The Daddy Audition

But of course he wasn’t her man, and he hadn’t been for years. Her early feelings for him had been sweet and uncomplicated first love. Later, she’d learned the real thing was much more complex and fraught with potential problems.

She relaxed a little as understanding dawned. She’d reacted to Jack not because she was still in love with him, but because he represented a simpler, more innocent time in her life to which she longed to return. After struggling to make it big in a town that didn’t give two beans about her, she’d come back to Crested Butte hoping to be a part of a close-knit community once more, and to regain the peace that had been lacking in her life too long.

The door at the back of the theater burst open and a little girl with long blond hair pounded up the aisle. “Mom!” she shouted, pelting toward Tanya’s outstretched arms. “Emma has a new dog, Joe-Joe. He’s a weenie dog and his ears are so long he almost steps on them when he walks.”

“He sounds cute.” Tanya smoothed her daughter’s hair and smiled at Angela, who was making her way up the aisle at a more sedate pace.

“I met Heather and Emma as I was leaving and offered to see that Annie made it safely to you,” Angela said. Heather Allison babysat for Tanya on Thursday evenings while Tanya was at rehearsals. On Tuesdays Tanya’s mom watched her granddaughter.

“Thanks.”

“Mom, can I look at the posters in the lobby?” Annie asked.

“All right. But don’t go anywhere else.” Tanya smiled as Annie skipped back up the aisle and burst through the door. She had Tanya’s strawberry-blond hair and blue eyes, but her father Stuart’s high cheekbones and boundless energy. The girl never walked if she could run, determined to absorb everything life had to offer at full speed.

“Was that Jack Crenshaw I saw leaving just now?” Angela asked when the two women were alone.

“Maybe.” Tanya began sorting scripts again, ignoring the pointed look from her friend.

Angela sat in the auditorium’s front row. “I heard a rumor you and he were pretty hot stuff in high school,” she persisted.

“We dated,” Tanya said evenly.

“Uh-huh. I don’t know what he was like back then, but right now he’s one very fine man. Definitely a hot property in these parts. Are you going to pick up where you left off?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We were just kids.”

“They say first loves revisited can be very sweet.”

Tanya snorted. “Who says that?”

“Someone did, I’m sure.” Angela sat back, legs stretched before her. “So how about it? Are there any sparks still there?”

“None,” Tanya lied. If she’d felt a twinge or two of attraction, it only proved she was a normal, functioning woman.

“Do you think he’s still interested in you?” Angela asked.

“No! When I walked in on him backstage, he was practically drooling over Barbie.”

“She’s just a kid, and she flirts with anything in pants.” Angela made a dismissive gesture. “A man like Jack needs a real woman to keep him happy.”

“Well, I’m not interested in being the woman to do it. Besides, he told me he’s responsible for all these condos that are a blight on the town.” She made a face.

When she’d moved away, Tanya had been too focused on the future to think much about the town she was leaving behind. But over the years, as the disappointments of her failed marriage and faltering career had piled up, she’d looked back on Crested Butte with increasing fondness. In her memories, it was the perfect small town—a safe, beautiful place where the ugliness of the rest of the world wasn’t allowed. Even her annual visits to her parents hadn’t spoiled this image. She’d turned a blind eye to anything that marred the ideal she cherished. The Crested Butte of her memories was a wonderful place to be—the one perfect thing in her life.

Angela laughed. “Yes, Jack’s company built a lot of condos, which means he’s loaded. One more reason he’s considered such a catch.”

“I’m not fishing.” In the year since her divorce, Tanya had been too busy looking after Annie and trying to keep body and soul together to worry about a relationship.

“I thought you came back home to settle down,” Angela said.

“I came back home because I didn’t have any choice.” After her marriage had ended, she’d thought she could pick up where she’d left off. Only this time, instead of settling for work in commercials and soap operas, she was going to focus on movies and realize her dream of being a true star.

But the three years she’d taken off to raise Annie and nurture Stuart’s fragile ego meant she’d been forgotten by anyone who mattered. There was a whole new crop of directors and casting agents, not to mention new competition. None of them cared that she’d won raves in high school for her roles onstage, or that the Gunnison County paper once said she was bound to succeed in Hollywood.

Broke and discouraged, she’d accepted her parents’ invitation to come home. “As anxious as I was to leave this town, I realized it was the perfect place to raise Annie,” she said, dropping into the seat next to Angela. “I only wish it was more like I remembered. There are so many new buildings and people. So many changes.”

