Xander choked on his ice cream, and Freya smothered a laugh. Yup, it was just as she’d suspected. Her nieces had a neighbor Brock’s age, and this sounded like one of their many arguments. But it was still admirable how Xander was 100 percent in this little girl’s corner, even though he couldn’t fight the six-year-old.
“How’s your ice cream?” she asked Daisy, trying to redirect her attention.
“I’m almost done!” With a giant smile, the little girl showed off her nearly empty bowl. “See!”
Freya gave her an equally giant oh-wow smile.Mission accomplished.
Her phone, which sat face down on the table beside the crumbs of her treat, dinged with an incoming text. Then another. And then another.
“Sorry,” she muttered, grabbing her phone to flip the side button to silence it. Peeking at the message previews, she groaned.
Xander set his spoon down. “Everything okay?”
“Family group text.” She shrugged, rolling her eyes. “My brothers...”
“You have a brother?” Daisy asked.
“I havefourbrothers,” she said, wrinkling her nose. Not to be overly dramatic for Daisy’s sake, but because that’s how they often had her feeling.
Daisy met her gaze. “That’s a lot of brothers.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at the little girl’s serious expression. “You’re telling me.Andthey’re all older than me too. And super bossy.”
“Yikes,” Xander said. He nodded at her phone, which was now steadily buzzing. “Do you need to get that?”
Her phone went still and then started buzzing again. Sighing, she turned it over. Her oldest brother, Axel, was calling, and she quickly sent the call to voicemail. Shaking her head, she checked her notifications. He’d already called twice, and her phone showed twenty-four awaiting messages in their family group text. Lovely. Pulling up the group thread, she didn’t bother reading her brothers’ texts and simply typed out a response.
I’m fine. I’ll call in a little bit. Busy right now.
Setting the phone down, she leaned back in her seat and met Xander’s concerned gaze. “The, uh, incident yesterday at theresort made the news. Mr. Ortiz kept a very tight lid on what information was released and kept it very bare bones.”
Xander nodded and his eyes narrowed. “But?”
“Hazel did an interview with one of the Seattle news stations and it aired on their noon broadcast. I assume it just re-aired.” She gestured to her phone and shrugged. “When I texted them last night, I didn’t exactly mention how close I was to what happened.” If she had, she knew they’d want to cover her in bubble wrap and have her move home immediately.
Not. Going. To happen.
Surprise flashed over Xander’s face. “Hazel did an interview with the news about the shoo—” His gaze swung to Daisy and then back to her. “About the incident yesterday?”
She frowned and nodded. “Mr. Ortiz sent out a text to all employees after it happened and another first thing this morning saying to direct all media inquiries to his assistant. Hazel met with the reporter around ten today.” Her stomach churned. Unfortunately, it had nothing to do with the ice cream. To say she’d been upset at Hazel when her friend had called her earlier to gush about the interview was an understatement. “Looks like Hazel either missed the texts or...” Or completely ignored them. Considering the woman’s phone was attached to her at all times, Freya was betting on the ignoring.
Freya wasn’t surprised. Not really. While Hazel could be really sweet, the woman always looked out for herself and did whatever she wanted. Which was usually fine, usually harmless.
But this time was different.
Freya was disappointed with her friend because what happened yesterday had become personal. Not just because they had been in the thick of things with everyone involved, but because Freya had gotten to know Janie a little better today.
After the shooting, when she’d been finishing Janie’s cut and Hazel had been working on Claire’s hair, Janie had shared moreof what she’d been through. What she’d suffered through at the hands of her husband.
That information was private. Personal. But Hazel had been more than happy to share everything and blab about it all to the press. From the man storming in, assaulting people, and shooting up the place, to the personal things Janie and Claire had revealed during what was supposed to have been their private time together.
None of that was information the general public needed to know. At all.
Freya was appalled by Hazel’s actions, dumbfounded as to why she’d even do an interview in the first place.
She frowned as she recalled the giddy excitement in Hazel’s voice as the woman had gone on and on about how she was going to be on television today. How she was so thankful she’d dolled herself up to go to the diner where she’d run into the reporter. How hot she thought she’d looked when the cameraman let her peek at her part of the recording.
Freya was horrified and disgusted to find this out about her friend. That Hazel could disregard other people’s feelings and circumstances so easily. And for what? To be on television for a three-minute segment?
