The carpenter and the ac.., p.1
The Carpenter and the Actor, page 1
The Carpenter and the Actor
Ellery Mountain, Book 3
RJ Scott
Contents
The Carpenter and the Actor
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
Next in Ellery Mountain
A Letter from RJ
All books all links
Meet RJ Scott
The Carpenter and the Actor
Ellery Mountain book 3
© Copyright RJ Scott 2013, this edition © RJ Scott 2017
Cover Art Meredith Russell, Edited by Rebecca Hill
ISBN 978-1-78564-070-4
All Rights Reserved
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without the express written permission. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee. Such action is illegal and in violation of Copyright Law.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Dedication
To LeeAnn Pratt for the wonderfully named Norma-Jean’s Clip and Curl. Thank you.
* * *
And always for my family.
Chapter One
Jason McInnery pulled another blanket from the pile at the bottom of his bed and used it to block up any small space around him that could let in the cold. When he’d gone for rustic, he hadn’t realized he’d be getting the equivalent of sleeping in a tent. He couldn’t get the heating to work, it was two in the morning and sleep had so far eluded him. The hot water bottle he’d found in the cupboard above the sink was still warm, but it really needed to have the water replaced with steaming, boiling heat. That would mean getting out of bed, though, and placing his feet on the icy-cold wooden floor.
“So not going there,” he muttered to himself.
The new blanket helped, and finally, he had a cocoon that at least meant he wasn’t shivering. No wonder the cabin had been cheap to rent if it didn’t come with working heat. He knew he should have stopped at the chain motel he’d seen just outside Ellery. But no, his idea of hiding was self-imposed isolation halfway up a mountain and twenty minutes’ drive from the town he’d been born in. He should have gone to his parents’ house in Las Vegas and got some of that desert sun.
Freaking paparazzi. They knew where his parents lived, and would assume it was one place he would go. Hell, he was lucky they hadn’t followed him to Ellery, or had any inkling he would go back to the town he’d left before he was old enough to remember it. His cell phone rang, and he rooted around under the covers, where he’d pushed his only link to his other life. The life where he was a famous, successful, openly gay actor who had charmed his way into millions of hearts on a successful TV comedy and in two kids’ films. The actor with the brother who had died. The screen lit up brightly, and the name wasn’t a surprise.
“Hey, Mom,” he answered. The cell was warm from having been wrapped in the quilt. Midnight at his parents’ place meant his dad snoring in bed and his night-owl mom watching recorded shows. “It’s two a.m., you know.”
“There was a show on, and I was thinking about you.”
“You need to stop watching those gossip shows, Mom,” he said patiently.
“I can’t help it, J. It’s everywhere.”
Jason shifted deeper under the covers and sighed inwardly. He’d grown a thicker skin now. Having his private life plastered over magazines and TV shows was part and parcel of the whole celebrity lifestyle. That didn’t mean it had gotten any easier over the last seven years since the ratings of the small comedy show he starred in had exploded. Hell, it wasn’t ever going to get any easier for his poor mom. Not only had Ben died with too many secrets and too many lies twisted around him, but Jason had been smacked around the face with the fallout of his brother’s actions and his own subsequent arrest.
“I’m fine, Mom,” he said.
“I just wanted to…” She didn’t finish the sentence.
Jason’s throat tightened with emotion. He didn’t call her on phoning him this late—she’d wanted to hear his voice. Losing Ben had destroyed his parents. Maybe he should have gone home to Vegas, but doing so would have put his mom and dad in the spotlight. They were struggling as it was.
“I can be home by tomorrow,” Jason offered. He could get tickets and be on a plane in a few hours. Hell, it would probably be warmer on a plane anyway.
“No, Jason, we talked about this. I love you—I just wanted to tell you.”
“I love you too, Mom.”
When the call ended, he clutched the cell close and pulled the blankets up and over his head. Grief balled in his chest, and not for the first time since he’d left LA, he wondered what the hell had made him come to Ellery. He might as well have stuck a pin in a map as a way of deciding where to hide out.
He had three weeks. Three weeks until filming started for the next season. Ellery was as good a place as any.
Loud noises woke him to bright sunlight streaming through the large windows, and he glanced at his cell phone. The screen showed it was just after seven a.m. He’d banked five hours’ sleep, but he still felt like complete shit. His dreams had been filled with Ben and a scene that was something like a movie, with him and Ben running. He hated the running dream—it never failed to leave him frustrated and tired beyond reason, and had occurred on too many occasions recently. Rolling onto his side, away from the window, he screwed his eyes shut tight and willed sleep to happen.
The knocking on his door was part of a dream—it had to be. No one would be knocking on the door of this remote cabin at ass o’clock in the morning for any imaginable reason.
