Chapter Eighteen
“Hey, you want to go back to my place or are we going to yours?”
Reid stands in the doorway to the primary bedroom in what I’ve started to call residence one. It’s the easternmost of the three brownstones.
We’ve spent the last month making huge changes to Banover Place. There are now three kitchens and three primary bedrooms and three great rooms. Each residence has four bedrooms, and the good news is none of them have bad wiring now.
I glance up from the crown molding I’ve been working on all afternoon. I want to make sure I don’t damage the original wood. “Oh, I think we should put Jer out of his misery and spend the night at your place. Your brother is needy. He fell asleep on the couch last night. I thought he was going out.”
Reid looks superhot in his perfectly tailored suit. It appears he’s spent some time in front of the camera. “He was supposed to meet this new guy Anika set him up with. He called it off at the last minute. I swear I’ve never seen him so hung up on a guy before. It’s not like Jer’s a player or anything, but he tends to take his shot and move on if it doesn’t work. He’s hung up on Patrick.”
“I don’t get it,”
I admit. “Not the being hung up on Patrick bit. I don’t get why Pat won’t give him a shot. They’re adorable together. They get along great on set, and it’s not because Pat’s hiding something. He thinks Jeremiah is. It’s weird.”
Reid moves into the room and holds a hand out to help me up. “So my place it is then. Do you need to pick up fresh clothes or did you stash some last week? I found a pretty pair of undies sliding around with my boxers the other day.”
I am so crazy about this man. I tilt my head to look at him, giving him wide eyes. “Why, Mr. Dorsey, do you have some floozy you’re hanging around with?”
He grins and moves in closer. “Nope. Just one gorgeous contractor who is awfully good at stretching the truth about timelines.”
He kisses my nose, a sweet gesture. “You do not need a full week on that second-floor bathroom in residence three.”
Okay, I probably don’t, but we all stretch timelines. It’s nearly inevitable that something will go wonky, and then we’re on time. If everything is smooth sailing, then we look like superheroes. “I stand by my timeline. Also, the soaker tub isn’t here yet, so I can’t even start. I think you should rethink the flooring in the primary.”
He looks down at the parquet floors. “I would think you would love these floors.”
I kind of thought that was why he was keeping them. “They aren’t original. These babies were put in no earlier than ten years ago, and they were done pretty cheaply. The original stops at the doorway. I pulled a little up and I see some evidence of water damage. I think the foundation fixed the problem as cheaply as they could. So you can happily put some plush carpet in.”
He sighs and stares down at me, his hand coming up to caress the line of my jaw. “Because I like something warm on my toes in the morning. But it’s not ours.”
I like the way he’s started to use the term ours. This project feels like ours. “I think we should design it like it is. I was told this unit is for the oldest daughter. She and her husband have an appreciation for the finer things. They’re both interested in architecture and history. They sound lovely. So let’s surprise them with a stunning-looking home that’s also functional and comforting. I like the carpet at your place.”
“Huh. I kind of thought you didn’t like my place.”
His hands smooth over my hair.
“I guess I don’t feel like I belong there. It’s gorgeous. Don’t get me wrong. It’s stunning, but it doesn’t feel like a home. I’m always worried I’ll break something.”
“Then you wouldn’t mind if I maybe moved,”
he offers.
Oh, I’m not sure I like the sound of that. “Depends on where you’re moving.”
He stares at me for a second like he’s trying to figure out what he really wants to say. “I want to talk to you about something, but there’s part of the story that isn’t mine to tell.”
“Okay. Does it involve you moving to, say, LA?”
There’s another possibility. “You got a new show and you’re moving to Toronto.”
I’ve learned a lot of the home and garden TV world is centered around Canada.
I know I said I was going with the flow, but it turns out I like the flow. I don’t want the flow to end when we finish this thing up in a couple of weeks.
“I’m not leaving New York,”
he says. “I’m going to maybe downsize.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “That’s good. Downsizing can be refreshing.”
Something about the way he says it makes me think it might not be his choice. “It’s a lot of condo for two of you.”
He nods. “And a lot of bad memories that turns out can’t be glossed over with new paint and furniture. Maybe you can help us find a new place. Anything up for sale in your building?”
“My building is a dump,”
I point out. “But Lydia’s is more your style, and I happen to know there are two units up for sale there. I know because I was kind of thinking about looking at the smaller of the two. I probably can’t afford it, but I thought I’d look.”
