Roller Coaster Romance Read online

  Kate Moseman

  Roller Coaster Romance

  Copyright © 2019 by Kate Moseman

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First Edition

  Cover design by Rena Violet, coversbyviolet.com

  Interior design by Stephanie Anderson, Alt 19 Publications

  ISBN 978-0-9996594-8-9 (paperback)

  ISBN 978-0-9996594-9-6 (ebook)

  Fortunella Press

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  For Ginger

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 2

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 3

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Vanessa

  Chapter 4

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 5

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Vanessa

  Chapter 6

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Vanessa

  Chapter 7

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Vanessa

  Chapter 8

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Vanessa

  Chapter 9

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Vanessa

  Chapter 10

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 11

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Vanessa

  Chapter 12

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 13

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 14

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 15

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Vanessa

  Chapter 16

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 17

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 18

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 19

  Vanessa

  Thomas

  Chapter 20

  Vanessa

  Pomegranate Champagne

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Vanessa

  In a small office, there was a desk. On the desk sat a glass model of a castle. Behind the desk sat an interviewer who had one final question for Vanessa.

  “Is there anything else you’d like to share with us about your work history?”

  A fine sweat threatened to mar her neat application of makeup.

  “No, sir. I think we covered everything.” Her crisp diction slipped on the last word and slid into the slightest hint of a Southern accent.

  “Very well, then.” The interviewer shuffled a few papers on his desk. “Would you mind stepping into the waiting room?”

  “Of course.” She tucked a wayward curl behind her ear as she reached for her bag, then stood up straight in her sensible heels, and walked with a steady tread to the door.

  Damn it all, woman, don’t trip now.

  Out the office door she went, shutting it carefully behind her.

  In the waiting room, her gaze settled on the wall-mounted television as it played a promotional video on a continuous loop. She went back and forth between glancing at the screen and checking her suit jacket and skirt for nonexistent lint.

  “The Destiny Corporation offers competitive salaries, generous health benefits, and the most unique work environment in the world. If your dream is to make dreams come true, you’ll feel right at home … ”

  One corner of her mouth lifted just a little. You can make my dream come true by hiring me.

  “Vanessa?” The interviewer leaned out of his doorway and beckoned to her with a manila file folder. “Come on in.”

  She stood up and smoothed her jacket as best she could.

  The interviewer folded his hands on the desk. “Thank you for taking the time to talk to me today. We’ve been looking for just the right person to take this role, and after speaking with you, we feel that you’re up to the job. We’d like to offer you the position of area manager at Destiny Park.”

  Vanessa smiled. “That’s wonderful,” she said. “When do I start?”

  “Right now.”

  Vanessa tried not to look shocked. Was this the usual procedure?

  “I’m going to send you over to your office in the Legacy area of Destiny Park. Have you been to the park before?” He looked at her expectantly.

  “It’s been a while, but we went there on family vacations a couple of times when I was a kid. The Legacy area, you said?”

  “Just call it ‘Legacy’ for short,” he said. “Legacy, Fantasy, Galaxy, Discovery. The four themed lands of Destiny Park.”

  “Legacy, Fantasy, Galaxy, Discovery,” she repeated dutifully. “Got it.”

  “You’ll meet your staff first, then we’ll arrange for you to introduce yourself to your employees later today, at the shift change. I know it’s a bit sudden, but we’re anxious to have someone in place as soon as possible. Does that work for you?”

  “Of course.” What can I say? No? Hardly.

  “Great! Here are the directions to the manager parking lot, and a temporary badge to get you through the security gate.” His handshake conveyed both congratulation and dismissal.

  Vanessa hurried across the parking lot, eager to get to Destiny Park. As she pulled open the driver’s side door of her car, she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye.

  A turtle wobbled its way down from a nearby curb into the gutter of the busy road, intent on dodging cars.

  Vanessa looked from the temporary badge in her hand to the turtle and back again, before huffing a sigh and jogging as quickly as she could manage in high heels across the parking lot.

  She attempted to scoot the turtle back onto the curb with her foot. “Bad turtle,” she said. “Stop that.”

  The turtle ignored her and continued to hurl itself down the curb and into the road.

  Vanessa let loose a cry of frustration and hustled back to her car. She flung open the passenger side door, tossed down the badge, and snatched up a single sheet of folded newspaper. She unfolded it and took one last look at the headline: “Historic Family-Run Amusement Park to Close Permanently.”

  With a life at stake, there was no time to be sentimental.

  She carried the paper to the curb and knelt next to the turtle.

