A California Christmas (Silver Springs #7) - Brenda Novak Page 0,37
were calling me a slut or making fun of me. It felt as though everyone I knew—even those I didn’t—were gathering around me to taunt and jeer and throw rocks.”
Again, Dallas had to fight the urge to contact Ethan and take this fight into his own hands. “Did you call Ethan and ask what was going on?”
“I did. I called him immediately. My heart was pounding so hard I thought I’d pass out, and my mind was reeling as I tried to figure out who’d recorded us, and who would hate me so much that they would post that video online.” She laughed without mirth. “It wasn’t until I talked to him that I realized.”
He shoveled a forkful of omelet into his mouth. “That it was him?”
She nodded. “He wasn’t upset at all. He was smug, almost gleeful. So then I began to catch on. I realized he was the one who’d recorded it and put it out there—to punish me for breaking up with him.”
“Did you accuse him?”
“I did. And he laughed. He’s lied about laughing since, when I tried to tell Heidi about that call,” she explained. “But that was exactly what he did.”
“Too bad you didn’t get it recorded.”
“Now you know why I’m hoping he’ll do something like that again.”
“The guy deserves to have his ass kicked,” Dallas ground out, once again feeling the desire to do just that.
“What he deserves and what he’s getting seem to be two very different things. I can only hope this lawsuit will make the situation a bit more fair.”
“When will you need to meet with your attorney?”
“I don’t know. So far we’ve been taking care of everything via Skype.”
He got up to pour himself some more coffee. “If you ever have to drive to LA, I’ll go with you, if you want.”
“I would love that. Thank you.” She checked the time. “I’d better get a move on. I don’t want to be late for this interview. It might be the only job I’m able to get,” she added with a rueful laugh.
“Good luck with it.”
She rinsed off her plate and put it in the dishwasher. “You don’t have to go to town in the next ten minutes, do you?”
Although she kept her eyes on what she was doing instead of looking at him, he knew where she was going with this. “No. But I’ll take you.”
She smiled at him, obviously relieved. “Thank you. I have my car, but... I don’t know. It’s easier to be with someone who’s supportive—helps me feel like less of a pariah.”
“I get it. And I don’t mind.”
She started to leave the kitchen but stopped at the last second. “By the way, don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’re not fulfilling your end of the bargain.”
He was just getting up to rinse his own plate. “What bargain?”
“You said I could ask about you as long as you could ask about me. Well, I’ve told you just about everything there is to know about the nightmare I’m going through—I’ve even told you the embarrassing stuff—but you haven’t said a word about yourself.”
“I’m not that interesting,” he joked, hoping to pass it off that easily.
She arched one eyebrow. “Does that mean our friendship only goes so deep? I share and you encourage?”
He thought of the night before, when he’d held her against him in an effort to comfort her, and nearly kissed her. It’d taken him an hour or more to dampen the desire created in that moment. Long after she was gone, his mind kept circling back to it, imagining what it might have been like had he gone through with it. He didn’t want to fight that battle again, so as far as he was concerned, maintaining some emotional distance was a good idea. It might help him maintain some physical distance, too.
He didn’t want to screw up with her while he was home. He wanted to help her.
“There’s just no need to go into it,” he said.
* * *
Emery smoothed down her shirt, checked the tie on it to be sure it was still in a perfect knot and brushed a piece of lint off her skirt. “Wish me luck,” she said as she sat in the passenger side of Dallas’s van looking at the cheerful Sugar Mama sign just down the string of shops on the main drag.
Dallas rested one arm over the steering wheel. “Don’t be nervous,” he said. “She needs your help, which means she should be very friendly.”