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Chad put his coffee cup on the counter, and pushed past me in the hallway. "Duty calls," he said, his hand brushing me—maybe accidentally—as he went by. I recoiled from his touch and followed him to the front door, hearing the conversation as he opened it.
"Good morning.Hollywood Entertainerto interview Juliet Manchester and Ryan McDonnell? Are we at the right house?"
I glanced at my watch. They were early. Really early. I moved up next to Chad. "Good morning. Glad you could make it," I said. "Please, come in."
Chad motioned the crew into the front room, and I spotted Jace outside, talking to one of the cameramen, as the reporter came up the front steps, her red bob bouncing as she walked. A little stone of concern lodged itself inside me. He was up. And he hadn’t made a point of responding to me? "Good morning Juliet. Wow, this is beautiful."
"Hi there," I said, reaching out a hand to shake. "You're Alison, right?"
She beamed, as if pleased I had recognized her. "I am," she said. "And I'm so happy to be here." She looked around. "We'll need some time to get the room set up. This is where you want us?" She stood in the front parlor, which Tess had said was where she thought the interview should take place.
"If that will work," I told Alison, wishing they had not popped up so early and needing to let Tess know they were here.
"Perfect."
"Excuse me," I said. "Chad can help you if you need anything." The driving urge to get away from Chad was still lingering in my chest, and I slipped through the basement door and down the stairs, relieved to get away from his odd energy.
As I fled down the steps, I could hear Tess breathing out quick hard breaths as her fists and shins struck the heavy bag hanging from the ceiling. "You're still beating the shit out of these bags, huh?" I asked her stepping into the padded space in the center of the unfinished basement.
"Keeps me in shape," she said, smiling. "Gets my mind to still a bit."
I raised an eyebrow and stepped closer to the bag. A still mind sounded pretty good right then. Between Zac and Jace, and Chad's weird behavior ... and the magazine people arriving early, I could only wish for a still mind. "Dad would be happy," I said. He'd taught her to box when we were young and she was getting bullied a bit at school. Mom had hated the idea, but Tess had always been physical. "Maybe I could use that." I tapped the speed bag with my fist, watching it bounce.
Tess watched me with big observant eyes. "You doing okay?"
I shrugged and punched the heavy bag, hard. Pain flared through my hand as the bones inside of it smashed into what felt like concrete. The bag barely moved. "Ouch. Shit!" I looked over my knuckles to make sure they weren't bleeding or obviously broken.
"You need to wrap your hands if you're going to hit that hard." Tess held up her own wrapped hands, and then switched off the music and picked up her drink. I zoned out while she tidied up and got ready to come back upstairs. She bumped my shoulder. "You sure you're okay?"
"I'm great Tess, really." I couldn't tell her anything, no matter how much I wanted to talk. I would have loved to tell her about Jace, about the way my heart squeezed when he was around. Or to get her advice about Zac, or even Chad and his weird behavior this morning, but I couldn't. I couldn't do any of that without jeopardizing the delicate tower of lies I had built to protect myself. And at this point, telling her the truth would hurt Ryan too. His career depended on this link to me, as stupid as that was, and the last thing I needed to do was affect one more person's life in a negative way.
"Ryan seems nice," she said, her voice soft and careful.
Right. I was supposed to be dating him. I was supposed to gush over him, be lovestruck. I tried to channel my feelings for Jace into my voice. "He's a good guy." It was the best I could do.
"So you've just been seeing each other a couple weeks? I mean, you weren't seeing him before ... you know ...?" My sister was asking me if I'd cheated on Zac.
I tried not to let my anger at the question show. It was a natural thing to be curious about.
I turned and we started up the stairs, and I almost wished I had cheated on him since I was going to pay for it either way. "No. I would have been faithful forever. Even though things ... " I thought about the distance between my husband and me even before he decided to betray me on the island with my chef. "Things had gotten harder," I said. My voice cracked.
"Jul," Tess said, her tone soft and understanding. "I'm so sorry."
God, I wished I could really talk to my sister. I needed a friend to confide in. "There's so much I want to tell you," I said instead.
"So tell me."
"I can't. The magazine people are here." It was as good an excuse as I could come up with, and as I pointed to the front parlor as we came up the stairs, it was a good distraction. Tess immediately spun up into stressy-Tessy. Chad stood right in front of us, grinning at me in a creepy way.
"Crap," Tess said. "They're really early."
"It's good," I told her. "Maybe we'll be done early." And then I could finally talk to Jace.
"I need to shower. I wanted to be ready. I had a plan." Tess sounded mildly panicked.
"It's fine, Tess. You don't have to wait on anyone." We stepped past Chad and Tess looked around, taking in the people milling around the front parlor.
"I got this," she said, and my sister went into hostess mode.
