Chapter 16 Shaw #2
With a wave, she got in her Jeep and sped away, leaving me in her driveway alone. I followed her taillights as they turned around the corner and disappeared.
I wasn’t sure how long I stood there, staring down the empty street.
Had she really just kissed me on the cheek and waved goodbye?
Yes, she had.
My feet came unglued as my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out, Juno’s name on the screen. “Hey.”
“Morning. I spoke to your pilot this morning and everything is ready to take off at noon.” Juno kept speaking, running through my list of things to know and where to return the SUV when I got to Bozeman, but her voice became a dull drone. I blocked it out as I walked to my house.
I paused on the top stair, looking over at Presley’s home.
That was it. We were done. That notion wasn’t settling in my gut.
Juno hung up on me after she realized I wasn’t listening—she’d call again later—and I went inside and finished packing.
When I loaded my bags into the SUV, I refused to glance at Presley’s place again. I drove away from that cul-de-sac and didn’t cast my eyes to the rearview mirror.
Shelly and Cameron were waiting at the Evergreen as I parked.
“We’re all checked out and paid,” Shelly said as I hefted her suitcase into the back. “Let’s get the hell out of here. If I never see another floral print comforter like the one I’ve been sleeping under for weeks, I’ll die a happy woman.”
Cam didn’t speak as he loaded his things and climbed into the backseat, silently as eager to leave Clifton Forge as Shelly. Neither asked to stop and get coffee, not even Shelly, so I drove.
It was only after we hit the highway that I cast my glance backward to the town fading in the distance.
That was the most unsatisfying goodbye of my life.
I blinked at the road.
It was probably better this way. The longer I stayed, the harder it would have been to leave. For me, not Presley, apparently. Would she think of me? Would she keep my number in her phone? Or had I already been deleted?
Since that picture had landed on TMZ, I’d been so worried about keeping her away from unwanted media attention. I’d hidden away, just like she’d wanted. Now we were done and she’d return to her life, no one the wiser.
“Are you okay?” Shelly asked. “You look pale. You’re not getting sick, are you? Because I am not going through another sickness.”
“I’m not sick.”
She gave me a sideways glance, then hoisted her purse up from the floor and began digging. She came out with a bottle of Vitamin C tablets and popped one in her mouth before handing a tablet to me.
I took it, cringing as the bitter orange flavor burst on my tongue. This was not what I was supposed to be tasting today.
“We’ll have some script changes to the scenes we’re doing in the studio,” Cameron said from the backseat.
“All right.”
I liked Cam, but he’d become so focused on the movie there was little to no personal touches to his sentences anymore.
Though that’s what we’d hired him to do.
Stay focused. Keep the rest of us on track.
I probably would have been the same if I hadn’t met a certain blonde who’d consumed my every waking thought.
“Will we need to come back for any retakes here?” An hour ago, I would have loved that idea. I would have insisted, begged even, to make a return trip to Clifton Forge.
But now?
I wasn’t sure. What the hell was up with Presley? The past few days, we’d been so in sync. Every touch, every kiss, every look. I’d seen regret on her face that time had been running out.
Or maybe I’d imagined it there.
No, goddamn it. She’d felt something. My gut couldn’t have been that wrong.
I’d give her the day, but I wasn’t ending things like this.
I was calling her tonight and we’d try again.
By the time my plane landed in Los Angeles, I was itching to get away from Shelly and Cameron. I was grateful for their distraction on the trip, talking nonstop about the movie and what was next for shooting.
The set design was done and tomorrow, we’d get started. There would be no delay now that we were in the home stretch. But before I could shift my focus to the movie, I needed to clear up this thing with Presley.
We parted ways at the airport and I raced home, hauling my bags inside but not unpacking them. I walked through my house, turning on lights with my phone in hand.
The glass doors of my bedroom’s balcony beckoned and I stepped outside, drawing in a deep breath. I’d missed this view. I’d missed the sound of waves crashing against the sand and salt water clinging to the air.
Except I missed Montana too and it had only been hours. Months there had made a lasting impression. So had my stunning neighbor with a smile that stopped my heart.
My phone rang in my hand. It was Laurelin and I almost declined it, wanting to talk to Presley, but I answered in case it was something important. “Hey.”
“You’re back?” Laurelin asked.
“Yeah.”
“Good. Are you sitting down?”
My spine stiffened. “No.”
“Sit down, Shaw.”
I recognized that tone. It came with bad news. “What’s going on?”
“OK! Magazine just published a story that your father was a corrupt cop.”
The world tilted beneath my feet, and I gave all my weight to the deck’s railing, trying to absorb the words. “What?”
“Tom is already working on a statement to squash it,” she said, referring to my publicist. “But I need to know what I’m dealing with. You never said anything, so I just . . . is it true?”
I closed my eyes. The reason that story hadn’t gotten out was because I hadn’t told a soul.
Not until Presley.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
She’d played me.
How could I have been so stupid? When was I going to learn not to trust the women I was fucking?
Presley didn’t want Dark Paradise to come out and she’d fucking played me. No wonder she’d been so happy to see me go this morning. Today was probably payday.
All the trust I’d given her. All the times I’d confided in her.
She knew it all.
“Shaw?” Laurelin said into the phone. “Shaw.”
“It’s true,” I whispered. At least, it was close enough to the truth that denying it would only look foolish.
My family was going to be ruined, my sisters heartbroken.
If I had stayed a cop, no one would have given a shit about Shaw Valance’s father.
This was as much my fault as his.
“We’re not commenting,” Laurelin said. “Don’t say a word. Tell your family to stay quiet too.”
I nodded.
“Do you hear me?”
“Yeah,” I choked out.
I had to call Mom. There’d be paparazzi outside their house in the morning if there weren’t already.
Maybe I should fly them somewhere. They could leave tonight and get away.
My sisters and their families too. None of them needed the press infecting their lives when the truth about Dad would be shock enough.
“I need to make a few calls but keep your phone close,” Laurelin said. “I’ll call back when I know more.”
“Can we buy it from them?” I asked.
“I’m going to try.” Then the line went dead.
We could buy it, but the damage had been done.
I pushed off the railing and dragged a hand through my hair. The world came into focus as shock became anger.
“Fuck.” I pounded my fist on the iron railing. “Fuck!”
The few people walking the beach cast me strange looks. I didn’t care. I didn’t think. I called Presley’s number, my heart racing as it rang.
“Hi,” she answered. “I didn’t think I’d hear from you again.”
“Because you sold me out?” I clipped.
“Huh?”
“You fucking sold me out. I hope you got a decent paycheck.”
There was a rustling in the background, like maybe she’d been in bed and was sitting up. “Shaw, I—”
“Fuck you.”
I ended the call.
Then I blocked and deleted her number.
Fuck her.
Goodbye, Presley.