Sam perks up and moves to her desk. “Yes, actually. I have the perfect person. You’re going to love her. She’s more than a publicist, really, and specializes in nuanced projects like this one. She just had a huge win with one of my other clients. Definitely someone we want on our team.” She plucks a card from her desk and walks it over to me. “Let’s set something up for tomorrow if possible so you can check her out. We need to get moving on all of this right away.”
“Perfect.” I take the card and glance down at the name: Lydia Carmichael. Kind of like her already. Wonder if she’s related to Stocker Carmichael of White Flame Records?
Oliver and I don’t say much on the ride to my house. I sent Devin home after he dropped me off at Turner, knowing Oliver would drive me back. Any excuse to get my boyfriend alone works for me. He’s lost in thought at the moment, probably reviewing the same surprising meeting I am. There’s so much I want to tell him, so much I want to share, but every time I open my mouth to start a conversation, nothing comes out.
Still, I can’t stop the small squeal when a message pops up on my phone. Oliver glances over from the wheel with a smirk. “What?” he asks, his gaze dropping to my bouncing knee before he turns back to the road.
“Nothing,” I say, biting back a grin.
He rolls his eyes and shoots another quick glance at me. “Really? So why’s your leg about to force us off the road.”
I laugh and cross my arms. “It’s a surprise.”
“A surprise?”
“Yep. I’ll tell you when we get home.”
“That’s another twenty minutes. I don’t know if I can wait that long.”
“Says the guy who will spend a year in rehab…”
“Hey now,” he says with mock warning.
I grin and squeeze his arm. “Oliver, can we talk about something?”
“I hope we’re past asking each other’s permission to have a conversation.”
I sigh. “I know. But this one is… it’s been weighing on me for a while.”
“Uh-oh.”
I rest my hand on his thigh to reassure him. “Not an uh-oh. Unless it scares you how much I feel for you. In some ways you kind of saved my life. Definitely changed it. I can’t imagine losing you.”
He looks over again, his eyes softening. “The girl in the mirror was always there, Gen. All I did was help you find her.”
“I know. That’s why…” I pull in a deep breath. “Actually, can you pull over. Right there at that gas station.”
Now he looks very concerned, but I need him focused for this, and I don’t want to wait another second. Once we’re parked, he turns toward me, his face about what you’d expect when your girlfriend blows up your life and then makes you pull over to deliver another hit. I study him for a moment, still unable to believe he’s mine. Reaching over, I take his hand and anchor it in both of mine.
“You’ve never asked me about Darryn,” I begin quietly. “But I know you know about him. It’s been in all the articles. Everyone’s comparing the two of you, which is crazy because you couldn’t be more different. Maybe you’ve done research on your own but—”
“I haven’t.”
That doesn’t surprise me, though I’m not sure if that makes this conversation easier or harder. “Okay, well, I want to explain.”
His jaw tightens. “You don’t have to. If he’s in your past, it’s none of my business.”
“Yes, but, as you’ve seen my past never stays my past, and if you’re going to be my future, it will be part of yours too. Sam brought up a good point today. Our skeletons will be even more on display now. We can do our best to manage the narrative, but it’s still going to explode the industry, and our lives for a while. The media has warped enough of our story. I want you to hear the truth before you’re exposed to the lies this time.”
My fingers squeeze his as if pleading with him to listen. Gorgeous brown eyes rest on me, patient and waiting for whatever bomb I’m about to drop. Gosh, I wish I could be the one protecting him for once. I want to be a painkiller, not a pain-causer. Maybe my new future isn’t just about me. Maybe having confidence in myself will bring with it the strength to support those I love.
“I’ll keep this short, because it really is a simple story that got ugly. Darryn and I made sense. My mom approved of him because he was good for my career. He proposed when it was good for his. He had a new movie coming out that was getting panned by the critics, so he proposed on the red carpet to distract everyone. What was I supposed to do? Say no in front of the entire world? Secretly, I was devastated. He knew how much I valued privacy, that the last thing I’d want was a proposal like that, but it was good for him, and that’s when I realized I was just Genevieve Fox to him as well. I was a prize and a prop to the one person who was supposed to love me for me.”
His grip tightens on my hand, and I see the muscles in his arm constrict. I love how protective he is, even when I’m talking about another guy. I push my hand up and under his sleeve to soothe him. “Anyway, at least I was strong enough to fight the popular opinion and come to my senses. When I broke off the engagement, though, the media came down hard on me. It was my first major taste of a media shitstorm. I’d mostly been the darling of the industry my
