CHAPTER 30
casey
I am woken by the shrill ringing of my phone on my bedside table. Rude, seeing as I am still recovering from a big night of celebration at the Echo Chamber, not to mention late last night in my bedroom where I learned a few new tricks of the trade.
My phone gives up and I sigh a breath of relief before curling back into Harrison, warm and cosy at my side.
It doesn’t last, my phone ringing loud and obnoxious as it starts up again.
I grab it because I don’t want to wake Harrison, not after he was so wonderful and sweet to me last night.
I glance down at the display to see the name of my agent calling.
He's not the only one who’s tried to call me this morning. I have seven missed calls from Sonny and a bunch of texts from a series of unknown numbers.
Something squeezes tight in my gut as I climb out of bed and answer the call.
“Riley?” I answer, sliding open the door to my balcony and stepping outside. I’m naked but my balcony overlooks my backyard and is private from the neighbouring houses, though the wind is a little chilly on account of the wintery morning.
“Casey,” he barks at me. “I’ve been trying you for the last hour.”
“Sorry,” I reply. “My phone is set to sleep mode until seven.”
“Right. Well, we have a problem,” Riley says, confirming what my gut was already telling me. “Have you seen the news this morning?”
“Which news?” I ask, lead sinking into my stomach.
“All of them. Pick a website,” he says, voice strained.
I put him on speaker and swipe up a webpage, selecting the most obnoxious news site I can think of.
And there, starring as today’s headline news is a photo of me and Harrison at the club last night, tagline blaring “ Casey Busted: Secret’s Out and So Is He! "
“What the fuck,” I rumble, clicking on the attention seeking headline. My eyes dart over the page, not reading but seeing enough to know they have Harrison’s full name and details of his position at the Fever.
But. It’s not much more than conjecture and bluff based solely on a photograph that was taken of us on the footpath of the Echo Chamber last night.
We must not have been aware but there is a shot of our pinkie fingers linked as we stand out the front, waiting for Sonny and Izak to climb out of the cab.
“You seen it?” Riley asks.
“Is that all?” I ask. “Just the photo of us out the front of the club?” Yes, it’s somewhat incriminating but it’s not the smoking gun I was imagining.
“No, that’s not all,” Riley says. “Read on.”
I do as he says and that’s when I see it—the money shot—the one that tipped this story from suggestion to suspicion.
It’s a shot of Harrison and me leaning up against the table in the club.
Our bodies are angled, heads bent towards each other as we share a smile.
But it’s not the sweetness of the stolen smile, it’s the look in our eyes that is the dead giveaway.
We’re gazing at each other like we’re the greatest thing the other has ever seen.
There's a few more just like it from when we danced together on the dance floor.
Fuck. I didn’t even know I looked at Harrison that way. There’s not a lot of room for debate about what’s happening in that photo. We might as well be sharing a passionate kiss.
“Oh,” I say.
“Yes. Oh,” Riley replies. “Anything you want to tell me, Casey?” I can’t answer right away, eyes laser focused on that shot of us taken by some curious observer at the club last night. Does Harrison really look at me like that? Like I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread?
“Casey? You there?” Riley cuts into my line of thought and I shake my head free.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Is there anything you want to tell me?”
I let out a breath of air, eyes drifting back to the bedroom and the sleeping form of Harrison who has no idea our lives have just imploded. He looks so peaceful there, curls mussed and perfect, face open and youthful in the light of dawn. Gosh I love him.
“I um, don’t have anything to say right now,” I tell Riley, aware I’m doing nothing to temper his concern.
“Okay,” he sighs, world weary and just a little disappointed. In me of course. I chose Riley Hart as my player agent because he is the best negotiator in the league. But he’s also a really great guy and I know he’ll have my back if I do decide I need to tell him something.
“Casey, this story is going to explode,” he adds when I say nothing.
“There’s going to be paps everywhere. I expect they’ll be out the front of your house already.
They’ll definitely be at the club today.
It is imperative, and I say this again, it is imperative that you say nothing today.
No statements, no social media posts, no damn opinions about the weather.
Do not open your mouth in public today.”
“Okay, I got it,” I reply a tad defensively. I may have monumentally fucked up last night but I’m not entirely stupid.
“And whatever you do, keep your distance from Harrison Thornfield.”
