Page 95 of Holding On to a Hero
The scar meant freedom to me. I wouldn’t be Cole Washburn, ex-actor with the potential to return to the big screen as soon as the public came to terms with his coming out. Now I was Cole Washburn,wasn’t-it-too-bad-about-his-faceex-actor. I didn’t think coming out would completely kill my career prospects, if I actually wanted them, but coming outandhaving a large scar on my face? I’d be the guy everyone mentioned with a hushed voice. Sure, people might try to get me to take some sort of villain role, or maybe voice acting. But most of the pressure would be off, and I’d be free.
Free to make a home for stray animals. Free to make a home with my partners. Free to fucking finally be myself.
“Cole?” Will’s voice came from down the hall.
“I’m coming.” I took some tissues and wiped the beard hair out of the sink. It was time to start returning to the world so we could catch the asshole who wanted Will dead. And then I’d start my campaign to get Will to move in with me and Jason.
It was important to have goals.
Spence had set his laptop up on the breakfast table. I sat in front of it with Jason and Will just out of camera range for now.
Ranger Ramirez had wanted a few minutes by herself with Felicia and Bridgette before I joined them. I’d told her she had a great sense of drama and timing, but she just shook her head and said she’d never get them to pay attention once they saw me.
I clicked through the login routine and Ramirez admitted me to the call. As soon as I saw Felicia and Bridgette, I was overcome with such a jumble of emotions I couldn’t speak. Affection and appreciation for their friendship and help with my career. Irritation and almost revulsion at their perfectly coiffed Hollywood-ready looks. Relief that this might be the last time we’d be working together.
Fortunately, I remembered my acting lessons and I was able to keep a grin on my face while those feelings rolled through me. Felicia and Bridgette both shrieked in delight as soon as I appeared, but their voices quickly changed to concern over the scar on my face.
“Oh, Cole! Your beautiful face! Can it be fixed?” Meaning,can your career be saved?
“It’s already fixed, Felicia. I’m grateful to be alive.” My voice may have had a smidge of an edge to it. I didn’t need to play nice anymore. They weren’t going to turn down the opportunity to play a part in something that would get the whole world talking about me again.
“Oh! Yes, of course! I would never imply that you…I mean it’s just a shock, you know?” I could feel my new, slightly crooked smile get wider. It was mean but still kind of fun.
Ranger Ramirez decided to intervene. “Cole, I’ve already explained to Felicia and Bridgette that you want to set up an interview that we’ll be using as bait to hopefully catch the shooter. I told them you wanted to go over the topic of the interview with them yourself.”
“It really writes itself, Cole,” said Bridgette. She swept her hand across the screen. “Cole Washburn bravely comes back from the brink of death, dedicating his life to helping animals.” She looked at me like a librarian who’d caught me eating a bag of chips in the stacks. “Right?”
“You know that’s not quite what I have in mind, Bridgette.” I kept my anger locked down. They both knew I’d planned to come out once I’d retired and gotten the rescue ranch up and running. They both would really prefer I didn’t.
They had no idea it was going to be much, much more explosive than they imagined.
“At least tell me you’re still in a relationship with Jason. A stable relationship will sell better than if you’re playing the field. Oooohhhh.” Bridgette leaned forward. “Maybe we can imply you were shot at because you’re dating a man.”
“Well, it’s a little more complicated than that. You see, Ranger Ramirez has determined that it wasn’t actually me they were shooting at. Depending on whether we can catch the shooter before the interview, we might just want to talk about the shooting in a generic way.”
Felicia was the first to break. “What do you mean, you weren’t the one being shot at? You were shot in the face!”
I rubbed my scar and sent a rueful glance at Will. He looked concerned so I winked at him and turned back to the camera. “Well, this was more of an injury I received trying to avoid being shot. The one who was shot was my other boyfriend, Will.”
Silence. Then a chorus of, “What!” and “Other boyfriend?”
“Jason and I are in a relationship with another man named William Graham. He’s a wildlife photographer and we met him when he was taking photographs in the nature preserve across from the ranch.” I let that sink in for a moment. “Would you like to meet him?” I wasn’t sure if my evil smile was noticeable to Felicia and Bridgette, and I didn’t care.
They both sputtered as they realized Will was in the room with me and could hear everything they were saying. Ranger Ramirez just looked amused.
After checking to see whether Will and Jason were ready, I scooted my chair closer to Will’s and angled the laptop so all three of us were on camera.
“Felicia Montgomery and Bridgette Karras, I’m sure you remember Jason Shelton, and this is Will Graham.” I put my arm around Will’s shoulder, just above Jason’s, and I pressed a kiss to his temple.
Felicia and Bridgette managed some very faint greetings so I continued. “Bridgette, Will is a hero twice over. If you Google him, you’ll find he saved the lives of two women a year or so ago even though he himself was severely injured. And the real story about the morning of the shooting is that Will put himself between me and the bullets. Like I said, he was actually the one who was shot. This,” I tapped my scar, “was from Will pushing me into the door as the bullets were getting closer to my head. He ended up taking a bullet in his shoulder.” I ran my hand over the shoulder in question. Bridgette nodded as she furiously took notes.
Ranger Ramirez spoke up to tell them how we’d assumed I’d been the target so Jason and I had gone into hiding while Will recovered in anonymity.
“I don’t want to say the coma was a lie though,” Bridgette said thoughtfully. “People get angry when they realize they’ve been manipulated.”
We ended up agreeing to say that while I hadn’t been shot I’d still sustained a severe head injury. Bridgette said she’d get Anne to focus on how sad it was that the three of us had been separated and how happy we were to be reunited.
“She’s going to want to ask a lot of questions about being in a three-way relationship,” Bridgette warned us.
