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“Same.” She shrugs. “He’s it for me. But my dad obviously hates him and would never approve of him.”
“The same way my father feels about her and her father,” I add.
“Okay. Well, my suggestion is that you two team up and do some good for the community. Show you’re working together for the greater good. Your families can’t argue with that, but we’ll see you growing closer. A project…hmm…” She trails off as she paces a little, thinking out loud. “And you two…” She glances between Jolene and Sam. “I’m recommending you patch things up publicly.” Her eyes move to me. “And you…you’d be better off publicly single, to be honest. What happens when someone eventually finds you out?” She looks over at Jolene. “Or what if you two eventually go public and everyone thinks you betrayed your best friend because she was with him first?”
“Oh,” Jolene says. “I didn’t really think about that. We were more concerned about diverting attention right now versus what comes next.”
“Well, we can’t go back now, so we control this narrative however we have to with our current events as they are,” Ellie says, all business.
Damn, I like working with her.
“I’ll get moving on a project that’ll force you two together. First a public make-up between you two, and in a couple weeks, a break-up. I think. Let me mull this over and draw up a plan. Now as for last night’s damage control.” She pulls open a power point that I imagine will cover all the ways we can mitigate damage to my reputation, but the first slide shows us screenshots of the headlines in the news right now.
My name is being torn through the media right now because of what Jolene’s father said, and I can see the horror on Jolene’s face as Ellie shows us headline after headline.
Manipulator. Liar. Piece of Trash.
The words are used over and over, and they’re painting me in the worst possible light.
My stomach twists, and Jolene looks like she’s going to be sick. Even Sam looks upset over what we’re seeing.
But the damage has been done, and all we can do is work to fix it. We’re taking the right first steps by confessing the truth to Ellie—I hope.
But still, it does beg the question yet again: Can Jolene and I survive this?
And further, will we ever be able to tell our families the truth about us?
Time will tell, but I’m starting to think it’s going to be impossible.
CHAPTER 12: LINCOLN
Ellie leaves, and I finally call Troy Bodine’s secretary and make a dinner appointment with him and his wife on Tuesday evening when he doesn’t have a game. Sam is available and Jolene plans to watch the kids, so our plan is in place.
Except it’s Jolene I should be taking to dinner with the baseball manager and his wife, not Sam.
It’s all wrong, and meeting with Ellie made me see that more than ever. We aren’t distracting anybody with a fake relationship. Instead, we’re just creating more potential problems for ourselves down the line.
And I hadn’t thought of it that way. I’m not sure exactly when Sam and I should have our public break-up, or when Sam and Jolene should have their public make-up, but I have faith in Ellie drafting up a plan that’ll work for all of us. Until then, we’re sort of stuck in the same limbo we’ve found ourselves in for the last few weeks.
I have some things to take care of at home, so after I bid my girlfriend goodbye—both the real one and the fake one—I get on my way. And when I pull onto my street, I see my dad’s car parked in my driveway.
I blow out a breath and debate turning the car around, but I know I need to face dear old Dad even though it’s sort of the last thing on my list of what I want to do right now.
I pull past him and into my garage, and I draw in a fortifying breath as I exit the car.
“Where have you been?” he demands gruffly.
“Out,” I answer, feeling a bit like I’m thirty-six and don’t need to answer to my father anymore. I do wonder for a beat whether he’s been waiting in my driveway since last night, though.
“Are you going to invite me in?” he asks.
“I have things to do today,” I say, essentially declining to invite him in. “You could’ve called.”
“I could have, but a surprise visit is always more fun. Where were you?” he asks again, and the hairs on the back of my neck prickle in defense as I get the very real sense that he knows exactly what’s going on.
“I was at my girlfriend’s place, not that it’s any of your business.”
“Your girlfriend is roommates with that Bailey girl, isn’t she?”