  With her hands protected by the newspaper, she lifted the turtle and carried it to a row of bushes far from the road. “Listen, you,” she said as she deposited it behind a bush, “I might not be here next time to save your shell. So be a good turtle and stay away from the scary road, okay?”


  Vanessa walked back to her car and slid into the driver’s seat.

  Good luck, turtle.

  The directions led to a broad highway flanked by pine forest. At the security gate, delicate, sparkling turrets were just visible above the trees.

  Vanessa cranked her window down and passed the guard her temporary badge.

  He studied it, then leaned down to her window.

  “Do you know where you’re going, ma’am?”

  “Manager parking. I’m a manager,” she said. I’m a manager at Destiny Park! She could hardly believe it.

  The guard nodded. “Turn right past the lamppost. Wait till I lower the blockade first.”

  Vanessa thanked him and rolled up her window.

  She looked ahead to the sturdy metal barrier painted in yellow and black. The barrier looked like jaws as it retracted into the ground, allowing her to drive over it and beyond.

  She glanced in her rearview mirror as the barrier rose into position again.

  The next turn took her through a tall earthen berm before revealing an open parking lot tucked behind several large buildings. The loose gravel on the ground made for an unsteady walk to the doorway marked “Crew Entrance.”

  Vanessa pushed open one of the heavy doors into a stairwell lit with buzzing fluorescent lights. As she descended, she realized that the offices must be located underneath the park, while the park itself occupied the second floor. The stairs switched back at a lower landing, then led directly into an underground corridor which stretched a long distance to the left and right. The awareness of an entire theme park over her head set off a shiver of claustrophobia.

  Vanessa spotted a sign facing the stairs.

  She headed up the corridor. Although she had been to Destiny Park a few times as a child, it was difficult to conjure any childhood memory well enough to navigate the theme park underground with no landmarks in sight.

  The signs would have to do.

  By the time she hiked to the correct office, she regretted wearing heels.

  The plastic letters on the sign next to the door read “Legacy Management.” Vanessa risked a quick peek through the narrow window.

  Inside, a slender young woman sat at a desk near the door, pencil in hand, intent on a large notebook with a spiral binding at the top. She had round glasses and a thick cascade of dark brown braids spilling onto the shoulders of her pearl-buttoned white cardigan.

  Vanessa drew back from the window and knocked on the door.

  “It’s open.” The woman remained seated at her desk but flipped the cover of her notebook closed and slid it out of sight.

  Vanessa opened the door and stepped into the office. “Hi, I’m Vanessa Jones. I’m the new manager for this area.”

  “Oh.” The woman stared at Vanessa with expressive brown eyes. “I’m Charlotte, the secretary for Legacy.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Charlotte. Did the head office let you know I was coming?”

  “Oh, yes.” Charlotte started, as if recalling something, then yanked open one of her desk drawers and rummaged through it with great gusto. “This came for you.” She stood up, revealing her willowy height, and handed a single sheet of paper across the desk to Vanessa.

  Vanessa took it.

  Vanessa Jones

  Legacy Management

  Destiny Park

  Dear Ms. Jones,

  Welcome to the management team of Destiny Park. You are scheduled to introduce yourself to the Legacy crew members at 5:00 p.m. in the American Dream theater. Please take this afternoon to prepare, and to orient yourself within your assigned area.

  I trust that your secretary, Charlotte, will be of help to you during this transition.

  Regards,

  Mr. Destiny

  She flipped the paper over. There was nothing more to it. “Is this how Mr. Destiny usually communicates?”

  “He doesn’t come around much. Or call. Mostly we just get memos. Like that one.” Charlotte indicated the paper in Vanessa’s hand.

  Vanessa raised one eyebrow as she studied the brief missive again. “I guess he prefers the written word.”

  Charlotte shrugged.

  “Well.” Vanessa clicked her heels, momentarily at a loss for words. “Why don’t you show me around?”

  Vanessa followed Charlotte out the door and into the corridor. This time, she noticed what sounded like a radio announcer coming over the loudspeakers placed periodically along the ceiling of the corridor. It didn’t sound like any of the local radio shows she’d heard. She could only make out a few words, thanks to the mysterious whooshing noises coming from the multicolored pipes in all sizes that ran along the corridor walls. “Parade … step off at … fireworks will illuminate … 10:00 p.m.”

  “Charlotte, what’s that radio station?”

