Northern Lights #4
Nothing says home quite like the smell of baking.
The quiet, small town of Higbee is set in the perfect place for the upcoming northern lights. People from different parts of the country are flocking in droves to see the brilliant cosmic show as the town celebrates this unusual event.
Anthony Clarence has spent his entire life not only in Higbee but in the small bakery he runs from his home. A devastating attack in his teens has kept him terrified of the outside world, Anthony locks the world away, scared to step outside his front door. Only his cakes and cookies allow him to paint the vivid world that lives on in his mind.
Jax is a movie star on the run. Attempting to distance himself from his long-time manager, and the stress of being a Hollywood star, he comes to Higbee to see the northern lights. Upon arriving, however, he finds out he’s too late to see the celestial event.
Not knowing Jax’s true identity, Anthony pulls him into a scheme to win over the heart of a man he swears he’s destined to be with. Jax needs a safe place to hide his well-known face from the world and agrees to the idea of a fake relationship.
In the process, Jax will rediscover a love for his art, and a passion for the man who reignited it in him. For Anthony, the security and comfort of Jax’s presence will force him to face the world of fantasy and dreams he’s lived in for so long, and wonder if perhaps reality could be so much better.
Jax
Blue-gray smoke curled around his face as he watched the clouds roll by overhead. His back was warmed by the sun-baked rental as he leaned against it. Jax couldn’t even remember what name he’d rented the car under, but he hoped it was one no one immediately recognized, especially Bobby.
Shaking his head, Jax forced the thought from his mind and instead focused on the clear blue sky overhead, and the sound of the forest lining both sides of the road. The sound of screaming fans and questions fired in quick succession from reporters was long behind him. A gentle breeze rustled the coloring trees, just cool enough to send a shiver up his spine. It was such a far cry from the screaming streets of the city, Jax barely paid attention to the lit cigarette in his hand as he took in the scenery.
The moment was ruined when he heard the faint buzzing of his phone in the cupholder of the car behind him. A career’s worth of habit had kept him from turning the device off, instead, flipping it to vibrate. The car ride had been relatively peaceful until he’d decided to stop, silencing the music he’d had blaring when he turned the car off.
“Fuck off,” he muttered, flicking the cigarette away from him with a huff.
He checked his phone, and his sudden bad mood intensified when he saw the picture lit up on the screen. Bobby had been blowing up his phone from the moment Jax had disappeared. Jax had no interest in talking to his manager, hitting the volume button on his phone to stop the incessant buzzing. When the call ended, he switched the phone to silent mode, cutting himself off just that little bit more from the outside world.
He started the car, his eye caught by a tendril of smoke rising up from the grass nearby. His gaze shifted to the nearby pile of leaves close to the smoldering cigarette. Images of a burning wasteland flashed through his mind, and wincing, he stepped out of the car. The chances of the cigarette turning the forest into an inferno were small, but as he ground the cigarette out and shoved it into his back pocket, he supposed there was no point in taking chances.
Back on the road, he made his way toward the sleepy town of Higbee. It was in the heart of Maine, and the name had fallen into his lap while listening to the radio. Apparently, the small town was having the time of its life preparing for the arrival of the Aurora Borealis. To Jax, it had sounded like the perfect place to get away from everything for a little while. No vacation on a white sandy beach, with vultures holding cameras to hound him at every step. A real and true step away from everything, where no one except himself knew where he was.
When he arrived in the town proper, Jax was glad he’d decided to finish the trip with the music turned down. The town of Higbee was every bit as peaceful and sleepy looking as he’d imagined it was. The humble but well-kept wood and stone buildings had a recent splash of color with the town preparing for the celestial event. However, the quietly respectable feel of the town was still there, the sort of place Jax imagined the image of a house with a white picket fence came from.
There was one building, brightly lit and painted a vibrant green, that stood out from all the others. Despite being confident in finding his way in such a small town, Jax pulled in front of the building to park. A press of a button later, and the radio died with the engine. Silence pressed in around the interior of the car as he sat, watching the townsfolk as they went about their business. The nice rental gained a few curious glances, but gazes lingered only for a moment. Letting out a sigh of relief, Jax pulled the hood of his jacket over his head and slipped out of the car.
As he made to close the door, he caught sight of his phone and its blinking notification light. Habit made him reach for it, but he drew his hand back. There probably wasn’t a chance someone would steal it, and in all honesty, he wondered if he wouldn’t be a little relieved if someone did. Hell, let them steal the car and lose it in a lake, he could afford it, and maybe it would cover his tracks even further.
