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I reached for the nearest chair, sure that I was about to keel over. Or that I needed to see a doctor for the lifelike hallucinations I was having.

“Help?”

“I’m kind of the poster child for fuck-ups, in case you hadn’t noticed,” he returned, his eyes snapping to mine at the end, like he’d just realized what he said…and how it meant something different between us.

My cheeks flamed.

“I just mean,” he started again, “I know a thing or two that could help.” His eyes flicked to the door. “For everything you’re doing for Paisley.”

So that was what this was about. Making sure he wasn’t in my debt.

Of course.

“There’s another local apiary farm. The owner—Adam was upset when my honey started doing really well, so he made it seem like I stole all my ideas from him. You know, ideas like making blueberry honey in Maine,” I said with a nervous laugh, running my tongue along my lips. Blaze went stiff, and my stare snapped to his, something sparking there before he doused it. “Wade helped…he sent a letter to the owner of the apiary, saying we’d pursue a defamation case if he continued, but now Adam’s just letting his customers do his dirty work, targeting me online. Anything I post is drowned out by false accusations, and I don’t want to go after them…not unless I really have to.”

If possible, my cheeks got even hotter. Why was I sharing the most painful parts of my life with a man who already had such a low opinion of me?

Why couldn’t I stop?

“Anyway.” I reached up and put my fingers on Paisley’s drawing. Sensational. “My newest flavor is the Cinn-sational.” I smiled again at the name, a smile that quickly dissolved. “But guess who just released their Cinna-bee honey?” I let out a bitter exhale. “He’s going to have the entire state coming for my head if I release mine now. So, I’m probably just going to put a few jars here and there in my aunt’s stores until I can figure out something to make with the rest.”

I could blend something else in with the cinnamon; it wasn’t that I hadn’t thought of it, but I hadn’t been able to stomach the idea yet. Maybe in another month or two, when all the unsellable jars sat in my garage, I would.

I touched the edge of the folder where I’d set it down on the counter earlier. “That’s what this is, by the way. The whole complaint Wade drafted months ago. Defamation, tortious interference—I had to look that one up. It’s all ready to go. All I had to do was sign it.”

Blaze’s brows lifted. “But you didn’t?”

I let out a breath that was supposed to be a laugh and didn’t quite make it. “The second I file, it becomes public record. Every single thing he’s said about me gets read into it, printed with my name attached, and then it’s not gossip on social media anymore. It’s a case. He’d get a stage, and I’d have to stand up on it with him and repeat all of it out loud.” I lifted my shoulder, aiming for casual and missing by about a mile. “I can’t do that.”

I admired the people who could let online vitriol roll right off their back, but I was smart enough to know I wasn’t one of those people.

“And how’s that working out?”

“Honestly?” My throat closed around the truth before I could stop it from getting out. “I don’t know how to keep weathering it and not end up smaller than when I started.”

“Look, you can do what you want, but if you want some advice from someone who’s been accused of a lot worse, and some of it actually true, you can’t shrink back from what you want,” Blaze said, and I caught how his voice roughened as he continued to speak. “I wouldn’t have done half the movies I did if I’d just caved every time the paps wrote something bad about me. About my acting. Don’t let yourself be made small.”

My breath caught. “And how do I do that?” I asked, shifting my weight. “How do I do that when all they want to see is me as some kind of villain? And when to stand up for myself and insist on the truth would only make their lies louder?”

The question detonated in the silence. I had only been thinking about the bullying I faced until the words came out and I realized it sounded like I was talking about him.

Blaze shoved his hands into his pockets, almost like he hadn’t wanted me to see how his fingers were curled into fists.

“You turn the focus on something else. Give them something bigger, something more senn-sational to sink their teeth into than some ridiculous drama.”

“All done,” Paisley exclaimed as she rushed back in through the door, holding Blaze’s phone out to him.

“We should probably get going⁠—”

“Harper.” Paisley ignored her dad and came over to ask, “Are you going to fill all those jars with honey?”

“Yep,” I said, letting my lips pop on the P. “And then I’m going to put your beautiful drawing on them, oh, and figure out a name⁠—”

“Can I help you?”

I blinked. “Figure out a name?”

“No.” She giggled and grabbed my hand. “Can I help fill the jars?”