The audience went wild, expecting and getting a Jerry Springer-style showdown as Cameron reminded everyone about the suspicions that had plagued the last few weeks of livestreaming. He spoke of suspected infidelity and Katia worked hard to look innocent and defend herself. Brittany B and Dawson also denied being more than friends with her.
Unfortunately for all of them, one of the other bridesmaids—one of the other Brittanys—in the audience jumped up and started shouting that they were all liars. She stormed the set and held out a pile of pictures.
Cameron took the pictures while Brittany B, Dawson, and Katia turned white.
Katia jumped to her feet and shouted, “Where did you get those? They don’t prove anything. Those could have been taken at any time or even doctored to look like me. I never cheated on my husband.”
“These look pretty damning,” Cameron pointed out, holding up a few of the less revealing photos for the audience to see. He had to put his finger over some sections to cover up Katia’s breasts. The pictures were horribly damning. His assessment was too mild. Good grief.
Jodi was nearly laughing at the absurdity of the entire thing.
One of the cameras switched back to the audience where another bridesmaid, Korina, was laughing hysterically. “Brittany L is just jealous that she wasn’t invited. That whore slept with everyone on the set.”
Jodi’s dad gasped. “How can you watch this shit?” he murmured.
“I have to. I need to know what happens. That’s my man up there.”
Her dad sighed loudly. “Now I see why he’s been so exasperated. What a disaster. He should get a gold medal for not quitting this show months ago.”
Jodi agreed. This was far worse than she expected.
Everyone was yelling now, and several of the girls were fighting. Literally. Pulling each other’s hair and shoving until someone fell on their ass.
Cameron was on his feet. “Everyone. Please calm down. Take your seats.” It took several minutes to get them to relent. When the insanity dulled to a reasonable level, Katia plopped back down on the loveseat with her arms folded over her ample chest and her lip thrust out in a pout. She looked five.
“I think it’s time to bring out our surprise guest. Every accusation you’ve heard so far pales in comparison to what you’re about to find out after this commercial break.”
Jodi blew out a frustrated breath as the television switched to a shampoo commercial.
“Do you have any idea what that guy is talking about?” her dad asked.
“Not a clue.”
He shrugged and settled into his chair. “This could be interesting.”
“So now you like the show,” she teased him.
“Not even close. But I like Tucker, and I’ve been watching his face this entire time. He knows what’s about to go down. Katia doesn’t.” Her dad rubbed his hands together as if he were in cahoots with Tuck.
“I’ve created a monster.” She agreed though. Tuck knew.
When the show came back on, Cameron was still standing. “Welcome back. Like I was saying before the break, we have a surprise guest joining us.” He turned to swing his arm out toward the back of the stage. “Please welcome Josh Walters to the stage.”
The view suddenly switched to a split screen as whoever Josh was entered from the back while Katia jumped to her feet. She was pale earlier. Now she was white as a sheet. “What the fuck?” Jodi could read her lips, but that last word was bleeped out.
“Did you think you would get away with this forever?” Josh asked as he joined them and took a seat next to Cameron on the now vacated loveseat.
Katia was fuming. “You had no right to interfere.”
He shrugged. “You had no right to lie to the entire world.”
“I hardly know you.”
He shrugged again, lifting his brows slightly. “Not my fault. You’re the one who took off in the middle of the night a year ago and never returned my calls, texts, or emails. I even tried to reach out to you on Facebook and Instagram. Silence.”
“You can’t really expect anyone to believe a word you say.” She turned toward Cameron. Not Tuck. Cameron. “Whatever he told you is a lie.”
Cameron reached behind him and then turned back around holding out a piece of paper. “Is this a lie?”
Katia gasped. “Where did you get that?” She glanced at Josh.
“From the minister at the drive-thru chapel in Vegas. That’s your signature at the bottom. We may have been drunk and stupid, but you married me that night, and it’s a crime to marry a second man before you get a divorce.”
Jodi jumped out of her seat, nearly falling as she untangled her feet from under her. “She’s married?” she screamed.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Her dad chuckled.
Jodi walked closer to the TV as if what she was hearing would be more real if she got closer.
“That stupid paper can’t be legally binding. I was drunk.”
“Oh, it’s legal. If you would have responded to any one of my calls or messages, you would have known that all I wanted was an annulment. It’s easy enough. But instead you ignored me and married another man.” He sat there very calm, one leg crossed casually over the other.
“Why would you come forward now? You could have said something months ago.”
Josh narrowed his gaze. “You are a piece of work, Katia. I’ve contacted you dozens of times lately. I finally realized two things. One, the only way I was going to get that damn marriage dissolved would be to call you out on national television.”
“What was the other thing?” Cameron asked.
Josh glanced at Tuck. “Saving that poor guy from a life of hell in a marriage that’s not even legit.”
Jodi nearly jumped out of her skin. She turned to her dad. “Is that true? Would his marriage to Katia be invalid?”
“Yep. Looks like it.”