“So many new faces around here.”
The chipper voice so close to him brought Jax up with a choked sound. A woman, shapely and blonde, stood near the back of his car, smiling at him. There was a decidedly impish glint to her eye, as if she knew she’s startled him and was pleased by it. Clearing his throat, Jax tried to hide his surprise as he faced her, prepared for the worst.
“Don’t get a lot of people around here?” Jax asked.
She squinted, her eyes running up his body and resting on his face. Jax tensed, waiting for the inevitable recognition. Sure, he didn’t look like the teenage role he’d repeatedly been cast in for just over ten years, but his face was easily recognizable. A few days worth of stubble and a hood drawn over his hair wouldn’t save him from being recognized by someone who watched even a couple of his movies.
She shrugged. “Not usually.”
Jax nodded, still wary. “Just trying to get away from it, and maybe see some pretty sights while I’m at it.”
The latter was a bonus, but the former was his real reason for fleeing to the middle of nowhere without the courtesy of a head’s up to anyone. His latest movie had finally moved from theaters to be bought, downloaded, and viewed from the comfort of home. There was a resurgence of attention on him, which included more than a few offers for other movies.
The reminder of more roles sent a ripple of frustration and anger through him. He’d been plagued for years with his attempts to get out of the typical role he was thrust into, as the teenage heartthrob in the latest coming of age teen flick. While he played out the teenage act before a camera, real despair had pulled at him. What if his acting wasn’t as good as he thought, and his limited roles were because of his own failings.
But no, it hadn’t been his fault.
She thrust her hand out. “Well, you’re more than welcome to drift around here if you’d like, the town could use a little more life in it.”
He took it. “Thank you, Mrs…”
“It’s Miss, but for the love of God, call me Annie. The only people who call me Miss Greene are my tax people, and even then I wish they wouldn’t. Nothing like being reminded that you’re unwed while nearing thirty.”
Jax laughed. “There are worse things.”
“I suppose I could be living without legs or arms.”
Jax looked around. “I don’t suppose you could point me in the direction of something fun to do around here while I wait? Or maybe somewhere to stay.”
Annie raised a brow. “You came here to see the lights and didn’t even bother to look up somewhere to stay?”
Jax chuckled nervously. “It was kind of a last-minute decision.”
Which was putting it lightly. Jax had been stewing in his thoughts for days, cycling between despair and fury. When it felt like he was finally going to blow up, either inward or outward, he was forced to make the choice to flee. If he didn’t, there would’ve been a mess Jax had no doubt would have been slapped on every ragtag magazine across the globe. Rather than risk having his personal drama displayed for the world to see, Jax had chosen to flee to the sticks.
Annie squinted at him. “You alright there?”
Jax shook himself. “Yeah, sorry, got lost in thought for a second there.”
“Well, I was telling you that you’re lucky. Not too many people have called ahead as far as I know, so there should still be some rooms open. We’ve only got the one motel, but Jake takes good care of it.”
“Jake, huh?”
“Well, he’ll tell you to call him Jake, but I don’t call him that to his face. Man’s old enough to be my father…maybe even my grandfather. He’ll always be Jacob to me, no matter how much he cusses at me over it.”
Jax chuckled. “He sounds like fun.”
Annie tossed her hair over her shoulder. “This whole town is filled with fun, you just have to know how to find it yourself.”
“Haven’t had to find my own amusement in quite a while,” Jax admitted.
“Stay here long enough and you’ll either get good enough at it or go crazy.”
“Currently trying to escape crazy, so here’s hoping I get skilled at entertaining myself.”
Annie winked at him. “And if you ever need anything while you’re here, be sure to stop by my store, Greene’s General Store.”
“A shameless plug if I ever heard one,” Jax said.
“Hey, a girl’s gotta make a living right? No shame in trying to get some out of towner to stop in and spend some money. Plus, if you’re real nice, we might even whip you up a fresh batch of some bisque. Lobster isn’t quite as fresh as if you went a bit farther east, but I’ll bet it’s better than what you’re used to.”
“It’s been ages since I’ve had a good bisque. If you tell me there’s some good coffee to be had around here, I might look into a more permanent place to stay.”
Annie pointed over his shoulder. “Go around that corner, and you’ll find the only café in town. Wasn’t really big with the town until people started going, kinda like the bakery you parked your fancy car in front of.”
Jax let out a sigh of relief. “There’s coffee? For real?”
“For real.”
“No offense, but it’s been a long drive, and some coffee sounds better than bisque at the moment.”
Annie chuckled. “Fair enough, just don’t forget about us after you’ve got your caffeine fix.”
