Chapter 24 Drew
DREW
This was not what I’d signed up for.
I was supposed to be a silent background presence, on site only to make sure that everything went smoothly. Why I was now eye-to-eye with a very angry Carter in a crowded storeroom was beyond me.
Actually, it wasn’t. No one else had stepped up to stop the trainwreck that was a drunk Carter, so I’d had to do it myself.
The space was packed with materials for the wedding the following day, but of course it wasn’t the only storage space currently being commandeered for the wedding because Carter had been successful in his bid to bring roller-skating to his after-party, and all of that nonsense took up a room of its own.
“You wanna start something?” Carter slurred at me.
I rubbed my temples for a moment, trying to collect myself so I wouldn’t say something I’d regret.
“Carter, you’ve had quite a bit to drink today and I thought it would be a good idea for you to take a break.”
“Yo, you’re not my fucking keeper,” he spat back at me. “So back the fuck up and let me out.”
I was a brick wall blocking the door, which was good on two counts; Carter couldn’t get out and the goddamned camera guy couldn’t get in. I could feel him bumping against the door from the other side so I kept my body pressed against it.
“Can we just take a breath?” I said as calmly as I could manage with a raging drunk client breathing fire right in front of me. “I think Kristen needs a minute to regroup after that … tribute.”
“Fuck you!” Carter lunged at me with his fist in the air. “Take my woman’s name out of your mouth!”
“Whoa, now hold on,” I took a step towards him.
“No, you hold on,” he fumed. “Dorian told me that you two are always off giggling together, like you’ve got secrets.”
“Carter, absolutely not,” I replied.
“That’s not what Dorian said,” he growled.
“He told me that I need to be one hundred percent sure that Kristen wouldn’t cheat, and until you came into the picture I was sure.
But no, Mr. Handsome and Rich over here has to be all up in our business.
I’m starting to feel like we should call off the whole thing. ”
My body turned to granite at the thought that he might yank the whole event out from under me.
As much as nothing would please me more to see them gone, I couldn’t afford the problems Harrison faced when he pissed off Scarlet Rush’s fans.
My brother survived, thanks to Gwen. I wouldn’t have it so easy with their twenty million followers.
“Carter, you have my word. There’s nothing going on.”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Dorian said I should keep an eye on you.”
I fumed internally at the asshole director for planting doubts in him. “Don’t believe me? Fine, let’s review the tape. Every goddamn word Kristen and I have spoken to each other has been recorded so you’ll get proof that there’s nothing going on between us.”
He stood up straighter then wobbled a little. “She turned her mic off when you were together in the maze!”
“Yeah, but I didn’t turn off mine, remember?
You can still hear everything we said, if that would help.
And you know she only turned hers off because she didn’t want anyone to hear her crying.
Come on, Carter, don’t do this,” I insisted.
“Kristen and I were different people when we were together. It was years ago. And now I’m engaged to Emilia. She’s the love of my life.”
Saying the words out loud came easily, like they were at the tip of my tongue, convincing without me even having to try.
I didn’t have the time to process the way my heart warmed a little at the thought of loving Emilia. First, I needed to avoid getting punched in the face. I could worry about my feelings later.
Carter started pacing in a circle, bouncing on the balls of his feet like he was trying to hype himself up. “Dorian said the sound was muffled for a few seconds when you two were in the maze together. He said he wasn’t sure what happened between you two.”
He kept flexing his fisted hands.
“What happened in the maze, bro?” Carter demanded. “You trying to fuck my wife? Huh?”
“Fiancée,” I corrected before I could stop myself.
Carter’s face went so red that I thought his head was about to explode.
“Oh, that’s fucking it.”
I heard the door open behind me and glanced over my shoulder to see Emilia and Kristen peeking in. I turned back to Carter just in time to step out of the way as he came flying at me. He ended up landing face down on top of a stack of boxes, his weight collapsing them beneath him.
“Shit,” I muttered when Carter didn’t move. “You okay?”
Emilia ran up beside me and grabbed my arm.
“Carter!” Kristen squealed in shock as she dashed to him. “Oh no!”
He groaned and flipped over but didn’t move from on top of the boxes he’d just crushed. “Ouch.” He didn’t sound angry anymore. Actually, he sounded sheepish, like it had finally sunk in what a fool he’d made of himself. About damn time.
Kristen kneeled down. “Honey, are you hurt?”
“Nah,” he said, smiling weakly at her. “Are… um… are you hurt?”
Her shoulders drooped once she seemed to understand what he was getting at.
“That really sucked,” she replied. She didn’t sound harsh or cutting, just sad and hurt, as if she was struggling to understand why he’d talk about them having sex in front of all their friends and family.
