Chapter 18
TASHA
‘And you didn’t know anything about Dale’s plans?’
‘What do you take me for?’
Tasha thought it best not to answer that question. She studied Riley’s earnest expression, searching for clues that he was lying. She reminded herself he was an actor and that pretending was what he did best, so she gave up.
‘Fine. But I think you should get Dale on the phone and have a word with him.’
He shrugged and shook his head as he poured himself a beer. ‘Why? There’s no point now, is there? You said yourself that the photos would already be out there.’
Did he really think that, or was it just that Riley didn’t care about anyone else’s feelings but his own? ‘What about Erin?’
‘What about her?’ He took a sip and seemed genuinely confused.
‘How do you think she’s going to look to her clients when they see her kissing you in the garden?’
He considered her question for a moment and his cocky attitude petered off slightly. ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’
Of course he hadn’t. How typical. ‘And what about Brooke?’ she asked, picturing Riley’s tall, glamorous girlfriend, a spoilt woman used to getting her own way.
Not that Tasha was surprised about how Brooke behaved; she’d grown up as the only child of a wealthy hotelier father and model mother, and was one of the main characters in the top reality TV series currently on television.
‘How do you think she’ll react when she sees the photos? ’
Riley leant against the granite worktop in the kitchen and closed his eyes, groaning. ‘She’ll go ballistic.’
She will, Tasha thought, not looking forward to the fallout when the pair next saw each other. ‘And knowing Brooke, she’ll have words to say to poor Erin too.’
He winced. ‘She will, won’t she?’
‘Yes.’ When would he ever learn? Tasha wondered. ‘You’re going to have to get to Brooke first before she tracks Erin down. Somehow smooth the waters or at least warn Erin about her. As far as you know, Erin might not even know you have a girlfriend.’
‘Brooke isn’t my girlfriend. We broke up.’ He gave a triumphant shrug.
Tasha had worked for the man long enough to suspect he wasn’t being completely truthful. ‘You mean you had another argument after you made up the other day?’
‘We did, as a matter of fact.’
Was the man determined to annoy her? ‘Well, did you just have an argument or did you actually break up? Because if you didn’t finish things with Brooke she probably just thinks you’re sulking and has no clue the relationship has ended.’
‘You can be really annoying sometimes, Tasha. Has anyone ever told you that?’
How typical of Riley to turn the focus onto her. ‘I’d place money on the fact that you didn’t tell Brooke things were over between you. And that’s just not fair. I know it might be news to you, Riley, but most men don’t go around kissing other women when they already have a girlfriend.’
‘Are you sure about that?’ he asked, seeming genuinely perplexed by the notion.
Riley’s phone rang, saving her from arguing her point any longer. When he didn’t bother picking up his phone, Tasha did. She looked at the screen.
‘It’s Dale. You’d better speak to him.’
He groaned. ‘What should I say?’
Tasha clenched her teeth together as she battled to contain her rising temper.
‘Ask him what he thought he was doing sending that photographer. Remind him the man was trespassing on private land, at a private party that wasn’t yours,’ she added, feeling her resolve to remain polite waning.
‘Oh, and ask him to do what he can to stop those photos being sold to the newspapers and magazines.’
She handed him the phone. Unable to stand being in the same room and hearing Dale’s dulcet tones, Tasha walked to the door. ‘I’ll go and change quickly, then I’ll catch up with some paperwork while you speak to him. Let me know when your call is over and I’ll come back inside.’
‘Hi, Dale,’ she heard Riley say, but closed the door before hearing the manager’s voice and went outside to check her emails.
Deciding to find somewhere peaceful to work, Tasha crossed the lawn and walked over to a gazebo partially hidden by some tree branches. She brushed several leaves from the wooden bench and sat. Placing her phone onto the table in the middle, Tasha heard laughter and music coming from the party.
She leant forward onto her elbows, resting her chin in her cupped hands, and thought of Callum, wishing she was still up there with him.
He seemed almost perfect. Decent, kind, thoughtful, and very much a family man.
As sad as Tasha was not to have longer on the island, she couldn’t help thinking how lucky she was to have met him and spent time with him.
Even the little time they had so far spent together.