“That means he doesn’t have to file for a divorce? He’s free?”
Her dad nodded, smiling.
“Thank you, God.” She turned her head to the ceiling and screamed her elation.
Chapter 23
“Talk to me,” Joanne said to Tuck an hour later in his dressing room. He was tossing the things that belonged to him, which weren’t many, in a bag, wanting to get the hell out of here and go find Jodi.
Joanne leaned her butt on the vanity and gripped the edge with her fingers. “You won’t even consider the contract I’m offering you?”
“Nope.”
“It’s a lot of money.”
“Don’t care.” He really didn’t. No amount of money in the world would lure him to do this again. He hated himself for doing this in the first place. He felt the need to grovel to get Jodi to forgive him for what appeared to be months of temporary insanity. How would she be able to trust that he wasn’t as big of a nutjob as his actions would imply? After all, he’d already been involved in this storm when he met her.
“At least take the contract with you. Look it over. Talk to your lady. Maybe she can convince you it’s worth it.”
He met her gaze, zipping up his bag. “I can guarantee that the woman I’m about to beg to give me a chance has no interest in being a part of this shitshow. Never.”
“Just…ask her.”
He shook his head. “Do not wait for my call. Find someone else. I’m done.”
“What if I guarantee you a completely different set of actors?”
“Nope.” He was growing frustrated, and he wanted to get out of here. It was late. He was tired. He was physically exhausted beyond anything he’d ever experienced. Even times when he’d been on duty surveilling an enemy in the Middle East for twenty-four hours at a time had not made him this bone weary.
She blew out a breath. “Tuck, you’ve got me by the balls here. The fans want to see you in the next season. They loved you. They ate you up.”
“Don’t care.”
“Have you truly never looked at your social media accounts? The show’s fan page? Any
thing?”
“Not once.”
“Well, you have about ten times more followers than Katia.” She lifted a brow. “That has to mean something to you.”
“I can see that it means something to you, but I just don’t give a damn.”
She sighed long and hard. “I wish you’d reconsider. I’ll hold the spot open for you for a few days.”
“You’ll be wasting your time.” He grabbed his bag and took a backward step away from her. “Goodbye, Joanne. I wish I could say it’s been fun. But it’s been awful. Good luck finding another sucker. Please don’t call one of my SEAL teams. The group can’t take another one of your shows. There are so many of us already, we need a support group.”
She laughed and waved off his comment as if it were a joke. It was not. He needed to warn as many of his team as he could about New Millennia Media’s preference for Navy SEALs. He didn’t want to become one of those guys who had to gather at McP’s every few months to provide comfort and advice for some other sucker.
“You’re going to pay for Josh’s annulment and get the ball rolling on that, right?” He wanted to confirm that poor guy was also getting some help.
“Yes. That’s what we agreed to. We’ll handle it.”
“Good.”
“You’ll find a hundred thousand dollars deposited in your account first thing tomorrow also.”
Tuck smiled for the first time in hours. “Thank you for that. It will go a long way toward easing my stress.”
“Is it your mother who’s in the nursing home?” she asked, her voice kind.
“Yes. End-stage Alzheimer’s. Expensive care.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll keep her in my prayers.”
“I appreciate that. Now, if you don’t mind, I have a woman to go to.”
“Does she know what a prize she’s getting?”
“Regardless, I will spend the rest of my life making sure she knows how much I appreciate her every day.”
Joanne sighed, putting a hand over her heart. Her eyes were teary. “She’s a lucky woman.”
“I’m a luckier man.”
“Go.” Joanne pointed at the door.
“Gladly.” Tuck turned and left the set for the last time.
Chapter 24
As soon as Tuck sat down in his car, he pulled out his cell phone. He considered sending Jodi a text telling her he couldn’t wait until tomorrow and he was on his way to her apartment now. His smile fell as he noticed there were multiple messages and texts from the nursing home.
He quickly opened the message center, his hands shaking as he listened to the first message. He knew though. He knew before he even heard one word.
His mother had died.
He listened anyway as the doctor confirmed his worst nightmare. He listened to each and every message as if maybe one of them would tell him there had been a mistake.
After Tuck finished listening, he dropped the phone in his lap and stared out the windshield, seeing nothing. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there. He only knew that he was in no condition to drive yet. He needed to pull himself together.
Snapshots of his life flicked through his mind. Learning to ride his first bike with his mother running along beside him with her hand on the back of the seat. She never let go until he told her she could.
The smell of cookies baking on a Sunday afternoon while she let him eat all the batter he wanted. So much of it that he never really wanted the cookies when they came out of the oven.
Christmas mornings when she tried to stretch every dollar and get him dozens of small things that weren’t worth much just so he would have lots of presents to open. She wrapped them in the cartoon section of the newspaper, telling him it was more fun that way because later they could read the cartoons and laugh at them over and over again. She was right. They did that as a tradition every afternoon on Christmas day after he opened his gifts.
