Causing a Commotion (23 page)
Read Causing a Commotion Online
Authors: Janice Lynn
Tags: #Humor & Entertainment, #Humor, #Literature & Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Romantic Comedy
Great. Just what he needed. A face off with lover boy.
“Come on in,” Colin said sarcastically.
Of course, he couldn’t deny that he deserved whatever Ewing had to say. He’d been a total jerk. A sulking, attacking jerk. Hell, if Ewing punched him, he’d have no right to even take a swing back. Although that didn’t mean he wouldn’t. Letting his fist crunch into the face of the man who’d smudged Jessie’s lipstick appealed a great deal. Appealed too much.
He flexed his fingers.
“What the hell was that all about?” Ewing rounded on him. “I’ve been interviewed by people who weren’t fans before, but you just took the cake.”
Colin bristled. “I interviewed you.”
“Interviewed me? Hell, you interrogated me. I’ve always admired how you put people on the spot, but my assumption was that you’d done your homework and those people were guilty of whatever you were accusing them of.”
“Your point?”
“What is it that you’re accusing me of?”
Colin didn’t answer.
“I got the impression it had to do with Jessie.”
Colin supposed the fact he looked up gave him away because Eric smiled.
“Ah, so you’ve fallen under her spell.” Ewing’s grin spread wider than the state he heralded from at Colin’s clenched fists. “She’s a wild one, isn’t she? Easy to love, hard to hold.”
“I wouldn’t know,” he denied.
“Say what you will, but it’s as plain as the nose on your face.”
Colin almost reached up to touch his nose. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re in love with her.”
“You’re mistaken.”
“Am I?” Ewing laughed, all his earlier bluster having faded. “Does she know?”
“I am not in love with Jessie.”
“Whatever.” The actor didn’t look convinced. “She’s a special lady. Make sure you treat her right.”
“I told you--” Colin interrupted.
Eric’s hands went up. “Hey, man, I just call them like I see them.”
“You should have your eyes checked.”
He laughed again. “If you haven’t noticed how she looks at you, you should have yours checked.”
That got Colin’s attention. “What are you talking about now?”
“That she couldn’t keep her eyes off you. Every chance she got her gaze cut to you. She’s got it bad.” A smug expression settled on his face. “Of course, it would have to be love since she refused me in lieu of dancing with you.”
“That was months ago.”
“Yeah, and it was obvious even back then.”
“We only met that day.”
“Whoever said there were time requirements for love?”
* * *
J.P. cornered Jessie the moment they stepped out of the studio and into his private office. He’d grabbed her arm and practically marched her down the hallway. Marched as much as his aching bones would let him, at any rate. Something was going on, and he wanted to know what the hell it was.
First, Jessie had come into the studio mussed and upset. Then Colin had been almost rude to their star guest. Then he’d had a call from Maxwell to come to his office pronto. J.P. didn’t like being in the dark.
Colin wouldn’t tell him a damn thing, although J.P. had a pretty good inkling what the boy’s problem was. He’d fallen to the wayside of the jolly green monster.
But Jessie? She’d been upset long before Colin’s aggressiveness toward Eric.
“What’s happened? Did someone threaten you?” he asked, worried a repeat of last week’s catastrophes might have happened. Extra security mulled around the building, but that didn’t mean Jessie was impervious to harm.
“No.” She shook her head, closed her eyes, then sighed. “Not really.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“You don’t want to know.”
“If I didn’t want to know, I wouldn’t have asked.”
“I ground Max’s coffee beans.”
J.P.’s eyes widened. “Why would you do that?”
Jessie’s chin jutted out, defiance settling into her expression. “Because he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Not for one second did he doubt Jessie’s words.
He’d been afraid something like this might happen. That Maxwell might make a move she wouldn’t be receptive to because she was so wrapped up in Colin she couldn’t see straight.
Not that he’d want Jessie involved with Maxwell even if she weren’t fascinated with Colin. He wouldn’t. Maxwell was a married man. Married to one of Hollywood’s most powerful men’s daughter. Screwing around on Marian was like putting one’s jewels on the chopping block. Not a smart move.
Maxwell must have it bad to risk Marian’s anger.
“What did he say?”
“I didn’t stick around to find out.”
J.P. raked his fingers through his hair, grateful he still had a thick head-full since so many men his age didn’t. Of course, at the rate he was going, he’d have it pulled out by the end of the day.
“He wants to see me.”
Jessie’s eyes lifted. “What for?”
“That’s what I intended to find out from you.”
Looking as if she really didn’t care, she shrugged. “Now you know.”
“Now I know.” J.P. sank into his chair and pulled a cigar out from his desk drawer. Unmindful of Wolf’s strict no smoking rules, he lit it. He needed a smoke too badly to worry about rules at a time like this. Besides his lighting a cigar wasn’t going to amount to a hill of beans next to Jessie knocking Maxwell’s nards into his throat.
“He deserved it and more,” she spat out, pacing across the room.
“I’m sure he did.”
“I tried to be diplomatic. I totally asked him nicely, but did he listen? No. He grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.” Her face screwed up in a contorted mess and her mouth set in a straight line. “I won’t allow that.”
J.P. dragged in a heavy puff of calming nicotine and discovered that not even his beloved cigars could ease his sense of pending doom.
“If he fires me, I’ll sue his hind-end for sexual harassment,” Jessie announced, her gaze meeting J.P.’s.
