Chapter Seven - Scott

Scott started when Jules turned a look of death on him. And he thought he’d rather die than be on the receiving end of that again. She dropped his hand and marched forward, half-falling as she did.

He called after her. “What? I’m just trying to lighten the mood. Seriously, you’ve been giving me the cold shoulder ever since we met. I feel like I’m doing all the work in this relationship.”

Jules turned back, and it was no longer a look of death. More like Medusa. Scott felt his blood turn to stone—he couldn’t move.

“Maybe this is hard for someone like you to understand,” she said, “because you have no scarcity of girls or dates or people falling at your feet, but it’s not so easy for the rest of us. Or maybe it’s just me, because sometimes it feels like that. But you don’t know what it’s like to have someone you’d do anything for ignore you…treat you like you don’t exist. It’s horrible.” She paused, her gaze dropping. “I know Blair’s favorite color, his hobbies, what foods he’s allergic to. I know that he keeps his hair long enough so that when he’s frustrated, he can rake his fingers through it. The barber cut it too short one time, and he was on edge for three weeks until it grew long enough. I don’t know if Sandra even knows all of that.”

Scott wanted to say, Because she’s not a stalker. But now didn’t seem the right time for it. And the fact was that Jules had a point. He had no idea what that was like. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have joked about something I have no experience in. But I do know what it’s like to never be able to seriously date anyone. I always assume every girl I go out with is after my money or my fame, or more likely both. It’s the reason I quit going to school. My mom thinks I have no direction and that I’m going to regret not getting a better education. And she’s not completely off base. But really, it was because I was tired of going to a normal school when I’m not normal. It sounds conceited, but it was impossible for me to have a typical high school experience. And it will be impossible for me to have a typical college experience. You’ve seen what the past day has been like for me here. Everyone either smothers me or avoids me like the plague. And I’m over it. So I might as well live up this life while I got it, right? At least when I hang out with other celebrities, everyone is famous, so no one cares who you are. That’s what has had to become my new normal.”

Scott fell silent, his breaths heavy. Admitting all that had taken more than he’d expected. And to someone who was practically a stranger, no less.

“I guess the saying about the grass always being greener is true, huh?” Julianna asked, making her way back to him and taking his hand.

“Your situation still sucks worse,” he said as they began walking again. “Maybe there is a way I can help.”

“What did you have in mind?” Jules’s lips quirked up, and excitement had ignited behind her eyes.

“There’s a swimming party tonight. Let’s go together. I’ll make sure that Blair will be so jealous, he can’t stop staring. Not to mention everyone else in the place.”

The excitement died, and Jules’s lips pursed. Was that not the right thing to say? He was sure that she looked hot in a bikini. All he had to do was throw out some compliments, maybe a kiss on the cheek, and bada bing bada boom, everyone in the place is jealous of the girl who says no one sees her. What was the problem?

“Like I said. You don’t understand.” Jules didn’t let go of his hand, still helping support him as they finished the last two hours of the hike. But she didn’t say anything more either. That kind of silence made the two hours seem like twelve. He tried to say sorry, but he didn’t know what he was apologizing for, and so it fell on deaf ears.

Maybe he had lost touch with reality.

Or maybe he’d never had it in the first place.

* * * * *

Scott’s gaze kept flitting to the second floor of the barn. He knew Jules was up there somewhere, training to be a counselor in the kids’ camp. He wished the ranch allowed guys to do it. Scott would be perfect as a counselor. He loved kids—they were freakin’ hilarious—and they loved him back because he let them use him as a human jungle gym. It was the perfect partnership. He wondered how Jules was going to fare. She didn’t seem like the human jungle gym type. Also, he had overheard that goth girl, Sandra, talking at breakfast. Turned out she was also a counselor in the kids’ camp.

“You listening, Dallenforth?”

Everyone’s attention turned to Scott, who didn’t have the slightest idea what was happening.

“Sure am.”

“What was the last thing I said?” Jimmy must be a parent because that was something his mother would say.

Scott glanced around, hoping someone would give him a clue. Penny, who it turned out was one of the activity guides, made some sort of motion with her hands, like she was raising a flag. “We’re going to be…practicing…raising the…” Penny gave a slight shake of her head. “Pledge of…” Another shake. “Roping steer.”

Everyone laughed, and Penny groaned.

