“Speaking of news, I think I’m about to get the latest deets fromCarter.”
“Say hey forme.”
“Hey, Carter. Jace says hey too.” Figured he’d get a kick out of that and maybe give me a little bit of hell for sleeping with a client, which I was more than fine with, considering he’d already caughtus.
“So you’restillwith him?” I’d expected him to sound playful, cheeky even, but he didn’t sound like his usual self. He sounded…concerned.
“Yeah. Why? Has there been an emergency? I haven’t seen any other calls fromyou.”
“Could you define emergency?” His voice got so high at the end of his sentence, it was like he was singing a Mariah Careysong.
“The fuck is going on, Carter? Spit itout.”
He hesitated amoment.
“Is this about Hacksmore? The shoot yesterday? Is TMZ saying one of my clients is birthing an alien baby? What isit?”
The quieter he became, the more my concernintensified.
“I think you might want to see it. I’m sending alink.”
My phone buzzed nearly immediately, as if he’d already had it ready to go, and I clicked it, my browser popping up. I waited for the website to load. Not TMZ, but just as bad:Glitz & Glam, a major trash site that enjoyed leaking the latest and most notorious gossip about celebrities. I went through my dossier in my head, trying to imagine who this was going to beabout.
“I swear, if Toby Jackson went on another bender again, I’m going to lose my shit,” I muttered, reflecting on one of my less savory baseball-playerclients.
Several imagesloaded.
I couldn’t even read the headline…because all I could see was me and Jace in the pond, lips locked, my back facing the camera, though fortunately not displaying my ass, as it so easily could have. The blood drained from my face. “Holy fuck. Fuck, fuck,fuck.”
“What’s wrong?” Jaceasked.
I couldn’t even get words out. All I could do was spew a series of curse words as I read the headline: Hottie Firefighter Caught with Former ChildStar.
“Dax?” Carter’s voice came from the receiver. “Dax, you stillthere?”
This isn’t happening. It can’t behappening!
I was going to wake up in Jace’s bed and realize it was all some awfulnightmare.
“Dax, please tell me what’s going on,” Jaceinsisted.
“Gimme…one minute,” I said through my teeth as I clicked on thelink.
The original image of Jace with the Shar-Pei was on the screen, the caption talking about his rise to stardom as the video presented a slideshow of photos from his Facebook page and a clip from his video about his endorsementdeal.
“Dax, what are youwatching?”
“New pictures reveal Jace Kruse and former child star Donnie Gibson,”the caption read as the slideshow revealed a pic of us from the daybefore.
“Dammit!” I shouted, gripping my phone. I wanted to thrash about, to launch into a tirade, but as I glanced around the diner, I noticed I’d already attracted too much attention. Putting the phone to my ear, I said, “Carter, I’ll have to call youback.”
“Okay, talk to you soon,” he said, in that way he did when he could tell I didn’t need to be fuckedwith.
Served me right for having a fucking goodtime.
“What is it?” Jace asked, clearlydumbfounded.
He deserved an explanation. He deservedanswers.
