by Anne Eliot
Adam says softly, “We’re sorry to appear like this, and we meant it to be a fun surprise, but it appears not much fun will be had tonight for us. The fans are going crazy, the paparazzi are on a Guarderobe manhunt, we’ve got a show tonight, and we almost didn’t make it unseen into the unmarked minibus. Everyone’s really flipping out, and, if you must know, so are we.”
“Okay, and this concerns me…why?”
Royce continues, “Our two publicists, Gregory, and Mrs. Felix—pretty much anyone and everyone who’s involved with our professional and personal lives are all in the main house.” He motions to the back door behind him. “And from the way Angel yelled at all of us—hell, like he actually just threatened my life—it appears Mrs. Perino and Angel are slightly beside themselves.”
“This about the newspaper article?”
Royce nods. “That, yes. But, of course, they’re also freaking out about the usual more that comes with the giant conglomerate that is Guarderobe.”
Adam frowns and the others blink like this situation is not a surprise, rather it’s another boring day at work for them. “It’s on me why things are blowing up like this so suddenly.”
I shrug. “I don’t care about that newspaper article, so you can all stop freaking out. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I would appreciate it if you could disappear before your circus train catches up and puts the Perino’s in the spotlight.” I put my hand on my mouth. “Oh God. Did my brother see you?”
Adam glances behind him, then back at me. “For now, your brother and the girls have been hustled into the basement, so no, they didn’t see us coming in here through the garden.”
“Not yet, you mean. If that kid catches wind that you’re here, he will scream like a little girl, and he will expect to go to your concert tonight, and I don’t think the timing is good for that at all considering the article, and even if Mrs. Perino did invite you, I’m begging you to please leave.”
Adam’s face falls. “Gregory is meeting our attorneys over here, with others on Skype. I need to make some phone calls. There’s much to say and do here tonight. We need to do most of it without being seen or photographed, and this is a perfect place to hide out. Again, later you will understand that this is kind of my fault.”
“Kind of his fault, he says?” Hunter glowers. “This whole summer and being stuck in a hotel in Orlando doing these crazy shows is all your fault. All of it, and you will make it up to all of us someday.”
“I’ve promised and I will.” Adam nods.
Royce leans against the porch post. “Like you promised us last summer? Being stuck in that castle in Wales? When will you make that up, too? Christ. When will everyone stop pretending that he can make this all up to us. After today, any make-ups are going to be impossible.”
Adam puts his hands through his hair, looking too anguished to answer.
Vere whispers, “Don’t listen to them, Adam. It always works out for the very best. We simply haven’t found where ‘the best’ is yet with this situation.” Vere, of course, is the only person who could find the sunny side of anything.
Annoyed, I lower my brows and glare. “Royce, you’re the one who caused the newspaper article. You said all of that stuff to that girl. It’s not just Adam’s fault.”
The baby laughs like she gets some sort of private joke, and her giggles capture us all for a moment. Adam reaches back to where Vere is snuggling the baby and runs his hand over her hair fluff. “Robin, you don’t understand the full scope. Mrs. Perino and Angel already said it’s okay that we…stay for a bit. We need to talk to you.”
Royce holds up the same article Angel showed me earlier. “Because of this, and because of the crowds building at the hotel and at the stadium we really need to—include you in our next plan.” He laughs darkly, looking at each of his friends. “Whichever plan we decide to go with, that is.”
Adam sighs, pulling the newspaper forward so I can see that he’s pointing at the shot of him with the redhead in the miniskirt. “See this? I let that photo get snapped. We staged that shot a few days before you were hired. A move I once thought was genius, but in hindsight, it was also very stupid of me. That first photo started the prostitute rumors. Rumors that pissed me off a ton, but ones we thought we could handle.” He shrugs. “It was a publicity stunt that did work to get the press worked up in a direction very far away from the baby. That’s always been our goal. Divert the press from the baby, keep the baby safe and happy—all that. But when we started, when we hired you, we had no idea all of this could ruin your life as well, and now we’ve done that. So, we need to talk to you about that. We need to try to fix it.”
