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“And you aren’t? We both just bragged about our skills. But”—I lowered my voice seriously—“there can only beonewinner.”
Rhett shuffled and dealt the cards. I moved to lay down my first card when we were interrupted by a loud knock at the door. He only hesitated briefly, but it was there. I’d seen it. I might besearchingfor signs because I wanted so badly for him to love me as I loved him, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. On some level, Rhett did not want to answer the door—which meant on some level, he hadn’t wanted us to be interrupted.
He put his hand of cards face down on the coffee table and pointed at me while he went to answer the door. “No peeking.”
I threw up my arms in innocence. “I’m not a cheater.” I was totally a cheater. At harmless things like card games, not at things that mattered. But now that I’d been warned, it was going to be much harder to get away with it.
Adalyn came into the room, bearing bags full of lunch and followed shortly by Chad with an armful of water bottles.
Rhett’s apologetic look told me enough. Our game was over. It didn’thaveto be. Uno could easily be played by a group of four. But his word was law in this suite, and I had no choice but to accept his dismissal. I gathered all the cards together and stacked them, setting the deck on the edge of the coffee table.
Adalyn plopped the bags on the round dining table and started calling out and distributing orders. Bridget and Jax joined us, and the blessed privacy Rhett and I had shared was fully a thing of the past. Something to be mourned. RIP to the lovely moment where Rhett Myers almost felt like a normal person hanging out on a lazy weekend morning.
Oh, the stuff of my dreams. So fleeting.
Bridget sat at the glass table, her legs crossed, her fork stabbing at her lettuce with the same zeal with which she attacked everything, and Rhett was to her left. “Tomorrow morning, we’ve got you on with that morning show downtown, andBreakfast with Julianacaught word. You know they wanted exclusivity? I turned that down flat.”
Rhett nodded, digging into what looked like plain lettuce and chicken breast. Poor guy. It seemed my earlier assumption about his diet wasn’t that far off. I was a fan of salads when they had flavor, but his lunch was about as dry as overbleached hair.
“But we do need to get ahead of the press, and Juliana’s reach is considerable on the West Coast,” she continued.
I took a bite of my glorious club—all the turkey, bacon, and avocado exploding with flavor. It was just a sandwich, but after witnessing Rhett’s dismal lunch, I was even more grateful for the added garlic aioli slathered on my bread.
“We set up a series of check-ins remotely with Juliana. She had the exclusive break on the story, so it gives us a sense of continuity with the press.”
Rhett didn’t look up from his barren salad. “And continuity is important?”
“Consistency will be important. Goodwill. Anything that can paint you in a favorable light once the news is out.”
Rhett lifted his gaze to find me across the table. What news was she talking about? And why did he seek me out when it was mentioned? There were so many secrets flying around this room, it was making my head spin. Who knew there was so much thought behind the minor details, like which network Rhett graced with his handsome face? I didn’t. Call me naive, maybe, but I thought the man hadsomecontrol over his own life.
“How long do we have until it’s out?” he asked quietly.
Bridget pressed her lips together, resembling an unsatisfied schoolmarm. “It’s hard to know. Once it leaks, it’s over. It’ll spread like wildfire. We don’t want anyone to connect you to it, Rhett. You need to have the public’s pity, not their suspicion. That’s what we’re going for here. Steady. Reliable. Consistent. That’s our mantra.”
“Reliable. Consistent,” he repeated.
Bridget pointed her fork at him. “If you could kiss a few babies or help any old women cross the street, that would help too. We’re going for as much good press as we can get. Think of it like filling a savings bank with all the good press you can manage, because a recession is coming, and we’re going to be leaning on that savings account.”
Which certainly explained the charity tour. But good grief, what awful thing had Rhett done that needed this magnitude of attention?
Rhett forked another bite of plain chicken. “I’ll keep my eye out for babies and old ladies.”
He was so amiable, so ready to do whatever Bridget requested, I wondered where his limits were. What boundaries would he be unwilling to cross? Or maybe he didn’t have any. Of all the people who tried to become movie stars, few made it onto the big screen, and of those, even fewer achieved the level of fame Rhett Myers could claim. I’d adored him for so long, but now, looking at him across the room eating dry chicken with leaves and submitting his will to his publicist, I realized for the first time that despite having every Google-able fact about this man memorized, I knew almost nothing about him as a human.
Which only made me want to know him more.
Chapter Eight
I’d done a fantastic jobof making Rhett’s face and hair look date-ready without making him look like a hair-and-makeup artist had done any work on him at all. Since it was one of the skills I was confident in and very proud of, I also happened to believe it gave me a bit of job security. Surely a man like Rhett would keep me around solely so his makeup wouldn’t be obvious in photos and television.
One could only hope. I put my makeup away and selected a few things for my belt to have on hand during the date. Adalyn had made it sound like I’d have all this free time, but I couldn’t be too mad that she’d predicted incorrectly. Besides, with Karina Bier involved, I wanted to be there for this date. I had a feeling it was going to be a strained evening for all involved. People didn’t usually enjoy spending time with an ex. I should know; I had loads of them. Charlie liked to call me a serial dater, but could you blame me? Why would I seriously, legitimately fall for any man who wasn’t Rhett Myers?
History had proven, anyway, that the only truly reliable men were the ones on the big screen. They were the epitome of steady, trustworthy, and consistent. They didn’t get bored and leave or ghost you or decide that they wanted other things and dump you without reason or notice. They were the same in every show, with witty retorts and kind admonishments, carrying a perfect balance of available and loving fathers. My experience proved most men weren’t like that in real life, but a girl could have her fantasies.
We loaded into the black-tinted SUVs and drove to the park where we were meeting Karina Bier for the swan-boat ride, followed by Italian food in the North End. Rhett was in the SUV behind us, and Jax escorted him across the road, keeping back the crowd of screaming fans holding up posters and shouting their love and offers of marriage. Rhett smiled, waving politely to the crowd, then he stopped abruptly.
A woman stood at the front of the line waving a picture in one hand and a Sharpie in the other. Her white hair was tinted blue—someone’s stylist overdid it with the toner, apparently—and her bright-red lipstick matched her coat.