Groaning, he shifted until he could listen with both ears. The knocking wasn’t stopping. This wasn’t the short, sharp knock of someone at the door. This was repetitive and noisy and…hell, right outside his window. What the fuck was happening? Pulling the blankets back over his head, he attempted to sleep. When that didn’t block out the banging, he searched on his phone for an app that produced white noise. When that didn’t work either, he gave up on sleep.
What the hell? Grumpy, uncoordinated and tired, he clambered off his bed and got twisted in the five blankets he’d laid over the quilt. Tripping unceremoniously to the floor, he cursed the parentage of whoever had pulled him from sleep. The banging hadn’t stopped—if anything it became louder the nearer he got to the window, and when he pushed the catch to open it, he was overwhelmed by the sound of a drill and a hammer.
“What the hell!” he shouted over the noise. He couldn’t see the face of the person in control of the drilling, but he could see a figure hunched over the steps leading up to his cabin. Wood lay around him in disarray, and there was a bucket of nails and a pile of fresh timber. For a second Jason imagined grabbing the nearest thing, the bedside lamp, and throwing it at his early-morning torturer to get his attention. Then an episode of some hospital drama had him recalling the sight of a drill passing through flesh, and he didn’t want to be that kind of distraction. Huffing to himself, he pulled on jeans over his boxers and shrugged on a sweater.
He threw open the front door, crossed his arms and stood in the doorway. The man doing the work wasn’t looking his way, but any minute now he would register that Jason was there. Then Jason’s work would be done. The idiot would stop drilling and hammering, and Jason could go back to bed.
When that didn’t work, Jason moved the few steps to pass into the worker’s peripheral vision, then stood in a similar arms-crossed-over-his-chest stance. The guy apparently registered that he was being watched, since suddenly and quite spectacularly, he jumped to his feet, narrowly avoiding the still-whirring drill as it fell from his hand and impaled itself in the mud and grass.
“Holy shit!” he shouted, and clutched his chest dramatically.
Jason raised an eyebrow in that expression he’d perfected for his role as the dry, sardonic café owner on the comedy series Late Last Night.
“And the reason you’re making this much noise outside my cabin at dawn is…?”
He waited patiently as the man stood with his hand still on his chest and his mouth open. Evidently, he was more than just a little surprised that Jason was there.
“Shit,” he said. “Sorry. I didn’t know… No one said… Hell.”
“Sentences work,” Jason prompted.
“Brenda didn’t tell me this cabin was occupied. It’s the most remote we have, and no one is close enough to be worried about the noise. The weather was good when I woke up, so I thought I’d beat the predicted rain and get a head start on my work.” The man dropped his hand and shook his head. “I can only apologize, but this week we got behind, and Daniel and I have been working on the staff cabin, and so today was the first day I had to get this fixed. I needed to get a head start—”
“So you said,” Jason interrupted. He wasn’t sure the other man had stopped to draw a breath.
“Daniel said—Daniel is the son of the owner, Brenda
“Okay,” Jason said. He held up a hand to stop the other man from rambling on about absolutely everything in his head. “Can you leave this now and maybe come and take a look at the heating? I was freezing my balls off last night.”
“Shit. Damn, sorry I cursed. Of course I can look at that, although I might need Daniel up here with me. Kieran,” he added, then waited expectantly.
Jason was still catching up with the whole explanation of someone called Daniel and his mom and the broken step and the fact that there was a reason why the heating didn’t work. He realized this man, obviously called Kieran, was waiting for him to identify himself. Evidently, he wasn’t familiar enough with the beard and messy hair for Kieran to recognize him. Then he stepped out of the shadow of the door and porch as Kieran tripped over some discarded wood, stumbled back, and windmilled his arms to keep himself upright.
Okay, so Jason had had people scream, cry and laugh when they saw him, but never almost fall over before. Not that the guy appeared to have recognized him. Taking the two steps to the ground, he grabbed hold of Kieran and helped him to stand.
Kieran pulled away from Jason’s grip and brushed himself down. “Sorry,” he said. “Jeez, that’s all I seem to keep saying to you.”
He was looking up at Jason with a smile that reached his cornflower blue eyes. He couldn’t have been much more than five nine, with spiky blond hair and a slim build, and he was smiling so hard that Jason felt an answering smile he couldn’t have controlled even if he’d wanted to. Grinning back, he extended his hand.
“Jason,” he said.
“Okay, sir.” Kieran nodded. He picked up his tools, then looked pointedly at the cabin. “Let me take a look at the heating.”
Kieran allowed Jason in first, then followed him. Jason concentrated on opening the wooden slatted blinds and allowing some of the sunlight to filter through, then went to shut his bedroom door. Out here in the kitchen, dining and seating area, there was nothing related to Jason McInnery, and he wanted to enjoy for a bit longer the fact that Kieran didn’t know who he was.
