends and I. If you feel like you want company, or a drink or whatever, give me a shout.”
Instantly, Jason was suspicious. In general people wanted something from him. Money, fame by association. This Finn seemed like a nice guy, but why would he be inviting a total stranger for a beer? He wouldn’t have invited just anyone. Why Jason?
Sadness welled inside him. A friendly drink sounded good.
“I don’t really drink out,” he said softly.
“It’s at my house this week. Text me for the address.”
At Finn’s house? With his boyfriend? Spending an evening with a happy couple was probably not on his to-do list.
“I guess it’s not every day you get people like me in town,” he said. He was a curio, something to be stared at and talked about. Everyone owned him.
Great, now I’m feeling sorry for myself. Stupid.
Finn frowned. “Gay guys?” he said.
“No, people you want to know things about. Like who I sleep with, why did my brother take pills, why did he drive, how did I not die as well?” He was aware he sounded snappy and rude.
Finn looked startled for a second then he relaxed. He shook his head and opened the car door. “Nah,” he said, “just a group of us meeting for a beer and talking shit. Text me if you want the address and time.” With that Finn climbed in the car and Jason moved back to his own car and watched Finn leave.
Meeting up with the small group might be just what he needed. Easy talk and a few beers and he might even have fun.
And of course Kieran would be there.
Win-win
.