AllFreeNovel
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“Huh?”
“Don’t look, but there’s a guy down the end of the street, in a white van.”
Leah pulled her sunglasses down and looked. “I see it, but how do you know?”
“The sun flashed off his camera. Fuck.” His voice was tight. “We should go.”
“Where?”
“Home.” He’d slowed to almost a stop, so Leah pulled at him a little to get him moving.
She frowned, thinking it through. “And miss out on having a swim with your family and friends on a boiling hot day? I don’t think you should do that. It’s not fair.”
He pulled away. “You don’t understand. If we do that, there’ll be pictures of you in a bikini all over the internet before you go to bed tonight.”
“Oh. Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” She pulled her phone from her bag and typed out a brief text message.
“What are you doing?”
“Letting Mikayla know to tell everyone to come to my place. We’ll swim there.”
Like a pin in a balloon, Leah felt the tension leave Callum instantly. “Right. Okay. Good idea.”
“She said,Roger that,so let’s go.” She turned around to head back to the car.
“Sorry.”
She glanced at him. He wore a heavy frown that had Leah’s heart aching for him. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. But it’s lucky for you I’ve got a private beach, hey.” She bumped him with her hip. He smiled, but Leah could see his heart wasn’t in it. He dropped his ice cream in a bin and Leah did the same. Suddenly, it didn’t taste so good.
As everyone arrived at Leah’s and laid out food and drinks on the outdoor table, Callum stayed quiet. Not sure what else she could do or say, Leah left him to it.
“He’s never had any media intrusion at home before,” Mikayla said quietly as Callum headed off for a walk up the beach.
“Right. It’s hit him pretty hard, I guess.”
“Looks that way. Are you okay?”
Leah thought about it for a long moment. Was she okay? It felt awful to think a stranger had taken pictures of her without her knowledge and would right now be selling them to the highest bidder. But what could she do about it? Nothing, really, so there was no point in letting it get to her. “I guess so. I can’t change it, so I just have to accept it and hope the asshole took good snaps.”
Mikayla laughed. “That’s the spirit.”
“It’s too hot to keep stressing about it. I’m going for a swim.”
“Good plan.”
They stepped off the back deck together, joining Nora, John, Juniper, William, Billy and Rafe in the sea. Half an hour later, as Leah floated on her back, the sun achingly bright on her face, she felt a shiver of apprehension. She swam to the shore, hurried across the sand and up the steps of her back deck. Grabbing a towel and wrapping it around herself, she went inside to the kitchen, pouring a glass of water with shaking hands. She drank deeply, staring at her phone, plugged into the charger on the kitchen bench. Should she check it? Did she want her worst fears confirmed?
Mikayla opened the sliding door from the back deck and stepped inside. “You might as well check. It’s better to know.”
“Right.” Her heart thudding hard, Leah typed Callum’s name into the search bar. In less than three seconds, she saw a heading, Odyssey Lead Singer and His Lady Love, Home for Christmas. “Headline’s shit.” She scrolled down. “Oh, the pictures are nice.” She turned the phone to show Mikayla.
“Cute.”
They did look cute. Callum kissing her, bopping her nose, her fingers wrapped around his wrist as she tasted his ice cream. Her heart lurched at the way they smiled at each other.
