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“That’s a load and you know it,” Digger answers with a leveled rage.
“What I know doesn’t matter,” Prisha tells him. “The tabloids aren’t exactly known for searching out the truth. The more salacious the story, the more often it’s repeated. The thought of America's sweetheart here, getting it on with you”—she points at Digger again—“is like Fourth of July fireworks at the Capitol. Everyone wants to watch that explosion.”
Ethan doesn’t say anything. Instead, he stands menacingly at the front door, acting as sentry. No one comes or goes without his say so.
“Look,” Digger says. “I’m not going to say anything. I’m not going to do anything. Just let me go back to the lodge.”
“You’ve got to stay away from her,” Prisha tells him. “I’m sorry about what happened last night, but it escalated the ugly and that means Harper has to forget that you exist.”
He looks at me with hurt in his eyes. “Harper?”
Shrugging my shoulders, I tell him, “It’s not what I wanted to have happen, Digger, but I have no control over the press.”
“So, what are you going to do now?” he demands heatedly. “Just walk away with your tail between your legs and let Brett win?”
“We’re going to do our best to clean up this mess,” Prisha says. “And you can believe me when I say that I will bend over backwards and do the splits naked in the middle of the I-5 if it means that Brett won’t come out on top.”
Ethan calls out, “Dear God, Prish, keep it PG, will ya?”
Digger looks at me. “What about you?”
Before I can answer, Prisha says, “She and the kids are leaving here today.”
Digger jams his hands in his pockets while shaking his head. “You’re going to leave? Just like that?”
“Just like nothing.” Once again Prisha answers for me. “She wouldn’t have had to go if you two hadn’t made such a public display.”
“That was my fault,” I tell her. “I shouldn’t have gone into that bar, and I shouldn’t have danced with Digger. I sure as hell shouldn’t have kissed him.”
“Nice to know how you really feel about things,” Digger scoffs. “But while you’re regretting knowing me, you might want to remember that the only reason you knew that Brett left the kids alone last night was because you were with me.”
I reach out and touch his arm. “I don’t regret that it happened. Just…whereit happened. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you …”
He shifts away from me to get my hand off him. “Getting to know me? Oh, is that where we’re at now? I promise you I’ll take care of you and the kids, and the next morning you’re telling me it was nice getting to know me?”
My head is pounding with the stress of it all. I want to cry and scream and curl up in a ball until it’s all over, but I can’t do that. I have to stay calm and level-headed. My reputation and my children are depending on it. Sighing, I say, “Look … this whole situation is already out of control. And being with you is just not possible. Not right now. You must be able to see that.”
“What I see is a woman who’s spent years playing the victim and letting everybody else make her decisions for her. And now when you have a chance at real happiness, you’re going to let it slip through your fingers, so you don’t wind up looking bad. Who cares what a bunch of strangers thinks about you?”
“You don’t understand what my life is like, Digger,” I say. “As a mother, I don’t have a choice.”
“Yeah, like how you had no choice but to put up with Brett’s shit for all these years.”
“I was trying to protect my children!” I yell.
“You know what? I don’t know if that’s even true. I think deep down you’re terrified of not being America’s sweetheart anymore. There’s a part of you—the part that took you to Hollywood in the first place—that still needs to have an adoring public. And you can’t stand the thought of giving that up for anyone. Certainly not for me.”
“All right, Digger, that’s enough,” Ethan says.
Ignoring Ethan completely, Digger says, “You’re going to cut and run to save your own hide. Forget what happens to anyone else. So long as you don’t look bad. You’re exactly who I thought you were the day I met you—a Hollywood princess who only cares about herself.”
He’s lumping me in with his mom and it feels like a knife to my heart. “Digger …”
Spinning on his heel, he stalks to the door. Ethan steps aside to let him go, and over his shoulder, Digger says, “Goodbye, Harper. Have a nice life.”
He’s gone before I can say anything else.
Chapter34
