Hollywood Scandal (12 page)

He was lying to her. He told her he didn’t care what people thought of him, yet he cared about her opinion. He claimed their relationship was fake when he wanted it to be real. He sent her flowers and poetry, then claimed to know nothing about it.

He was lying to her, and he didn’t know how to stop or even if he wanted to.

Chapter Thirteen

Alex woke first. He lie there, breathing in Calla’s scent and let himself wallow in it.

For five minutes.

The world wasn’t going to wait for them to stagger out of bed when they felt like it. Too bad, he’d be happy to spend a week with her in bed. Moving to a hotel with room service sounded like an even better idea.

He took a quick shower, then made coffee and breakfast.

Calla stumbled into the kitchen and glared at him.

“What?”

“You look disgustingly rested,” she said, plunking herself down on a chair.

“You look deliciously disheveled.” He leaned down and whispered into her ear, “Scrumptious.”

Calla sighed, rolled her eyes, and tried to hide her grin. “You’re such a guy.”

He served breakfast and they chatted about inconsequential things as they ate. A few minutes after Calla went to have a shower, the phone rang.

He checked the display, then hit talk. “Good morning, Helen.”

“Alexander, what on earth are you doing?”

“Cleaning my kitchen. Why?”

“I’m getting calls from the media and clients. There are more pictures of you and Calla on a bunch of entertainment websites. They’re saying you two are in a relationship and Jeff MacKay is commenting every chance he gets, saying you’re both lying, which I don’t understand at all.”

Alex strode to his briefcase and pulled out his laptop. He put his name into the search engine, then whistled in disbelief. “Jeff MacKay is going to talk himself into a hole he won’t be able to get out of.” Alex began reading the headlines on various entertainment news sites and blogs. “How fun, he’s made me out to be the big bad wolf.” He kept reading. “Well, at least he isn’t attacking Calla so much as claiming she’s been misled, but he’s crazy if he thinks he can get away with attacking the Clarke family without serious repercussions.”

“He’s making you the villain.”

“And himself the rescuing hero,” Alex said with a grunt. “There’s just one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“The only thing our damsel in distress is interested in doing to our hero is kicking him in the ass.”

“What’s going on, Alex?” Helen sounded worried, which meant things were even worse than she was saying. “Are you two in a relationship?”

“Tell your clients with questions that MacKay is on drugs.”

Calla chose that moment to walk into the kitchen looking rested and ready for the day.

Alex didn’t take his eyes off her as he spoke to Helen.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, I can’t tell them that.” Helen’s voice revealed her impatience and irritation.

“Okay, tell them Jeff MacKay is mistaken. Calla Roberts isn’t just in a relationship with me,” he took a deep breath and told his first big, huge, hairy lie in years. “We’re going to be announcing our engagement.” It was a lie that fit the situation. A lie that answered questions, but lowered Calla’s profile on the press’s radar. “She’s not after me for my money or because she has a secret desire to become an actress, and I’m not after her for her skills as a plastic surgeon. MacKay is attempting to make something out of nothing to take the focus off himself and his bad driving decisions.”

“That,” Helen said slowly, coldly. “Is as good as a declaration of war. Are you sure you want me to say it like that?”

Alex went to the front window. A couple of photographers were standing casually near the end of his driveway, waiting for anyone to show themselves outside. Great.

“Yes, I think I do.”

…

Calla snorted after Alex ended the call and said, “That moron gets uglier every time he opens his mouth.”

“True,” Alex said with a grin. “Unfortunately, he’s attempting to disrupt the smooth running of Seacliffe with his wild stories of unrequited love.”

“He’s not.”

“He is.”

The mess kept getting worse and worse by the minute. “What’s Helen going to do?”

“She’s attempting to stay out of it.”

“I’m going to get fired. That spoiled brat is going to get me
fired
.” She covered her face with her hands as her stomach dove down into the carpet beneath her feet. She couldn’t afford to get fired. Her brother depended on her. She’d lose everything, her car, her house. How was she going to pay for Richard’s medical care?

Jeff MacKay was a disaster of hurricane proportions, and he was smashing her life to smithereens.

