But the truth was, I had no memory of it.
I wish I did.
And then I’d asked him if he’d ever played a gig.
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” There was no reason to go into that with Hannah.
“So what’s the call?”
“Um…” I couldn’t think about what the right move would be.
“If we’re gonna get out ahead of this, we need to move now. I’m talking within the next hour. We need to release a statement or leak the picture or both.”
“No.” There was no way I was ready to put out a statement and I didn’t want to put Drake on blast like that. It was between us. I’d made this public, and even though I hated what he’d done to me, I wasn’t going to tarnish his professional career because I’d been stupid and got drunk. “Let’s just…wait it out.”
“Okay.” I could hear in her voice that she didn’t think that was the right decision. “But I need you to send me the picture.”
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t been able to get a hold of you for twelve hours and if that happens again and something else happens, I need to have that ammunition.”
“I’ll make sure my phone is charged.”
“Send me the picture.”
With that direction the line went dead.
I sat at Gam’s kitchen table and wondered how my life had spun out of control in the last two days. I scrolled through my texts and voicemails and saw that not one of them was from Drake.
He had to know what was going on. If we didn’t work on the show together, I’d happily never speak to him again. But since I knew that I’d be sitting next to him in the makeup chair next week and have to work with him since ninety percent of Alexis’ scenes were with Trent or his evil twin Xander, I did the mature thing and hit the phone icon next to his name.
It rang twice and went to voicemail. Which meant he’d seen who was calling and declined my call. What an ass. He knew he was the one in the wrong.
I rolled my eyes when his outgoing message came on with Drake, the singer’s, “Hotline Bling” song playing in the background. “Hey it’s Drake. You called me on my cell phone, and since that hotline bling it can only mean one thing. Leave a message.”
What a douche.
My throat was tight, but I tried to sound as pleasant as possible. “Hey, we need to talk. Give me a call when you get a chance.”
I hung up and stared down at my phone. Messages were still coming in. Had I done the right thing not putting out a statement? I had no clue. I guess time would tell.
Chapter 12
Beau
“The only difference between meddling and matchmaking is that the matchmaker gets paid.”
~ Barbara-Jean Nelson
I pulled around to the back of my parents’ farmhouse. There were balloons lining the driveway and streamers hanging from the porch. A large inflatable bouncy house was erected next to the barn. And there was a stand for face painting next to that. There was also going to be a clown making balloon animals and someone walking on stilts.
It was my niece’s third birthday and my mom had gone all out. Growing up with nine kids, we’d never gotten elaborate birthdays. It wasn’t practical with nine kids. On our birthdays we got to choose what we had for dinner, a cake, and whether we played games or a watched a movie.
When I got out of my truck, I noticed that there were no other vehicles here except for my mom’s car. I knew the party didn’t start for a couple of hours, but I was expecting to find everyone bustling around with last minute orders.
“Mama?” I called out when I came through the back door. There were balloons and streamers everywhere. I had to duck in the hallway so I didn’t take any out.
When I walked into the front room I found my mom filling up party bags. “Where is everybody?”
“Shhh!” She shushed me and pointed to my niece Lilah who was sound asleep on the couch and an acoustic show I’d done was playing on the television. “She loves watching you.”
I looked down at my niece who was out like a light. “I can see that.”
My mom swatted me on my arm. “She gets excited and it tuckers her out, then she falls asleep. But watch what happens if I do this.”
My mom pushed pause on the video.
Lilah’s face scrunched and she reached out without