Big City Little Rebel

ChapterEighteen

Beau

He woke up the same way he fell asleep, with thoughts of Bobbie on his mind. She was everything he wanted and needed.

Macy Delaney’s card fell from his back pocket when he picked his dirty pants from the floor and tossed them into the hamper. The card was a beacon of light on a dark day. The universe was sending him a savior; this time, she came with a cameraman and a sound crew. He pulled his phone from his pocket and made the call he should have made yesterday, the call that would earn him respect and restore his honor.

After talking with Macy and devising a plan, he brewed a pot of coffee and carried a cup up to Bobbie’s apartment, but she didn’t answer when he knocked.

She didn’t want to see him, but she would hear from him. He dialed her number and got voicemail, and then he texted her. He refused to let her walk away from him. Their relationship was too important to ignore.

Bobbie, this is crazy. I’m at your door with coffee. You don’t have to let me in. Just take the stupid coffee. I’m not giving up. I’m doing the right thing. Love, Beau.

She responded right away.

I’m not home. I had some stuff to take care of. I’m sorry about last night. I’m sure you think you’re doing the right thing. In the end, you have to do what sits right with you. You control your choices, and you have to live with them as well. The battery is about to die. I need some time. See you soon. Love you.

He read her message repeatedly. Uh-oh. She thought he meant his plan from last night was the right thing to do. That wasn’t what he meant at all. He dialed her back and texted twice, but there was no response. What the hell did “I need some time” mean? How much time? Her “see you soon” gave him hope. It usually meant that trouble was on its way, but he’d take trouble anytime if it came with Bobbie.

His next call was to Pete and Todd to tell them to be at the site at ten. Macy and her crew should be set up by then. When he drove up to the site, he halfway expected Bobbie to be out front raising a sign that said Caught Again or These Aspens Don’t Change Their Colors, but she was nowhere in sight.

He had already contacted the organizations that would need to know about the testing results. All that was left was to sit back wait.

Macy and her crew showed up at nine and set up in the building’s entryway. The lighting was good, and several thousand square feet of asbestos tiles could be impactful on film.

By nine-thirty, they interviewed him for their piece on crooks and criminals. Aspen Construction was the worst criminal because they smiled at you, all the while knowing they were poisoning you. He stood with his hard hat on and explained the dangers of lead and asbestos in old buildings. He pulled the testing results out, and the cameraman zoomed in to get a close-up. Then he pulled out the results from the Parker project. Even Macy gasped, and she saw this kind of stuff daily.

She held the mic up to him and asked, “Why did you choose to go public?”

He answered honestly. “I wasn’t going to go public. I figured if I made Aspen run the project to the letter of the law, I could protect the jobs of the workers and vendors attached to this site, but then a brilliant woman asked me to see the bigger picture. She told me I had to choose whether I would protect someone’s livelihood or protect their life.”

“She sounds like an amazing woman,” Macy smiled into the camera.

“She is.” He removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. He hated the press stuff. He’d had a lifetime of it when his father had died. He’d been a special interest story for the first year, and they did another a decade later. If he never stepped in front of a camera again, he’d be okay with it.

“Is she the reason you did this?”

“She may have been the stimulus, but this goes deeper than my feelings. This is about having enough self-respect to do what’s right in the worst of circumstances. I’m going to have to call fifty families today and tell them they’re out of work. I thought about that a lot this morning, and firing fifty people was better than attending fifty funerals. I’m putting everything on the line to make sure the bad guys aren’t allowed to continue their destructive behavior, and yes, this is personal for me in many ways. I’m losing my job, but I’m keeping my self-respect, and that’s more valuable than staying employed.”

As Macy wrapped up with him, Todd and Pete entered the site.

Beau walked up to them. “Hey, just in time for your public opinion piece.”

“I’m assuming this pertains to option two?” Pete was already straightening his tie and smoothing his hair.

There was no doubt in Beau’s mind that Macy would slaughter them on camera, and he wasn’t interested in seeing the carnage. He went to his office, picked up the extra copies of the reports, and walked toward the door.

When he got there, he turned around to see Pete’s face turn white. Macy was bleeding him dry.

Beau spent the afternoon on the phone with the CEO from A-1. By the end of the conversation, he was pretty positive they had lawyered up. They would need to with the lawsuits heading their direction.

* * *

It was well after six when he entered the empty diner. He sat in his usual seat at the end of the counter and looked around for Bobbie. When the kitchen door swung forward, Midge appeared, and his heart sank to the worn, checkered floor. Midge wasn’t the cute little blonde he’d hoped to see, but she was probably his second favorite woman in Colorado.

“Hey, son, if you’re looking for Bobbie, she took the night off again. She had a late meeting. Some lawyerly stuff, but it sounded like it was important. She thought you might stop by, so she told me to tell you she’ll see you soon. Something about not being mad.”

Midge had the full scoop on everything that went down. She was Bobbie’s mom for all intents and purposes, and Bobbie would have contacted her right away.