“Even if you won, he’d see to it you never worked in Hollywood again.”
“You know what? I’m not sure that I care.” She flopped down into a chair and stared at the ceiling, caring a great deal.
J.P. inhaled a long puff.
Might as well get it over, see how bad the damage was, what price Maxwell would exact for forgiveness. Or at least tolerance. His pride would be wounded. The price might be higher than Jessie would be willing to pay.
What was he saying? Of course the price was going to be higher than she was willing to pay. She’d demand Maxwell apologize to her. For the bastard to grovel on his knees.
Which meant it would be up to J.P. to figure out a way to save Jessie’s hind-end. His own hind-end. Colin’s too, for that matter. An egotistical man like Maxwell wouldn’t let something like this go unpunished, and he sure as hell wouldn’t grovel.
J.P. leaned back in his chair, went to prop his feet on his desk and realized the effort was too much for his arthritic hips. Hell. Nothing was going right today.
Earlier, he asked Beverly to lunch and she gawked at him. Gawked then ran away. You’d have thought he had three heads or something.
He’d have her know his last date had been with a twenty-two year-old Miss December on a very naughty calendar gracing men’s rooms and garages around the country. Beverly should have been thanking her lucky stars that he’d asked her to lunch.
“You think he’s going to fire me and that I should say I’m sorry,” Jessie accused.
“I can’t tell you what to do on this one, girl.” J.P. shrugged. “
Causin A Commotion
’s ratings go up with every show. Despite today’s lackluster performance by Colin, viewers love watching you two wrangle with each other. Hell, they’ll probably love the way he acted like a jealous lover today, for that matter.”
Despite her anger, Jessie’s cheeks blushed a rosy dead-give-away pink.
“Oh hell, girl. Tell me you didn’t.”
“I didn’t.”
“Damn.” J.P.’s day went from bad to worse. “You did.”
“I did.” She shrugged as if it were no big deal. If he bought that nonchalance he wouldn’t be worried. Unfortunately, he didn’t.
He inhaled sharply on his cigar, thinking that if he could draw every last drop from the Cuban perhaps it would sooth his tattered nerves.
“I warned you to stay away. Sleeping with the boy is the absolute worse thing you could have done. Career suicide. No wonder he acted like the king cock in the hen house today.”
“Just for the record, we didn’t sleep.”
J.P. scowled.
“Oh, alright. I know you warned me not to sleep with him, and I didn’t mean to. It just happened.”
“Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s refused to see me since, well, you know.”
“Smart boy.”
“What?” Jessie frowned. “Whose side are you own?”
“The side that doesn’t want to see either your or Colin’s career go down the drain because you got a bit of down under itch.”
“You make it sound like an ugly disease.”
“Haven’t you heard? Love is.”
“I don’t love him.”
But even as she said it, J.P. saw the truth in her eyes.
Damn.
Chapter Sixteen
J.P. played it cool, sat across from a stern-faced Maxwell, and prepared himself for the worst.
“I’m canceling the show.”
No matter how cool J.P was, he hadn’t been prepared for that particular worst. “Canceling the show? Have you lost your mind? Ratings are through the roof. Better than we ever projected.”
“Doesn’t matter. We’re canning the show.”
J.P. had been in Hollywood biz for a long time. Had seen a lot of wrong-doings during his time, but this one took the cake.
Then again, Jessie kneed the man in his balls. Perhaps J.P. would fire a woman, too, if she’d done that. Just the thought made his old royals tighten, but to can the entire show?
“What’s this about?” Would Maxwell tell him the truth? Somehow J.P. doubted it.
“The show isn’t meeting with the board’s approval.”
“They don’t like steadily climbing ratings that are closing in on the competition? Since when?”
Maxwell’s lips thinned. “This isn’t about ratings. The show was never meant to last.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Apparently Maxwell slipped with the last one because for the first time J.P. could ever recall the arrogant snot looked nervous.
“No one on the board thought you could turn Crandall into a success.”
Light dawned and didn’t paint a pretty picture. “The show was meant to fail? From the beginning.”
“Why else do you think we gave you complete freedom?”
“Because I’m a damn fine producer.”
“So it would seem.” Maxwell scowled. “Tell me, why do you think we let you pick out Colin’s co-host? The board knew you’d go for some blond Barbie doll bimbo, and you did.”
“Jessie’s much more than a blond Barbie-doll bimbo, and you know it.”
“I know no such thing,” Maxwell denied.
Fed up with the whole scenario and knowing he was probably losing his job with Wolf anyway, J.P. said what was on his mind. “Yeah, well, I’d say you’d have a better insight to knowing than most since you kissed her this afternoon.”
A bit of color drained from Maxwell’s face. “What did that lying witch say?”
“That you copped a feel, and she put you in your place.”
“She lied. She was all over me and I had to push her away.”
J.P. snorted. “Is that how it happened?”
“Yes.”
“Does the board know you’re canning the show?”
“Have you not been listening? The board has wanted Colin’s show canned for eons. For some reason Marian refused. And if Marian refuses so does her father.”
“Quite foolish of you to be trying to steal kisses from Jessie when your wife holds so much power. I’d say you should have been trying to cop a feel from her in hopes she’d see things your way.”
“You weren’t listening. Jessie kissed me. I think she’s trying to sleep her way to the top.”
“If that were Jessie’s objective she’d have walked right over you a long time ago.”
