by Sandy James
“I paraphrased.”
“Call him back and tell him I can come in within the hour.”
“What about lunch?” Betsy asked.
“I’m going too,” Ethan insisted.
“Are you both coming?” Addie asked. “Not a bad idea. He’ll want the two of you to be on the same page. Assuming…”
“Assuming what?” Ethan asked.
“Assuming we decide to go on the offensive.”
The scowl on his face was hot enough to melt an ice cube while it was still in the freezer. “Great. Just great.”
It wasn’t as if Chelsea needed someone to tell her what had him so pissed. The last thing in the world Ethan wanted was publicity—of any kind. The notion of trying to handle the backlash of Chuck’s absurdity by launching a social media campaign was probably the least appealing thing he could imagine.
“When I get my hands on him…” His hands were clenched into tight fists.
“I get first shot,” Chelsea said, hoping to defuse a little of his anger. “Giving him a nice black eye sounds mighty appealing.”
Not even the hint of a smile.
“What’s the verdict?” Addie asked.
“I should talk to Will.” Chelsea locked eyes with Ethan. “My condo? An hour?”
He gave her a curt nod.
“See if that works for him,” Chelsea told Addie. “Call me back if he can’t swing that.”
“You got it.”
Ending the call, Chelsea turned to her mom. “Let’s wolf down that lunch. Then we need to run.”
“Wolf down, my fat fanny.” With a wave for them to follow, Betsy turned to head toward the kitchen. “You’ll both eat a proper lunch so you can deal with this little hiccup.”
* * *
The lunch hadn’t been the disaster Ethan had feared. He found that he enjoyed talking to Betsy Maddox. In her easygoing way, she put him at ease, even with her joking questions about his relationship with Chelsea. He knew quite well that she was serious about him treating her daughter well, but he’d felt nothing but welcome in her home.
Then he remembered Chuck Austin and got angry all over again.
The same security guards were in the lobby when they got back to Chelsea’s place, and the younger one still gazed at her with puppy-dog eyes. She smiled at them as they passed the checkpoint and made their way through the complex to her front door.
Chelsea let them in, tossed her coat on the foyer bench, and reached for Ethan’s jacket. “Addie?”
“In here,” her assistant called. “Will’s here too.”
Taking Ethan’s hand, Chelsea led him to the cavernous living room.
His first thought was that any guy with a “man bun” was too prissy to handle the kind of tempest coming their way. Then the man’s eyes caught Ethan’s. There was steel in that gaze, so he decided to hear him out to see what they could all do to stop Chuck’s rumors.
“Hi, Will.” Chelsea inclined her head at Ethan. “This is Ethan Walker.” As the men shook hands and then sat, she flopped on her sectional as her cat came to curl up against her thigh. She ran her hand over his fur almost absentmindedly. “Addie said something about going on the offensive?”
“That’s the plan,” Will replied, grabbing his tablet from the glass coffee table. He typed in a few commands. “But I wanted to talk to you first. To be sure that’s really what you want to do.”
“What I want,” she replied, “is to go back a few days and tell Chuck that I didn’t need his help on the album.”
“That album is in your favor,” Will said. “You’re doing it entirely for charity, for cancer research. That brings a lot of goodwill.” He stared at Ethan. “What are your thoughts?”
“My thoughts are that if we just ignore the gossip, people will find some other bandwagon to jump on,” Ethan replied.
“That’s one tack we could take.” Will touched his screen a few more times. “But then we have no chance to spin any of the chatter our direction.”
“You think you can control a rumor?” Ethan asked.
“In some ways, yes, I do. The right information gets out there, the more people will carry the message. Chelsea has an extraordinarily supportive fan base. If we release something about how happy she is, how much this relationship means to her, those fans will grab it and run.”
“But we’re not engaged,” Chelsea said.
“That’s what we announce,” Will explained. “We make it clear that you two are dating but haven’t gotten too serious.”