“Then we can look together,”
he says and kisses me again. “But tonight we’ll go to my place. I’ll call and let Aggie know we’re coming. I think she said she wanted to make meatloaf sometime this week. She thought we could use some comfort food.”
“Sounds delicious.”
I’m all about someone feeding me. “Let me finish up here and we can head out.”
“Not staying late?”
Patrick stands in the doorway, a clipboard in his hand. “Sorry to interrupt. I need to check on the camera in the corner. It needs a battery refresh.”
It’s so easy to forget about the cameras. I take a step back. Reid frowns but moves to my side.
“We were about to head out,”
Reid responds, “Unless you need us for something. I finished my to-cameras with Tony. We’re shooting at the design studio tomorrow.”
Patrick nods and reaches up to pull the small camera in the upper corner of the room. “Nope. We have everything we need. And don’t worry about the cams, Harper. Anika is taking care of you in the editing room. I sat in with her last week, and if you don’t know the two of you are hooking up like crazy pants, you look like congenial coworkers. It’s all bland, if you ask me.”
“Bland?”
I don’t like the word. I think Reid and I are anything but bland.
He shrugs as he opens the camera’s battery pack. “I think a hint of romance would spice things up a bit. She and Luca have the laid-back royals’ thing going, but everyone knows they’re together. We have enough footage of the two of you yelling at each other for an excellent enemies-to-lovers storyline, but Anika says no.”
“We’re not hooking up,”
Reid argues.
“We’re not?”
I was kind of looking forward to hooking up with him tonight. After some of Aggie’s delicious food. Ooo, and I bet she makes a hell of a breakfast, too. I threw a protein bar Reid’s way this morning because we were running late to catch the train that took us from Hell’s Kitchen to the Upper East Side. Aggie will probably be able to shove crêpes in my mouth.
“That is not how I would prefer to refer to our relationship. It makes it sound cheap,”
Reid admits.
“What would you call it?”
I’m interested in hearing this. I’ve been careful to not refer to him with anything that sounds permanent. Even though we’ve taken to going out as a couple with Ani and Luca and Ivy and Heath. A lot. He weirdly fits right in with the supernerd and the king of a small European country.
“You’re my…Harper,”
he says and then sighs. “You’re my girlfriend.”
“Huh.”
Yes, I’m at the stage Ivy talked about where he feeds me enough and I’m used to him and I kind of go with it. Past Harper urged me to fight this. Current Harper is surprisingly cool with it. “Okay.”
“So you don’t have to jump ten feet away from me when you remember there’s a camera on us twenty-four seven.”
Reid reaches for my hand and pulls me in close.
“It’s not that bad,”
Patrick insists. “It’s only in the rooms that are actively being worked on, and they’re all motion activated. The ones filming the actual work, that is. If you two decide to go at it here, please use one of the closets. Or the attic room. That one’s finished and not due to see a camera until the big reveal.”
We do all our sex stuff in real beds now. I do not say that to Patrick, but Reid’s eyes catch mine, filled with humor. We’re thinking the same thing. We’ve been good since that first day in the…kitchen I was actively working on at the time.
Yep, we’ve got a psychic thing going because his eyes go wide.
“I didn’t think about that,”
he whispers. “The kitchen. There was absolutely a camera in there that would have been able to see the island.”
The island where he’d made a meal of me. And then climbed on top of me.
“What?”
Patrick asks when he turns and sees the shock we’re going into. “I’m serious. So you kissed a little. You’re not the first couple to kiss on camera. Ani’s never mentioned it, so it’s not a big deal. You can call her. I know she’s on a plane to Ralavia but I’ve heard they’re using CeCe’s, so I bet the cellular coverage is spectacular. Now, see, if I was going to worship a woman, it would be CeCe Foust. That woman knows how to live.”
“Who would have looked at the tapes from the residence one kitchen reno?”
My voice is as tight as the rest of my body. I made a sex tape. I didn’t mean to make a sex tape. It might be no big deal if I made a sex tape with some random dude, but I made a sex tape with a reality TV star.
“It must have been off,”
Reid says, squeezing my hand. “If that footage exists, we would have heard about it. Ani would have told Ivy, and Ivy would never stop ribbing you about it.”
“What footage?”
Patrick asks.