As much as Riley irritated her sometimes, she knew that it was only his misbehaving on set that had kept them on the island for the extra time and the reason she had been able to spend any time with Callum at all.
Laughter rang out and Tasha wished she could go back to the party, at least for a little while.
If she did, she would need to at least ask Riley whether he wanted to go too, and that really wasn’t an option, not after the photographer incident.
No, she needed to be professional about it and stay at the cottage in case he needed her for anything while he sorted out the issue.
‘Tasha!’ Riley’s voice bellowed from the front door. ‘Where are you?’
‘Over here.’ Thinking it best if she went to him, Tasha picked up her phone and got up to go and see what he wanted. Before she got very far, Riley was marching over to her and despite the dusk light Tasha saw that his expression was thunderous.
Her heart sank. She hoped this wasn’t going to be one of those evenings when she had to spend her time calming his temper and helping him see reason about whatever it was that Dale had said to upset him.
‘What did he say?’ she asked, going back to sit in the gazebo, realising Riley was on his way to join her there.
‘That bloody man.’ Riley sat and shook his head.
Tasha braced herself to hear more.
Riley scowled. ‘He only tried to make out he had done this for my career.’
Tasha attempted to hide her confusion. She shook her head. ‘I can’t see how he worked that out.’
‘That’s what I said. Apparently, this is all my fault.’
‘What? How did he come to that conclusion?’ As much as Riley could be impossible, Tasha couldn’t understand how Dale thought he could get away with laying the blame on him for arranging secret photos to be taken when Riley had known nothing about it.
‘He was rather rude, I thought.’
Dreading what was coming next, Tasha asked, ‘In what way?’
Riley didn’t respond immediately but stared at her. ‘You’d always be honest with me, wouldn’t you, Tasha?’
She often felt she was far too blunt with him but thought that maybe it was her being straight when so many other people around Riley just agreed with anything he said. ‘Yes, I try my best.’
He frowned, then exhaled slowly. ‘Bloody Dale said he felt my popularity had been waning recently.’ Riley narrowed his eyes.
‘If it is that’s because Dale isn’t finding the work for me.
’ He shrugged. ‘He said he believed that a little scandalous story about me in the papers would bring much-needed attention back to me and that’s what I needed right now. ’
‘He did?’ She was surprised. Dale mostly agreed with Riley and didn’t often argue. Tasha was intrigued to hear more.
‘Dale said if the papers get hold of this, which they will because he’ll no doubt be the one selling the photos to them, that I can then tell my side of the story.
Brooke will probably be offered to sell her side of the story too.
’ He laughed. ‘Which we both know she’ll do in a heartbeat. She loves attention, that one.’
Tasha pressed her lips together, desperate not to react. It never ceased to amaze her how oblivious Riley could be about his own behaviour and how he came across to others, yet he was only too quick to criticise other people’s reactions to things.
‘It seems to me that all you and Dale are focusing on is your career and selling the story. Have either of you considered how this will affect Erin? Despite what you said about you and Brooke breaking up, you haven’t made that clear to her; she still feels she has some sort of ownership over you and you’re still in contact.
What happens when she kicks up a fuss, or worse comes to Jersey and decides to confront Erin?
Have you thought about that?’ She tried to stop from adding, ‘Do you even care how this is going to make her feel?’
‘You might be surprised to know, Tasha, that you’re wrong. Brooke and I officially broke up.’
‘When?’
He gave her a piercing look. ‘You’re my PA, Tasha, not my nanny. I don’t tell you everything. But there is no us when it comes to Brooke and me, not any more. So there’s nothing for me, or you,’ he added pointedly, ‘to tell Erin. Is there?’
She tried to gauge whether he was being truthful with her, or just wanting her to stop going on about it. He kept eye contact with her and she presumed he was being honest. ‘Fine. I just hope that is what’s happened, for all your sakes.’
He looked in the direction of the party. ‘Should I go back to the manor house now?’
She considered his question briefly, then shook her head.
‘No. It’s a family party. I do think you need to tip Erin off about the photos before she sees them, or someone else shows them to her.
It’s only fair that you do it tomorrow morning.
’ She thought of Riley’s reluctance to get up in the mornings. ‘Early, though, Riley.’
‘Yes, I heard you,’ he snapped.
She hoped he had.