A California Christmas (Silver Springs #7) - Brenda Novak Page 0,62
got the impression she wasn’t eager for Dallas to encourage his younger brothers’ interest in the sport he loved, and she could understand why.
“But next week’s the wedding. We can’t go then, either,” Liam complained.
“We’ll have our chance,” Dallas told him. “Mom and Cal are heading to the coast for a few days after the ceremony. We’ll clean up on Sunday, so she doesn’t have to face that when she gets back, and climb on Monday. You’ll be off school that week for the holidays, so we’ll have plenty of time.”
“Okay,” Liam said, putting a heavy emphasis on the second syllable to show his displeasure with having to wait.
“When I get married I’m going to elope,” Bentley announced.
Aiyana set silverware in front of each of them. “Why’s that?”
“You’ve been planning and working on this wedding for months and months—and yet it’ll be over in a matter of hours. Seems like a waste of time and money to me.”
“Weddings aren’t meant to be practical,” Dallas reminded him.
Aiyana came up behind Bentley and dropped a kiss on his cheek. “We’ll see how fast that changes once you’re in love and your bride wants all of her friends and family see her promise you forever.”
A grudging smile tugged at his lips as if to say he already knew she was right, and they all laughed.
“Shh, I hear something,” Liam said, lifting one hand.
When everyone quit talking, Emery could hear what he did—the jingle of her phone. “Oh, that’s me,” she said, and handed Aiyana the spatula as she hurried up the stairs.
The call had transferred to voice mail by the time she reached her room, but she recognized the number. She’d called and sent several text messages to it since Dallas had gotten it from Ethan.
“No, no! Don’t go anywhere—I’m right here!” she mumbled, afraid she’d missed her one chance to speak to Tommy, and that, for some reason, he wouldn’t pick up when she called back.
“Hello?”
The second she heard his voice, she breathed a huge sigh of relief and closed her door. “Tommy, it’s Emery.”
“I know,” he said. “You’ve been blowing up my phone for two days.”
So why had he waited so long to call her back? “Sorry about that, but I’m in a terrible mess.”
“I’ve seen the video,” he said simply.
She cringed. She felt so violated. “Ethan is claiming you posted it.”
“That’s what you said in your messages. But where would I get something like that?”
“The story he gave me—as well as upper management at the studio to save his job—goes something like this. You have a thing for him, so you were jealous of me. You must’ve been spying on us while we were making love, secretly recorded us and posted that video online so I’d blame him and refuse to get back together.”
“That’s ridiculous! I’ll be honest with you. I do have a thing for Ethan. I always have. Besides being straight, he’s vain, shallow and selfish. But, God help me, there’s something about him. That’s why it was hard for me to make this call. I knew it would mean siding with you against him, and I preferred to stay out of it.”
“Even to proclaim your innocence?”
“I had nothing to do with that video. I didn’t make it, and I certainly didn’t load it onto the internet.”
“I believe you. There’s no doubt in my mind Ethan posted it to get back at me for breaking up with him. He’s using you as a scapegoat. But we can’t let him get away with what he’s done. It’s unfair to both of us.”
“What do you think I can do?”
“Help me.”
“How?”
“Did you ever see any recording equipment in the house? Run across a hidden camera? Remember Ethan talking about filming his sexual exploits? Anything along those lines that might help place the blame where it rightly belongs?”
“I never saw any recording equipment. But that doesn’t mean anything. These days all you need is a cell phone. He could’ve put his phone in a stand on the dresser, had it recording the whole time, and it’s entirely possible you didn’t notice. Even if you saw it, you’d probably assume he was charging it.”
Sadly, that was true. She’d been far too trusting. “You don’t remember picking up on anything about him making his own pornography? Never heard him mention recording himself with me or anyone else?”
“No. I once told him about a friend of mine who used a similar recording to blackmail a partner into returning some paintings, which he’d stolen when he