“My brother would poke me with it twenty-four seven,”
Reid insists. “So it doesn’t exist.”
I’m not so sure. Oh, he’s right about Ivy, but Anika might have kept her mouth shut. She’s a queen now. She’s learned decorum and grace.
Patrick’s gaze moves from Reid to me, and his jaw drops. “Holy shit. You two did it in the kitchen? Like out in the open?”
I shake my head. “It was over a month ago, and it was way after hours. No one but the security guard was still there, and we all know how he likes to get his naps in. Where would the footage be stored? It’s wireless, right?”
Patrick nods. “Yeah. It goes to a mainframe that the editing staff and director can access. We have literally thousands of hours of footage. We don’t go through all of it. The cameras are on simply to catch footage we need. If we don’t have a place in an episode for Harper working on the kitchen, then the likelihood is no one’s even seen it.”
I let loose a long breath. He’s right. The work I was doing that night was all prep work for the next morning. Boring stuff. I wasn’t even supposed to be working. There would be no reason to go through it.
Reid leans over and kisses the top of my head. He’s a deeply affectionate man and while it surprised me at first, I’ve gotten to where I crave his kisses and touches throughout the day. “It’s okay, baby.”
He looks to Patrick. “It’s important that we erase that footage. If it gets out, it could cause an enormous amount of embarrassment for the network and Anika and Luca.”
I feel a flush stain my cheeks. I didn’t even think of that. “Yes. We need to make sure it doesn’t exist.”
Patrick nods. “Yeah, I’ll need permission. Let’s go to the office and I’ll call her directly. I assure you Tom will be all for not having a sex tape associated with his pretty renovation film. I’m not even going to tell him. House of Skanks still haunts his dreams. What were the two of you thinking?”
He stalks out of the room.
Reid follows, gently tugging me along. “We weren’t.”
“Obviously,”
Patrick mutters. “I know it’s practically blasé in Hollywood, but we answer to Toronto, people. Toronto and Ralavia. Ralavia is like a Disney movie. It is very PG. Toronto is… Well, it’s full of Canadians, and they are not used to scandal among their beloved celebrities.”
“I’m American,”
Reid points out as he follows along. “And a New Yorker. I assure you we are used to scandal. She’s my girlfriend. It’s practically boring sex.”
He winces when I punch him in the arm. “Baby, I don’t want anyone else watching it. You know how hot it was. We don’t have to share it with the world. But for our own personal record it was filthy and glorious.”
Patrick turns toward the great room we’re using as a mini production office. “I do not need to hear that. Do you remember what day it was?”
“It was like a Tuesday. Maybe Wednesday.”
I realize I don’t have to wait for Patrick. I have a direct line to the woman herself, and I don’t even have to worry about Ivy listening in. This is a quick trip back so Luca can sign stuff because, well, king.
“October fifth around midnight,”
Reid corrects. “For the record it was a Friday.”
I stare at him. “You are very concerned about records.”
“I’m sorry. When I get nervous I fall back on all the procedurals I’ve watched over the years. We might need a lawyer,” he says.
Patrick pales. “We do not need a lawyer. This is not freaking CSI. This is a tiny show about a home renovation. It is supposed to be easy. This is where my blood pressure is supposed to go to flatline, Dorsey. There is not supposed to be any excitement here, damn it. I am absolutely not supposed to need hacking skills to go into the production files and delete what is considered company property.”
I push the number for Ani’s cell. “I’ll get you the go ahead from the boss herself.”
“I would assume you want to hide the whole ‘I made a sex tape’ thing,”
Patrick points out.
I’m about to explain when Reid waves him off. “She was always going to tell Ani, and she’ll ask Ani not to tell Ivy because Ivy will tease the hell out of her. Ani will agree to keep it quiet, but Ivy will take one look at them and know she’s been left out and they’ll tell her anyway. There’s no point. Look, I know I seem like a vault of toxic masculinity wrapped in a designer package, but I’m going to tell my brother, too, because I’m going to need someone else to know. The key is to keep it in the family, so to speak.”
I kind of want to make out with him right now. The man knows me.
“Well, I don’t want to be a part of the family, so to speak,”
Patrick complains. “Tell Ani I need the editor code.”
“Hey, Harper,”
Anika says. “I was about to call you.”
She sounds…concerned. I put aside my own worries because my bestie has a whole country and a brand-new production studio on her back. It’s a lot. “Everything okay?”
