Chapter 29

© Copyright 2013 by Elizabeth Delayne



Her hair still wet from the shower, Jamie sat on the bed to put on her makeup. She picked up her compact mirror and opened it, frowning at what she saw. Her mother had woken her so she could eat some protein—a hamburger, she’d apparently found amazing while meeting downstairs with Tyler.

She should have known her mother would want to meet him.

Not just to meet him, but because Jamie hadn’t been able to hide the connection between them when her mother had shown up in the lobby. It had just opened up inside of her, the depths that she felt for him.

Enough, at least, for her mother to see.

So now he was coming up to say goodbye. Jamie couldn’t fault her mother’s sixth sense in the matter. Since meeting, Jamie hadn’t been apart from members of her team for this long.

“I look,” she said mildly as she stared at herself in the small mirror, “like a drunkard.”

“You look like you’ve had a good cry,” her mother said simply from the other side of the bed where she was laying back on the spread and reading a magazine.

“A good hard, long, crushingly stupid cry,” she sighed. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, cry over her reaction to the events ... but she could wish for it to disappear.

“Jamie,” Rebecca said gently, “there’s nothing stupid about it. And Tyler expects it. He really understands you.”

“That doesn’t mean I want to look like this. Cry or no cry.”

“Why? Cameras aren’t coming,” her mother mused. “Of course, the camera’s have probably already caught you looking worse then this. Morning hair, frowning, stumbling around for your glasses ...”

“Mama.”

Rebecca laughed. “Oh .. You mean you don’t want to look this way for Tyler.”

Jamie rolled her eyes. “I knew there was a reason I left you in Chicago.” Her mother laughed heartily as she sat up and held out her hand for the makeup bag. “Come here, and I’ll see what I can do.”

She sat as her mother opened up her case.

“There’s more here than I expected. Looks more like your sister’s.”

Jamie smiled. It was becoming a bit easier. To smile.

“Around here, everyone’s always handing you supplies. The makeup artists, my roommates. Companies, sending in their line for you to try. Complaining over what you don’t have. What you do.”

“You like them?” Rebecca asked as she concentrated on applying foundation.

“The make up?” Jamie said blandly.

“Ha-ha. Your roommates. Your teammates.”

“Very much,” Jamie said. “And that’s honestly. No cameras around.”

“You going to tell me about them?”

“I don’t know how much I can, yet. You’ve met them, that’s more than most,” Jamie said as her mother shifted through the bag, looking at different shades of eyeshadow. “I hope you’ll really get to meet them by watching the show. Felicity says I’m the mom of the group.”

“Not surprising, so there’s no reason to frown over it. You’ve been the mom for my own mother for a number of years.”

“Not the same thing.”

“Watching out for, nurturing,” Rebecca shrugged and switched out for another shade of eyeshadow. “Even before you went to Gram’s, you were that way with your siblings. It’s nothing to be ashamed of Jamie.”

Jamie closed her eyes as her mother applied another layer of shadow. “It’s more the label of it all.”

Rebecca laughed. “Which you hate the most. Labels.”

Jamie shrugged. There wasn’t much else she could say.

When her mother finished, she slowly closed the case. “There we have it. Simple, sweet, just enough to take away the rough edges, but not trying too hard. We haven’t gotten to do this much.”

“The girl talk?” Jamie asked.

“The putting on make up girl kind of talk,” Rebecca ran a hand over her daughter’s hair. “Let’s get your hair dry. We still have a few minutes.”

“Mama?”

“Hmm,” she murmured, then laughed as Jamie’s arms went around her.

“I’m really glad you came down.” Jamie closed her eyes as she simply rested her head on her mother’s shoulder. “I really miss you.”





When Tyler went by her suite, it was Jamie who answered the door. She looked ... better. Her eyes were still red rimmed around the eyes. He could tell she’d had a good cry.

But she’d put on make up and tried to hide it. He thought of the way he’d found her in the hospital chapel. He supposed the caring for it allowed her to be human, and showed she was better.

Someone still depressed wouldn’t go to the trouble, he thought.

“Wow,” he said, looking around the living room of the fancy five-star suite as he followed her to the sofa. “They set you up nice. They never set me up this nice, even when they were wooing me back.”

“Did they every really have to try?” she asked as he sat down next to her.

“No so much. Not this much. Now that I know ...”

“You’re more interested in your hotel on wheels anyway. And it’s a lot more than we need. My mom’s staying with me, in my room,” she nodded toward the far door. “She went in to give me some time, by the way ... to deal with you.”

“To deal with me?” he asked. “Are we breaking up?”

“Were we a couple to start with?” she asked blandly.

“That all depends on your definition,” he pointed out, and touched a finger to her nose. She didn’t pull back, which made him smile.

