Affinity: A Salvation Society Novel

by Harlow Layne

  “That sounds crazy.”

  He sat down and leaned back on the lounger he had previously occupied. “She was in a bad marriage where her ex emotionally abused her. It messed her up, and that’s the baggage she carries from it. Don’t get me wrong; Alex is better, thanks to Luke. He treats her like the queen she is, and after spending months on end being each other’s world, it’s hard for her when he’s gone. He films a vampire show, so it’s a lot of through the night into early morning shoots.”

  That made me wonder about him. “What’s your filming schedule?”

  “Nothing like Luke’s.” He crossed one ankle over the other. “They give me a schedule each week, and on most days, I have to be there by nine, which means I have to leave around seven-thirty. Other days I have to go in early. It just depends. What will your hours be?”

  I didn’t even know. “I think it will depend on the client. Most of the time, I’m thinking normal working hours, but there will be times when I have to go in early and stay late.”

  “I’m not trying to be a dick, but do you have a car?”

  I shifted uncomfortably at what he’d think of me once he knew about my car. “I do, but it broke down, and the repairman wants more to fix it than it’s worth, so I’m waiting until I make some money to buy a new car.” For now, my car sat in the parking lot of Sophie’s apartment building.

  He cocked his head to the side with narrowed eyes. “How were you going to get to work?”

  “Have you heard of Uber?” I lifted a brow at him. Seriously? Did he think I was going to ask him for a ride?

  “You don’t need an Uber. I have an extra car you can use until you can buy another one.”

  “I . . . that’s really sweet of you. Thank you, Reeves, I just might take you up on your offer.”

  Standing, he pulled a chair out and turned it around backward before he sat down at the table with me. “You should. My cars are heavily tinted to hide from the cameras, and I can promise you it won’t break down.” He glanced at my seen-better-days pizza. “Are you sure you want to eat that? We could order some food?”

  “Would it be horrible if we went to get groceries? I could make us dinner tonight.” I wanted to get out of the house and do something normal.

  “Possibly, but if you want to go, I’ll take you. Mostly for selfish reasons since you’ll then make me dinner.” He chewed the inside of his cheek. “We will be seen, and our picture will be taken, so you should probably . . . ” He cut himself off and looked at me with big eyes.

  I appreciated he didn’t finish his sentence. I wouldn’t want to have my picture taken the way I currently looked with no makeup on and my unbrushed hair up in a messy bun.

  “Give me thirty minutes, and I’ll be ready to go.” I looked him over. Never had I been thankful for a man to sit with his chair backward as I was then. If his torso had been on display, I wasn’t sure if I could concentrate on anything he said. “Is that enough time for you?”

  “Plenty of time, and it will count for our weekly appearance.” His lips tipped up in an ugly sneer.

  I let his look go and tried to be the better person. Giving him a nod, I walked off and started to get ready.

  Twenty-nine minutes later, I walked out of my bedroom and into the living room to find Reeves sitting on the couch with his legs spread wide as he texted away on his phone. He was dressed simply in a pair of cargo shorts and a white t-shirt.

  “I’m ready if you are.”

  Without speaking, he stood and pocketed his phone as he walked toward the garage. I followed behind, wondering what kind of cars he owned. He grabbed a set of keys off the hook as the door started making its way up. When the room lit up, I took in his three vehicles. I wasn’t sure which car he would offer to let me drive to work, but seeing the three Audi’s ranging in size from a sports car, a small sedan, and an SUV, I wasn’t comfortable driving any of them. If I put a scratch on any one of them, I’d never be able to afford to pay for the repair.

  Reeves went to the SUV and got inside. I guess it made the most sense, seeing as how we needed to buy everything. Starting up the car, he rolled down his window. “Are you going to get in or what?”

  Hightailing it over, I slid into the passenger seat, and the supple leather molded to every contour of my body.

  Shifting in his seat, Reeves looked over at me. “Are you ready for this?”