Royce rolls his eyes to the sky. “For the record, I had an idea this would happen. I brought up the idea every damn day. I begged you all not to hire her. I even begged you to fire her.”
“Poor Robin. Are you okay?” Vere asks, shifting the baby from one hip to the other. “The first time one of these stories full of lies leaked about me, I cried and cried.”
“Like I said. I don’t care about the article. My life was pretty much ruined before I met all of you, and things got even worse before I saw that stupid article today. So really, don’t include me in your talks or your new plans. They don’t have my full face or my name. So, how bad could it be?”
“Royce. You’re right. She’s got no clue,” Adam says, shaking his head. “I’m so sorry. Robin, it’s very bad. The press will have your name in a matter of hours.” He looks so distraught that I only want to make him feel better and tell him I’d never blame him or any of them.
“Look. Guys.” I place my hands on the screen. “This whole article is also my fault. I did what I did, and I was there when that horrible girl was in Royce’s room. And that’s because I was kissing Royce in his closet. It’s not all lies.”
Vere’s mouth drops open and she fires a look over her shoulder to Royce. “You kissed?”
I answer before Royce does, “A moment that got out of control while I was, in fact, getting his leather jacket, which is when Royce told that girl ‘I worked there’ that I’d earned it just like the article says.” I blink and add in a shrug. “He apologized too, and so we’re good. No hard feelings on my part. I swear.”
“Royce. Why in the hell did you kiss her? And if you did, why would you say what you said?” This is the first time I’ve ever seen the always-calm Hunter look upset.
“It sounds messed-up now but remember we were executing plan-D, or was it plan-E?” Royce throws his arms out wide. “Whichever plan we’d agreed upon that included the part where I was trying to make Robin hate me. I said all of that to make her hate me.”
“And it worked.” I smile stiffly at all of them. “I do hate him.”
Hunter throws his hands in the air. “Unbelievable. No wonder you were so easy to convince on the new-new plan today. You feel guilty as hell, don’t you? You dragged the nanny into a closet for a stolen kiss, and now the world thinks she’s a whore. Such clichéd behavior from Guarderobe’s most notorious womanizer. You’re trying to save her. You want to save her, don’t you? It’s like Adam guessed, you have a crush on her. More than a crush.”
They all start arguing.
“Um.” I call out. “In his defense, he does not have a crush on me. I was already inside his closet and I kissed him back, and I just said I hated him. Hello, guys? I do not need saving!”
None of them hear a word I’ve said because they’re all shouting over each other.
I grip the screen door handle, mostly to hold myself up, but also because I’m considering pushing the lame little slider lock that’s connected to the plastic handle down with my pinkie. I have this insane idea that this small motion will help me block this moment out.
Finally, when they all go silent, Vere whispers, “Royce, why didn’t you tell us about the kiss when you first saw the article? Don’t you think that was a slightly important detail to what we were going to decide today?”
“No! Hell. Yes.” Royc
e runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. I can honestly say it is because I was afraid. For her. For all of us.” He looks at me directly through the screen. “All along. I swear Robin. From the day I met you in that limo, I’ve been an asshole because I’ve been trying to protect you but then…I couldn’t stay away from you.”
“As much as I’d like you to have all the blame, I can’t. I knew kissing you was wrong, too.” I point at the baby. “I, the nanny, full-on, willingly made out with the baby-daddy.” I look helplessly at everyone’s shocked faces. “Despite my personal aversion to Royce as a human, because he’s quite possibly the worst person alive, and despite how I’ve always sworn to myself to never, ever be any sort of home wrecker, I fully participated.” My gaze returns to Royce’s. “Which makes me just as horrible as he is. I’m the second worst person alive, okay?” I sigh, my voice as heavy as my heart feels for having confessed all of this. Royce’s eyes have never left mine. He shakes his head, dropping his voice to a low rumble.
Adam steps off the porch and his gaze travels around the yard. “Robin. You’re not. Let me in so we can explain. I promise to make it all up to you somehow, especially your ruined party.”