Jax gave her his most winning smile. “I never forget a pretty face.”
Annie shook her head as she brushed past him, making for the green building. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Jax watched her go, snorting when she busted open the front door like she was the leader of a swat team. Glad she hadn’t recognized him, Jax crossed the street to try and find the café she’d pointed out. The few people around gave him curious glances as they walked, but other than that, Jax felt his tension ease to a sliver as there came no recognition.
He could barely remember a time where he wasn’t recognized when walking down the street. Then again, he hadn’t yet come across someone who fell into the age group commonly associated with his movies. Most people he saw were probably too old for coming of age teen romance movies, and he was sure the guys he passed would rather see the next Mike Bayer action flick instead.
The thought brought a sour expression to his face as he spotted the café. He could still remember Bayer’s face when he’d run into Jax at the Top Teen Awards. Jax had expected it to be awkward, having recently heard from Bobby that Mike had turned down his audition for another actor. Instead, he found himself slack-jawed and dumbfounded when Mike had told him it had been a shame that Jax had decided to go for another role instead of the getaway driver, a downright shame.
Jax had spent the rest of the night in a stunned stupor as the implication of the director’s words had settled in. By the time he started wondering just how many other roles he’d “turned down” in the past, he’d started digging into his private liquor supply. The only thing that kept him from sending a slew of angry, and probably poorly typed, text messages to Bobby had been his phone’s low battery. Well, that and in his drunken state, he’d found it too difficult to figure out how to plug his phone back in.
Sobriety had brought only a headache, and with it, heartache. Jax had trusted Bobby for most of his career. Trusted him to steer Jax in the right direction and to do what was best for him. If it hadn’t been for Bayer’s daughter wanting to meet Jax at the award ceremony, Jax might never have learned that Bobby was canceling deals behind his back.
Having paid for his coffee, Jax lit another cigarette and took a deep inhale on it. He snorted as he thought about what Bobby would say if he saw Jax with a cigarette in his hand in public. Bobby was completely adamant that Jax maintain that ‘boyish charm’ and ‘boy next door’ appearance at all times. That meant no heavy partying, drugs, drinking, and definitely no smoking.
“Well, someone can go fuck themselves,” Jax muttered.
An older woman passing by gaped at him, her hand rising to her chest with a small gasp.
“No, not you!” Jax protested.
But it was too late, the woman was already rounding the corner with only a final offended glance his way to mark her passing. Jax groaned, thinking his rebellion against all of Bobby’s rules was already off to a good start. Maybe if he was lucky, that boy next door charm could be transferred into a roguish bad boy that everyone loved to watch and forgave for just about anything.
Shaking his head, he made his way back to his car. The longer he stood out on the streets, the more likely he was to be recognized by someone. Though from the looks of it, he’d arrived after the busiest time of day. The whole of the main street was quiet, littered with the blue and purple streamers that someone had strung up between the light posts. Honestly, despite the strong exterior of the buildings, the whole place looked like the messy morning after a party.
Unable to help himself, he stooped to dig out his phone when he reached the car. Ignoring the dozen text messages and voicemails left behind, he scrolled down the list. There wasn’t a single new one from social media feeds, and he snorted in a mixture of annoyance and amusement.
Bobby had already changed the passwords once, when Jax had talked about trying to get away from the lights and attention of the world. It was Bobby’s opinion that the world needed to keep seeing his face, so Jax’s name never died from anyone’s lips. So long as Jax made sure to stay in the public’s eye, movie deals would keep rolling in. Before, Jax would have said his manager was a little too zealous about making sure he had work. Now Jax wondered if it had more to do with the money Bobby was making off him.
It didn’t require him to test to see if Bobby had done it, but Jax did it anyway. When the login screen popped up instead of the news feed, Jax tossed his phone back onto the passenger seat. He didn’t really care that he didn’t have social media any longer, but he despised his manager for the petty act.
It made him think of all the other things Bobby had done or said which hadn’t sat right with Jax, but he’d pushed the feelings away for the sake of his career. Despite wanting broader options, especially in the genre of Jax’s favorite, the dark and gritty, he’d followed along with Bobby’s advice to stick with lighthearted and heartwarming teenage movies. His mild Southern accent had been one of the first things to go, with Bobby insisting it didn’t fit the easily relatable and desirable. The same had been said of Jax’s attraction to men, so Jax’s dating life was an eternal mess and a mystery to the masses.
