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“Someone who’s about to graduate with her PhD in English. Someone who’s working on writing a novel that I’m sure is going to be spectacular. Someone who’s smart and beautiful and any man would be lucky to have. Yeah. I have no idea why he would even think about dating you.”
“You have to say all those things, you're my sister.”
“I say them because they’re true. You know I’m right, about you and about Mac.”
“You want to be right because you hate being wrong.”
“I’m rarely wrong. There’s a difference,” Faith said.
“It’s not going to happen. If you don’t think this will go away, then I’ll have to talk to Mac and see what he wants to do. I’m sure he has dealt with this before, either for himself or for one of his brothers.”
“I’m sure he has a standard press release that he puts out in regards to JD.”
“Exactly, the man is busy enough with his life, family, and work to deal with a stupid picture of him and me. One that I’m sure is going to go away in no time. It would be best if I just left it and him alone.”
“No! That isn’t the answer. This isn’t going to go away. You’re trending and it’s still early. It’ll only grow as the day goes on. You need to get in front of this. You need to talk to him now. Call him, talk to him. See what he thinks you two should do. Personally, I’m all for you suggesting you do what the article says and just start dating.”
“Is that your professional or personal advice?”
“Both because it works for both. The best way to get over a scandal is to go through the scandal. Hiding from it, denying it, or anything but tackling it head only, only causes it to linger longer. You say you want this to go away, then the best way to do that is to go on a couple of dates with him. Let it die down and move on, or not.”
“Really?” I couldn’t decide if I was happy or terrified about what Faith was telling me.
“Yes. You got yourself into this, now you need to get yourself out of it, with Mac, by talking to him. You asked for my advice and that’s it. Call him. Now. Like as soon as you get off the phone with me.”
“Yes. All right. I hear you. I’ll do it,” I said with a sigh.
“Good and then tell me how it goes.”
“You’ll be my first call. After I talk to Mac.”
“Good luck. I love you.”
“Love you too,” I said and ended the call.
I leaned back on my couch and closed my eyes as I ran through Faith and my conversation. Faith was right, I needed to just call Mac and see what he wanted to do. Hiding away from it wasn’t going to make it go away, and it needed to go away.
It was one thing to imagine what it would be like to date Mac, but it was quite another to have the world thinking we were. The sooner we moved past this, the sooner I would be able to put Mac and the silly notion he was interested in me out of my mind.
Though I knew it would be a lot harder to do than I wanted to admit.
Chapter 7
Mac
“Hope Sinclair? Hope Sinclair!” Walker asked as he walked into my office.
It was still early in the morning, and I had already been at work for a few hours. I had always liked being at work before anyone else. It gave me a chance to get a jump start on the day, to plan, and get some work done before it all went sideways when everyone else showed up. Walker and I tried to keep the open-door policy that our great grandfather started in the company. If anyone needed to talk to me, all they needed to do was walk into my office, which was what Walker did before anyone else had come into the office that morning. He looked like he had come directly to my office before going to his as he still had his messenger bag slung over his body.
“What about Hope Sinclair?” I knew exactly what he was talking about, what he was getting at, but I wanted to hear him say it. I wanted to know where his head was before I said anything. Walker was a shrewd businessman and had helped to hold and grow Bennett Liquor’s empire since he had taken over as CEO, but there were still times when he spoke without thinking. He still let his heart rule more than his mind and I could tell that this was one of those situations.
“You’re dating Hope Sinclair? When the hell did that happen?” he asked.
“It didn’t, it hasn’t yet. I’m still working on it,” I said, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms over my chest.
“I have no idea what you just said,” Walker replied and sat down in front of my desk.
“I was having dinner with Dad last night at The East,” I began.