“What do you mean?”
Royce lets out a long sigh. “Mrs. Perino assured us that only a few people, little kids, are—were—attending the birthday?”
“Yes. Little princess brides are on the way. There will be six of us,” I glower, feeling suddenly ashamed that these guys now know my only friends are little kids.
“We asked Mrs. Perino to stop them from coming,” Royce adds softly.
“What? You cancelled my birthday party? The poor girls. They worked all day for this.” I point at the garden all set up.
Royce looks quickly over his shoulder, “We really can’t stand out here any longer. We have much more to say, the press is on the way, and we need to come clean on some stuff.”
I’m stunned at the pure sincerity and underlying worry I think I see crossing his expression. The guy is acting worse than Angel acts right now. Like I’m not safe, or like I’m going to get hit by a bus or shatter into broken glass right in front of him. Once they realize I’m quitting and that they don’t owe me anything besides my pay, they will all calm down. Calm down and go away before my caseworker shows up, I hope.
Vere squeezes forward. “We’ve also got to feed this one a bottle and change her, too.”
My brain says I should slam the door and order every single one of them out of the yard. But when Royce’s expression continues to draw me in, and then the baby laughs up at me from Vere’s arms, I know I also have things I need to tell them, too.
I also owe the baby one last try—a try that will finally get her father set straight—so I step back and open the door.
Chapter 35
As Vere passes by me, the baby’s little arms go wide, like she’s missed me as much as I’ve missed her. I take her into my arms and give her some cuddle-kisses as I follow Vere into the living room. “I’m so glad you brought her.” I grin back at the baby’s little grin before holding her high to do raspberries on her soft tummy. Her giggles help to soothe my tangled emotions. Hiding my face in the baby’s soft jammies, I draw in her fresh powder scent while trying to ignore the fact that everyone is staring at me all over again. “I missed every inch of her little…self.”
Adam digs in the diaper bag and pulls out a binky. “We had to bring her. One of the things—secrets we’ve been keeping—is that we’re pretty sure her mom’s going to show up today. And we’re hoping— Can she come here as well? We want to reunite with her faster. Is that okay?”
“I’d heard from Mrs. Felix that she might be coming back. But here? The mom’s coming here?” I’m blinking too many times. Suddenly my feet won’t move. “Tonight? Here?”
“We hope.” Royce nods, glancing around the cottage. He seems to be openly admiring the place. “It all depends on if the paparazzi caught wind of her and what we’re up to right now. We’ve tried so hard to create even more distractions, but no one has noticed those. There’s a very focused laser beam on all of us thanks to the newspaper article. It’s possible someone has already connected the dots. The real dots, not the fake dots. If so, we’ll be executing our most extreme plan yet.”
Adam crosses the room and flops onto the couch. “The extreme plan includes you, Robin Love.”
“Again, not necessary.” I shrug, acting all cool. “I’ve got my own plans, and mine do not include any of you after tonight. Thanks for thinking of me, but just—no.”
Hunter sits next to Adam, looking as exhausted as the rest of them. “We’ve been really careful, helping everyone hide and do their thing, and I’m sure you’ve noticed that Royce, Adam, and I have maxed ourselves out on press distraction tactics each and every day since we met you. Stuff like when Adam faked drunk and crazy in the limo that day?”
“That was fake?” I ask.
“Well…the crazy part was fake. It’s possible the drunk part was real or I wouldn’t have invited that girl up here or gone off to ride the coasters.” Adam grins.
I smile. “You’re pretty funny when you’re drunk.”
Adam leans his head back and closes his eyes for a moment. “This has been more stressful than I thought it would be. What words did you use about kissing Royce? A moment that got way out of control.” He points to the baby. “If Eve does make it here at all, she and the baby won’t stay for long. We’ll make sure of it.”
“Eve?” I ask.
Royce calls out from the other side of the room, “That’s the baby’s mom’s name. Evelyn Williams.” His wide shoulders flex as he leans over the sink to stare out at the tree framing my kitchen window, and I wonder if he’s avoiding looking at me.
