Buck’s first impression of Tiffany had been that of a typical sullen and difficult teenager. Obviously, she deserved some space in light of the fact that her mother and stepfather had just been killed, but nonetheless, he didn’t think much of her. After last night, however, Buck is starting to realize that deep down, underneath the silly teenage clothes and the sulking demeanor, is a special kid. Now he just hopes that Lizzie will be able (willing) to see it, too.
Buck awakes with a start on Monday morning, hearing footsteps in the hallway outside his room. It takes a second for him to remember his houseguest and more than a second for his heartbeat to slow down to its normal pace. A quick glance at the clock shows it to be after seven, and Buck sits up with a feeling of dread in his gut. Today is the day…the day that he will be face-to-face with Elizabeth Castle, and as much as he is anticipating their reunion he is also dreading it.
He steps out into the hall and startles Tiffany as badly as she had startled him a few minutes earlier. They exchange awkward good mornings and then go their separate ways—she to the bathroom and he to the kitchen to make a much-needed pot of coffee. Their paths cross a handful of times until they both end up at the front door ready for the drive to Los Angeles.
On her shoulder, Tiffany holds the duffle bag she had carried out of her house yesterday. Buck carries his briefcase as he would on any Monday morning, but unlike other Monday mornings, he is dressed casually in jeans and an untucked button-front shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Although his clothes look like something he might just throw on, a great deal of thought had actually gone into it and although he felt stupid changing his shirt three times, he feels confident about the blue stripes he has settled on because a girl in a bar had once told him that the stripes really brought out his blue eyes, and then she went home with him.
“Ready?” Buck asks Tiffany, holding open the front door for her to walk through.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” the girl confesses, and Buck feels a sharp pang of sympathy for her, vowing to think a little less about himself than he has been. “Nice shirt,” she adds, and he takes one more second to think only about himself and feel pleased with his final choice.
They pile into the truck and, after a quick stop for gas, are on the highway (really, they are on the highway all along, since it runs right through the middle of Victory—the signs simply change to “Main Street” and the speed limit is 30 miles per hour instead of 65, but it’s not like you take an exit or anything to get there). Buck had at least counted on traffic and more silence from Tiffany so that he could have ample time to gather his thoughts, but instead there are hardly any cars on the road and the teenager has suddenly become chatty.
While they “shoot the breeze,” as his grandfather would have said, Buck learns that Tiffany is a cheerleader; didn’t care much for her stepfather, Chuck, although she does feel “real bad” he is dead; and always dreamed of getting out of Victory. She talks a little about her mother, and Buck feels a bit ashamed that he doesn’t have much to contribute, since his interaction with Charla since their high school graduation had been limited to vague nods and waves around town.
Buck decides to take advantage of Tiffany’s new openness and see if he can gather some information about Lizzie that will help him when they arrive in Los Angeles.
“Actually,” Tiffany tells him, “I don’t even ever remember meeting my aunt Lizzie! I don’t think she and mom had talked in ages.”
The knot in Buck’s stomach grows larger. Lizzie is the guardian for a kid she’s never even met?!? Things are going from bad to worse, and they are barreling toward Los Angeles at 80 miles per hour.
When they are just outside of town, Buck and Tiffany stop at a McDonald’s to grab some lunch. While Tiffany is inside getting Big Macs and chocolate shakes with the twenty-dollar bill Buck gave her, he places his second phone call of the day to the work number that Lizzie had given him on Saturday. The first time, he’d been able to sneak the call while Tiffany used a gas station bathroom, but he’d only gotten a secretary, who was unwilling to give him their address without Lizzie’s consent. Thankfully, this time the secretary was able to give him the location. After hanging up, Buck flips through the pages of his old Thomas Brothers Guide map and is both pleased and horrified to see that they are very close.
Buck glances up and sees Tiffany walking across the parking lot with a big bag boasting golden arches, so he quickly stashes the map under his seat and greets Tiffany with a smile as she hands the food bag across the front seat to him before hoisting herself up into the cab.
“We’re almost there,” he cautiously informs her, paying close attention to her reaction.
“Awesome,” she replies, managing to sound completely confident and utterly terrified at the same time.
Buck envies her being able to sound at all confident as he shovels in french fries at breakneck speed. Before he has even finished his lunch, the heartburn kicks in, and Buck pops a couple of antacids as he maneuvers the big truck around the few miles of overpopulated Los Angeles land between him and Lizzie. All too quickly, they are parking in a spot labeled “The Renee Foster Show! Guest Parking,” and he and Tiffany are climbing out of the truck and walking toward a large, almost industrial-looking building.
Silently, they make their way through the chaotic offices until at last they reach a glass room surrounded by chest-high walls that make up a number of cubicles. There is a plastic sign stuck on the side of the door jamb that reads “Elizabeth Castle—Head Fact Checker,” and Buck can’t help but feel a swell of pride that Lizzie is doing so well. Before he has a chance to figure out what to do next, a pretty red-haired girl calls to him from her cubicle.
“Can I help you?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. We’re here to see Lizzie—Elizabeth Castle.”
“Do you have an appointment?” the girl, who only looks slightly older than Tiffany, asks while expertly opening a scheduling program on her iMac.
“No, not exactly,” Buck admits. “I’m Buck Platner—”
“Oh, right. Hi, Mr. Platner. I’m Hope, Elizabeth’s assistant. We spoke on the phone earlier.”
“Oh, Hope…hi,” Buck says uncomfortably. There is a momentary pause while nobody says anything, so Buck asks, “Is she here?”
“Elizabeth’s actually on-air right now. It’s a two-show day, so things are totally hectic.”
“On-air?” Tiffany pipes up, finally showing some interest in the conversation.
Hope looks at the teenager and then again at Buck, wondering who they are. They must be father and daughter…or brother and sister? Buck looks to be about Elizabeth’s age, so he’s probably too young for this girl to be his daughter. Hope secretly hopes that he’s not someone Elizabeth is involved with, because he is extremely good looking and she is feeling extremely single these days.
“For her segment, ‘That’s the Facts,’ on The Renee Foster Show!” Hope explains to Tiffany, but her eyes seem stalled on Buck’s pecs. “Why don’t you have a seat in Elizabeth’s office and turn the monitor to channel 28. That’s the direct feed from the studio, so you can watch what’s going on.”
Tiffany eagerly heads into Elizabeth’s glass office and Buck follows after nodding a “thank you” to Hope, which she returns with a flirtatious smile.
12
“Buck Platner is in my office? BUCK PLATNER IS IN MY OFFICE?!?” I ask myself over and over hoping that I misunderstood Hope completely; each time the question becomes more frantic. My lungs sting and my head feels like it’s in a beehive as I thunder up the metal stairs. Once on the office floor, I try (fail) to catch my breath as I make my way to my office. I can see the outline of Buck’s blond, buzzcut head through the glass