“Like they’ll believe it just ’cause we say it,” Ethan said with a shake of his head.
He hated the idea of exposing his relationship with Chelsea to public scrutiny, but if they didn’t say something that scrutiny would probably continue to be nothing but people warning her away from him.
The posts he’d read had been brutal, a few hitting him like a punch in the gut. One of the things he hated about the Internet was the general lack of civility. Posts were often juvenile, petty, and downright cruel—like a bunch of bullies on a playground. The more anonymous the account, the worse the postings.
“You’d be amazed.” Will cast a wary glance at Ethan before turning to Chelsea. “The question I need to ask is this: Are the two of you serious?”
Chelsea cocked an eyebrow. “Serious?”
“Yeah. In a committed relationship,” he replied. “If we start sending information that the two of you are together…Wait, you’re not engaged are you?”
“No,” she replied in a soft voice.
“Then we need to clarify that by telling them exactly what’s happening. If we keep your fans in the loop, so to speak, they aren’t as likely to pay attention to outrageous stories like Chuck’s.”
“What you mean by ‘clarify’ is to invade our privacy,” Ethan said, resisting the urge to growl at the man for being so damned nosey.
“I don’t mean to be digging into your business,” Will explained. “But if we decide to hit this hard and get her fans on your side, you two need to be genuine.”
This time, Ethan did growl—only his irritation eased and the sound ended abruptly when Chelsea took his hand. Funny how she kept having that kind of calming effect on him.
A bit of a miracle, that.
“We are genuine,” she told Will. “The question isn’t whether we’re in a relationship. The question is whether we want to open up and share that with everyone. I’m not sure Ethan’s ready for that.”
Her statement told Ethan everything he needed to know about her opinion on the subject. Judging from Addie nodding to almost everything Will said, she felt the same. They were all prepared to blab private business.
Looks like I’m the only one who doesn’t want my love life paraded around the whole fucking world…
“Ethan?” Chelsea asked quietly. “We can still hope it all just dies down. I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.”
He didn’t say anything, because he didn’t want to show her his anger. She knew how he felt about publicity, especially about his private life. But he was angry.
And getting angrier by the minute.
But angry at whom?
Chuck? Absolutely.
Every gossipy asshole on the Internet? No doubt.
But why was some of his anger directed at Chelsea?
Because she was famous, and no matter how much he wished she wasn’t, her life was never going to change. And if he wanted to be a part of that life, he was going to find himself in the public eye. The last place in the world he wanted to be.
Chapter Nineteen
I sure stepped in it this time.
Chelsea huffed out a long breath, then realized she’d let her frustration with Ethan show. His fierce frown told her as much.
No wonder. Here she was dictating to him how she wanted to handle this crisis—a crisis that involved him as much as it did her. Having made decisions on her own for so long, it was hard to get accustomed to considering someone else’s point
of view.
“I’m sorry,” she said, taking his hand. “I didn’t…Look, this time we’ll play it your way.” She glanced to Addie and then to Will. “We’re going to let this rumor burn out on its own. No postings. No going on the offensive.”
Addie’s brows knit, an expression Chelsea knew well. It was the same look her assistant gave her every time she thought her boss was making a big mistake. “Chel, are you sure that’s what you want to do?”
Not at all. I want to meet it head-on like I do everything else.
“This should be Ethan’s call,” Chelsea replied, swallowing her own apprehension.
Why wasn’t he saying anything? He had to appreciate her gesture, right?
Oh, who was she kidding? This was the kind of nightmare he’d always feared, had always wanted to avoid. And she’d plopped him smack dab in the middle of it. Amazing that he wasn’t running for the hills.
Which meant he must really care for her. She’d do her best to make this right.
“Seriously, Will,” she said. “I want Ethan to make the choice. I’m used to this kind of bullshit; he avoids it like the plague.”