“Nice try, rock star.” Did Jimmy really need to bring any more attention to the fact? Couldn’t he just be Scott from Southern California for a while? “We’re going to be learning to belay each other on the rock wall.” He nodded to the wall behind them that stretched up past the second floor of the barn. “And then after lunch, I’ll be taking you out on the four-wheelers to give you an idea what the trails are like. After this week, you’ll be on your own, so I suggest you pay attention.” He shot Scott a warning glance.

Scott rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I got it. Pay attention.”

This was not helping with his popularity—or lack thereof. And neither was the ridiculous getup he was wearing. The hat he was required to wear looked like something his dad would wear hiking, and the khaki shirt actually had a collar and a front pocket. Who went four-wheeling in this kind of getup?

No one.

And yet, here he was.

Scott wondered if it was too late to call up his chauffeur and escape the type of hell that only his parents could come up with. He probably would have, too, if Penny hadn’t walked up to him.

“How did you get roping steer from this?” She repeated the motion she’d done earlier.

“I don’t know. How do you get rock climbing from it?”

Penny did the motion again. “I’m pulling the rope tight as you climb. I’m belaying.”

Scott threw his hands into the air. “How was I supposed to know that? I’ve never rock climbed before.”

“Neither have I, but I watch TV.”

“I don’t have time for that. I’m a busy guy.”

Penny laughed. “And to think that everyone gets nervous around you. All they have to do is talk to you and they’d be put right at ease.”

He wasn’t able to come up with a sarcastic comeback before Jimmy called him out in front of the group. Again. “Rock star, you planning on wearing a harness, or you going to free climb?”

Scott glanced around and noticed that everyone else was already tightening their harnesses, and they seemed all too pleased that he had messed up. What was it about him that made them so happy to see him fail? He didn’t try to act better than anyone else, and yet it was like they had already decided that he thought exactly that.

“I’ll take a harness.” Before he thought better of it, he added, “Penny needs one too.”

“Way to throw me under the bus,” she muttered as Jimmy held out two harnesses.

“A little quicker next time,” Jimmy said to Penny, but that was it. No taunts. No teasing.

And yet Scott was the one everyone was jealous of.

It didn’t take long to figure out who the climbers were and who was lucky that, as guides, they could keep their feet on the ground.

Turned out that Scott wasn’t so bad, and he made it up to the top quicker than anyone else. After he’d pulled the rope to the bell at the top of the wall, he wished he’d slowed down a bit, or maybe not made it to the top at all. As much as he didn’t like when people took pictures of him when he failed at things or made a fool of himself, it was better than the looks and murmurings he was getting now. The girls, acting like he was God’s gift to rock climbing, and the guys, looking at him like he was trying to show off. Trying to show that there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.

It didn’t matter what Scott did. He couldn’t win.

Except with one person.

Jimmy strode up to Scott, and for once actually seemed pleased. “Scott, since you seem to have experience with this, why don’t you belay Penny?” He turned to the rest of the group. “This is what you’ll be doing for our guests.”

“Oh, I’ve never actually belayed anyone before.”

“It’s easy. You’ll have no problem with it.”

And then Jimmy showed Scott how to hold the rope and how to use his own body weight, and gave tips for controlling Penny’s descent.

“No offense,” Penny whispered as she clicked a helmet into place, “but I’d feel more comfortable with Jimmy at the ropes.” Her curly hair shot out in all directions from under the helmet, accenting her wide eyes.

Scott could admit that he was a bit nervous at the prospect of doing this by himself with everyone watching. But the way Jimmy had explained things to him, it didn’t seem difficult. And their fearless leader was there if anything went wrong.

Scott’s gaze swept upwards over the rock wall. It didn’t look as high from the bottom. After he’d rung the bell at the top, he’d made the mistake of looking down, and everything had started spinning. Good thing all he’d had to do at that point was push off and rappel down. No skill needed.

Movement on the second floor caught Scott’s attention and he turned. Leaning over the balcony, watching, was Jules. The goth chick that she’d been trying to avoid stood next to her, alongside one other girl he hadn’t met. And they seemed to be waiting for him to belay Penny. Everyone wanted a piece of the action.

Scott’s attention turned back to the rock wall. Several people stood to the side and had their phones out. Probably hoping there would be something worth catching that would boost their social media accounts. He was pretty sure the ranch had signed something saying he couldn’t do pictures or autographs, the whole “respecting his privacy” thing, but no one seemed to care about enforcing it. And honestly, things might get worse if they did. Then people would be trying to sneak pictures rather than doing it out in the open. Scott preferred to know what kind of pictures to expect to pop up all over the internet rather than be blindsided.

“You ready for this?” he asked Penny.

