“My mystery guy,” I say softly. “Yes, Jude is definitely bigger than him.”
“Good. That asshole broke your heart. I remember you crying for weeks over him.”
“More like days.”
“Seemed like weeks to me. Whoever he is, I hate him.”
I smile. “Yes, you do.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Why are you smiling like that?”
“Because the mystery guy who was my first…was Tom.”
Lexi sits back against her side of the booth. “What the fuck? What the actual, ever-loving fuck do you mean it was Tom? As in,TomTom?”
“Yeah.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I couldn’t back then. He told me he’d lose his job if I told anyone.”
“He’s gonna lose his nut sac. I will enjoy sawing it off slowly now that I know he was the asshole who broke your heart.”
I laugh at the visual. “Lex, I love you. But the Tom thing…I’m over it. Completely over it. Now that I have Jude, none of that stupid shit from the past matters anymore.”
“So it’s serious with you guys?”
I can’t help the huge grin that spreads across my face. “I think so. I hope so.”
“I’m happy for you. You deserve a patch of sunshine in the middle of this shitstorm.”
“Thanks.”
My phone buzzes with a text. A couple seconds later, Lexi’s does, too. I look down at my screen.
Tom Harbor:Get to the bus now. Don’t answer your phone unless you know the caller.
“Tom says we need to get to the bus,” Lexi says, looking up from her phone.
“Yeah, I got the same message.”
I pay our check quickly, and we walk back to the bus. As soon as I step on and look around at the faces of the staff, I know something isverywrong.
“What’s going on?” I ask Tom.
Even Tom, who’s usually cool under pressure, looks rattled. He passes me his phone, and I look down at the news story on the screen. My eyes scan over the headline and go straight to the photos.
The photos of my dad and his secret daughter are staring me in the face. He’s kissing her forehead in one, wrapping his arm around her in another, and beaming happily at her in a third.
I feel sick. I reach for the wall to keep my balance.
“I’m so sorry, Reagan,” Tom says, sounding sincere. “This is a shitty way to find this out.”
The bus is silent. Should I tell them I already knew? No, because then I’d have to tell them about Jude and me.
“Guys, Reagan needs some time,” Lexi says. “This is a shock to all of us. We’ll put out a press release that she’s taking a week away from the campaign. Everyone lay low, don’t speak one word to the media and wait to hear from me or Tom.”
The staffers all head for the door of the bus, most of them looking as numb as I feel.
