“I think so. Although I think I busted the rest of his face pretty good too.”
We drove in silence for a long time before he spoke again.
“How’s Cara? Fuck, this isn’t a good look.”
“She’s fine. And no, probably not, but we’ll figure it out.”
His phone started ringing, startling us both. He pulled it out and groaned. I watched him answer it and take a deep breath.
“Hey Mom, yeah, I’m out. I’m fine. The blood isn’t mine.”
News spread fast, apparently. The female voice that came through the other line was angry and yelling at her son. He sighed, rolled his eyes, and put the phone out, away from his ears. The smile that slid onto his face made me smirk and shake my head.
“Tate, I swear to God, you better be listening to me. If you’re doing the holding the phone out thing I’m going to come through this phone and strangle you myself!”
Tate looked at me and we shared a small, quiet laugh. He put the phone back to his ear.
“Yes Mom, I know. No, I got him to drop the charges. It’s fine. Really. What started it?” He paused and looked over at me. My cheeks grew warm. He answered her without telling her what actually caused the fight. “Look, it was well deserved. Let’s leave it at that for now. If you really want me to meet with your guy I will. Whatever. Yeah, I know. It’ll be fine. I’ve got to go, okay. Bye.”
He hung up and then turned to me.
“It looks like I made the news. Well, her news. Someone in her social circle must have told her. She’s not amused.”
“I could tell,” I smirked. He shrugged it off, so I moved on. “She wants you to meet with someone?”
He nodded.
“Her PR guy. They have to deal with image stuff all the time. Since most of my business is done with their literary agency I can’t go around having too many scandals.”
“Have you had any?” We reached my apartment and parked. I turned to face him.
“As Tate? Yes, most of them involving you.” He paused to give me a pointed look. I gave him an awkward smile and he laughed, reaching for my hand he took it in his and squeezed. “All of them were totally worth it. Scandals as Gage Porter are a little trickier. Those do need to be fixed.”
“Wait, I’m confused. How does this involve your alias?”
He pressed his lips together for a moment and then reached up and rubbed his day-old stubble.
“Apparently last night when I was being booked, they asked if I went by any other names. My drunk ass decided to give up the truth.” He shook his head. “I’ve been doing this for almost a decade and haven’t spilled the beans yet. But someone already had my mugshot paired with an article about the fight and my career ready to go. My mom had to pay them not to run it in whatever magazine or blog it was. She was not happy about that.”
“So what, they are going to try to spin it to look better?”
He nodded and reached for the door handle. We got out and went upstairs. He went straight to the shower. Once he was clean of Ronny’s blood and in fresh clothes, he asked if it was okay to lie down. He didn’t give me the chance to answer before he collapsed onto my bed and was sleeping.
Thankfully, Ronny and Dallas didn’t follow us home. They either went to the hospital to get Ronny checked out or back to Dallas’ place to rest before he kicked his ass. I let Lola go home and spent the afternoon with Cara. I really did enjoy my time that was just the two of us. Even if it was because her father was passed out from exhaustion after a night in the clink.
He rose around dinner time and offered to cook. Cara and I joined him in the kitchen as he went about making spaghetti. He brought up how he was dreading going to visit his parents.
“I’m really not in the mood for a lecture. It’s bad enough I had to spend the night in jail. That and my hands are all sorts of bruised.” He raised them to show me. I flinched. They were swollen, with large spots of purple and red. His knuckles had all started to scab up. I looked away and focused my attention on Cara.
“My parents do that all the time, work with PR people. They are constantly dealing with bad press,” I told him when he brought it up again. “I bet your parents hired the best one they could find. You’ll end up looking like a hero,” I laughed. He chuckled lightly but glanced up from the ground beef he was browning on the stove.
“I’d do it again, if I could go back,” he swallowed hard. “Fucker deserved it.”
I didn’t feel right responding aloud, but I did in my heart.
Ronny did deserve it.
* * *
