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DREW
Alexis:You made the front page of Celebrity this morning. And it's not good.
I pulled the browser up on my phone and typed in my name to see what Alexis was talking about. It only took a second for images and dozens of new stories from that morning to pop up.
SAINT DREW: COMFORTING OR CANOODLING, the headline read. Below it was an image of Kate and me embracing.
What?My eyebrows stitched together as I pressed on the link to see what the article was about. Where had they gotten a photo of Kate and me hugging?
My question was answered as soon as the photo was enlarged. Trees and headstones were in the background. It was from Aiden's birthday memorial, when she'd told me about her divorce.
But I didn't do anything wrong then. It was an innocent hug.
I had still been committed to my relationship with Gwen at the time…as crazy as that sounded now after everything that had transpired.
I scrolled down to see if there were any other photos. I was greeted with an image of Kate and me driving somewhere in the company car. Kate was visible in the driver seat. There was another photo of us at the grocery store, me in my holy-man costume, her in her sweats. The caption to that one read, MIDNIGHT RENDEZVOUS?
How had they gotten these photos?
Oh, that's right. People posted everything online these days. Those sorority girls had probably posted that pic to social media, and then the paparazzi had most likely supplied the rest.
My neck grew hot as I read the article from the beginning.
Finding Your Soulmate's bachelor,Drew Burrows, has been spotted several times over the last few weeks with a beautiful blonde woman—one he did not meet on the reality dating show this past fall. Who is this girl, many ask? None other than a childhood friend, Kate Dawson. The two have been seen together numerous times, seeming not to care who catches them together. An insider spoke to us and assured our sources that Drew and Kate seem to have a relationship much different from what you'd expect a celebrity and his childhood friend to have. There have been late nights away from the show, trips to the cemetery, and secret meetings at his house.
Didn'tthey know that she worked for the show?
I read on, not believing what I was reading.
A close friendtold our source that Kate has been after fame and fortune for years. This recent attempt at Drew is only the last in a string of other attempts. Last summer she was married to socialite, Nolan Prosser, son of Armand Prosser, the founder of the outdoor sports empire, O.R.A. The insider toldCelebrityit was a quick marriage and that once Kate discovered she was not named in Armand's will after his death, she had the marriage dissolved.
Could good guy Drew Burrows have fallen into her next trap?
My stomach twisted and curdled.This couldn't be true, could it? There was no way she was after me for my money.
But the tiny insecure voice in the back of my mind whispered that it might be true.
Shehadmarried a rich man before.
Maybe she had changed more in the past seven years than I thought and was just using her film experience to put on the show of a lifetime.
My heart told me she hadn't, but I'd been tricked before. I needed to talk to her. I needed to make sure she hadn't been pretending the whole time.
I textedmy personal assistant and told him to cancel my flight and send the pilot home. I had been so excited to escape from the drama of real life, to fly away to a part of the world where I wouldn't be recognized.
But instead, here I was, in the biggest mess I'd ever been in.
I drove straight to the studio after throwing on jeans and a T-shirt. Alexis wanted to see me in her office, but I knew Kate had planned to take Alexis her computer before we jetted off. I needed to talk to her and make sure the gossip magazine was just doing its job: spreading rumors without an ounce of truth.
Kate wasn't at her desk when I arrived, so I went to Alexis's office. I knocked on the closed door and waited. A moment later, Alexis came out to see who it was before inviting me in.
Once inside, I was greeted with an image that broke my heart. Kate was sitting in one of the chairs, her eyes red with tears. She sniffed when I took the seat next to her but didn't look at me. Instead, she stared straight ahead of her, her expression stoic.
My mind whirled a hundred miles an hour as I tried to figure out all the reasons for Kate's tears. Had Alexis made good on her threat and fired Kate for secretly dating me? Or was she crying because her and Nolan's very private divorce had been splattered all over the Internet? Or was it because she’d been caught in her scheme to get my money?
"Thanks for coming so quickly,” Alexis said to me as she resumed her seat, her face all business. "I've been going over everything with Kate, and we've decided on a plan of action from here on out."
"What do you mean?" I frowned.