  Pulling my sunglasses out of my purse, I slid them on. “I’ll be ready by the time we get there.” Grabbing my hand out of the air, he laced his fingers through mine and placed them on his thigh. “What are you doing?” I tried to pull my hand away, but he only tightened his grip on me.

  “There will be a mob of photographers outside the gate. While the windows are tinted, it’s better to be safe than sorry. We can’t risk the wrath of Catherine.”

  I wanted to say he couldn’t risk it, but I was sure he’d throw me under the bus if there were any pictures, and we didn’t look like the newlyweds we were. When we pulled up to the gate, I was shocked to see a line of cars parked across the street, and all the bodies angling to get the photo of the day. The moment the gate opened, the flashes started going off. If I hadn’t had my sunglasses on, I would have been blinded. We remained quiet with Reeves looking straight ahead, his jaw clenched the entire ride.

  Imagine my surprise when we pulled into Whole Foods, and five other vehicles trailed in behind us.

  Swinging my head back and forth, I watched as one by one they got out of their cars with cameras in their hands. “Did they follow us?”

  Reeves didn’t even bother to look over before he answered. “Don’t worry, they won’t come inside.”

  “Will they be waiting for us when we come out?”

  “Unless we take forever or a big story breaks, they’ll have their cameras ready to shoot our mundane life every day for the foreseeable future,” he answered drolly. “Are you ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.” I felt like that was going to be my mantra for the next few months.

  Reeves nodded as his eyes shifted around the parking lot. “I’ll come around and let you out. Keep your head down as we walk and don’t let go of my hand. Got it?”

  I rolled my eyes. Like I couldn’t follow directions. “Yes, I got it.”

  Stepping out of the SUV, he moved lithely around to my side and opened the door. Holding his hand out for me to take, I placed mine in his. Giving my hand a squeeze, he took off at a fast pace toward the store. If he was going to walk this fast every time we were out in public, I was going to have to start working out and power walking.

  I kept my head down and was surprised how quiet the world became the moment we stepped inside, and the doors closed behind us. The paparazzi had shouted questions at us from the moment I stepped out of the car until we were inside. I was happy Reeves had me hold his hand as we tried to navigate the parking lot with them closing in on us.

  He stopped once we were out of sight and looked down at me. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. It wasn’t as bad as Vegas, but it will definitely take some getting used to.”

  Grabbing a cart, we headed over to the produce. Reeves looked around as if he’d never seen a fruit or vegetable in his life. I grabbed bags of just about everything since his house was literally empty of all food. While squeezing a new avocado to make guacamole for some fajitas I had planned for later in the week, I nearly dropped the three I had in hand when one of Reeve's hands snaked around my waist.

  “What are you doing?” I asked out of the corner of my mouth. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that almost everyone in the store had been watching us as we slowly made our way through the store.

  “Doing what a happily married man does to his wife,” he whispered in my ear. “Relax and be a happy wife.”

  Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm my nerves and thoughts around this man who both infuriated me and drove me wild with one look or touch.

  I shook off his hold. “Let’s move on.”
/>   “What are those for?” He squeezed the avocado with two long fingers.

  Turning around, I gave him an ‘are you crazy’ look. “It’s an avocado. I’m going to make guac.”

  He groaned deep in his throat. “That sounds so good. I think I’m going to like this arrangement.”

  Maybe if I constantly had food going into his mouth, he’d be more pleasant.

  Pulling away, I moved on to the rest of the store with Reeves trailing along behind me. Every time I stopped, he ran his hand up my arm, pressed a kiss to my shoulder, forehead, or the top of my head, or laced his fingers through mine as I perused the contents.

  When his front plastered to my back, I stiffened and turned my head to see what the hell he was doing. But as I moved, I saw what had him unmovable against me. I’d read what she’d done to him on the internet, and she hadn’t tried to hide the fact that she’d been cheating on him. There was also the fact she was now a drug addict.

