She paid no attention to the questions that were shouted to her, not wanting to invite the beasts to feed. She just wanted to get from one place to the next with as little fuss as possible.
Her ears tuned in when she heard it. Nearly jerking to a standstill at the question, Jeff, her bodyguard, kept pushing her along.
“Nearly there, Miss Evans. Come on, now. Don’t pay any attention to them,” he muttered, ushering her through. Remembering herself, she started hurrying again, but she knew they must have caught the deer in headlights look on her face at their demands.
Not allowing herself to think, she made it to her awaiting flight and settled her still-sleeping daughter into a seat and buckled them both of them in for the flight. Then, she let her head fall onto her hands and tried to think.
It had been nine days since she and Nick had gone ahead and gotten married. Nine blissful, carefree days in which she hadn’t had to worry about being stalked by the media at all hours. True, there had been the gaggle of reporters outside the supermarket when she’d gone shopping a few days earlier, and they’d been there when she had taken Lily for a haircut. But that was it. None of them really mentioned Nick nor did they ever bring up the subject of Summer.
In fact, Summer was practically out of the picture. Ever since Autumn had done her candid, national interview, her twin’s claims no longer sold as sensational. She sounded like a pitiful liar, and Autumn knew that it would burn in her sister’s heart. Nothing was over yet. Not by a long shot.
It was just beginning.
Her cell phone buzzed in her coat pocket minutes before takeoff, and she whipped it out, hoping beyond hope that it would not be Liz. If she knew her best friend, and she surely did, Liz would be supremely angry that the marriage had gone through the way it had. But what she would be even more upset, and hurt, about was the fact that Autumn hadn’t breathed a word of it to anyone. Not even to her best friend. Who was dating her husband. As odd as that sounded.
“Nick.”
There was a small hesitation before he spoke. “Hey, I was just calling to make sure you’re okay.”
“So far, I’m fine. I guess word had to get out somehow, right? All is going according to plan, right?”
“I guess. Listen, I know we didn’t actually go over how we were going to explain ourselves to management and publicity, so I was wondering if you had any ideas. Have you talked to Liz yet?”
Autumn sighed. “I feel like we both should have told her. She’s my best friend, and you’re dating her. But, no, I haven’t told her yet, which means she’s going to be pissed at both of us.”
“Juliette will probably hack me into pieces when I see her later this afternoon,” he informed her. “Her wrath will be mighty.”
She smiled a little. “Sorry about leaving you to deal with this back on the home front.”
“Hey, no sweat. I’ve dealt with worse. At least you didn’t accuse me of beating you and faking bruises,” he joked.
“Somehow, I don’t think management and our publicists will see it that way.”
“You’re right. They’ve got awful senses of humor.” There was a pause. “I was going to start moving stuff into our house tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”
Their house. She’d tried to avoid driving past it but hadn’t been able to stop herself. The realtor had handed over the keys to them two weeks earlier, and she’d taken herself and Lily on a self-guided tour through it. Lily seemed to love it as it gave her plenty of room to run around. It was a good house, but Autumn was still wary of taking the final step of living with Nick. How weird would it be between them?
“It’s fine. I haven’t even started packing my things, so you’ll have the house to yourself for a couple months.”
“Except when I’ll be taking care of Lily. Maybe I could go by your place and get her things and move them in. You want the second room on the left to be her nursery, right?” he asked.
Autumn had to picture the house in her mind, find her bearings in it. “Yeah, that’s the one. I guess you could go ahead and move her things in. It’ll give me less things to worry about moving.”
“Great. So, about the explanation? We should probably have matching ones, so it doesn’t look suspicious,” Nick suggested.
“Why can’t we just stick to the one where we just didn’t want to wait until later in the year because of our hectic schedules?”
“That’s the one I gave the guys.” He paused. “It’s simple, and that’s usually more believable. If we made up some complicated reason, we’d probably be in trouble for it.”
She could only imagine the comments they’d get. “What do we tell the people who really know what’s going on? They’re not going to believe us if we give them the not wanting to wait explanation. They know better.”
“Tricky situation we got, huh?” She could almost hear him shrug. “I’ll make something up, and let you know. See if Juliette buys it in a couple hours, and then you can use it on your team, too. What do you think?”
“At this point, what have we got to lose?”
He sighed. “You’re still mad.”
“Damn right, I am. I liked my life, my career the way they were going before this whole mess,” she admitted. “I’d like to think that I would’ve muddled my way out of the Summer situation without your help, but we’ll never know, will we? Now, I’m married to a guy I barely know. The judgement’s still out on whether or not I like you, by the way,” she informed him.
“Right back at you, babe. Look, you can stew in your anger all you want, but it’s not gonna change the fact that we’re married.”
“I know that,” she hissed, trying not to alert the other passengers by raising her voice. “And you can be sure that I will continue to stew. The media nightmare is never-ending, and I’m tired of it. I don’t think I’ll be able to stand it for the next week, let alone the whole year. I swear, Nick, you should thank your lucky stars that you’re not sitting in front of me right now. I would’ve beaten you senseless for talking me into marrying you that way. It’s just complicated everything a million times. It’ll be a miracle if my friends ever speak to me again.”