The first day of school when he insisted he loved his Spiderman backpack from last year so much that he didn’t want a new one. He was always amazed to arrive at school and find it full of the brand-new supplies he needed. He had no idea how she managed to pay for them.
So much love. She’d been the best mom ever. She’d made up for the fact that he didn’t know his father tenfold. He would forever miss her.
Finally, he wiped his eyes, started the engine and drove on autopilot to the nursing home. The night crew met him at the door with sympathetic faces and led him to her so he could say goodbye.
By the time he finished filling out paperwork and waiting for the coroner to arrive, it was almost morning. He was beyond exhausted. There was still so much to do. But first he needed sleep.
Luckily, he’d called a hotel and made his reservation earlier that morning. He went straight there, hauled himself into the room, and dropped into bed. His last thought was that he hadn’t been able to see Jodi. He also hadn’t been able to tell her about his mom. She would be sleeping now. He didn’t want to wake her. Plus, she was expecting him at noon. He would text her in a few hours and ask for a rain check. He wasn’t going to be good company anyway, and there were a dozen things to do to take care of his mother’s passing.
He lay awake for several more minutes, wishing Jodi was in his arms, but telling himself this mood of his was not how he wanted to start their relationship. Hell, he’d never kissed her yet. He’d intended to have her naked and underneath him in less than six hours. That wasn’t going to happen.
Everything about their relationship had been a series of unfortunate events from day one. She didn’t even know the real him. At this point he wasn’t sure he did either. He’d gone from eight years of service in the navy to months of chaos dealing with his mother’s illness.
Jodi had met him in the midst of a crisis. He’d been unfair to her from the start. Would she even like him after she got to know him? Would he even like himself?
He was no good to her right now. He was worn out, stressed, and extremely sad. He needed time. A few days to regroup before he went to her. If he dragged her into his life in six hours, the entire beginning of their barely existent relationship would be filled with sad memories, death, a funeral, him dealing with bills, the fact that he didn’t have a place to live or a job.
He was a mess. No woman would want this on her plate.
Yeah. He totally needed to take care of his problems and get a handle on his emotions before he faced her again. The fact made him sad enough to swallow back another round of tears, but life wasn’t always fair. This would eventually pass, and she would understand if she truly cared about him.
Finally, he fell into a fitful sleep, bolting awake every hour or so until he gave up fighting his nightmares, took a shower, and headed for the funeral home.
Chapter 25
“You’re going to wear out that screen, Jodi.”
Jodi shot her dad a glare and dropped her cellphone on the kitchen table.
“He’ll be here when he can. I’m sure he has things to wrap up.”
“He said he’d pick me up at noon. It’s twelve thirty.”
Her dad set down his coffee and gave her his full attention. “He’s a good man, Jodi. If he’s not here, I’m sure he has a good reason. He was probably so tired when he left that he overslept.”
“I should text him,” she decided, picking up her phone.
“No. You should not. Leave him alone. There are probably far more loose ends than he expected dealing with that show.”
“You’re the one who said he shouldn’t need a divorce. He didn’t even have to go to the courthouse this morning. He was never married to her in the first place.” The elation Jodi felt over this fact had left her grinning all night long. She hadn’t slept more than a few hours, keeping half an ear aware of every noise. Secretly, she’d hoped he would come to her last night after the show ended. Or texted. Or both.
She’d been slightly disappointed that he did neither. Now, she was far more disappointed and growing worried. “What if som
ething happened to him?”
“Nothing happened to him. Fate is not that cruel. Give the man time. I don’t blame him for needing to regroup. He probably suspects you’re going to pounce on him the second he arrives, and he’s not ready.”
Jodi took a deep breath. Her dad was right. She fully had intended to throw herself at him the moment he arrived. It had seemed like a great idea yesterday and two days ago when she’d made it clear that she fully intended to have sex with him the first chance they got. Lunch be damned. Had she been too pushy? Too forward?
She picked up her phone to check for a text again. Nothing. No messages. No texts. She didn’t even know where he might be.
“Don’t do it, Jodi,” her dad warned. “The last thing he needs is for you to pressure him. Trust me. He has his reasons. And when he gets here, he’ll explain them, and you’ll feel foolish.”
“How did you get so wise?” she asked.
He smiled broadly. “I’m a guy. I know what guys think. I also know he’s been head over heels for you for weeks. He’ll be here,” he repeated.
“What if he changed his mind?” She worried again she’d been too forward. Maybe he was the kind of man who preferred to make the first move. Maybe he was turned off by her telling him in detail what she wanted from him this afternoon. The ink wouldn’t have even been dry on his divorce filing yet. It was rude of her to suggest they fuck like bunnies before he caught his breath.
“I can see your mind working. Stop it. Watch TV or something. Go for a run.”
“Go for a run? Are you out of your mind? What if he comes while I’m gone?”
Her dad laughed. “I’ll be here. I can tell him you needed to blow off steam.”
She groaned. “Not a chance.” Finally, she dropped onto the sofa and stared at the ceiling, her phone gripped in her hand.
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