I sigh heavily, eyes tracking back to the beautiful boy in my bed. The sheets have bunched around his hips, the gorgeous expanse of his back on display for my worried eyes.
“I don’t think I can do that,” I say on an exhale.
“Do what? Be careful?”
“No. Keep my distance.”
Riley is silent for so long I wonder if the line’s gone dead. But then exhales a heavy sounding sigh. “Is he with you now?”
“Yeah,” I admit. “He’s in my bed.”
“Okay,” Riley says, no judgement in his tone. “Can you run some interference?” This is where it would help if I lived in the same city as my agent but he is based in Melbourne where most of the main player agents are found.
“I’ll call Sonny.”
“Okay, good. Do what you can to hide the fact Harrison is at your house,” he adds somewhat unnecessarily. “And let me know when you’re ready to talk. This is what I do, Casey.”
“Okay. I’ll speak to you soon,” I sigh.
I stand on my balcony for an unknown length of time, eyes on the boy in my bed who I’ve only really just got to have properly.
It seems unfair that this would happen to us now.
I think some part of me always knew we were living on borrowed time, but I would have given a hell of a lot to have him to myself for just a bit longer.
I pull myself together and open the sliding door. The sound wakes him and he eyes me with a soft smile as I step back into the room. His smile falls when he sees the expression on my face. I just want to curl up into him and forget the world exists.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“There’s photos,” I tell him, taking the spot beside him on the bed. He automatically curls around me, body heat lending comfort. “From the club last night.”
“But we were careful,” he protests, worry instantly taking hold of his face. “We kept our distance.”
“Yeah mostly,” I sigh, accepting the inevitable when I open the webpage. I show him the first photo and then scroll to the more damaging ones.
“Shit,” he says, pulling my phone closer and zooming in on the shot.
“Yeah,” I agree. “My agent was on the phone just now. He thinks there’s press camped out the front of the house.”
Harrison doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t need to with eyes as expressive as his. He looks up at me, sorrow instead of light in those pretty eyes as he hands me back my phone.
“It’s just speculation,” I add, voice weak to my own ears. “Riley doesn’t want us to comment or say anything today.”
Harrison sighs and looks down, focusing on where his fingers pick at a thread. “Do you want to cool things?”
“What? No,” I say, immediately closing down that line of thought.
“It might be for the best, Case,” he argues. “At least … for now.”
“Just, I can’t think straight right now,” I say. “Let’s not make any big decisions right away. I’ll call Sonny to come get you out of the house. We can decide next steps when we have a better understanding of the full picture.”
Harrison just nods but something has gone out in his eyes, and it pains me even more than the potential discovery of our relationship. But I can’t let it worry me right now with more urgent things to deal with.
I pull myself to standing and step into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. Then I pick up my phone and call Sonny, Harrison’s watchful eyes on me the whole time.
“Casey?” Sonny says as soon as he picks up. “Are you okay, man? I’ve seen all the news stories this morning. It’s hectic.”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I sigh, ignoring my own lie. “Can you come over and help us out? I think there’s paps out on my driveway and … Harrison’s here. I need to get him out.”
“I’m on my way,” Sonny says immediately. I love that he doesn’t ask questions, just steps right into action like I knew he would.
Harrison moves into action too as soon as I tell him Sonny is coming but it’s like we’re suddenly two strangers escaping an awkward hookup. He avoids my eyes, and I probably don’t do anything to reassure him either as I pace the bedroom floor.
I go downstairs to wait for Sonny, confirming that there are indeed a bunch of strangers with zoom camera lenses congregating on my driveway. They’re just standing around, not actively doing anything but I’m sure Sonny’s arrival will prompt a flurry of activity.
I feel sick in my stomach as I hear Sonny’s BMW X and I open the garage roller door with the remote control. He takes the hint and drives straight in, parking beside my Range Rover before I close the door behind him.
I hear Harrison moving down the stairs as I open the side door to Sonny.
“Hey,” he says, reaching around to cuff me in a hug, something I need more than I realised. “You okay?”
“Fine,” I lie, eyeing Harrison as he comes to a stop beside us. He’s fully dressed and wearing shoes already, like he can't wait to get out of here.
“You alright, Harrison?” Sonny tacks on, hand landing on my boyfriend’s shoulder.
“All good,” Harrison replies in a way that shouldn’t make that sickening feeling in my stomach tighten some more.