“I can’t get that night out of my head—what we did, the things he said, how he’d acted. I should have known something was off with him. Ididknow something was off. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.”
Andrew brushed his lips over hers. “The thing to focus on is that you did leave. You divorced him.”
“I should’ve never married him.”
“You can’t change that now. You just have to move forward.”
Nodding, she sighed. “I hope the paps didn’t see us.” The last thing she wanted to add to this day was another headline.
“Hopefully, they didn’t.”
“I hate sneaking around. It kind of makes this feel illicit.”
He eyed her, a frown on his forehead. “But we’re not.”
“I know we’re not. Nothing about us is forbidden. Which is what makes this harder. Hiding how I feel about you from the world sucks. Because we’re not doing anything wrong here.”
“No, but we have a plan. You’ve worked too hard for your career, your image, to let him continue to paint you with his brush. The Opal interview is coming up. And Skye has done a phenomenal job of infusing positive press in the midst of this shitshow Julius has started.”
Julius’s “heartbreak” article had been released days ago and, of course, he’d done everything in his power to make her the baddie in their relationship. But Skye had already set things in motion to mitigate any brewing scandals. Paige had been everywhere, on television, on podcasts. She’d even appeared on a cooking show.
“Did I tell you Skye booked me on Wendell Wilson?”
The Wendell Wilson Showhad been calling for months to get her on, but Paige had resisted. Paige didn’t care for Wendell. The “hot topics” television show host had constantly bad-mouthed her on his daytime show, even before she’d married Julius. The loud host had a penchant for railroading his guests with inappropriate questions and stirring the pot to create the illusion of brewing drama.
“Yeah, you did.”
“Admittedly, I’m nervous. Not looking forward to it at all.”
“You’ll be fine.”
She laced her fingers in his. “Wish you could be there.”
“Who says I can’t?”
Chuckling, Paige said, “That would give the gossips something to talk about.”
“I’m still your agent.”
She met his gaze, searched his eyes. Having Andrew there would certainly help. He had a way of centering her. He didn’t even have to say anything, just his presence alone calmed her nerves. Today, she’d been on the verge of a breakdown as she left the courthouse. Then he was there, and she’d immediately felt at ease.
“You’d do that for me?” she asked.
He kissed her. “I’d do anything for you, Paige.”
Paige’s heart cracked open a little more with his whispered confession. God, she loved this man, with everything in her. And she looked forward to the day she could stop pretending he wasjusther agent.
* * *
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Andrew said, scrubbing his face with his hands.
“Why?” Paige asked.
“The deal is trash,” he told her.
It was one o’clock in the morning in Detroit and he’d been on a video conference with Paige and her manager for hours, discussing a passion project that she’d seemingly pulled out of the air.
Maybe it was the fact that his mother had to have another surgery? Or maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t slept in twenty-four hours? But Andrew was irritated. Although he had a good working relationship with Paige’s manager, Tanya, he didn’t like that the woman always seemed to champion the opposite of what he thought was best for her.