There were several moments of silence before he spoke again. “You done with your snit?”
“That wasn’t a snit. I’ll let you know if I have a goddamn snit.”
“Prissy, too. Look, we can’t change anything, and it’s okay if you’re mad at me because, frankly, I don’t really like the idea of marriage to you either. I have to be fucking celibate for the next year if we want to pull this off.”
He sounded so insulted and pained by the idea of no sex that it made her lips curve. “Well, I’m sure you’ll find some way to deal with it. I have to hang up on you now, though. We’re getting ready to taxi out on the runway. Good luck on that meeting. I hope I won’t be a widow too soon,” she added.
“Yeah, right. If I died, you’d totally play it up for all it’s worth. I’ll let you know how it goes. Give Lily a kiss for me, would ya?”
“Okay. ‘Bye, Nick.”
“Take care.”
As she watched land tilt outside her window then slowly fall away as the plane rose, Autumn prayed that they’d get through the next few days without falling on their faces. She was sure those who knew the real situation would tell them they’d leapt before looking, and she’d have to agree. But, she thought as she studied the emerald lily on her finger, there was no going back now.
Nick fidgeted. He fiddled his fingers, thought about whistling to himself. He tried humming one of the new songs under his breath, but the eagle-eyed receptionist glared at him. Juliette was mad, and she was keeping him waiting on purpose. He knew it. He figured she thought the wait would put the fear of God into him.
It didn’t.
“Mr. Carter.” The receptionist had a tight smile on her face. When her boss was angry, everyone’s lives were hellish. The man sitting in front of her was the cause of the anger, and thus her current crappy work situation. He deserved to feel the brunt of that frustration, she thought. “Juliette will see you now.”
He tried to smile back, but the look she shot him had him shaking his head and heading back to his publicist’s office. He knocked on the door once, heard a “come in,” and pushed the door open.
Juliette sat behind her desk and watched him enter, one brow lifted. The look in her eyes was cold enough to freeze water, and he gulped. Oh, boy.
“Hi, Juliette.” Yup, that was his voice. Timid and tiny.
She tapped one elegantly manicured nail on her desk. “Have a seat, Nickolas.”
Yeah, it was usually a bad sign when people used his full name. “Thanks for seeing me so quickly. It’s been a crazy day.”
“I’ll just bet it has.” She studied him again for a moment, making him fight the urge to squirm. “I’m thinking that it would not have been so crazy if you had let us know ahead of time that you and Autumn were planning on getting married as quickly, as rashly, as you did. If you’d let your overworked, overly harassed publicists know that you were going to get married in such a crass, cheap way, we could’ve been the ones to release the official news and in a way that would have garnered the positive press that you and Autumn so desperately need. Unfortunately, you did not inform anyone of your plans, and so I am forced to ask—What the hell were you thinking?” Her voice rose an octave as her eyes went from cold to boiling mad. “I mean, I tried to come up with reasons why the two of you would do something so stupid, so ridiculous, so Britney with such terrible timing. You were aware, were you not, that the Oscars are this weekend? That Autumn’s Oprah special aired yesterday? Every step we try to take to fix the situation, the two of you take two steps backward. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Now, she was pacing angrily, and Nick knew better than to say anything. She was right, and they both knew it. Trouble was, he was having a hard time trying to come up with how to say what he’d come to say without getting killed. So, he stayed silent, wracking his brain for the words, while Juliette continued to pace angrily and mutter to herself about the irresponsibility of clients.
There was a knock at the door, which went unanswered. After a few moments, though, the door opened anyway, and Liz slipped into the room. Nick smiled at her and started to rise to greet her, but the look she shot him froze him in place. Shit, now I’m really in for it, he thought, panic slowly creeping into him. He hadn’t seen Liz since he’d picked up Lily from her house. Before the trip to Chicago where he’d married her best friend. He’d thought he could explain to her what was happening, but, suddenly, he had no idea how he could.
He’d promised her that he would stick with her, and then he’d broken it by lying to her.
Liz ignored him and, skirting around the desk, laid a hand on Juliette’s shoulder. “I haven’t gotten through to Autumn yet. She’s not due to land in Lima for another half hour, but I’m going to have her statement no matter what. It had better be a good one,” she added firmly.
“Agreed. I haven’t gotten Nick’s yet. Too busy reaming him out first for being irresponsible,” Juliette explained. Nick decided if looks could kill, the angry darts that both women’s eyes were firing his way would’ve killed him by now.
“Understood,” Liz replied quietly. She looked away from Nick. It hurt too much to face him dead-on at the moment. But later…
He raised a hand warily. “Can I say something?”
“No.” Juliette folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. “If you open your mouth, I will be compelled to murder you. Unfortunately, that action is illegal, so I have to keep you alive. Because I do, I will make damn sure that, from now on, you follow everything I tell you to do. No exceptions, and no questions asked. You and Autumn are in trouble of monumental proportions, and it is up to us to save your sorry asses.”
“Okay.” The tiny voice was back. “Order away.”
She glanced from him to Liz and back before nodding. “Good. Now, listen closely. I don’t care what excuse you give me for your wedding happening weeks—hell, months—before it was supposed to happen because it’s not going to change the facts. So, here’s what we’re going to do…”
