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Ainsley’s eyes narrow on Pria. “This is different.”
“Yes, it is, Ainsley. This is a thousand times worse.” Pria stands up and gets closer to her. “Did you read all the crap she was involved in? That in itself makes you want to hide your past. Add that this family has a grudge against her father and there’s no way she can win. Still, she was going to do it soon.” Pria turns her gaze to me, and I nod.
“You knew?” Ainsley asks. Jacob and I stare at Pria.
“Yeah, and I made the mistake of telling her that you’d be pretty understanding.” Pria goes back to the table, takes a seat, and starts typing. “‘Take your time,’ I said. ‘The Decker family is pretty supportive. They’d never judge you for your past, Thea.’ Yep, that’s what I said. And I was wrong.”
I gaze at my brother who lifts his hands, shrugging his shoulders, confirming that he had no idea about Thea, or that his wife knew. Also, a sterndon’t fuck it upwarning.
Don’t fuck it up?
“There’re secrets that we just can’t share because they aren’t ours to share.” Papa walks to the middle of the room. “It doesn’t matter what each one of us knew. Best friend, son, we are all loyal and have to keep quiet. What matters right now is that we stay together as a family.”
He directs his gaze at Pria. “We’re supportive, and we don’t care who her father is. Now, everyone back to work before my past comes back to bite me.”
Mason and I look at each other and stay quiet. The old articles are already out. Martin hasn’t missed the opportunity to highlight that I’m just a party animal like my father. Not only that, he mentioned that my fathers used to have threesomes in the tour bus every night.
“Hey, Matthew, I received an email asking for the name of your male companion. Any comment?”
I bang my head against my keyboard. “No, Pria. I think a sex tape of us is enough to send mymale companionover the edge. Releasing his name might give him a heart attack.”
Pria flinches. Ainsley and Jacob gag. A part of me wants to die.
My entire family watched me fuck my boyfriend. I have no idea how or who filmed Coop and I having sex. It’s only a three-minute tape, but that’s enough to send a closeted guy to a bunker for the rest of his life.
“What if Thea did this?” Ainsley springs into Sherlock Holmes mode. “To…”
“Really? She was the one filming herself in the pool with… motherfucker.” Lightning strikes me. Coop’s sister breaking into his house and catching them while fooling around in the pool.
Coop said it a couple of times, his sister is vicious, and she was already planning his funeral. What if she decided to bury us all?
“Mason, Tristan’s sister. Look into that bitch. I bet she’s the snitch who trespassed into her brother’s home and took pictures and video of us.”
He nods and continues typing. “If so, you saved me a lot of man-hours. We just have to find Thea and bring her home.”
How about Tristan? I have no fucking idea how his father is. He hasn’t answered any of my calls or texts.
ChapterThirty-Eight
Thea
Something is wrong.I brush my teeth for the sixth time in the past four hours. Maybe I should ask Chris to help me with my next appointments. Should I just take the rest of the day off? That sounds better than asking each patient if they don’t mind if I leave… while I rush out of the office and puke my brains out—unprofessional.
I pull out my phone to call Matt, but I hesitate. He hasn’t contacted me since he boarded his plane in Santa Barbara. Maybe he decided to go directly to Vancouver or the meeting with his dad is taking forever. The sensible thing to do is cancel my appointments and head home.
I only have three patients left for the day. Before stepping out of the bathroom, I run through my calendar. If I have to skip the rest of the week, I have to… I check the month of February and one thing is clear. I’m a week and two days late.
A week.
And two days.
“No, no, no.” The words bounce from wall to wall. “No. I’m not ready.”
This can’t be happening. We’re not ready to take any more steps. Coop isn’t sure about Matt and me…
I leave the office and head to the receptionist. “Hey, Laura, can you cancel the rest of my appointments?”
She places a hand on top of mine. “You look green, go home. And don’t worry. If you need tomorrow off, call me early. Keep those germs away from the office.”
