"Kade." Gavin appeared beside me with a cupcake in his hand. "These are actually incredible, man."
"I know." I grabbed one from a passing tray and took a bite. Chocolate with some kind of raspberry filling. It was perfect.
"So what's the plan?" Gavin asked.
I grinned at him like the madman I was slowly becoming. My feelings for her had me doing very irrational things. "Well I bought every cupcake here at twice the asking price, and I'm gonna make sure everyone pledges to the research center in her bakery's name."
He raised his eyebrows. "That's a lot of money." It wasn’t often I caught Gavin by surprise, but I didn't mind the look of shock on his face. This was just the beginning of how shocking I could be. I was a changed man.
"I don't care." I finished the cupcake and grabbed another. "She deserves this. She deserves all of it."
Gavin stood there gawking as I walked away and weaved through the crowd to start making rounds. I talked to everyoneI'd invited and made sure they understood what I expected. By the time I'd finished, my friends had pledged over two hundred thousand dollars to the research center, and my bill for one thousand cupcakes at twice the price was more than ten thousand dollars—plus my fifty-thousand dollar pledge to the research center.
All in Lainey's name.
I knew none of that would make up for how rude I'd been, both with how I spoke about her to the press and how I'd managed to make her believe I didn't care about her feelings. Nothing I was doing tonight was meant to make her change her mind about me. All of this was just for her. I wanted the world to support her, and if all I could do was use the curse of my fame and lack of privacy to point the cameras at her business venture, I would.
Near the middle of the night, a news crew showed up. I had told a few of the normal paparazzi who liked to hound me where I'd be, and that for the amount of trouble they put me through they owed me. One particular super nosy reporter was thirsty for more juicy gossip about the "mystery woman,” so I told her to be here. The minute she walked in she spotted me immediately and made a beeline across the floor with her cameraman in tow.
"Mr. Kingston." She smiled with too much teeth, and I cringed. "Can we ask you a few questions?"
I glanced at Lainey. She was busy with customers and hadn't noticed the cameras yet.
"Sure," I said.
The cameraman raised his equipment and the red light blinked on. The reporter positioned herself beside me and launched into her questions.
"You're here tonight supporting a cancer research fundraiser. Can you tell us why this cause is important to you?"
I looked directly at the camera this time, with my prepared speech ready to burst out of me. "Honestly, cancer research is super important, but the reason I'm here is to support Lainey Rowan and her business, Bake Me Happy. She's an incredible baker and she's done a fantastic job on tonight's event desserts." I watched a waiter walk past toting trays full of cupcakes—now free to anyone who wanted to try, thanks to that hefty check I owed them.
Dad would hate me, but if he wanted to keep his name intact, he'd have to help out. It almost made me chuckle.
"There's been a lot of speculation about your relationship with Miss Rowan. Can you comment on that?"
I'd prepared for this question and rehearsed what I'd say a hundred times. But standing here with the camera on me and Lainey somewhere in this room, all my careful words disappeared. The only thing that came out was gut-wrenching honesty.
"I screwed up," I said. "I said things I shouldn't have said. I let people believe things that weren't true. And I hurt someone who didn't deserve to be hurt."
The reporter leaned in. "Are you saying the rumors about a marriage are true?"
"I'm saying I love Lainey Rowan," I said plainly, and for the pressure I was under, it came out much more smoothly than I thought. "And I want her. And I'm here tonight because she matters more to me than my reputation or my parents' approval or anything else."
The reporter's eyes went wide. The cameraman adjusted his angle. And I kept talking.
"She's talented and kind and she's done something incredible here tonight. All of this?" I gestured around the room. "This is her. This is what she's capable of when someone believes in her. And I believe in her."
"So you are in a relationship with her?" she asked again, leaning in with her mic and I pressed it away.
"Interview over," I told her curtly. "Now if you want the real story, show up at the bakery on Monday morning. Lainey's bakery is the real story, not my love life." It was easy as can be to walk away confidently and know I'd done the right thing. But my chest still felt hollow.
Finally, after so long of wrestling with what I truly felt, I had gotten honest with myself and with the cameras. Lainey meant more to me than just a good PR move. My reputation meant nothing. Besides, the press would always skew things and make me look bad in one way or another. It was my choice to ignore that and choose the right thing, even if it made me look foolish.
The evening started to wind down around eleven, when the crowds thinned and the music faded. Lainey's cupcakes had been gone for an hour, and I had watched her and Wren doing cleanup while I sipped a glass of bourbon across the room. When Gavin begged me to go to an afterparty, I reminded him how very uninterested I was in other women. Only when I felt like if I didn't move I'd lose my chance to speak with Lainey before she left, did I get up and walk across the room.
She saw me coming and straightened, squaring her shoulders and pretending to focus on collecting empty trays. "If you're herefor your card, I have it in my purse," she said softly and she avoided eye contact. Clearly she hadn’t seen the footage of my interview yet, but that didn't stop me from hovering.
"I don't want the card." I stopped a few feet away. "I want to talk."