Annoyed and forgetting what it was he was doing in the first place, Jax slammed the car door shut. A curse fell from his lips as the door caught the cup of coffee in his hand, sending it spilling down his front. Doing a little dance, he tried to keep the hot coffee from soaking through to his skin.
Wincing against the heat, he glanced around. The woman he’d seen earlier had gone into the green shop before him, and he wondered if either she or the owner of the shop might have something for him to clean up with. Stepping gingerly with his now damp jeans, he made his way into what looked like a bakery.
“At least it can only go up from here, right?” he asked as he stepped through the door.
Anthony
“I’m sorry little guy, but it’s time,” he murmured.
Anthony knew the small solar system mobile wouldn’t be bothered in the least, but with a heavy heart, Anthony tugged the string holding it up and over the hook secured in the ceiling. The coming of the northern lights had been exciting for him, and it had been delightful to see the entire town come to life and bring a splash of color to everything, if only for a short time. Not one to be left behind so easily, Anthony had thrown himself into decorating the bakery with as many colored and space-themed decorations as he could manage.
Easing the mobile into a small box and wrapping it, Anthony glanced around. He couldn’t help his wince as he realized how much further he had to go. In his enthusiasm for something new in Higbee, he might have gone a little overboard. There were still half the decorations to take down, and he’d already been carefully taking them down since opening the bakery.
It had been worth it though, if only for the people he’d been able to meet. A woman who had come all the way from California had shown him pictures of the whales she’d seen while on a boating trip. A man and woman who were roaming the country on their honeymoon had come in with stories of climbing mountains and diving from cliffsides. Anthony still remembered the breathtakingly beautiful pictures a photographer had on his camera from his trip to Nepal.
Each person who’d come through his door during the week leading up to the lights had born a story. Those stories were burned into Anthony’s mind, and he was itching to see what he could do with them. Since he wasn’t seeing the world anytime soon, he lived through other people’s stories and brought them to life on the various pastries and cakes he made. Sometimes it was literal, such as the scenery of mountains encased around a monastery that he was still dreaming up. Other times, it was like the whale bursting out from a supernova that he’d painted overnight, much to the delight of the woman from California.
A sharp ping noise rang out next to his head, jerking him from his thoughts. Forgetting he was on a ladder, Anthony nearly tumbled from it. The wooden ladder creaked dangerously as he clung to it, praying desperately that it wouldn’t fall. A familiar hand shot up and took hold of the ladder, steadying it.
“Oh, thank you, God,” Anthony murmured.
Annie chuckled. “I prefer to go by Annie.”
Anthony sighed, carefully climbing down from the ladder until his feet were on solid ground. Taking a steadying breath, he stepped away, shooting Annie a thankful look.
“I still don’t know why I let you talk me into installing that infernal thing,” Anthony said, motioning to the speaker above him.
“Because I am a woman of great sense.”
“And oh so humble as well.”
Annie laughed. “I’m a woman of many talents.”
Shaking his head, Anthony took the box containing the mobile and set it carefully in the larger box. Everything was returning to the way it had been before the northern lights had come to Higbee. Soon, the color and energy that had filled the town would return to its safe and predictable tone. The new and exciting people who had flitted into his shop were long gone, with only the familiar faces left.
Annie raised a brow. “Don’t you look happy today.”
Anthony motioned around them. “It was so much fun putting this up, but it’s downright depressing taking it down.”
“With the Apple Festival right around the corner, you’ll have more decorations to put up in no time.”
Anthony shook his head. “It’s not the same, it’s not as much fun.”
Annie snorted. “Seriously? You love decorating for the holidays.”
“Decorating for the same things every year is only so much fun. The lights gave me a chance to get into something new and interesting. People from all over the country came here to see them. There were so many new faces, it was wonderful. It’s like losing a friend, taking all this down.”
“Honey, not that I don’t understand being a bit put out, but I think you might be taking this a little too much to heart.”
Anthony sighed. “Maybe, but it’s still depressing.”
“Maybe you should find something else to distract you, something better than packing away another box of decorations.”
“I do have a few more cakes I wanted to try to get decorated before the weekend comes,” Anthony said thoughtfully.
“Something other than your cakes,” Annie said.
“Like what?”
Annie’s eyes drifted to the sales counter, where Anthony’s phone sat.
“You downloaded the app like you promised, right?” She asked.
Anthony smiled. “I did.”
Romeo Alexander is an M/M (gay) Romance Author. Hip, plugged into pop culture, hopeless romantic. Romeo believes that love truly conquers all and that love can heal all wounds. His characters grapple with real relationships and real-world issues while simultaneously using their hearts as a guiding compass towards a Happily Ever After.