  Charlotte glanced up at the nearest speaker. “That’s our own radio station, The Voice of Destiny. It’s broadcast underground so everyone can hear today’s operating hours, parade schedule, and so on. Plus some pop music.” As she talked, she kept a brisk pace in her flat-soled shoes.

  Farther along, Vanessa spotted a Legacy sign with the arrow pointing up. She followed Charlotte into the stairwell.

  They headed toward the sunlight streaming from a window on the upper landing.

  Upon emerging, they stood together under a grand oak tree in the central plaza of Legacy.

  “Over there, that’s the American Dream theater.” Charlotte gestured with her whole hand to an imposing building with columns in the Classical Revival style. “And over there, that’s the Ghost Factory. The haunted house, you know?” She looked at Vanessa.

  “Right,” said Vanessa. “The haunted house.”

  Spiked iron gates surrounded a forbidding red brick factory facade.

  Charlotte continued. “If you keep going that way, you get to the Gold Rush ride. It’s a roller coaster. You’ve been here before, right?”

  “Ages ago.” Vanessa turned in a circle to get her bearings. “Have you worked here long?”

  Charlotte removed her glasses and polished them on the corner of her sweater. “A few years, give or take. Long enough to see a few managers come and go.”

  Is that a warning? I hope it’s a friendly one. “That’s a good long time. You must know a lot about the park,” Vanessa said. “Can we take a look inside the theater before we head back?”

  They slipped in through a back entrance.

  The theater contained several hundred empty seats facing a stage hung with thick velvet curtains bordered with gold fringe. Columns lit with dim spotlights lined the walls.

  “There’s a few minutes till the next show,” Charlotte said, “but you can’t go on the stage anyway, what with all the machinery up there. You’ll just stand down front and talk.”

  Vanessa imagined the seats filled with her employees. Her heartbeat quickened as she paced the area between the stage and the first row of seats. She stopped and took a deep breath.

  This is it.

  “Let’s go before they let the next group in,” she said.

  Vanessa glanced over her shoulder one last time before they exited the back way, just as the main entrance doors swung open without a sound.

  Across the empty theater, a dark-haired man dressed in a colonial costume silently watched them leave.

  Thomas

  Thomas flipped the switch that opened the theater doors. As they swung open, he spotted two figures walking to the back entrance of the theater.

  Charlotte? What’s she doing here? By the time he threaded his way to the front of the theater, they were gone. He opened the microphone box with a practiced flip of his hand and retrieved the handheld microphone. “Please move all the way to the center of the row to make room for others. Thank you.” Wonder who that was with her. Maybe they found another manager to replace the
last disaster.

  Thomas delivered the rest of the pre-show spiel, pushed the button to start the show, and sat down in an empty theater seat. Patriotic music thrummed and robots gesticulated onstage, but Thomas might as well have been sitting in a Zen garden for all the notice he took.

  She was wearing a business suit; only managers wear those. The rest of us get to play dress up. With that thought, he reached for his cravat and attempted to tug it into the proper shape. It was hopeless. There was too much humidity for it to do anything other than collapse.

  A shaft of light beamed into the theater, then disappeared. Someone had opened and closed one of the entry doors. Thomas glanced over his shoulder into the dark. Only a fellow employee would know the layout well enough to stride into the dimly lit theater.

  Thomas hopped up and met Charlotte halfway.

  “They got a new one already,” Charlotte said without preamble. “She’s coming up to introduce herself at the shift change.”

  Just what I need: another unknown.

  “What’s she like?” he asked.

  She tossed her hands up in the air. “How should I know? I got the memo from Mr. Destiny, she walked in the door, and here we are.”

  Thomas rubbed his forehead, speaking to himself almost as much as to her. “We’re getting so close and they know it. That’s why they didn’t wait.”

  “Probably. Anyway, I gotta get back.” She struck him on the arm playfully. “Don’t worry.” She turned to walk up the aisle.

  Thomas rolled his eyes. He raised his voice so she could hear him over the show even as she walked away. “Right, I won’t worry at all,” he said. “Whatever was I thinking?”

  The visitors near him stared. He bowed at them with a theatrical flourish before he returned to his seat. It’s all just part of the show.

  Chapter 2

  Vanessa

  Charlotte leaned into Vanessa’s office doorway, flapping a piece of paper in rhythmic waves through the air. “Looks like you got another memo.”

  Vanessa stood up from her desk, where she had been making notes for her speech, and stepped into the common area of the office. I’ll take any excuse to get out of that windowless box. “Thanks, Charlotte.” She took the paper and read it as Charlotte returned to her desk. “Wait—do you know anything about this?”