“There is another option,” Murphy said, raising his brows. “You could turn down the SDA.”
I sighed. “That just opens up another can of worms. She offered to let me stay in her guest house rent-free while I figured out what I wanted to do. Told me her assistant had contacts in all these other industries to help me find a job. I’m not looking for her to take care of me like that. Plus, I have so many years on active duty that it feels like it would be a bad move to walk away from my pension.”
Murphy shrugged. “So do what I did.”
I watched as the other guys made surprised expressions and then nodded like it was a good idea. I didn’t know Murphy as well as they did, so I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I got out and switched to the Department of Defense. My years on active duty count towards my federal retirement, so I’ll still get my full pension. I bet you could find a DOD job in the LA area so you could be with her and still be set financially.”
I stared at him, unable to form words as I let his idea sink in. Could it really be that simple?
Brooks reached over and grabbed Murphy by the shoulder. “Man, I thought you were some kind of stupid for dating my sister, but it turns out you’re pretty smart. Glad to have you in the family.”
The rest of the guys laughed and started joking around, but I tuned them out. Murphy wasn’t just pretty smart. He was a genius. I could turn down the SDA, spend the next two years finishing up my contract in San Diego, then start my government job in LA and be with Paige. I could get my own place and stand on my own two feet, not relying on her money at all.
And if all of that came to pass, and if none of the lying and cheating rumors were true, what would stop us from getting married and being together forever, like we’d always planned? Absolutely nothing.
“Wake up, West,” Hawk said, waving a hand in front of my face. “You there?”
“Sorry,” I said.
“You know what you’re going to do?” Mills asked.
I knew what my long-term plan was, that was for sure. But I couldn’t just march into the other room of this bougie jet and tell Paige I wanted to be with her. Not after all of this nonsense. Guilt weighed heavily on my chest as I thought about how I’d believed the tabloids and her lying ex over her. No, I needed something bigger. Something that would show her that I could handle being fame adjacent and wouldn’t freak out every time the paparazzi tried to blow up our lives with fake scandals.
I nodded. “Yeah, I know what I’m going to do.”
23
Paige
When my dad walked into my home office on Monday morning, he found me sitting at my desk, ready and waiting for him. “Rich.”
He nodded in greeting. “Paige.”
“Have a seat.”
With a quirk of his brow, he crossed the room to one of the two chairs positioned directly across from my spot at my desk. He lowered himself into the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “So, where do we start?”
I’d call him over to discuss my strategy for how to handle the problem at hand, but there was one thing I wanted to talk about first. “Let’s start with Noah not coming within a mile of me.”
Rich was very still. He didn’t move a muscle as he stared at me. But I’d wait. When I’d asked Noah about that strange part of their interaction in my office that day, he’d asked if I was sure I wanted to hear it if it would change my view of one of them. It wasn’t like Noah to not own up to his stuff. If he were talking about himself, he would have just come right out and told me the story. But since he hadn’t, that told me it was my father who would come out looking like the jerk. And Noah wanted to protect me from that. A fact that only made me love him more.
“What are you talking about?” he finally asked, apparently deciding to play dumb.
“Seriously? We both know what I’m talking about.”
“Look, whatever that guy told you—”
I held up a hand. “He didn’t tell me anything. I asked him about it, but I think he was worried about what it might do to my relationship with you if he told me what happened.”
He shifted in his seat, his eyes slipping from side to side. “I see.”
“Tell me.”
“Noah came to see me the day he broke up with you. Before he broke up with you, that is.”
I let his words sink in, staring back at him, afraid to say anything that would keep him from continuing.
He sighed. “He told me about his plan to join the Marines. I told him that I didn’t agree with his decision to walk away from everything we’d built. We had a good plan for his future, and if he’d just stick to it, I promised I could make him a very rich man. Make all his dreams come true. But he just wouldn’t listen.”
I knew how badly my dad had wanted to be Noah’s manager as well. Even though a California team had been the goal for Noah so we could be together, I wasn’t sure how my dad planned to manage both of our careers—especially if they took us to different cities. Even back then, there was something deep down in my core that felt he might have picked Noah’s baseball career over my acting one if he’d had to choose. That’s how sure he was that Noah was going to be the next big thing in the majors.
I remembered him coming with me to every one of Noah’s games in high school. He’d sat with Noah at our kitchen table, taking meetings with schools and discussing his opportunities, why he should choose their school, what was in it for them. The entire time we dated junior and senior year, my dad was Noah’s biggest fan next to me. Almost, I thought, like a son to him.
“Noah’s dream had changed, Rich,” I said through my teeth.
He shook his head. “No, he was just upset about his parents and made a dumb decision. I knew it then and I still think it now. If he’d only buckled down and channeled that negativity into his game, who knows where he’d be right now.”
“Or where you’d be.”
He blinked. “Paige. It’s not about me.”
“Of course it is. You didn’t care about Noah, just what Noah’s choices meant for you.”
“Well, look. It doesn’t matter now, does it? He went off and became a warfighter instead of a baseball star and you turned into the biggest, most successful actress on American television. It all worked out.”
