"I'm completely in love with her, and I may have just destroyed everything by trying to be fucking noble." My voice breaks slightly. "Please give me a chance to fix this."
There’s another pause. "Okay. I'll hold your segment. What do you have in mind to replace it?"
"Are you and your crew available now?"
"Unfortunately, my camera man left for another assignment. But I can get him here first thing tomorrow morning. Will that work?"
"It’ll have to. Let me know when and where and I’ll be there."
I end the call and set the phone down. One interview to try to undo the damage from the first one. If Merri will even hear me out after what I said.
Chapter 14
Merri
I'm sitting in Heather's office at the Pelican Point Library, ugly-crying into a tissue with Cookie snuggled against one leg and Admiral on the other, both offering comfort.
"I'm such an idiot," I say for what must be the tenth time. "A complete and total idiot."
"You're not an idiot," Heather says firmly, pushing a fresh box of tissues across her desk. "Tell me exactly what happened."
I blow my nose, trying to compose myself enough to speak coherently. "The interview. I admitted that I'm in love with Wyatt. Like a complete fool."
Heather's eyes widen. "You told them you're in love with him?"
"Yes! I sat there in front of cameras and lights and confessed that I've had a crush on him since we were kids and that I think I'm in love with him." My voice cracks. "And apparently, they’ve already posted a clip of it online. My brother sent me the link."
"Merri, that's not horrible! That's actually really sweet and brave."
"It's horrible because I overheard Wyatt's interview." The tears start fresh again. "I was working in the cold storage room, and I heard every word."
Heather leans forward. "What did he say?"
"He told Rachel there's nothing between us. That we're only pretending to be close because of the competition. That once it's over, everything will go back to normal." I wipe my eyes angrily. "And when she asked how he feels about me, he said I'm just Danny's little sister. Nothing more. Those were his exact words: 'Nothing more.'"
"Oh, Merri." Heather comes around the desk and pulls me into a hug. "I'm so sorry."
"I confronted him after the crew left. He tried to claim he only said all that to protect me from the attention. Can you believe that? Protect me by humiliating me?"
Heather eases back, her expression thoughtful. She’s quiet for a moment, then holds her hands in the air. "Okay, I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second."
"Heather—"
"Just hear me out. That actually sounds exactly like something Wyatt would do. He probably had no idea what you said in your interview and thought you would want to keep your relationship private so you wouldn't have to deal with the scrutiny."
"That doesn't make it okay!"
"No, it doesn't. It was absolutely shitty. But Merri, I've seen the way he looks at you. I was at that town hall meeting. I've seen you two together. That man is crazy about you."
"Then why would he say those things?"
"Because men are idiots?" Heather offers. "Especially when they're trying to be protective. They make stupid decisions thinking they're helping when they're actually making everything worse."
My phone buzzes on Heather's desk. Wyatt's name flashes on the screen, again. It's the seventh time he's called in the past two hours.
I send it to voicemail.
"You haven't talked to him since the confrontation?" Heather asks.
