I didn’t want to lie to my mother, but I wasn’t ready for that conversation.
My hands shook as I switched back to the messages from Fallon.
It’s not what it looks like
It might have been easier just to tell him I was dating Jase, but that felt like a betrayal to Dylan. I was either going to tell people I was dating both of them or choose to neither confirm nor deny any of the speculation. Since it wasn’t just me who would be affected by the news of us all being together, I was currently going with the second option.
Fallon: Okay. So then why are you guys on St. John together?
Another text came through, this one from Morgan. I typed a reply to Fallon:
Can we talk about this when I get home? It seems like everyone and their brother wants the details
Very funny. I’ll let you go for now but don’t be avoiding me when you get home
Jase and Dylan walked into the kitchen.
“Um.” I turned my phone toward Jase and showed him the article Fallon had sent.
His eyes widened. “Oh shit.”
“Yeah, and this is just my family reacting.”
Jase started to say something, but then his phone began vibrating on the counter.
He dragged a hand down his face. “This is—wow. Okay. Uh. Not ideal.”
Dylan glanced over at him. “What’s going on?”
“Cammie’s asking me if I’m dating the president’s daughter. If she’s seen it, then it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the family hears about it,” Jase explained.
Dylan dropped onto a barstool. “I don’t know if I should be jealous that people think just the two of you are together, or relieved they don’t have photographic evidence of me in the mix too.”
I shook my head. “I think we’d break the internet.”
My phone buzzed again with another text from Morgan, so I clicked on it to read both of her messages:
Just Jase?
Don’t you dare ignore me
Sorry. Shit’s hitting the fan. It’s still both of them. Pap just caught a rare moment where I was only with one
Well that’s good. I was confused and then I wondered if I needed to kick someone’s ass for fucking things up
The idea of her trying to defend my honor was laughable, but her loyalty was one of the reasons I loved her.
I set my phone down and braced my palms against the counter. “This isn’t that bad. Right? It’s just speculation. And even if they think I’m dating a baseball player, that’s not illegal. Or scandalous.”
“No,” Jase agreed. “This is like a one on the rumor scale.”
Dylan nodded. “It’ll probably blow over by tomorrow.”
“Hope so,” I said, trying to convince myself as much as them.
They walked over to me and wrapped their arms around me, but the pressure in my chest didn’t quite ease.
Because even as I leaned into them, I knew what this meant: The media had gotten a whiff of a story involving me, and it was doubtful they would let it go, at least not for a while.