  Reeves’ ex-wife, Poppy, was at the other end of the aisle having a stare down with him.

  Chapter Ten

  Jenner

  I couldn’t tear my eyes off the woman who ruined my life. If lasers could have shot out of my eyes to make her disintegrate in front of me, I would’ve been happy. Abbi’s firm, plump breasts pressed against my chest before she lifted up, one hand on each bicep, and tried to block my view. I hadn’t even noticed she’d turned around with my focus on Poppy. “Hey, don’t give her the time of day. Show her what she’s missing.”

  Her brown eyes connected with mine as an unknown emotion played out in them.

  “Thank you,” I mouthed.

  She gave me a small smile with a nod. “Should we move onto the next aisle?”

  “Yeah,” I couldn’t get away from Poppy fast enough. I tugged on her hand as I pulled the cart behind us.

  Once Poppy was out of sight, my body slumped against the cart as we stopped in front of the tortillas. I had no idea what we were looking for, but I felt the need to stay busy. Shifting through the assortment, I looked over at her with furrowed brows. “How do you know which one to get?”

  She looked at them and shrugged. “It’s trial and error if it’s not a brand you usually use. Which packaging looks appealing to you?”

  I held out a package with a skull on them. “How about these?”

  “They don’t have the ones I usually buy, so we might as well try them.” She took them from me and threw them in the almost full cart. “We might need to grab another cart.”

  My head turned toward the entrance, wondering where Poppy was at that moment. Had she left? “Do you want me to get another?”

  “If you would, that would be great.”

  Resigned, I let out a sigh. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Trudging my way back to the front of the store, I kept my head down in the hopes no one would stop me. After seeing my ex, I wasn’t in the mood for signing autographs or being fake. All I wanted to do was get the hell out of here and go home.

  Pulling out a cart, I leaned on the handle as I tried to remember which aisle I’d been in with Abbi. Maybe I should have paid more attention because now I was walking back and forth in front of the aisles trying to find her. Deciding she might be in the back where I couldn’t see her, I turned to go down the next aisle to find her when Poppy turned the corner.

  Stopping dead in my tracks, I moved to turn when she started to cackle. “Yes, run away like the coward you are.” Her upper lip rose in a sneer.

  Bracing myself on the cart so I wouldn’t lunge and strangle her, I looked down at Poppy. Her face was pale, broken out, and drawn with purple slashes under her eyes. My gaze trailed down her body and found it emaciated. It was obvious she was still doing drugs. The only good thing was that her reputation as an actress had been tarnished beyond anything she could come back from. She would never work another day in Hollywood. The only way she would ever be on camera again was if she started doing porn.

  Staying behind my cart, I glared down at her. “I’m not running. It makes me sick to see your face, and I have more groceries I need to get.”

  A loud scoff escaped her as she looked around. “I can’t believe you finally found the grocery store. Is this a sign of the apocalypse?”

  A warm hand ran up my back as the smell of cinnamon and apples washed over me. Abbi wrapped her arm around my waist as she circled me. She looked up with a smile on her face, but with guarded eyes. “Hey, there you are. I thought you might have gotten lost.”

  Leaning down, I kissed the corner of her mouth. “I’m sorry it took me so long, but I got hung up with—”

  “Are you the stupid bitch who was foolish enough to marry him?” Poppy interrupted me with her ugly voice.

  Pulling Abbi into my side, I turned us, my gaze heated as it landed on the woman in front of me. “Don’t speak to her like that. Abbi is the best thing that has ever happened to me and is light years better than you ever were.” Lacing my fingers through Abbi’s, I pulled her with me. “Come on, let’s go get the rest of our food. I can’t wait for a real home-cooked meal.”

  “Enjoy your lame little life together.”

  I could hear the sound of her cackling laugh as we made our way back to the cart Abbi had abandoned. The cart I’d grabbed long forgotten in the wake of my ex-wife.