“I’m one of those new people and I’m not so bad,” Angela said. “And look how much the theater has grown. Some of it because of people who live in those very condos you hate.”

“I know.” It wasn’t so much the growth that upset her but the fantasies she’d had of slipping back into her old life so easily. She still struggled to reconcile her nostalgic picture of the town with reality—one more dream destroyed. Crested Butte had always been the one place where she mattered and it didn’t feel that way anymore. She wasn’t as invisible and friendless as she’d been in California, but she’d never expected to have to struggle to fit in here.

“You ought to go out with Jack if you get a chance,” Angela said. “He has a reputation as someone who knows how to show a woman a good time.”

Tanya made a face. “I don’t want a man with a reputation.” When she was ready to be with a man again, it was nice to know her instincts were still there, but she wanted someone dependable and kind, not an arrogant show-off like her ex, and not a man who knew all her secret dreams—and how badly she’d failed to realize any of them.

“Mom, can we stop on the way home for ice cream?” Annie flew down the aisle and skidded to a stop in front of the two women.

“I think Grandma has some ice cream in the freezer,” Tanya said. “If we ask nicely, I’ll bet she’ll share with us.” She stood. “We’d better go. It’s getting late.”

Angela followed them up the aisle to the lobby. “See you Tuesday, if not before,” she called. Tanya knelt to help Annie zip the denim jacket she wore. Even in June the nights were much cooler here in the mountains than they’d been in California.

“I can’t wait until it snows,” Annie said, squirming out of her mother’s reach. “Grandpa said he’d take me sledding after school.”

Tanya smiled, remembering the hours she’d spent on the local sledding hill as a child. Swallowing her pride and moving back in with her parents had been difficult in many ways, but at times like this she was sure she’d done the right thing. Despite all the changes, some of the good things she remembered from her childhood remained, and she wanted Annie to experience them all, to have the kind of memories that had seen Tanya through tough times in California. So what if she was never going to be the local darling again? Annie was the reason she’d come home to Crested Butte—the only reason she needed.

Chapter Two

The offices of Crenshaw Construction occupied a soaring cedar-and-glass A-frame in Crested Butte South. The building was less than a year old, and every time Jack entered it, he felt a surge of pride and satisfaction.

When he’d joined his dad in the family business shortly after graduating from college, it had been a small concern specializing in remodels and the occasional new home build. Now it was a multimillion-dollar concern, one of the leading builders in the area.

Jack had been at work for more than an hour Friday morning when his father strolled in and settled his big frame into a chair across his son’s desk.

Jack’s dog, a golden retriever mix aptly named Nugget, trotted from his favorite spot beneath the open window to greet the older man and was rewarded with a scratch behind the ears. Jack had adopted the dog six months before and the pup had the run of the office, though he spent most of his time close by Jack. “Did you get those scrims over to the theater last night?” Andy Crenshaw asked in an accent that betrayed his Minnesota roots. Though he’d officially retired last year as president of the company, he still maintained an office in the building and spent a few hours a week there, helping out as needed. The rest of his time was devoted to fly-fishing in the summer, skiing in the winter and traveling with Jack’s mom, Carrie.

“I dropped them off on my way home last night,” Jack said.

“You work too late,” Andy said.

“There’s a lot to do, Dad.” The exchange was an oft-repeated one between them, with all the comfortable familiarity of a pair of worn boots. Next, his dad would remark that Jack needed a haircut, or that he was letting the construction hands get away with too much by allowing them to stop work an hour early on Fridays.

But Andy didn’t stick to the script this morning. “You should never let a job get so big it takes over your life,” he said. “That’s why I kept things small when you and your sister were kids. I wanted to be home to have dinner as a family and to coach your softball teams and be in the stands at your basketball games.”

Worry pinched at the back of Jack’s neck. Why was his dad bringing this up now? “I always appreciated that,” he said. His parents had been his biggest supporters, encouraging him to believe he was capable of anything. A nagging thought pricked at him. “Dad, you don’t think I expanded the business because I didn’t think you did enough, do you?”

“No, no! I know you did it because it’s what comes natural for you.” Andy smiled, deep creases forming at the corners of his mouth and eyes from years spent working out of doors. “Everything you’ve ever done, you’ve worked hard to be the best, whether it was basketball or construction. I’m proud of you, son, but I’d like to see you with more in your life than work.”

“I have more in my life, Dad. I have plenty of friends. And I have Nugget.” At the mention of his name, the dog fanned the air with his luxurious tail.