Fame & Consequences

by Reese A. Stephens

  “Yes, it’s a good thing. I can’t believe I’m talking to you about this.”

  “I’m your fiancé, you can talk to me about anything.” He shrugs.

  “Yeah, but I’m a little … shy, I guess, about sexual stuff.”

  He kisses me. “You are, but that’s okay. I’ll help you work through it.” He winks. He sits up, pulling me with him. “Come on. Let’s go eat breakfast and talk about the meeting.”

  I nod and follow him out of the room. The guys are sitting around the table talking, except for Carter. He’s nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Car?” I ask.

  Jared turns to me. “He’s out in the pool house. Second room on the right.” I nod, stand on my tiptoes to kiss Elijah’s cheek before I start for the door.

  “What about the breakfast and the meeting?” Elijah asks as I open the back door.

  I stop and turn to him. “I’ll be back. I want to check on him.”

  “Okay. Hurry back.”

  “I will.” I blow him a kiss.

  In the pool house, I find Carter sprawled on the bed, with the blanket around his waist, snoring. I stand there for a moment debating on what I should do. He’s waken me up so many horrible ways. Revenge seems like fun, but then again, he’s been upset so I decide to be nice and sit on the side of his bed and touch his back.

  “Carter.”

  “Hm?”

  “Wake up, I want to talk to you.” I pat his chest.

  He groans and rolls over, covering his eyes with his arm. “What, Peaches? Come to kick me out?”

  “Why would I do that?” I pull his arm down. He looks at me through one eye, then the other.

  “Because I almost got you killed, that’s why.”

  I figured he felt that way. Yesterday, I was upset, so he put his true feelings on hold. “You didn’t almost get me killed. Darren was sick.”

  He sits up in the bed. “If I wasn’t such a huge flirt with everyone, he would have never thought I liked him. I should go home. My dad was right, I’m worthless.”

  “That man is never right, Carter. I’m not going to say that you don’t flirt too much, because we both know that you do, but that’s you. I seriously doubt that you flirted with your client. You’re a professional when it comes to your job. Right?” He nods. “Darren was a lonely man and it wouldn’t matter what you said or did, he would have taken it wrong. This wasn’t your fault, and I don’t want you to leave me. I’ve started to remember. I really could use your help.”

  “Help with what, Peaches? I’m sure you’d rather love up on Elijah. I’ll be in your way.”

  “While I’d love to love up on my fiancé...” I flash him my ring with a broad smile on my face. He returns it and grabs my hand. “I need to celebrate my engagement with my best friend.”

  “I saw it the day he proposed, but I forgot how dang big it was. Girl, this thang is ‘spensive!” His southern draw is thick.

  I giggle. “I know, right? It’s perfect too. I’m so glad he doesn’t hate me. After that recording, I thought he would.”

  “Nah, he loves you. Krystal is crazy. I’ve never trusted that girl.”

  I smack his sheet covered leg. “Which is exactly why I came to get you. Come on, get dressed. I need your help.”

  He climbs out of bed, totally naked, stretching with his arms up in the air and hips thrust out. “Carter!” I squeal, covering my eyes and turning around.

  He laughs. “It’s my room. You don’t like it, leave.”

  I head for the door. “Gah, you haven’t changed at all.”

  “Do you want me to?” He asks, in a muffled voice. I assume he’s putting a shirt on, because I’m not looking.

  “No, never.”

  “Good. I’m dressed. Let’s go.” He grabs my hand and literally pulls me out the door and through the pool house.

  “I’m not a rag doll, Car,” I grumble.

  He stops, making me bump into him. “Oh, you’re not?” He asks with a mischievous smile. I back away with my hands raised.

  “No, no you don’t!” I warn.

  He lunges for me, grabbing me and throwing me over his shoulder, smacking my butt as I land. “Carter!” I yell. “That’s not yours!” Luckily my waist rests on his shoulder, so my bruise isn’t hit. Stupid Neanderthal.

  “That’s right. It’s mine,” Elijah says.