“If we decide to maintain silence,” Will advised, “then you’re both gonna have to lay low. Really low. Stay out of the public eye. ’Cause if we act like you’re not together, and people see you two out and about, you’ll lose every ounce of credibility you’ve ever had.”
“But we are together,” Ethan said, his tone stern.
“Not in public, you’re not,” Will said with a scolding lilt. “In fact, if we stay silent, the best thing you two can do is go your separate ways—at least for a while. You can’t be seen together.”
The words were like a knife to her heart. She’d barely begun to win Ethan’s affections. Every ounce of patience she had was used in waiting to hear what he would say to Will’s suggestion. But she needed to know his answer. If he was willing to stay apart simply to avoid publicity, he wasn’t the man she thought he was.
Ethan shook his head. “Nope. Not happening. We’re together. Just because we’re not engaged doesn’t meant we need to hide like a couple of criminals. Shit, I hate the press.”
“Don’t we all?” Will gave them a sardonic grin. “Then let’s use the vultures. I can release a statement. You know, tell the public you’re dating, for want of a better word. Better yet, the two of you should sit down with a reporter and— Why are you shaking your head now?”
“I don’t talk to reporters,” Ethan said. “Ever. That’s off the table.”
Thrilled that he’d so adamantly insisted that he wouldn’t leave her behind just to avoid some publicity, Chelsea tried to solve this rather troublesome puzzle. How could they be together but not let everyone know they were together? Silence didn’t seem to be the right tack, but it wasn’t what Ethan wanted.
“So any press is out?” Will asked. “Not even a quick statement.”
“Absolutely nothing about Chelsea and me. No interview. No statement. Nothing,” Ethan replied, glancing to Chelsea. “If I’m still making the choice.”
She nodded.
Will shut his tablet cover with a loud snap that made her wonder if he’d shattered the screen. “Well, then…I have only one piece of advice left.” He stood. “Get out of Nashville.”
Chelsea jumped to her feet, sending the cat seeking a new place to lie down. “What? Why would we leave Nashville?”
“I didn’t mean forever,” Will said with the easy smile that she was more accustomed to seeing. “I mean until the heat dies down. If you two go on a vacay, no worries about being spotted. Right?”
“I don’t get why it even matters,” Ethan said, pulling her back down beside him on the sectional. He kept a tight hold of her hand. “Who gives a shit whether we go out for tacos? Hell, it might even help since they’ll see she’s not wearing a ring. Engagement rumors come to an end.”
“I know it doesn’t seem like something important,” Will replied. “But Chelsea has a lot of goodwill with her fans, because she’s always been so open about herself. She doesn’t make a statement about the rumor and then starts parading around the city on your arm, it looks like she’s lying to them.”
“How can she be lying when she doesn’t say anything?”
“A lie by omission,” Will countered. “I know it sounds stupid, but that’s the way fans are. They feel as if they have a stake in her and her life, like they’re part of the family. She runs around Nashville with you without a word about your two being in a relationship, they’re going to damn her for her silence. So if you don’t want to stay away from her, then my advice as her publicist is to get the heck outta here for a while.” He grabbed the coat he’d draped over the arm of the chair next to his. “Besides, it’s supposed to be majorly cold the rest of this week. Go somewhere warm. Get some sun. Eat some seafood. We’ll do as you want, Ethan, and see if things die down.”
Addie walked Will to the door, mumbling about “fucking press bastards.”
Chelsea squeezed Ethan’s hand. “We could go down to Jekyll early. I mean, we are heading south for the rehearsal and the wedding, right?”
At least he smiled. “Let me book a couple of airline tickets and see if—”
Will called back from the foyer. “Did I hear airline tickets?”
“He’s got ears like a bat,” Chelsea whispered.
“No planes!” He hurried back into the living area. “You can’t book under false names, because you have to show ID. You two book seats under your names, it’s on the Internet ten minutes later. If that long…”
“Then we’ll just have to take a road trip,” Ethan said.
