“Plus, now we can have a double wedding,” Mia teased.
“Fine by me!” Abby beamed.
CeCe laughed, appreciating their enthusiasm. “I don’t think we’re quite ready for that. We still have a lot to figure out. Like, where we’re going to live.”
“Can’t you live in Blessings Bay?” Sage asked hopefully, as if the thought of her friend moving hadn’t occurred to her until now. “Jayce could take his private jet back and forth from LA.”
“He prefers to use the jet sparingly, since it uses so much fuel.” When she thought of his recent trip to South America, she still couldn’t believe the lengths he’d gone to on her behalf.
“He could just buy a smaller plane,” Mia pointed out. “Maybe he could even get a pilot’s license and fly himself.”
“We’ve only been engaged for a few days,” CeCe reminded her with another laugh. “We have time to figure it out.”
While her friends continued to plan their future, her phone pinged.
CeCe retrieved it from the side pocket of her shorts.
A Google alert she’d set for Jayce’s name popped on the screen.
At the ominous headline, her heart sank.
“Hollywood Heartthrob in Hot Water.”
“What’s wrong?” Abby asked in response to her stricken expression.
“I—I don’t know.” She clicked on the headline and a video filled the small screen. Her blood instantly chilled. “It’s an interview with Jayce’s agent, Gretchen.”Formeragent, she mentally corrected.
“What’s she saying?” Sage asked, straining to hear.
“Hang on.” Mia grabbed CeCe’s phone and plugged it into the projector.
Gretchen loomed above them, large and formidable.
CeCe shuddered.
“I knew something was off the second Jayce mentioned his engagement,” Gretchen told the excessively preened male interviewer who wore way too much hair gel. “But I never thought he’d lie to me. Or to his fans.”
CeCe gaped in horror.What did she say?
“That’s why I had to let him go as a client,” Gretchen continued as if she’d been forced to bear a heavy burden. “Difficult as it was, I can’t work for someone who would maliciously mislead his fans for some tasteless publicity stunt.”
“That’s a lie!” CeCe blurted, indignation rising in her chest like molten lava. “Jayce firedher.”
“It’s sad, really,” Gretchen waxed on with a simpering expression. “I know his last film didn’t perform as well at the box office, but to stoop so low.” She shook her head in feigned disbelief. “I’ve already heard from several directors who refuse to work with him again. Frankly, after pulling this fake engagement scam, I doubt he’ll be cast in any films at all, let alone in a starring role.”
“That witch,” Mia hissed, glaring daggers at the screen.
CeCe forced herself to inhale, too outraged to breathe without concerted effort. The nerve of that woman to blame the whole debacle on Jayce when the sham relationship was originally her idea!
“How did you uncover the truth?” Hair Gel asked.
“Quite easily,” Gretchen claimed. “To be honest, I don’t know how Jayce expected to get away with such an egregious lie. In a small town like Blessings Bay, secrets don’t stay hidden for long.”
“Who do you think told her?” Abby asked.
“I have no idea,” Mia growled, gritting her teeth in her fury. “But if Jayce fired her, she wouldn’t go down without a fight. I bet she used plenty of underhanded, dishonest tactics to dig up whatever dirt she could find.”
“And hit pay dirt,” Nadia muttered, her expression pained. “Poor Jayce.”