She pauses. “I don’t know how to tell you this. Harper, I don’t even know what happened.”
Shit. “I made a sex tape with Reid and it’s gotten out, hasn’t it?”
Reid curses beside me.
“Yes, how did you know? I got a call from the palace public relations office that one of the French gossip rags is going to run a story about it. The actual tape itself isn’t out, but they’re planning on running stills from it. Luca’s on the phone with our lawyers,” Ani says.
Patrick groans. “I’m going to go and get something to knock out Tom. Where is a drug dealer when you need one? Who thought it was a good idea to clean up Manhattan?”
He starts walking toward the door. “My kingdom for a Xanax.”
“Whoa,”
Jeremiah says as Patrick brushes past him. “It must be bad if we’re talking sedatives. Can I help?”
“Can you go back in time and make your brother not create a sex tape that will forever be associated with a family show?”
Patrick asks with a syrupy sweet grin. “No? Then you’re useless to me. Oh, hey the gang’s all here. Ivy, you should know that Harper…”
Ivy holds up a hand. “Made a sex tape.”
She gives me a thumbs-up. “Way to go, sister.”
“How?”
It’s the only thing I can think to ask because this is moving way fast for me. Not five minutes ago I was a normal woman whose superhot encounter with a design star wasn’t about to be placed on the Internet for the whole world to see.
Ivy strides right to the computer. “Ani asked me to come in and fix the problem here so no one else can access it. Do you want me to put it on a thumb drive for you?”
“Yes,”
Reid says.
“No,”
I reply at the same time.
“Ivy’s there?”
Anika asks.
“I don’t understand what happened.”
Jeremiah looks around at the chaos.
“Yes, Ivy’s here, and she apparently knew before I did. I’m not sure I like that,”
I complain.
“Well, Jer,”
Ivy says as her fingers start to fly across the keyboard, “when two people who pretend to not like each other go at it on a kitchen island in front of a camera, the inevitable happens. I’m just saying, Harper, shouldn’t you have a copy for posterity?”
“Does she need the code? Tell her I texted it to her,”
Anika says in my ear.
“Well, I thought you would be smart enough to like put a little cover on the camera.”
Jeremiah sounds prim. “Like a cap or something. Maybe some tape.”
“I was not thinking about the camera at the time,”
Reid admits. “They’re easy to forget. You get used to them.”
“Anika says she texted you a code,”
I tell Ivy.
It’s chaotic, and I should be way more upset. I’m more irritated than truly worried. I don’t want this to upset Ani, but honestly, I’m not ashamed of anything except not covering the camera. We should have thought about that.
“I don’t need a code,”
Ivy says with a huff. “I’m already in, and I’ve got the login for the fucker who downloaded it. Tell her I’ll send it to her, and I’ve got some hacker friends who can probably figure out who this person sent it to.”
She looks up with a frown. “Tell her I’ll handle it. Keeps the feds from coming after her. My friend might not be the most law abiding when it comes to information. Although… Hey, does diplomatic immunity cover this? Can we make me a duchess or something because it would free me up.”
I don’t think that’s how it works, but I agree with leaving Ani out of the less than legal parts. “Ivy’s got this and we’ll keep you up to date. I’m so sorry if this is going to cause you trouble. I would offer to fall on my sword…”
“You already fell on Reid’s,”
Ani quips. “I’m not letting you quit, but it might be for the best if you hang in public and look like you’re together. We can add in a romantic subplot and all will be well. I’ll let you know what our lawyers say. It’s going to be okay, Harper.”
“I’ll do whatever you need me to,” I offer.
“Tell Ivy to send me that name so I can fire the asshole and then I don’t want to know what she does. If she can cut this thing off at the pass, I would love it. Remind her CeCe has a ton of lawyers who would find getting her out of jail genuinely amusing,”
Anika says and then hangs up.
“It’s one of the assistant editors.”
Ivy’s face is lit by the screen. “I’ve got his email and I’m in. Gosh, why do people bother doing criminal stuff if they’re not even going to try to hide their tracks? Huh. That’s weird.”
“You’re awfully calm.”
Jeremiah’s arms are crossed over his chest. “I thought we were trying to avoid scandal.”
“I suppose I don’t think it’s all that scandalous. I was fucking my girlfriend. We do a mea culpa interview and we’re cool.”