Penny was one of the last few who hadn’t climbed the wall yet, and he thought that might have been on purpose. Her face was three shades paler, and she looked like she might puke.

When she didn’t answer, he said, “We don’t have to do this.”

She gave a quick shake of her head, and her mouth tightened into a determined line. “Yes, I do. This is my job. If I don’t do it, then what’s going to happen when someone needs help?”

Penny gave a quick tug on the rope that was attached to her harness, then placed a foot on the first rock. It was another moment before she pushed herself up onto it, and Scott could see her whole frame shaking.

“You can do it, Penny,” someone shouted from the second floor. Jules.

It seemed to give Penny courage, and she pushed up to the next rock. Jules whistled, which got Penny up to the next one. And then Jules started chanting Penny’s name. And Penny kept going. Then others joined in, and soon the whole barn rang with Penny’s name as she moved from rock to rock.

Scott made sure he kept the rope tight just in case anything happened, but he was no longer worried for the curly haired girl. Because even though Jules didn’t think of herself as someone who made friends easily, it was clear to Scott that Jules was one of the best people out there to have as a friend.

And he was sure that because of her support, Penny, who had struggled making it to the second rock, was now going to make it to the very top. At least, until Penny made the mistake of looking down before she got there. She was about three-fourths of the way up, and Scott knew the moment that Penny wasn’t going to go any further. The shaking returned, and she flattened herself against the wall, clinging to it as if her life depended on it. She probably thought it did.

“Bring me down, Scott,” she said, her voice shaking as much as the rest of her.

Scott leaned back, prepared to use his body weight as Jimmy had instructed. “I’m ready for you, but you have to let go of the wall.”

A pause.

“I can’t.”

Jimmy walked up and stood by Scott’s side. “This is good practice for you,” he mumbled. “You’re going to have a lot of folks who are pressured to climb by their parents or their boyfriend or whoever, and you have to talk them down. Nice calm voice.”

“Did you know coming down is the most fun part of it all?” Scott asked Penny, tightening his grip on the rope. “How often do you get to feel like you’re flying? Soaring midair, nothing but you and the—”

“Not helping, Scott,” Penny called down.

Okay, new tactic.

“Close your eyes and imagine you’re on the beach.” Scott used the soft voice that his mom’s meditation video used. “You hear the waves crashing against the shore. A seagull cries off in the distance.”

“Seriously?” Now Penny sounded mad. Which was the opposite of what his mom’s videos did. She was usually half asleep by the end of them. Sometimes all the way asleep.

Penny turned her gaze on Scott, her eyebrows furrowed.

Scott swallowed hard. He’d never seen her anything but happy, and this new angry Penny made him nervous. He had a feeling that he’d need to keep her out of arm’s reach for a while.

“It’s called meditation, Penny.”

“It’s called lame.”

Luckily, Penny slipped from the rock she was holding, and she screamed as she swung away from the wall. Jimmy stepped forward, ready to grab the rope if need be, but Scott had her. He slowly lowered her as Jimmy had taught him, but then stopped a foot off the ground.

“What are you doing?” she yelled, panic lacing her tone.

Jimmy threw him a curious look. “Yes, what are you doing?”

“Apologize,” Scott said.

Penny flapped her arms and legs wildly, like that would help her close the rest of the distance. “What?”

“I was just trying to help, and you yelled at me. I would like an apology, please. And a promise that you aren’t going to murder me once you’re on the ground.”

Penny turned a death glare on Scott. She must have learned it from Jules. “Or what? You going to keep me up here all day?”

“Maybe.”

Not really. But Scott had expected Penny to immediately soften, maybe even laugh about it and apologize, and then they’d act like it had been one big joke.

That wasn’t happening. And if anything, Penny was getting madder.

“I think you better let her down, Scott,” Jimmy said, his voice quiet.

“Yeah, okay.”

Scott lowered her the last foot, but as soon as she touched down, he let go of the rope and walked away. It didn’t matter. The whole thing had been recorded on people’s phones anyway. As soon as they got somewhere with cell service, everything would be uploaded. One final shot of him walking away wouldn’t make a difference.

“Hey, wait up.” Scott heard Penny calling him, but he kept walking.

It had been childish, keeping her in the air like that, demanding an apology. This was the type of thing that wasn’t good for his public image—that he felt entitled to always get what he wanted, even if it meant stringing up girls who were terrified of heights.

Way to go, Scott.

“Fine,” she called after him. “But I thought you should know that I just quit.”