  By the tone of his voice, I can tell he’s not angry, so it makes me wonder if while I was in the hospital they worked out their differences. I really hope they did, because we’re all going to have to work together to get to the bottom of this mess. I roll my eyes at the possessiveness of my fiancé, but I secretly love it. If I’m honest with myself, I’ve missed this side of him while my memory was AWOL. Not that he didn’t try to be a little possessive, I simply didn’t enjoy it when I couldn’t remember him.

  Carter sits me down on the kitchen island and takes a seat in the chair beside me. “So, what’s up?” he asks.

  Elijah hands me a drink and my pill. “We’ll get to that, but Sophie needs to eat with her medication.” I take my meds dutifully, smiling and rolling my eyes childishly at Carter.

  “Thanks, Dad,” I tell Elijah.

  He glares at me, but hands me an omelet, anyway. “You’re welcome.” He points to his cheek, and I lean down and kiss him.

  “Ugh, you two are even more sickening now than you were when you couldn’t remember,” Carter grumbles.

  I glare at him. “You’re jealous.” Elijah sets an omelet in front of Carter. “See, there you go. Now give him a kiss.” Elijah smirks and taps his cheek. Carter raises an eyebrow, shrugs, but kisses his cheek with a loud smack.

  Elijah laughs, wiping his face. “How is it, baby?” He points to the omelet as he sits on my other side.

  I nod as I swallow my bite. “It’s really good. Thank you.” I kiss his lips. After a few more bites of food, I ask, “Have you heard anything else about Krystal?”

  Elijah grimaces. “There was a photo album in her bag. You should take a look.” He turns towards Danny. “Do you have the album?”

  “It’s in the garage. I’ll be right back.”

  “What type of photos?” I set my plate on top of Carter’s empty one.

  Elijah stares at his food for a few seconds before meeting my eyes. “Uh, they were of you and Carter, you guys are younger, there’s some of the two of us, and random pictures of you.”

  “Why would she have pictures of Carter and me? We didn’t meet until after that.” Elijah shrugs. I glance at Carter. “Right, I didn’t meet her until after the roommate incident.”

  “Yeah, but maybe the pictures of us are when I tried to talk to you.”

  “Oh, maybe.”

  “No.” Elijah’s voice sounds pained.

  Danny comes back in with the album before I can question Elijah’s reaction. He hands him the album, but Elijah immediately hands it to me. I take a deep breath as I glance down at the front cover. It’s plain and black, but the inside is full of writing I can’t read as it’s so full. It’s graffiti in nature. The pictures are of us when we were in college. There’s several of us posed and smiling, which make me smile remembering, but there’s a lot of me alone. There are several of Carter and I while dating. I can understand Elijah’s grimace now. In most of them we are kissing, holding hands, or sitting cuddled together.

  “These are all before we broke up.” I meet Carter’s eyes for confirmation.

  “Yeah. Are you having problems remembering?” Both he and Elijah’s faces are creased in concern.

  I shake my head. “A little, but it was a long time ago. I don’t want to be wrong.”

  “Yeah, these were before but this one is definitely after, but also before you met her.” The picture in question is one of Carter and I, with a caption underneath that reads, ‘He hurt her.’ In the picture, I’m crying and Carter is holding me.

  “The night we broke up.” Carter sighs, running his hand through his hair. He still feels guilty.

  I pull his h
and away. “Stop, we’ve moved passed that.” I point to the picture. “Why would she take this? We hadn’t even met yet.”

  I hand Carter the photo album as I move to get off the counter. Elijah helps me down. “Can we go sit on the couch?”

  They agree and we head over to the den. Elijah sits on one end, and I sit beside him, and Carter beside me. Carter hands me the photo album.

  “I’m positive you met her a few days after we broke up. I remember because I came to apologize again, and she was in your new room. She said you guys were getting a place together and not to bother contacting you again.” Tears well up in my eyes and Carter puts his arm around my shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. We’ll fix this.”

  Elijah takes my hand and kisses the back of it as I sniffle. “Why would she pretend to be my friend? This isn’t about money. I didn’t have any back then.” I turn to Elijah. “This isn’t about you either.”

  “I don’t know, baby,” Elijah says softly, stroking my hair.