Courting had been Jessica’s word ... but it would have been nice to court Jamie away from all this.

“You should see what the message boards say.”

Jamie only shook her head, knowingly. “What do the message boards say?”

“I have no idea.” He matched her grin with his own. “So you’re okay?”

“I think I’d be fine by tomorrow, but my mom talked them into giving me a week. Better to go back with my feet planted on firm ground.”

“A week of no cameras?” He asked. “You’ll be in heaven.”

“And living like this? Yeah.” She shook her head. “I think they’re bringing the cameras back, putting me to work, which is why they so easily agreed to the week away from you guys.”

He frowned. “Jessica said you had asked about the funerals.”

“For the girl—and they’ve agreed to leave that alone so my mom and I can slip in,” she said. “It’s closure. Something I need.”

”So what’s to film?”

“I have to be part of a press conference tomorrow. Public relations with the emergency management service, the hospital and the network. Film stuff around here, on my own. Blah, blah blah—someone has something up their sleeve.”

“Plus a handy promotion for the show.”

“I’m sure that factored in. More than 50 people stopped to help that day outside of regular personal. I wasn’t the only one.”

“You okay with that?”

“I’ll have the time to be okay with it,” she shrugged, “all in all, it’s not that big of a deal. I’m going in to the press conference as a nurse, someone who has the training to do the job, Ty ... not as a celebrity.”

“Doesn’t change how I feel about you,” he brushed her hair away from her face, gently, his eyes not leaving hers.

“Tyler—“

“You know something that just occurred to me?”

She shook her head, a little lost with him so close, his voice so soft, and his look so intent.

He was ... she thought ... way too cute.

“There’s no cameras. No invasion of privacy. No one to know ...”

“What?”

“If I kiss you.”

“Tyler—“ Jamie held up a hand, pressed a finger to his lips. “No cameras, no invasion of privacy. Can you tell me that you’re not doing this because you think this is your last trip, your last chance for—“

”Romantic victory?” Tyler asked, leaning back. He frowned at her. “Jamie, I’ve never had to romance the girls before.”

“But this is your last chance.”

“You think I would romance you and make a fool of you on television?” He pushed to his feet.

“Not on purpose.”

“But you think it may be in the back of my mind.”

“I think ...” Jamie murmured, looking up at him. “I just don’t know. I’m scared, Tyler. I know myself. I know through everything, I've opened myself to you in a way I don't normally get with people. I don't know if I can trust myself. I’m different on camera.”

“Well,” he huffed. “Can I at least point out that you could just as easily be making a fool of me.”

“I don’t do this,” a tear escaped. She pressed her fingertips to her eyes and pressed. “I can’t take this on right now. I’m not trying to be contrary.”

For a moment, Tyler just looked down at her. For a moment, he just let it be the two of them. In the whole time at the scene of the emergency, she hadn’t cried. But she had given him her hand. She had held on.

He could press her now, but what would it accomplish? He would get an emotional reaction that came out of stress and weariness.

He sat down beside her, waited for her to lower her hands.

“Jamie,” he murmured.

She looked at him, and he was surprised not to see uncertainty in her eyes. Instead he saw more challenge than hesitation.

“Do you feel something for me?”

She stared at him for a second, then smiled wryly. “You know I do.”

“I don’t want a relationship that becomes a spectacle. I don’t want a girl that wants all kinds of media attention, or flashes our relationship around on camera for attention. If you were that girl, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

She nodded, slowly, taking it in.

“I’m just saying, in a moment that’s not about the show and only between the two of us, let’s not run from the connection. Let’s be the friends that we are. Let’s let it develop between us.” He studied her intently, watching the play of emotions pass across her face. Her mother was right. She couldn’t hide what she was thinking. And he understood now. She would back away, instead of face him or it ... in front of the camera.

But they weren’t in front of the camera now.

“Tyler ...” on a long sigh, she leaned into him, wrapped her arms around him. It was more than she’d ever given him before. He held on.

“I care about you so much,” she said into his shirt, then laughed. “It’s really scary.” He raised her chin with his finger, studied her eyes before dropping a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“I know. I’m a pretty scary guy.”

He reached for her hand as he stood, held onto it another minute as he just stood there with her. “Take care of yourself, Jamie. I can’t wait to find out more about you.” He turned to walk out, a smile on his face, when her soft call stopped him. He turned around.

“I think I see in you what my grandmother saw, and maybe in all of this I can still be thankful that she wanted it for me. When I'm back on the road with you,” she said, her eyes pointed, “I’m looking forward to finding out more about you.”

She stood, and walked with him to the door. “And not,” she said with a knowing smile as she opened it, “just from your profile on the show’s website.”



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