  “When I used to see her in the tabloids, I always thought she looked so nice, but . . . wow, she’s a huge bitch.” Abbi said the last word with a quiet grimace. “Please tell me she wasn’t always like that.”

  “I can promise you she wasn’t like that when we met or at the beginning of our marriage.” I stopped a few feet away from the cart I recognized as ours. “Things were good at first, but then I was in Dubai for five months filming a movie. Poppy was upset because she couldn’t come with me, and when I came home . . . ” I hated to think about that time in my life. It made me feel so fucking guilty even though I knew it wasn’t my fault. Leaning down, I spoke into her ear so no one else would hear. “She’d changed so much. She stopped hanging out with our friends and had brand new ones who I’m sure got her hooked on drugs.”

  Placing her other hand on my bicep, Abbi rubbed up and down my arm. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. Hopefully, you never have to see her again.”

  I would die a happy man if I never saw my ex another day in my life. It made me wonder if I would feel the same way about Abbi when our year was over.

  She continued, her voice quiet. “Thanks for sticking up for me.”

  Dipping down, our gazes met. “Even though I may not like our situation, everything I said was true.”

  Tears sprang to her eyes. “I never know if what you say is true or not, but I’m going to believe you meant that. Thank you, Reeves. Let’s hurry up and finish so we can get out of here.”

  When was she going to call me Jenner like everyone else? The only person who called me Reeves beside her was my father, and we all knew what a train wreck my relationship with him was.

  My head was in the clouds as I followed her around with the cart. I hoped after this, Abbi would want to do online ordering because it was boring as fuck watching her compare everything on each aisle. I thought it would be a quick in and out. Instead, it was turning into hour two. With how much she was buying, we wouldn’t need to buy food again for the rest of the year.

  I thought once we got to the checkout, we’d be out quickly, but I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. First, the cashier was eye-fucking me as she rang up each item, and then when I pulled out my wallet, Abbi tried to snatch my credit card out from between my fingers. Luckily, I had faster reflexes and stuck it into the keypad before she could blink.

  “Why did you do that?” Her brows were furrowed as she stuck her hands on her hips a few steps away from the checkout lane.

  “Did you really want to spend over four hundred dollars on some groceries?” I tried to do something nice, and she got pissed. Who would have thought?

  “Of course not, but I need
to contribute something. I’m used to working and paying my own way, and it doesn’t sit right with me that I’m living in your house rent-free, and now you just paid for our food.”

  “We’ll figure something out, but for now, let’s look happy. Don’t let go of my hand and keep your head down.”

  She rolled her eyes but slipped on her sunglasses before she grasped my hand.

  We’d been in the store for too long; even more paparazzi had shown up and were waiting for us. I pulled Abbi in front of me and caged her between my body and the cart to keep her safe. I let the cart clear a path between them, but the second we passed, they closed in around us. It had been a long time since they’d been so aggressive with me, and I didn’t miss it in the least. I almost felt bad for Abbi until I remembered everything she was getting out of this marriage.

  Three men with cameras pushed into me, jamming my side into the handle on the cart. I wanted to go full-on Hulk, but I didn’t need the bad publicity or Catherine on my ass after last weekend.

  The crowd made a collective ‘oh’ noise before they barraged us with questions.

  “How’s the happy couple?”

  “When’s the honeymoon?”

  “Is the honeymoon phase over?”

  “Jenner, how do you like domestic life?”

  The questions kept coming along with the flashes as we made our way to the SUV. I opened Abbi’s car door and ushered her inside before I unloaded all of the groceries in the back, so she didn’t have to deal with the paparazzi. They were too pushy, and I didn’t want her scared.

  It took almost five minutes to make our way out of the parking lot with all the paps not getting out of our way. I couldn’t remember it ever being that bad, and I hoped they weren’t going to continue their intrusion into our lives.

  “Is it always going to be like that?” She looked so small as her body shrank down into the seat as if she could hide away from life.