“For you.”
He pointed a finger at me. “And for you, too, unless you mess it up by actually trying to be with this guy.”
“Rich, what did you say to him about coming within a mile of me? Did you tell him to stay away from me? Is that why he broke up with me in the first place?”
He snorted. “I didn’t have to. That’s part of what he came to see me about. He told me he wasn’t just leaving baseball and our plan, but he was going to leave you, too. Asked me to help you make your dreams come true … as if I weren’t already planning on it. What a joke.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Noah asked him to help me make my dreams come true? So, I was right. Noah had been my dad’s priority, not me. Even with landing the show, there was no guarantee at the time that the pilot was even going to get picked up by a major network. At the time, no one could have predicted it was going to be such a massive hit. Noah still looked like my dad’s fastest route to success back then, and Noah told him to concentrate on me and my career instead because he didn’t want it anymore.
My stomach turned as I processed this information. I knew with a hundred percent certainty that my dad’s tenacity and business savvy had a huge hand in Young, MD being as successful as it was. If all of that hadn’t happened with Noah, would he have continued to be my manager and to advocate for me and the show like that? Where would my career be right now without him?
“Okay, so,” I started, my voice shaking slightly, “he told you that he was leaving me. Then what?”
Rich blew out a breath. “Might as well lay it all out there at this point. I offered him ten grand to stay away from you for good.”
My eyes bulged and an audible gasp escaped my
lips. “You what?”
“Yep. Ten grand. I said if he was really serious about walking away from his future then he was the dumbest piece of crap I’d ever met, and I didn’t want him anywhere near my daughter.”
I sat back in my chair, dumbfounded. “Did he take the money?”
He paused, then shook his head. “No, he didn’t take the money. He said some colorful words and walked out. Both times.”
“Both times?”
“I knew there were a couple of Marine bases down in San Diego. The last thing I wanted was for him to come to California and look you up. So, I may have put out a couple of feelers so I could be notified if he ever got stationed here. When I got word he’d moved out here, summer before last, I went to see him.”
I balked. “And?”
“And, I offered him twenty grand this time. You know, told him not to come within a mile of you. Still wouldn’t bite. That ball invitation popped up on social media a few days later.”
I put my face in my hands, my mind reeling. My dad had offered him money to stay away from me for the second time to no avail, and he’d reached out to me right after, a sure sign that he still loved me and no amount of money could keep him away. And I’d turned him down flat. Actually, it was worse—I hadn’t even bothered to acknowledge the invitation. Like he was some nobody who’d meant nothing to me. I was a huge jerk.
“Paige?” Rich asked when I didn’t look back up at him for a while.
“Yes?” I replied, my face still buried.
“What’s the deal? I’ve read the papers, I’ve talked to the producers. I have somewhat of a handle on the truth, here, but what’s your plan? We need to work out a strategy going forward. Should I call Joy? I think your publicist should be in on this meeting.”
My head popped up and I leveled my gaze on him. “You know what, Dad? I think if you’re going to make ridiculous moves regarding my love life like some overprotective father figure, maybe you should just go back to that.”
“What?”
“I can’t trust you with my career if I can’t trust you to do what’s best for me with personal stuff. That should matter more when you really think about it. And I think we both know that Noah is what’s best for me. He’s a great man. You only hate him because you wanted to strike it rich with him and he dropped you. Well, look at you now. I got you what you really wanted—money. Now you can happily take your money and not come within a mile of me.”
“Paige,” he growled, standing, “what are you saying?”
I folded my hands on the desk in front of me and leaned forward. “You’re fired.”
24
Noah
Being in the military had its good parts and bad. One bad part was that even if you were pumped and ready to take a ride to Malibu for an elaborate reunion with your celebrity girlfriend, you had to wait until the weekend. I’d just taken leave, so there was no chance I’d get more days approved this soon after. It wasn’t too bad, though. I had some things I needed to figure out on my end, and since Molly was involved in my plan, I knew from her that Paige had a busy week herself.
First, she’d fired her dad on Monday. I couldn’t help but laugh when Molly told me that, then quickly recovered and asked if Paige was okay. Molly said it had been hard but necessary, for reasons I’d have to talk to Paige about. In truth, I probably already knew what it was about.
Molly also said Paige had meetings with her lawyers and Sandra to do damage control and figure out their plan. Sandra had recommended a new manager, and this woman was apparently an up-and-coming superstar in the entertainment contract space. And thanks to this new manager, the producers of Young, MD decided it might be time to kill off Chase’s character in favor of a more worldly love interest for her. This opened up a story line where Dr. Young could volunteer with an organization that helped young people afford medical school. The idea was that bringing Young Minds into the fictional world of the show would give it even more publicity.
I couldn’t wait to hear all about what Paige was up to directly from her, instead of secondhand through Molly. And I also needed to tell her about my week. I’d talked to my superiors about what jobs would transfer well for me in the civilian contractor industry. Gunny Cooper had become something of a mentor, so he’d volunteered to sit down and help me look at all of my options and even wrote me a recommendation letter.
