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Megan leaned into him. “So I can have some time with you and scrutiny. Or you and I forget about this, and I go back to what I do.”
He waited, rubbing one hand up and down her arm. This was probably going to go horribly wrong. But what she lacked in knowledge, he could make up. He and Yasmin would make it work, and he could be with Megan as long as she allowed him.
“I keep going back to what you asked me,” she said. “I haven’t wanted to answer that. But now I do.” She lifted her head and touched his beard with her fingertips, drawing him in for another kiss.
“What the hell,” she said. “Let’s give it a try.”
♦
Chapter 10
Schedule for Megan and Alessandro
Sunday:no contact. Megan to sister’s. Alessandro in hotel.
Monday:Studio and dinner. “Sources” release acknowledgment Nikki relationship is over. Megan walks to work: “Candid” photos.
Tuesday:Walk in Beacon Hill (weather permitting).
Wednesday:A. onThis Morning(questions attached); dinner at The Rosette.
Thursday:A. and Etta on WGBH; M. at Studio to dress students; Phoenix concert (aftershow photos booked).
Friday:Fundraiser (red carpet-style entry; A. leads interview with M. present—questions attached).
“Look what she’s already got planned,” Megan said to Cat, who was staring at the email in disbelief. “She did this in less than twenty-four hours. On a weekend.”
Cat looked at her as though she didn’t recognize her. That look, by the stove where Cat was cooking up a batch of chili large enough to feed the entire basketball team, where her own birthday cake sat in the refrigerator awaiting last-minute sprinkles, in the middle of all the familiarity that was the home Megan had grown up in, made Megan reach for the tips of her hair.
“You’re out of your mind,” Cat said. “This isn’t going to work. Like, at all.”
“Look,” Megan said desperately, pointing to the interviews. “The questions are preapproved. And they’re just puff pieces. It’s not Sunday morning on CNN or something. And this is exactly what we do for Kane’s interviews. It’s worked for him. Why not for us?”
“Because!” Cat spluttered. “Because Kane isn’t as famous as Alessandro freaking Rosselli!”
“He was pretty famous back in the day, right?”
“Right, and look what happened there!”
“Yasmin said that’s because he didn’t have a manager to control his—”
“A manager?! Who—why the hell did he need a manager? And who’s Yasmin?”
This was not going well. Thankfully, the kids and Cat’s husband were all outside having a snowball fight, and no one else had arrived yet. Megan had gotten up early to make her brownies and get to Cat first. The kitchen island was covered in bowls and platters of snack food in various stages of disarray, thanks to the twenty teenage boys’ first five minutes in the house.
A timer dinged, and Cat shoved an oven glove on her hand as though she were about to reach into a beehive. “Yasmin’s Alessandro’s manager,” Megan said to her back as Cat pulled another tray of pigs in blankets out of the oven. “And mine now.”
Cat spun around so fast, some of the pigs slid off the tray and onto the floor. The family dog, a young golden retriever called Bofur, happily skidded into the room and snapped them up. Megan bent to pet him while Cat said, “Bofur, no!”
Now Megan had annoyed Cat on two fronts.
“You have a damn manager?” Cat said, all but throwing the rest of the pigs into their bowl. “What’s next? You got a perfume line yet?”
Megan knew that Cat’s reaction to unwelcome news was always to get grumpy and judgmental. She knew that Cat loved her and worried about her. She’d seen Cat’s stink eye hit Ellen as well as Thea and Sam’s husbands in their time. Everyone always allowed it and waited for her to calm down.
“Yasmin knows the business that Alessandro’s in. She’s controlled his image for a long time—she and her publicist—”
“Oh, now you’re going to have a publicist.” Cat threw up her hands. “Am I going to have to make an appointment to see you on Sundays, too?” She nodded to Megan’s phone.