“Poor girl. She’s beyond desperate to see her daughter again. It was the first time she’d ever left her baby. I’m sure you can imagine she’s flipping out,” Vere adds.
“Oh…yeah. I can…imagine.” I hug the baby a little too tight as I turn away from them all, swallowing my questions. It’s not my right to know any more details, because I’m not sharing any of mine with them.
My chest grows heavy as it solidifies with the realities this day has brought to us all. This will be the last day I’ll get to hang out with all of them and be with this baby and friends I’ve grown to love. “It’s for the best,” I mutter, almost to myself, then add louder, “I’ve said it all along that she’d be back. So this is great, And now…” I force a smile. “We’ll all get on with our lives.”
I find myself wondering what Royce will do when—if—the baby’s mother arrives here. Will I have to watch them hugging, or worse, kissing? Right in my own cottage. My head floods with self-pitying thoughts: Do I even care? No. No. No. I don’t. It’s not my place to care, and heck…it’s not even my cottage. It never was. Aside from that kiss and the day that I blackened his eye, the rest of my interactions with Royce have been… What did Royce and I both call the kiss that happened between us?
Oh yeah. Nothing. A mistake.
Vere walks over and strokes the baby’s back before taking her out of my arms. “I’ll do the diaper. She was making some stinky, suspicious sounds in the limo, but I’m hoping it was only gas.”
Vere seems to be avoiding my gaze as she settles the baby onto a blanket on the couch next to Hunter. When I risk a glance at everyone else, it’s like none of them are looking in my direction on purpose. They’re all acting as though watching Vere opening a package of baby wipes is the most interesting thing they’ve ever seen. When Vere realizes everyone is staring only at her and the room has grown way too quiet, she flushes and says, “Uh…Royce? Adam? Hello? It will be great to have the story sorted out. Won’t it? This has been exhausting for all of us. Who’s going to start telling Robin all of the…”
“The lies?” Adam asks.
“Lies?” I ask.
“Yes.” Adam moves a throw pillow to the side and lounges farther into my couch. “We must fill you in on
all of our whoppers so we can collectively begin to make up more. Isn’t that right, everyone? Who’s going to go first?”
Hunter, always trying to make Vere happy, starts, “I guess since Vere and I are not really involved very much, we could start—”
“Wait.” I hold up my hands. “Do I have to know these lies? What if I’m not curious? How about don’t tell me anything new? Protect yourselves. I don’t mind. The less I know, the better, so in case anyone asks me, I won’t have to force any answers.”
I pace to the far end of the room and back. “You have no idea how tired I am of the lying. I didn’t know this nondisclosure thing would be so difficult. And next week, when I go home, I’m going to be questioned a lot about my time here, and so—I’d rather not have extra things I’m legally obligated to stay quiet about—with—with—people at home.”
I rub one of my temples, wondering which of those people will get here first. The paparazzi or the police? Most probably the police. And I’ll bet whichever judge they assign to me is not going to appreciate how I can’t tell him anything about my job here. I’m going to have to remember to take all of the papers with me when I go.
Now everyone’s gone from avoiding my gaze to looking at me with big, questioning eyes.
“Did you say you’re tired of lying?” Adam looks utterly distraught and his eyes capture Royce’s. “Did you year that? She wants to know nothing, and she’s—tired. What if she won’t—”
“Adam. Don’t give me that look. We’re all tired of it, but we’re kind of stuck now, aren’t we? We have to keep her safe. We owe it to her,” Royce says.
“You don’t owe me anything besides my paycheck,” I say. “I can take care of myself, so you can leave me out of whatever steps you think are next, because I need to concentrate on my own next steps.” I shrug, and with huge effort I swallow down the pile of questions that have bubbled up at the back of my throat about the baby’s mom. Because I do want to know. Everything. About this woman called Eve. About how and why she left the baby, about how they all seem so exhausted, and most of all, what is the baby’s real name? Instead, I shrug again like I don’t care. “You found the mom, and so now you’re here to regroup and tell me my job is over, right?”
