Please, God. I know I haven’t given You much time lately, but please give me the words. Work this out. Let the truth be revealed.
She located his phone number, blew out a deep breath, and tapped it.
Her heart pummeled her ribs as she waited. She’d find common ground with Jax. He was a victim of this scandal too, after all. The media were the enemy. The two of them could join forces and eradicate this scandal, and then everything could go back to normal.
His phone had rung at least four times. Maybe he was busy. Or maybe Emma was right there. But no, it was poker night.
Should she leave a message?
The ringing stopped. “Hello?”
“Jax. Hi. I wasn’t sure you were going to answer.”
A beat passed, and she opened her mouth to confirm he was still there.
“Why are you calling?” He sounded distant—and not in a geographical way.
“I’m calling because of the scandal, Jax. We have to do something. This is going to wreck my career, and I can’t imagine it’s doing much for yours either. Can you talk right now? Maybe we can put our heads together and—”
“I really don’t have anything to say to you, Mia. You’re not only wreaking havoc on my career but on my marriage, and I take that very personally.”
“Wh-what?”
“I told you I wasn’t interested when we were filming. But you just couldn’t take no for an answer. Now that picture has been spread across every tabloid in the country! How do think Emma feels, huh? She’s wrecked. Our marriage is in jeopardy because of you.”
Mia’s fingers tightened on the balcony railing. “Now, wait just a minute. You know very well that’s not—”
“Did you tip off the media? Was it a setup? Because I am going to get to the bottom of this.”
“Are you serious right now? You’re the one who couldn’t take no for an answer. You kissedmeand I pushed you away.Why are you saying all—” Mia huffed out a breath. Emma was there. Of course. He was making this look like it was all her fault. All her doing.
“Don’t call me again, Mia.”
“You can’t do this, Jax. You have to tell the truth. This isn’t the kind of man you—”
A click sounded in her ear. She stared at the phone, gaping. Anger boiled inside. Helplessness, she was drowning in it. Is this what Jax was going to tell the reporters? Was he going to make it look like she’d been trying to seduce him?
This could not be happening.
***
Levi stacked the paid bills on the corner of his desk and stood. He’d put off the ones they couldn’t afford to pay yet. It killed him to pay late fees, but it couldn’t be helped. He had to leave some room on the credit card for emergencies. He left his room and wandered to the other side of the inn to the library.
He scanned the titles for something to read. Something with a lot of action to keep him engaged. To keep his mind off Mia.
“Whatcha doing?”
He turned at the sound of Molly’s voice. She’d just come in from out back and was cradling her laptop.
“Looking for a book. How was the sunset?”
“I got caught up in my research for Adam and missed most of it.” She unshelved a Tom Clancy novel and handed it to him. “Here, you’ll like this one. Did you know the average orchard size is fifty acres, and it takes at least one colony of bees—that’s roughly twenty thousand bees—per acre to pollinate the trees?”
“Did not know that.”
“And only one-fifth of the bees in the colonies are actually pollinators.”
“What do the rest of them do?”
