mind me saying so, boss, you’re an idiot,” Pam told him flatly. “She’s made a difference in you. We’ve all seen that.”
“It’s true,” Debra confirmed with obvious reluctance. “You’ve been happy. I know I behaved badly today, but maybe you should reconsider. It’s about time you got a life.”
Greg frowned then. “You did break up with her, right? Samantha didn’t dump you? She’d have every right to, I think. It’s because you’re who you are and Boone’s who he is that the picture ever made it into the paper. And that speculation about her being a stripper? That had to be somebody’s idea of a joke. What was Ken Jones thinking that he’d print something like that? Did he owe somebody a huge favor?”
Ethan dragged himself out of his own misery long enough to consider what Greg was saying. He’d done the right thing for Samantha by pointing out what she’d be up against in this town, but he didn’t feel all that good about it.
“Now that you mention it, I can’t help wondering who gave that picture to the paper,” he admitted, his ire starting to stir at the person who’d started this chain of events. “It had to be somebody at the party, right? I seriously doubt there were paparazzi lurking around outside at a bachelor party in Sand Castle Bay.”
Greg’s expression turned thoughtful. “You sure about that?” he asked slowly. “Not paparazzi, but how about somebody sent by Boone’s former in-laws? Maybe they intended to catch him doing something stupid. That whole custody issue supposedly died down, but maybe that was only wishful thinking on Boone’s part. Jenny’s folks could have taken one last stab at discrediting him, hoping to stake their claim on B.J.”
Ethan considered the possibility. It was something the deeply embittered Farmers might have done. “But that photo doesn’t incriminate Boone. I’m the one holding a supposed stripper in my arms.”
“Maybe they figured the whole atmosphere was toxic enough to help their cause,” Pam suggested. “And it was Boone’s sister-in-law-to-be you were holding. I’m sure they’d love to create the impression that the Castles are going to be a bad influence on B.J. Everyone knows they blame Emily for anything and everything that went wrong in their daughter’s life. No one agrees with them, by the way. We all know Boone did the best he could by Jenny. She was happy with him. That doesn’t keep the Farmers from hating Boone, Emily and anyone connected to them.”
“That’s just plain twisted,” Ethan said, even though he knew it was a hundred percent true.
“But it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they’d do this,” Greg countered. “Bottom line, you and Samantha were both innocent bystanders in this plot.”
Ethan had to give him credit for a good spin. “Nice try, but Samantha did show up in a cake wearing a bikini. The Farmers didn’t plot that.”
“And you’re going to hold that against her?” Greg chided. “Come on. She was doing a favor for her sister. You know how persuasive Emily can be, and everybody was jumping through hoops to give her everything she asked for leading up to the wedding, even you.”
“Samantha’s motive doesn’t change anything,” Ethan insisted, holding tight to his stance, even when he could see he was on remarkably shaky ground. “It was a bad decision on her part. If she’s going to be a successful businesswoman in this town, she has to think things through.”
Greg scowled at him. “When did you become such a stuffed shirt?”
Ethan knew that’s how he sounded, but he’d made his decision. He had to defend it. “Do you know how quickly I had to tap-dance around the whole issue just now with the parents of the kids in Project Pride? A couple of the moms were eager to pull their kids out of the program, but I persuaded them that this was just a crazy misunderstanding. I tossed Cora Jane’s name around quite a bit, since there’s nobody around here who doesn’t respect her, no matter how much mudslinging goes on.”
Pam regarded him incredulously. “So you used Samantha’s grandmother to get yourself out of hot water? Nice going, boss.”
“I was getting Samantha out of it at the same time,” he protested. “I told them Samantha had every bit as much integrity and trustworthiness as her grandmother, that they shouldn’t be judging her based on a prank. I defended her.”
“A pretty convincing argument,” Greg agreed. “Too bad it didn’t persuade you to overlook this newspaper fiasco.” He