I glanced behind me and saw that the camera dude had drifted into the storage room behind Emilia and Kristen. I suppose it was good for the show, since what was unfolding was yet another made-for-TV moment.
The big redemption arc.
“I was just being stupid,” Carter insisted. “No one heard me anyway.”
“Carter, you were practically screaming that speech. Every single person out there heard you. I think some of the people walking by on the beach heard you.”
He did a pouty-face and looked up at Kristen with sad eyes. “I was a bad boy.”
I wondered if my distaste showed on my face. Thankfully the only camera was focused on the couple and not me.
Somehow, the baby talk worked for Kristen, and she finally cracked a smile. “You were very naughty.”
“Sowwy,” he replied.
“Oof, gross,” I said under my breath, and Emilia smacked me in the gut.
“Let them have this moment to fix things,” she whisper-hissed at me.
I nodded.
“Baby, I love you so much,” Carter insisted. “I’m so proud that I get to be your man.”
“Really?” Kristen asked as she broke into a slow smile.
Carter reached up to stroke her cheek. “Hell yes. You’re everything to me. You’re my sun and moon.”
It sounded vaguely like something from Game of Thrones, but I wasn’t surprised that Carter would crib his love confessional from a TV show.
I was a little surprised that he’d have the patience for something so complicated, but maybe he just focused on the dragons and the sex and ignored everything else.
“I love you too,” Kristen replied in a trembling voice. “I’m so lucky.”
“And that stupid prenup my lawyer insisted we sign? Let’s tear it up.”
“Are you sure? I thought you said we needed to protect ourselves?”
“We do, but we’ll redo it. It’ll be us against the world.”
Carter and Kristen stared at each other for another moment then leaned in for a cinematic kiss.
“Let’s get back out there,” Carter said as he slowly stood up. “I barely touched my food, and fuck knows we’re paying enough for it.”
He slung his arm around Kristen’s shoulder and the pair headed for the door. He paused beside me.
“All good? No hard feelings, bro.”
Actually I was plenty angry at the idiot influencer who assumed that I was the type of person to screw with another man’s fiancée, but of course I was in customer service mode.
I forced myself to smile at the pair. “We’re great. Now go enjoy your party.”
He offered me a fist bump and with the unblinking eye of the camera watching us I had no choice but to indulge him.
“Oh my god,” Emilia breathed once the couple left the storage room, followed by the camera operator. “I feel like you just defused a bomb!”
“Yeah, same,” I agreed. “I hope we’re going to make it through the next twenty-four hours.”
“Well, we have some collateral damage to assess,” she said as she walked over to the boxes Carter had just been sprawled on. “I’m not sure what’s in these but I sure hope it was something like extra napkins.”
I followed behind her. “I hate to tell you this, but I’m pretty sure I heard something break in one of these.”
“Shit, shit, shit,” she muttered under her breath as she tried to pull the tape off. “Do you happen to have a box cutter on you?”
“Sort of wish that I did,” I chuckled. “As protection. But no, I’ll open it.”
I pushed in front of her and stripped the tape from the smashed box. I stepped back to let her reveal what was inside, because I didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with whatever crisis awaited.
“No!” Emilia cried out. “This can’t be!”
I moved closer and saw the ubiquitous green of a motion capture suit.
“Oh, is that for that grandfather thing you pitched?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she said, the panic in her voice obvious. “The production company they hired asked to store some of the equipment here.”
She pulled out the suit and examined it closely. “Oh my god, the sensors are crushed!” She dug deeper into the box. “And two of the micro cameras look damaged. No!”
“Well, it’s not your fault,” I said. “We have security cameras in here so you have proof that Carter is responsible for the damage. And I’m assuming they have insurance for the damaged equipment. No big deal.”
She let out a weary sigh. “Kristen was so excited about this. Damn it, she’s going to be crushed. This was what she needed to have a perfect wedding, and now it’s ruined.”
I snorted. “This wedding? Perfect? Not a fucking chance. Haven’t you seen the same disasters I have?
To hell with perfection. I’m aiming for surviving the next twenty-four hours without someone getting stabbed or the resort burning down.
Anything above and beyond that is gravy.
We’ve just got to get this couple down the aisle, and then we can send them and their cameras and their bullshit and their flimsy little love story away to get divorced in six months, tops. ”
She shook her head, lips twisting in a frown. “Don’t be like that. Sure, they can be… a lot, and Carter has some serious growing up to do, but they really do love each other.”
I laughed out loud. “As if that makes a difference. Come on, you know as well as I do that love doesn’t last. Not for them, not for anyone.”
She looked up at me wide-eyed, like I’d said something surprising. Something shocking. What the hell changed?