Kieran was flat on the floor on his belly, and his head and shoulders were down a hole in the wooden flooring. Jason hadn’t noticed the trapdoor, but then by the time he’d arrived here last night it had been dark, and after a drink he’d got himself straight to bed. For all the good that had done him.
“Can you pass me the pipe wrench?” Kieran said. His voice was muffled by the fact that his head was under the floor, and Jason didn’t quite catch what he was being asked for. Crouching down next to the hole in the floor, he peered past Kieran to what was below. A vast space of nothing was all he could see.
“The what?” he asked.
“The wrench. Long, red and silver, curved top, in the side compartment.”
Jason eyed the tool bag suspiciously. His exposure to tools was restricted to when his character on the show had decided to become a plumber, with much hilarity ensuing. The lines he’d learned for that episode were not going to help him at this point. Finally locating something that looked as if it could be what Kieran needed, he passed it down to the man.
“Thanks,” Kieran replied. There was much pushing and banging, and some muttered words. Then finally Kieran slithered back up and out of the hole and moved to rest on all fours. Thoughtfully, he gazed into the hole. “Think that fixed it,” he said. He didn’t sound overly confident.
“So tonight I’m not going to be hugging the quilt for warmth?”
Kieran grimaced. “Let’s turn her on and see if she’s okay,” he offered.
After scrambling to stand, he crossed to the heating controls and powered the whole thing down before counting out loud to five then flicking the switch to restart it. In an instant, he was back on the floor with his head down the hole again. Jason watched all this with something akin to amusement. Kieran was so utterly focused on the noises under the floorboards. Jason listened, but he couldn’t actually hear anything. Kieran, on the other hand, appeared to be very happy with whatever was occurring under the cabin, and this time when he clambered back up, he had a grin on his face.
“Kieran one, heating zero.” He licked the tip of his finger and drew an imaginary mark in the air. “Anyway, you should wait ten minutes and see if it comes out warm. I’ll be outside. Give me a shout when you feel the heat.”
“I can make you a coffee,” Jason blurted. Kieran was like a burst of sunshine on a cloudy day and suddenly, impetuously, Jason found he wanted more of it.
“I need to fix the step,” Kieran said. He looked bemused at the offer of coffee.
Jason couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. What a stupid thing to say… I can make you a coffee. Who said that to the maintenance man when they were in a holiday cabin? Even a cute, smiling one who could talk the hind legs off a donkey and had a body built for Jason’s hands.
Wait. He was perving on the guy sent to fix his step. A guy who looked to be not long out of school. His head was screwed.
“Sorry.” It was his turn to apologize. “Keep going. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, and I’m sure that’s fixed now.”
With that, he sealed the trapdoor-type entry and locked it down with an oddly shaped key. Grabbing his bags and with another of his gorgeously sunny and sexy smiles, he left the cabin and pulled the door shut behind him.
The place seemed less after he’d walked out. Like every chance Jason had for conversation, or contact with a human that didn’t want a thing from him, had walked out the door. Shit. He was getting melancholy in his old age. His mom had warned him that when he reached his thirties he would have a different perspective on life. That had been during one of her “LA is so fake” chats, with her adding that it would chew him up and spit him out. How right she’d been, but not about him. Ben had been the one to get so lost that he couldn’t find a way out. Well, Mom, looks like that day has come, when a smile from a cute guy with beautiful eyes, who probably has a girlfriend, makes my day.
He made himself a coffee, then curled up on the huge leather sofa right by one of the large heaters in the room. It was warm there, and with the TV on a news channel, he pushed aside the unsettling attraction to a complete stranger and focused on what he was going to do today.
The knock on the door pulled him from his daydream. Smiling to himself, he opened the door, expecting Kieran to be there.
“Daniel Skylar. Kieran said there was an issue with the heating.” A man with brooding eyes and tattoos wrapped around his biceps stood on the doormat.
“Yes, he did… There was… Sorry. It’s early.”
Tall, Dark and Intimidating—Daniel, apparently—nodded. “I apologize for any inconvenience caused, Mr. McInnery. Of course Ellery Cabins will not be charging you for your first night in compensation.”
“You don’t need to do that,” Jason protested.
Daniel frowned. Jason realized his mistake. Who the hell turned down free accommodation?
“We want all our guests to be comfortable.”
“Then thank you.”
“If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to dial zero on the phone.” Daniel nodded and began to walk away.
“I have one question,” Jason called after him.
Daniel stopped and turned on his heel.
“Kieran, the guy who was here before—does he live in town?”
Daniel nodded but gave nothing else away, and Jason was fine with that. He was intrigued by five nine of gorgeous, sexy-ass male, and needed to be hunting him down as soon as he could.
Chapter Two