  Carter turns the page. There’s one picture of Krystal and I bundled up at a bon fire, but the rest are of me sleeping, eating, working, even talking to a guy I had met at work.

  “Who’s this?” Elijah asks.

  I wipe my face. “I believe his name was Karson. We went to dinner, but he was really uninteresting, and I was not in the place to date.”

  “Still had the hots for me, huh.” Carter elbows me.

  I glare at him. Stupid tears fill my eyes. Yes, I’m over it, but the stress must be getting to me. “Yeah. You were the love of my life, Car. My childhood sweetheart. It absolutely crushed me.”

  His face falls. “I’m so sorry, Sophie.” He wipes the tears off my face.

  I smack his hands away. “I said were. Now, you’re the annoying best friend that is way too much like a brother to ever think of like that again.” I glare at him. All trace of sadness diminish. This is either stress or hormones, probably both.

  “Ouch!” He yowls shaking his hand as if I had really hurt him.

  I giggle. “Besides, I have the true love of my life now.”

  I turn to Elijah and find him smiling at me. I lean into him, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him. As soon as his lips part, I sweep my tongue inside his mouth, catching him off guard. He moans, pulling me to him, wrapping his hand into my hair as his tongue joins in. I hear Carter groan in disgust. I giggle.

  “Dang it, Peaches, cut it out!” he grumbles.

  I pull back from Elijah. “I love you.”

  He looks radiant. “I can’t wait to call you my wife.” Can we say swoon! This man.

  “Oh my Lord!” Carter wails. “Can we call the cheese police right freaking now? You two are the worst!” I glance at him and see he’s hiding a smile. I know he’s happy for me.

  I grab my head as pain mixed with a memory shoots through me. “Baby, are you okay?” Elijah asks.

  “You woke me up before dawn when I visited home,” I tell Carter.

  “You remembered that?” I nod. “I did wake you, but macho man over there got all mad and whisked you away.”

  I turn to Elijah, who shrugs unapologetically. I turn back to Carter. “I don’t remember that. I remember us sitting on a cliff watching the sun rise.”

  “We did, and he did.”

  “I wasn’t mad, I was worried.” Elijah insists.

  The guys, who have been silent up until now, all throw back their heads in uproarious laughter.

  “You’re busted.” I bop his nose.

  “You really don’t remember that?” Elijah questions.

  “I don’t. I remember waking up to Carter’s big face in mine and walking to the cliff and talking.”

  Elijah sighs. “I overreacted, but we worked it all out and we forgave each other; it was all fine.” He winks.

  “Good. So, back to this stupid book. What are we going to do? Why couldn’t the police use this? It looks like she’s been stalking me. For years even.”

  Hutch is the one to speak. “I’m not sure why the police wouldn’t take it. Maybe it wouldn’t be admissible in court because we chased her down, but I do believe that all these things can help us build our case. Especially, if this note is from her.”

  I turn to Elijah alarmed. “What note?”

  He rubs the back of his neck as Hutch mutters, “Oops.”

  “Elijah James Stone, are you keeping things from me again?”

  “No, of course not. I was going to tell you after you looked at this.”

  “What did the note say?” I turn to Hutch.

  He watches Elijah for permission. I snap my fingers at Hutch. “No, you tell me no matter what he thinks.”

  “Tell her,” Elijah says.

  Hutch nods. “The note was ‘You will be mine.’ I mean, that really does seem like it could be from a stalker.”

  “Can they compare the note with Krystal’s handwriting?” I ask.

  “I gave them the paper she wrote her name and phone number on,” Danny says, staring at his lap.

  “I’m sorry. You really liked her, didn’t you?”

  He sighs and looks up at me. “I did at first, but by the third date she started asking about you, and it was a little odd. I wasn’t going to ask her out again. I’m sorry I gave her more access to you.”

  “Don’t be sorry. I went out with her, so I gave her all the access she needed.” I grimace. I’m so stupid. I hand the album to Elijah and stand. “I can’t look at this anymore. I’m going to go take a nap.”

