The Ex Factor - Erin McCarthy Page 0,71
that’s what you want.”
His eyes narrowed. “So Ginny is telling you what I want? I would take whatever she says with a grain of salt. Ginny has an angle you know. There is always an angle.” It irritated him that someone was talking out of turn about his future, his desires.
“We all have an angle,” Tennyson said bluntly. “Don’t act like we don’t.”
“Sorry, I can’t do it.” He shook his head. “This is about Jolene, not me. I owe that to her.”
“Why?”
There was the rub. Chance took a sip of his beer. “Because that’s what you do when you care about someone. You plan things together.” For once, he had to think about someone else first instead of himself. No being impulsive, no being frustrated or angry or having a knee-jerk reaction based on his relationship with his father. It was time to grow up, get his act together, and be about Jolene. “Jolene is a good woman. Not just as an artist but as a person, and I screwed up our relationship once. I’m not going to do it again.”
“I think that’s short-sighted.”
“I think that’s none of your business.” He raised his beer towards her. “But here’s to a kick ass album.”
She raised her wine glass. “Cheers.”
“Um, Jo, I think we should forget this trip to the grocery store,” Elle said.
Jolene, who had been playing a game on her phone, looked up as the truck came to a stop. “Why?”
“Because at least two cars followed us here and I don’t know why. Is something going down?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” She sighed. She just wanted some groceries. There was absolutely nothing to eat at either her house or Chance’s. They were on day four of writing with Tennyson and she had consumed nothing but takeout. It was not helping the shrinking jeans situation she was feeling. Half the day her pants were cutting into her gut so hard she couldn’t carry a note. She needed some vegetables, stat.
“Look on the gossip sites.” Elle, who wasn’t one to get rattled, was looking in the rearview mirror and frowning. “Because we’re being tailed hard core.”
Jolene did a quick search online and found pictures of Chance and Tennyson out to dinner the night before. “It says that Chance and Tennyson are dating.” She just shook her head, annoyed, but not surprised. “They went out to eat last night. Which I knew about. I encouraged them to get out of the house. The tabloids are just grasping at gossip straws.” She didn’t love it, but there was always going to be gossip.
“Let me see.” Elle held out her hand for Jolene’s phone and glanced at the screen. “That doesn’t even look incriminating. What’s the big deal?”
“I have no idea. But let’s go buy some produce.”
They were barely out of the car though when three men popped out of two different cars and followed them. Jolene couldn’t hear the cameras clicking, yet she could have sworn she did. It was an odd sensation that she probably would never get used to. The clear sense of eyes on her, watching, judging, taking pictures. She didn’t mind. But it meant she couldn’t entirely relax. She turned and smiled and waved, hoping they would just leave her at the door if she gave them what they wanted.
“So how do you feel about Chance cheating on you again?” a man with a shock of white hair said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she told him. “That dinner last night was a business meeting.”
Elle murmured under her breath. “Zip it, Jolene. Let’s just go in the store.”
“So you didn’t see the pictures?” the man asked.
“Of course I saw the pictures. It’s two people having dinner.”
“No, the other pictures.”
Jolene shouldn’t take the bait. She knew she shouldn’t take the bait. It was a disaster waiting to happen. Nothing good could ever come out of letting someone goad her into anything. But she was a control freak and it killed her to not know what he was referencing. In a move that felt a bit like a slow motion sequence in a movie she held out her hand. “Show me what you’re talking about.”
“No.” Elle started to tug on her arm, but she yanked herself free.
Screw this dude and his desire to humiliate her and wreck her relationship. People shouldn’t be able to get away with that.
The guy swiped on his phone and then held it out for her. “Looks like more than dinner to me.”
It was a picture of