79. Wren
“Imay be a little late getting home from work tonight,” I said to Cooper where she sat, ignoring me in the passenger seat of our car, her dark hair blowing in the gentle breeze through the open windows. “If you want, I can swing by the diner and grab us some veggie burgers on the way.”
Arms crossed, head turned, Cooper didn’t respond, her demeanor as cold as ice.
She’d been that way all week, and it was killing me.
When she and Jillian had woken up the morning after their scare, Cooper had been devastated to learn that Hawk had left town in the middle of the night. I’d done my best to explain that he’d been called back to California for business, and that he’d promised to call, but that hadn’t helped an ounce.
“We could watch a movie,” I cajoled, desperate for her to speak to me. “Any one you want. Even a scary one!”
“Just stop,” Cooper finally said, turning to face me as I pulled to a stop in front of the school. “Quit trying to make it better. You’re only making it worse.”
“Please, Coop. I don’t know what else I can tell you. He had to work.”
“He would have said something to me. Said goodbye.” Staring into those beautiful blue eyes, watching as they once again filled with tears, my heart broke for my girl.
I knew this would happen. From the very first moment I’d opened that door and saw Hawk standing there, I’d known that this would be the inevitable outcome of him showing up in our lives. I tried to be careful—for both me and Cooper—tried to protect us from this very thing, but I’d been just as blinded by him as she was. Hawk had rolled into our lives, showered us with affection and gifts and sweet words, and then he’d turned right around and gone back to his life, leaving both of us crushed and bleeding in his wake.
“Cooper, Hawk is a very busy guy. I’m sure if you just give him some time to get whatever it is he is working on finished, he’ll reach out. Maybe come back for a visit, too.”
“I don’t want him to visit,” she lamented, her tears spilling over, leaving twin streaks of pain on her face. “I want him to stay!”
“Coop,” I started, shocked at the vehemence of her words. I’d known she was mad about him leaving, but this was more than that.
Cooper was hurting, and I didn’t know how to help her.
“What did you say to him?” she hissed, her hand shaking as she pointed at me. “He was fine before you went on your stupid date. He was happy! Happy with me! You must have done something, said something to make him mad.” Gathering her backpack from the floorboards between her feet, Cooper started to climb out of the car. “You’re the reason he left. You’re the reason everyone leaves us.” Slamming the door, she stared at me through the open window, angrily wiping the tears off her cheeks. “You messed up again, Mom, and I’ll never forgive you.”
With that, she turned, darting into the crowd of students all heading in for the last day of classes before summer break, disappearing from view.
I sat there, speechless, unable to rationalize the words that had just come out of my daughter’s mouth.
She blamed me—for everything—and that fucking hurt.
I didn’t know how long I sat there, staring at the double doors to the school, but soon enough, horns were honking, reminding me that I was in the drop off lane and taking up space.
Throwing my car into gear, I left the school, following the familiar route to the office, my mind a muddled mess of accusations and lies.
Because Hawk had been texting, almost since the moment he’d walked out the door.
And I’d been ignoring him, because I was a coward.
I just couldn’t make myself believe that he was for real, that he could actually want to be with me. Yes, it was stupid and juvenile and a hundred other adjectives, but that was my reality. In my head, Hawk wanting to be with me in any way made no sense. Not when he was him and I was, well...nothing.
So I protected myself, keeping him at arm’s length so that I didn’t fall any farther into the maelstrom that was Hawk Jameson. If I could just stay far enough away, maybe it wouldn’t hurt so badly this time.
But it was starting to look like protecting my heart was only damaging Cooper’s, and that was something I refused to do any more.
Settling in at my desk, I booted up my computer, pulling out my phone while I waited. Opening my text thread with Hawk, I read and reread all the messages he’d sent me that I had left unanswered. His pleading for a response. Apologies for leaving. The times he asked after Cooper.
All of them sincere and real and I cursed myself for being such a goddamn baby about the whole thing.
Determined to make it right, I finally texted him back, responding with a simple ‘Hi’ because I was unable to think of anything better in the moment. Watching the screen, I waited for an answer, but as the seconds ticked by, I began to wonder if I had waited too long.
When the bell on the front door chimed, I stuffed the phone in my desk drawer, ready to focus on something else—anything else—that wasn’t Hawk Jameson.
“Morning, Wren,” Daniel said, entering the office right on time.
“Good morning, Daniel,” I replied with false brightness. “Your messages are on your desk.”
“Thank you.” His smile, while as charming as ever, didn’t reach his eyes.
Things had been weird between us since the day Hawk had come in, practically peeing in a circle around me. It hadn’t gotten better when Daniel had seen the photos online of us on our date. Even if the press had been in the dark about my identity, everyone in Grand Rapids knew exactly who had been sitting with Hawk at that table, and the amount of gossip and whispering I’d encountered was honestly astonishing.
I had thought I had seen the worst that the people of Grand Rapids had to offer, but I had been wrong.
“You have a client coming at ten,” I said as he walked straight past my desk, not stopping to chat as he normally would have.
“Thank you, Wren. I’ll be in my office,” he finished, closing the door without another word.
Slumping in my chair, I sighed, hating that yet another relationship in my life was on the rocks because of my actions.
Because of my fear.