  I kiss Elijah’s cheek and head up the stairs. I’ve been so blind for so long. I feel dirty and used. She watched me. She took pictures of me. She violated me. What if she did … oh man, I can’t even admit to myself the things she could have done to me while I was drugged the other night? I find my way to Elijah’s room and curl up on his side of the bed with his pillow held tightly in my arms, breathing in his scent, calming myself. How could I have forgotten anything about this man? He’s everything to me.

  25 Misconstrued

  T ears roll down my nose and drip onto the pillow, but I do nothing to stop them. Yes, I’m wallowing in self-pity, and I’m being selfish and stupid, but I don’t care. Why is all this happening to me? I’m a good person. I give to the needy; I help those who need help. I live my life in a good way. Why are all these bad things happening to me? I’m not sure how long I lay there, but when the bed dips and arms wrap around me, I startle.

  “Why are you crying?” I didn’t expect Carter; he rests his chin on my shoulder.

  “I’m an idiot.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  I roll over to face him. “Are you leaving me?”

  He scrunches up his face. “I was going to, but I can see a fight coming on if I try.”

  I nod. “Please don’t go. I need you here.”

  “I’ll stay. But just so you know, I expect some kind of benefit.” He winks.

  I roll my eyes. “Elijah said I’d need to hire a personal assistant for the movie, and honestly I need one for my books. Everything is so out of whack. It’s going to take a while to get on top of everything.”

  “Would Elijah like that?”

  “He won’t care. It would be perfect. I wouldn’t have to get to break in a new person. I don’t trust anyone new right now. I trust you.”

  He snorts. “You shouldn’t. I actually don’t understand why you do. That picture …” He blows out a breath and looks up to the ceiling. I can see tears forming in his eyes. His voice cracks when he speaks. “Sophie, I hurt you. We’ve hashed this out a million times, but seeing that photo … seeing the pain I caused you in that way. I don’t understand why you still want me around.”

  I wipe his tears away. “I forgave you because I love you, Carter. As cheesy and naïve as that may sound, it’s the truth. If I’m honest with myself, we’ve always been just friends. We tried the dating thing because it was what was expected out of us, but it was never really us. It wasn’t what we were meant to be. You are my brother, my best friend,
you always will be. Let the past stay in the past and move on.”

  He shakes me a little. “You’re so cheesy.” He blows out a breath. “I love you. I don’t deserve you, but I’m thankful for you.”

  “Okay, so enough of the sappy. What in the world are we going to do?”

  “You can start by getting the hell outta my bed,” Elijah says as he jumps onto the bed, landing elbow first on Carter, who grunts.

  The guys immediately start to wrestle around. At least they are goofing off and not being serious like in the past. I’m not sure what happened to break the tension and jealously between them, but I’m glad it’s gone. I don’t want to lose either of them.

  “Okay, boys. Settle it down before you hurt yourselves, or me.” They both stop immediately, staring up at me, tangled together. I can’t help but laugh. “I’m glad you two are getting along now.”

  They separate but stay on the floor where they’ve landed from their make shift fight. “We had a lot of time to talk while you were in the hospital this last time. We worked through a lot,” Elijah tells me.

  “But you were still going to leave?” I ask Carter.

  He shrugs. “Yeah, but only because I was making things worse for you. I’d probably still leave, if it wasn’t for this Krystal situation. You know how I feel about her.”

  “I think you’ve mentioned it a time or two.” I turn to Elijah. “I want him to be my personal assistant. We worked well together on the first part of my tour. Plus, I don’t trust anyone at the moment. I need someone I’m comfortable with and know isn’t after me.”

  “You remember the accident?” Elijah is on his feet and beside me instantly.

  I run my fingers softly over the prickly hair where it’s starting to grow back. “Yes and no. I remember getting ready for the show. I remember going outside. It’s all pretty spotty. I don’t remember the hit on the head though.”

  “It seems like it’s all starting to return,” Carter says. He scrubs his hands through his dark hair. “I’ll be your assistant. But this is a serious downgrade to my current job as a lawyer.”

  Elijah looks at him. “I’ll pay you a million a year to start.”

  Carter sticks out his hand to shake Elijah’s “Sold.”