Reid huffs like he just thought of something. “We could get married and then it’s even more boring.”
“What?”
Now I am shocked. Did those words come out of his mouth? “We can’t get married.”
“People have gotten married for worse reasons,”
Reid replies.
“Name one,”
I counter, my head still reeling.
“I don’t know. What was the last Dateline I watched?”
he muses and then snaps his fingers. “Oh, yeah. Man marries an heiress and she mysteriously falls off a mountain on their honeymoon and he inherits everything. See. Worse reasons than publicity and saving some money on an apartment. Think about it. That building is expensive.”
“We’ve been casual for a month,”
I point out.
Reid snorts. “Sure. We’ve spent pretty much every second of the day together, and then we go back to your place or my place. The only time we’re not together is when you have to go to a site to deal with your cousin’s screwups. And I offered to handle him for you.”
I can imagine how my cousin would deal with Reid Dorsey. I’m going to keep those two parts of my life separate. Especially since one of the two parts won’t be around forever and I’ll have to sink back into my real life. These days with Reid feel like a dream sometimes. Getting to work on this magnificent house is the same. I keep getting reminded I don’t belong in either world. Reid is joking with me. He has to be. “We’re not getting married because of a sex tape.”
“Of course you’re not,”
Jeremiah says, and I swear he breathes a sigh of relief.
That stings, but I move on. “We do have to consider how this is going to affect us if it gets out in the public.”
“Already snagged it from the French magazine editor’s system.”
Ivy never looks up. “I’m pretty sure I got every copy. They had it locked down, and I pulled some of the emails concerning it.”
“You what?”
Jeremiah is staring at her like he can’t quite believe it.
“She’s good at her job,”
I explain. “She’s been hacking systems since we were kids. I’m pretty sure I passed Spanish because of Ivy.”
“No, you magically made an A on your final,”
Ivy shoots back. “Anyone read French? I think this email is about the tape. It’s from another company. Skonhet. Hmm. That doesn’t sound French, but the rest of the email is absolutely French. I think.”
The only other language Ivy speaks is code.
“It’s the Swedish word for beauty.”
Reid looks grim as he replies.
“I told you she was planning something,”
Jeremiah says under his breath.
“I’ll handle it.”
Reid turns and starts to walk away.
I rush to catch up to him. “Hey, what’s going on?”
I’m confused. One minute we’re kind of blowing it off, and now he looks like a man on a mission.
“It’s nothing you should worry about,”
Jeremiah says, moving in beside his brother.
“I told you I’ll take care of it,”
Reid replies, but he doesn’t look me in the eye.
And it hits me. “Britta.”
In the weeks we’ve been together he hasn’t mentioned her once and I haven’t brought the subject up. I don’t like thinking about the fact that the guy I’m rapidly falling for used to date supermodels. Well, a supermodel. But just the one is enough to make me heinously insecure.
He hasn’t done anything to feed that. He hasn’t talked about her. There are no photos at his place. By all accounts he’s not thinking about her at all when he’s with me.
But the closed-down expression on his face kicks me in the gut. It’s like a wall has gone up between us, and it’s all about her. “I think we should talk about this. Let’s go somewhere, get a drink and talk this out.”
His fists clench. “I can’t get a drink and talk this out, Harper. I’ve explained to you that I will handle it, and that’s all I can say.”
“Reid,”
Jeremiah begins.
Reid points a finger his brother’s way. “Don’t. Don’t you even dare with me right now. You know exactly what’s happening and why, and I’m not bringing her into this. Let’s go.”
Jeremiah puts his hands up like he’s holding off a predator. “I know.”
I don’t like how he’s pushing his brother. “Hey, he’s done nothing wrong here. We need to take a breath. I know this is terrible, but we should calm down and talk this out.”
“Of course. He’s done nothing wrong. It’s all me.”
Reid’s eyes close briefly, and when he opens them I realize I’ve lost some battle I didn’t even know I was fighting. “Harper, I’m sorry I dragged you into this. I won’t allow that tape to be released or that story to run. If it does, I’ll explain to the press that I’m entirely in the wrong.”
I’m so confused but he’s shutting me out, and I can’t stand it. “Or we could talk about it.”
He turns and walks away without a second glance.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,”
Jeremiah whispers and then he’s gone, too.
I’m left alone and wondering what the hell went wrong.