“Addie, anything on my calendar that can’t be cleared before the wedding?”
Will kept shifting his gaze between Chelsea and Addie. “Wedding? I thought you two weren’t even engaged.”
“Cool your jets,” Addie said. “They’re attending Savannah Wolf’s wedding. Don’t get your tighty whities in a bunch.”
“That wedding will be covered by entertainment reporters,” Will said.
Chelsea shook her head. “They don’t want any press there.”
“She’s marrying the Hitman and they don’t expect press?” He let out a chuckle. “Good luck with that.”
“Trust me,” she said. “They want nothing to ruin it. They rented out a whole resort just to keep things private.”
“Then I suggest you and Ethan do your best to keep whatever you do every bit as private.”
As Addie escorted Will out—again—Chelsea waited for Ethan to say something, to give her some idea about what he wanted to do now. The idea of them going away together was appealing. Very appealing. She needed him to take the lead, though. How odd, since her whole life she’d kept the reins firmly in her own hands.
Perhaps that was what being in a relationship was all about, or at least supposed to be about. Caring so much for someone else that you let them call the shots.
* * *
It was hard for Ethan to gather his thoughts and decide what to do now. He was still in a stupor at realizing that Chelsea had allowed him to dictate how this mess would be handled.
The idea that they would, as Will had put it, “go on the offensive,” was repugnant. Shit, by the time the press was done, Ethan would be seeing his picture everywhere. He’d look like a fool, standing a few paces behind the great Chelsea Harris while she dazzled them with her smile and wit.
What a nightmare.
When he got his hands on Chuck…
No, that would only give the asshole more ammunition. All it would take was a quick picture of the black eye and bloody nose Ethan would give him, and Chuck would get fifteen more minutes that he didn’t deserve.
Ethan would be a good boy and get Chelsea the hell out of the city so he could spend some time alone with her. Exactly as though they were real people and not public property.
Addie came back to stare at them. “So? Where you two going? I need to get to work on finding someplace uber-priva
te. Start naming destinations. And…go!”
“I suppose we could go to Jekyll,” Chelsea said. “I mean, we need to be there Friday anyway, right?”
“Probably not as private as you think,” Ethan replied, “when the whole resort isn’t rented out like it will be for the wedding.”
“You’ve been there?” Addie asked.
“Once or twice. There’s more people there than you’d think. We need something more like a cabin on a private beach—somewhere with no neighbors.”
Addie looked to Chelsea. “Budget?”
“It’s on me,” Ethan insisted. “After all, we’re doing this because I wanted to keep things on the down low.”
“Okay then.” Rubbing her hands together, Addie trotted toward her office. “Sky’s the limit!”
“Addie,” Chelsea said in a motherly tone. “Keep it reasonable.”
“I don’t care how much,” Ethan said. “Just find someplace warm and away from prying eyes.”
While Addie was in her office, he stood, hauling Chelsea to her feet. “This could be fun.” Her wan smile made him worry. “What’s wrong?”
All she did was shrug.
Tugging her into his arms, he covered her mouth with his.
Every time he kissed her, it felt like the first time—such a surprise to feel her soft lips against his own. His desire rose swiftly and fiercely, and somewhere in his distracted brain, he realized this would give them alone time. A lot of alone time.
His tongue found hers, and the kiss began to get out of control as his hands slid down her back to cover that shapely ass. He pulled her up hard against him so she’d have no doubt about how much he wanted her. For a moment, he flippantly considered thanking Chuck for giving them a reason to go someplace private.
Only Addie loudly clearing her throat restored any sanity. Thankfully, Chelsea was breathing every bit as hard as he was. Saved him some embarrassment over feeling like a teenager who’d been caught necking with his date.
“Sorry to interrupt…” Addie chuckled. “But I think I have the perfect place.”
“Where?” Chelsea asked.
“It’s an island.”