A Taste of Fame by Linda Evans Shepherd

He stared into the camera and raised his brows. “Who are you going to believe? Me or your own eyes?”
    The cameras zoomed in on me getting an extra friendly hug from waiter Wade. That shot was followed by a close-up of Wade saying, “Sure, I’m sweet on Donna, mainly because we have history. We were childhood sweethearts, until …” His voice faded without completing his thought as the camera panned back, revealing a lovely Gianne holding a microphone close to her full, pouty lips. “Ohhhhh … poor baby. Why aren’t you two together now?”
    Wade looked like a sheepish Matthew McConaughey. “It’s complicated. But I’m working on it.”
    The room filled with hoots and shouts of “Go Wade!” while I slid down my chair. Wade leaned to whisper in my ear. “Sorry, Donna, Gianne promised me my comments were off the record.” But before I could scold him, the camera panned back to Gianne, who was saying, “But the word is, Wade isn’t the only eligible bachelor vying for the deputy’s affection.” I put my hands over my face and watched the screen through spread fingers as the camera caught David giving me a look of pure adoration.
    I was stunned.
    Before I could react, the theme song from Hollywood Nightly blared, and I felt David slide down his chair too. “They wouldn’t,” he said under his breath.
    Hollywood Nightly host Kendra Goodall replaced Gianne’s face. “This just in, rumor is Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor, the adopted son of Harmony Harris, American’s musical sweetheart of the fifties, is making an appearance as a waiter on The Great Party Showdown , the summer season’s top reality show.” The screen filled with a moving image of David wearing his black tux and pink bowtie waiting tables at our Animal Crackers birthday party.
    “As a child, Harris became a media darling because he was the subject of much speculation as to his true parentage. It had been presumed he was the son of Harmony and one of her leading men, until last year when it was learned he was actually the biological son of nurse Vonnie Westbrook and her late husband, Joseph Ray Jewell, a medic killed in Vietnam.
    “Though Harris is now living in Colorado, he’s still considered to be one of the most eligible bachelors in Hollywood, as he was the sole heir to Harmony’s estate. Even so, it’s rumored he traded Hollywood fame and fortune for his birth mother and an ambulance.” The screen showed David giving Vonnie a kiss on the cheek, then switched to David lifting an accident victim on a gurney into his awaiting ambulance as the voiceover continued, “And the love of his life.”
    The camera pulled back from the accident scene to reveal me, dressed in my sheriff’s uniform, holding hands with the accident victim while David gave me a look of affection. Wait! Wasn’t that Mr. Carpenter from this afternoon?
    I shook my head. Hollywood Nightly hadn’t wasted any time getting a crew to town to film David’s business. How had they escaped my notice? Unless they’d gotten the footage from the Denver News team stationed here to report from the high country.
    “The paparazzi are without conscience,” David muttered in response to my gasp.
    Gianne’s face replaced Kendra’s. Gianne looked into the camera and batted her baby blue eyes. “Hey, David, if things don’t work out with the deputy …” She stretched out her pinkie and thumb and held it to her ear like a phone receiver before mouthing the words, “Call me.”
    You could hear a few uncomfortable giggles from the crowd as a voice rang out, “Donna, who ya gonna pick?”
    I sank lower in my seat. Was that Dwayne, the cook from Higher Grounds Café? I frowned. No doubt .
    “Not you, Dwayne, that’s for certain,” a voice that sounded like reporter Clay Whitefield’s replied from somewhere nearby.
    The crowd’s laughter faded as the screen suddenly portrayed several scenes from our surprise birthday party—including a closeup of Vonnie’s