Determined to prove to Daniel—and everyone else who was suddenly so interested in me—that I was still the same person I had been a month ago, I got right to work, flying through emails and assembling case files with breakneck speed. When Daniel’s ten o’clock arrived, I offered them refreshment and settled them into the conference room, pointedly ignoring the way they openly stared at me like I was an attraction at a sideshow. I waited patiently while they signed their papers with Daniel and then escorted them back to the front door while they continued to stare.
It was the most exhausting twelve minutes of my morning.
“Thank you for calling Daniel Morley law offices,” I said robotically into the phone when it rang for the first time that morning. “How can I help you?”
“You can help me by answering my calls, you nutcase,” Sabrina chided, her voice full of pretend hurt. “Stop ignoring my texts, too. I had to resort to calling you on a land line like a Neanderthal.”
“Hey, Bri,” I laughed, shaking my head. “Sorry about that. It’s been...a lot.”
“I know, babe. But that’s what best friends are for. Hysterical midnight phone calls where we drink wine and trash talk our exes in our pajamas.”
“He’s not my ex,” I said automatically, and she sighed.
“No, he’s your baby daddy, and that’s even worse.” She and I had had this conversation a time or two before. I hated the term, but she insisted on using it, which was just par for the course for her.
That girl would do anything to ruffle some feathers.
“Bri,” I started, but she cut me off.
“I know you said that you couldn’t come down with Cooper this summer, but maybe all this insanity will change your mind. Tell me you aren’t tired of the Grand Rapids Rumor Mill yet. Those people have nothing better to do than yammer about things that shouldn’t concern them, and I am just so damn sick of it!”
“Sabrina?” I asked, surprised by how angry she actually sounded. “Are you alright? Everything going okay with work?”
“Shit. I’m sorry. This was supposed to be about you.”
“Honestly, I’m actually happy to talk about anything but me right now,” I said. “Tell me what’s happening.”
“It’s just a little office drama,” she said evasively. “Nothing, really. There’s just some chatter around the water cooler about me, and it’s gotten under my skin a little, is all.”
“Bri, babe. I’m sorry.” I could hear in her voice that it was definitely more than a little office gossip. Sabrina liked to act tough, and most times, she really was. But my friend had a soft underbelly that she didn’t often show. Her feelings were delicate, and hard to repair, which was part of why she was so prickly on the outside. Kept people away, which meant they couldn’t get close enough to hurt her.
It was a lesson I probably needed to learn myself.
“Tell you what,” I offered, brightening. “Why don’t you see if you can get some time off? Cooper is done school after today, and as soon as things here calm down, we’ll take that girls’ trip. Maybe get out of the city all together and go somewhere quiet.”
“What, like and all-inclusive in the Caribbean?”
“I was thinking more like a lake house in Duluth, but whatever floats your boat.”
“Fine,” she bemoaned, but I could hear the smile in her voice. “I love you, you know?”
“I love you, too, girl.”
And I did. Through all the ups and downs of my life, the one constant had always been Sabrina. I had no idea what I would have done without her.
I was about to ask if she had any idea what her dates would look like for our spur-of-the-moment getaway, when the phone lines on my desk started blowing up at the exact same time my email began pinging with what sounded like a dozen new emails.
“Bri? I think I gotta go.”
“Everything alright?” she asked, sounding concerned.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I’ll call you as soon as I can. Love you.”
“Wren?” Daniel called as soon as I’d hung up the phone. Sticking his head out of his office, he frowned at me. “What the hell is happening?”
Before I could answer, the front door burst open, and a barrage of flashing lights blinded us both as a half a dozen people pushed into the office, all shouting questions at me at the same time.
“Oh, my God!” I screamed, covering my face to protect my eyes. “Who are you?”
But not a single person was actually listening to me, instead continuing to holler questions at me, questions that had me gaping at them.
“What’s it like being Hawk Jameson’s secret lover?”
“Were you the real cause of his divorce from Victoria Castor?”
“How long have you and Hawk been involved?”
“How much is he paying you to keep it a secret?”
The questions flew at me like bullets, each one striking true. Stunned, I simply stood there while they continued to ask me things I had no intention of answering. Suddenly, a hand wrapped around my arm, and I jumped, looking up to see Daniel guiding me away from my desk and the hoard of photographers trying to get a photo of me.
“This is private property,” Daniel shouted, his voice booming over the shouted questions. “You all need to leave, now, before I call the authorities.”
Of course, no one listened, instead shouting even more horrific things at me while I tried to reconcile what the hell was going on.
“Someone must have leaked your identity,” Daniel said once we had reached his office and closed the door. “I’m calling the sheriff.”
I leaned against the closed door, my whole body shuddering, while Daniel picked up his cell phone and went to make a call, freezing when whatever was on his screen caught his attention.
“Wren,” he said, and something in his voice had my blood turning to ice in my veins. “Wren, there’s a photo.”
“What photo?” I asked, pushing off the door and lunging for his phone. I’d left mine in my desk drawer, and judging by the noise, there were still photographers in our lobby, so there was no way I was going back to get it. “A photo of me?” The very idea had my stomach churning.
I’d seen it a hundred times before; we all had. The media was relentless when it came to gossip. Once they found a topic they thought would sell papers, they dug and dug until they exposed a person’s deepest, darkest secrets.
And I only had one secret worth protecting.
The only one that mattered.
“No,” Daniel answered, his voice dire as he held up his phone to show me the home page of a popular national gossip site. “It’s a photo of Cooper.”