“What’s going on?” Dread had leaked into Mia’s bloodstream, causing a rush of adrenaline. She scanned her friend’s face, but other than tightness at the corners of her eyes she looked normal. “What’s happened? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. It’s not me.”
“Not your mom.” Mia had hired Lettie after her own mother had passed and had seen her moments ago on the way out the door.
“No, she’s fine.” Brooke had the steering wheel in a death grip. “Mia... tell me what happened last night. At the wrap party.”
Oh, the wrap party. Someone must’ve seen what Jax did and told Brooke. She had a lot of friends in the business.
Mia sighed. “I was going to tell you over coffee. Jax had too much to drink. I went outside to get a ride home, and he followed me. He came out of nowhere and laid one on me. I feel just awful, Brooke. I told you I sensed something while we were filming, but he never made a move on me before.”
“So... it wasn’t mutual?”
Mia gaped at Brooke. “Of course it wasn’t mutual. He’s a married man. I’d never do that.”
“Sorry. Sorry, I do know that.” She tossed Mia a sheepish look. “But he is Jax Jordan. And he does have that dimpled grin. And that sexy cleft in his chin.”
“Don’t forget the perpetual five o’clock shadow. But he’smarried. Anyway, who told you? I didn’t think anyone saw.”
Brooke gave her a look that made her tremble from the inside out. “Oh, Mia. I don’t know how to tell you this.”
“Tell me what? You’re scaring me.”
Brooke turned onto Mia’s street and began the winding uphill drive. She slid Mia a sympathetic look. “Someone snapped a picture, honey, and it’s on a celeb page.”
Mia sucked in a breath. But the kiss had lasted all of one second before she’d pushed him away. It couldn’t be that bad.
Brooke handed Mia her phone, already opened to theHollywood Reporterwebsite. The headline screamed, “MIA STEALS EMMA’S MAN!” Below it were pictures, the largest of them a profile view of a seemingly steamy kiss. She and Jax weren’t recognizable in that shot, but the photographer had gotten a picture right before that kiss in the instant Jax had taken her face in his hands, when she’d been too shocked to move.
“This isn’t...”
There were other pictures too. One of them embracing earlier that same evening when the mood had been celebratory. “I hugged everyone!”
Another photo of them walking side by side, laughing together as they left the set one evening.
“This makes it look like—”
“You know how these rags are. They don’t care about the truth. Only selling their so-called stories.”
“Maybe I can, I don’t know, get my lawyer on it. Pay someone off, do something to head this off...”
“I hope it’s not too late, hon. You know how quickly these things spread.”
Even before Brooke finished speaking, Mia was opening another page. Her stomach sank as she saw the story was front-page news there as well. The same pictures. The same story... a little more tastefully told. They didn’t outright accuse her of stealing Jax from Emma. But those pictures...
She closed the page and checked social media. “It’s trending on Twitter.”
She thought of Jax’s wife seeing this, and her gut twisted hard. Emma was pregnant with their first child. “Poor Emma. I have to call and explain.”
Brooke gave her a look. “Explain what? That her husband came on to you, and you rejected him?”
“Well, I can’t have her thinking we’re having some tawdry affair.”
“Leave that to Jax. He can handle himself.”
Despite his bit of flirting on set, Mia liked Jax. He worked hard, and in spite of his celebrity he didn’t act like he was above everyone else.
But Mia wasn’t naïve. Jax wasn’t about to tell his wife he’d come on to another woman.