I’d applied for six jobs with the DOD in the greater Los Angeles area. That was the cool thing about government jobs. They knew in advance when they would have openings, and it wasn’t unheard of to secure a position with them two years in advance of leaving active duty. That kind of future planning and stability was exactly the thing I needed to feel secure about my next steps.
And speaking of steps, I was so caught up in my thoughts that I tripped over a rock and almost fell flat on my face. I caught myself just in time to get both of my feet back under me before I slipped into the ravine.
I was on a ridge on the Solstice Canyon Trail, the hike Paige had told me was her new favorite thanks to the waterfall. I looked over the edge at the mysterious Tropical Terrace. Nearby signage explained that it was the ruins of a Malibu home built in the sixties and then burned to the ground in the eighties. My goal was to hike alone past the exotic plants and natural pools, then wait for Paige and Molly at the base of the thirty-foot waterfall across from the ruins. Molly said she’d actually had to try really hard to convince Paige to do the hike because she was so busy moping around when she wasn’t kicking butt and taking names in her professional life. While I didn’t like to hear that she was sad, I got a small twinge of happiness at the idea that she was just as miserable without me as I was without her.
It didn’t take them long to show up after I did, and I laughed at the surprised look on Paige’s face when they made it through the trees and spotted me. Paige was dressed in hot pink leggings and a black sports bra, with black hiking shoes. Her curly hair was piled high on her head with wisps hanging down like they’d fallen out while on the hike. The pop of color of her pants amid all the mossy green was a perfect metaphor for what a bright spot she was in my life at that moment. I took a shaky breath as Molly silently backed away to stand with Joe and the guys, just out of sight, as we’d planned.
“Hi, Noah,” she said.
“Hi, PW.”
“What are you doing here?”
I stepped forward. “I had this whole elaborate plan in mind for the helicopter to bring you to Camelback Mountain at sunset in this grand gesture situation, but then I had second thoughts about them lowering you down in a basket or something.”
She rewarded me with a laugh, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth.
“So then I thought, as nice as it would be to go back to our spot, I didn’t want this conversation about our future to happen in a place from our past.”
“And you remembered I told you this was my new favorite hike,” she guessed.
“Yep. And I want us to celebrate the new versions of Paige and Noah that we’ve become, not the old. I know we have a history. But a lot of stuff has happened for both of us since we were in high school. I want us to start fresh,” I went on. “So, I picked this place to tell you that I’m sorry. And that I’m all in. And I know I reacted pretty badly to this whole thing, but I honestly think it was because of what happened last year.”
“Noah—”
I held up a hand. “Wait, sorry, I’ve been rehearsing this, so let me get it all out.”
“Okay,” she replied with a quiet laugh.
“After your dad came to see me last year, I had all these thoughts built up in my head about us picking up where we left off and running away together or something. I know it wasn’t realistic, especially because I’d get arrested if I tried to run away from the military, but you know what I mean. And then you didn’t reply to my invitation. And it bothered me a lot more than I realized.”
“I’m sorry, Noah.”
“It’s okay. I’ve figured out my feelings abo
ut it, but to be fair, it wasn’t like I had a plan back then. I just hoped we could be together. Which was all wrong.”
“What, you don’t anymore?”
“No. I don’t hope we can be together.” Slowly, I stepped toward her, reaching out and tucking a wisp of hair behind her ear. “I know we can be. I’ve decided to get out of the Marines. I’ve already applied for some government jobs in LA so I can keep my pension, and if all goes as planned, I’ll finish my contract and move up here in two years.”
She grinned. “I love that.”
“I love you,” I said, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her close.
“I love you, too.”
I took a deep breath. “Good. Because I don’t want to live in your guest house.”
“That’s okay, I totally understand if you need your space. There are plenty of places in LA, and I know a great real estate—”
I put my finger on her lips to silence her, then smiled, and lowered myself to one knee. The damp ground near the waterfall molded around my knee as I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small box.
“Noah, no way.” Her hands flew up to cover her mouth again.
“I didn’t mean I wanted space when I said I didn’t want to live in your guest house. I meant I wanted to be closer. And I know we only just started dating a month ago, but like you said on the beach that night, this whole thing is ten years in the making. I feel like I’ve waited long enough to spend my life with you, PW. What do you say we finally make it stand for Paige West, not Paige Walker?”
Her tears threatened to fall as she stared down at me, her hand still covering her mouth. “Is this for real?”
I chuckled, opening the box to reveal the sparkling princess-cut diamond ring. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she replied without missing a beat. The second I was upright she lunged forward and threw her arms around me. “Yes, yes, yes.”
We stood there for a moment, arms locked tightly around each other, lost in the moment. The waterfall rushed beside us and the birds in the trees seemed to sing louder. Now that I knew our paths had finally aligned, and we were able to begin our future together, everything felt more real, more vivid, and more alive. I pressed my mouth to hers and my entire body felt like it was on fire. But that was what she did to me. I adored her, and I always had.
Adored by You: A Sweet, Celebrity, Military Romance (San Diego Marines Book 7) Page 17
