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I put the call on speaker and pull up the website where I just found the article.
“The blind item printed last Thursday is confirmed with photographic evidence,” I read aloud. “New Vegas Aces head coach Lincoln Nash was seen canoodling new VG03 team correspondent Jolene Bailey outside his Las Vegas home a few nights ago. According to sources, this isn’t the first time they’ve been photographed together, and their relationship stems back as early as March of this year when the coach was first hired. The pair are embroiled in a bitter battle of hatred between their families, but even worse than the famous feud is the fact that Coach Nash was photographed last night with Samantha Reynolds, the woman he’s been spotted with on the town on more than one occasion over the last few weeks. Reynolds isn’t just the coach’s girlfriend, however. She’s also Bailey’s roommate and close friend, making Bailey the other woman in this equation as the coach is painted in his own rather negative light. If he’s willing to cheat on his nurse practitioner girlfriend, what else is he capable of lying about, and where else might we catch him cheating? All eyes will be watching closely as the season opens in two Sundays at home in Vegas against the Seahawks.”
“Jesus Christ,” he mutters. “That’s slander.”
“Technically you mean libel, but either way, defamation is when someone makes a false statement. What’s false about what that article says?” I ask. “We have been together since March. We were canoodling on your front porch.”
“Leave it to the reporter to get down to the nitty gritty of it.”
I try not to take offense to that. He’s upset, and I get that. I am, too. But facts are facts, and there is going to be a bigger fallout here than we were prepared to deal with. “What would you prefer I do?”
He sighs. “This is…not how I saw this day going. It’s more fucking distractions I don’t need.”
“I’m sorry I’m a distraction to you,” I say, tears filling my eyes. I know I’m reacting emotionally right now, but I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to get ahead of this. I don’t know how to keep my family from being torn apart over this.
He blows out a breath. “You know that’s not what I mean.” I hear a voice at his office door, and then he says, “I have to go. We’ll deal with this later.”
That’s fine and dandy for him to say, but the truth is that he’s going off to work but I am going to have to deal with this now. And I’m going to have to face the offender in an hour all by myself.
I’m still in my pajamas when I emerge from my room and find Sam in the kitchen making lunches for the boys, who are awake but not out here yet.
“Morning,” she says cheerily, already dressed for work in her scrubs as she dances around the kitchen.
“You’re in a good mood,” I say.
“It’s all an act. I’ve already told the boys three times to get dressed, and neither of them has come out here yet with clothes on. So I’m dancing my worries away.” She twirls at the end, and I wish I could be as lighthearted as she is right now, but the heaviness of what I’m about to face is standing in my way.
“I take it you haven’t Googled your own name this morning,” I say dryly.
She stops dancing and peers at me. “I’ve…actually never done that before. Why?”
“Rivera printed the pictures,” I say. “The article basically said I’m the other woman, Lincoln is a big fat cheater, and you’re the victim.”
Her jaw drops, and that’s when I hear a gasp behind me.
“Lincoln is a cheater?” Jonah’s little voice says, and when I whip around, he stands there with a deep sadness in his eyes. Dressed, at least, but the look in his eyes breaks my mama heart.
“No, honey.” I kneel down and give him a hug. “He’s not. He’s one of the good guys.” Despite the way he just talked to me, I still firmly believe that.
“Then why’d you just say that?” he asks.
“I was telling Sam about an article I just saw that was accusing him of some nasty things,” I say.
“But they aren’t true?”
Well, I mean, technically…it’s what it looks like even if it’s not the truth. But that’s only because we’ve all been lying for months.
I sigh. “No. They aren’t true.”
He twists his lips and his brows pinch tightly together. “Okay.” He’s definitely thinking something over.
“What?” I ask.
He shakes his head a little. “Nothing. Well, just…I told Lincoln I wished he was my dad the other day.”
“You did?” Tears pinch behind my eyes.
He should have been the father of my children. Instead I made poor choices after I’d been hurt one too many times, and I ended up with Jeremy. But if I didn’t make those poor choices, Jonah wouldn’t be standing in front of me right now, and because of that, I will never regret it.