A warm hand came to rest on her shoulder. She lifted her face to see Alex standing next to her with a steaming cup of coffee in his hands.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s sit down and plot some evil plans.”

“Okay.” She trudged farther into the kitchen and sat at the island, took a sip of coffee, and attempted to pull herself out of a headfirst funk.

“I think we need to show everyone, including MacKay, that he’s trying to deflect attention from him to you, by formally announcing our engagement. So far, our attempts to show him as a liar seem to have only added to his motivation to smear our relationship.”

Alex said it matter-of-factly like their relationship was one of convenience when they’d spent the night together doing things only lovers do.

She sucked in a deep, pain-filled breath and tried not to think about how much Alex’s cavalier attitude hurt. “He doesn’t like to lose.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

“What does he think he can gain?”

“He thought you were the weak link. He’s trying to discredit you
and
now me.” Alex touched her hand. “He’s getting desperate.”

“So, he’s trying to make me look like an incompetent woman in love? That’s crazy.”

“That’s Hollywood and it’s crazy enough that people might believe it, because in this city, stranger things have happened.”

She put her head in her hands. “What the fuck ever.”

“I think it’s time we bring out the big guns.”

Calla looked at him. “Big guns?”

“My grandmother and her party planning skills.”

He had to be kidding. She stared at Alex, open mouthed for several seconds before he noticed and asked, “What?”

“Don’t you think that’s taking this too far?”

“Not if it shuts MacKay up.”

“But the expense…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Alex scoffed. “Grandmother loves throwing these kinds of things. She’ll be in heaven and she’s got money to burn.”

“But—”

“No buts.” He brandished a finger at her and stood up. “This is going to be fun. I’m going to get dressed and then we’ll head over to my grandmother’s house to get this party underway.”

She watched Alex stride off, wondering if her stomach was ever going to get to stay where it belonged. It seemed like every five minutes or so she was going into shock over something someone said or did.

“I should have stayed in Chicago,” she said to herself while rubbing her churning stomach. Maybe getting dressed and pretending she wasn’t a character in an overwritten soap opera would help.

She opened her suitcase and searched through it for something to wear. Jeans, T-shirts, and one sweater. Not very haute couture, but it was all she had. She dressed and waited for Alex, glaring out the window at the photographers she could see by the gate.

“Ready to go?”

She turned. Alex wore a pair of dark slacks and a light blue silk shirt that brought out his eyes. “I love that shirt on you.”

“Oh,” he said, looking down at himself. “Thanks. My grandmother gave me this for Christmas.”

“Smart, wearing her gift.”

“Well, prudent anyway. Shall we?”

“Might as well.”

They got into Alex’s car and backed out of the garage, leaving them at the mercy of the photographers for several seconds.

As she watched the flashes go off, the car idling in place, inspiration struck. “Alex?”

He turned to look at her.

She kissed him. A long, deep, drink of him. She could have sipped at his lips for hours, but they pulled apart, reluctantly, after a few moments. Alex stared at her, his gaze dark with desire and she couldn’t help remembering what they’d done together last night.

“You had a question?”

“You answered it and those assholes took pictures of it.”

He gave her a rueful grin. “You’re sneaky, Doc. I like it.” He focused his attention to driving past the photographers who had clustered around the car, shouting questions. That smile didn’t leave his face as they left the reporters behind.

The drive to Maddy Clarke’s mansion was quiet.

Did he think she’d only kissed him so the photographers could take their picture? Yes, she wanted photos of them kissing in the newspapers on the internet, but that was just the excuse she needed to kiss him in the first place. She sure as heck hadn’t made love to him for the publicity.

Made
love
?

No. She wasn’t…in love. The last time she thought she was in love, her fiancé, a man she completely trusted, betrayed her and stole all the money she’d saved. She was not a good judge of character when it came to matters of the heart.

Yet, one stray thought kept finding its way into her head. Alex didn’t lie and he hadn’t claimed to love her.

She shoved the thought into a box in the back of her mind and slammed the lid shut on it. “So what should I prepare myself for?” she asked him as he parked his car outside of his grandmother’s house.

“Anything.”

“Oh, that’s helpful.”

He chuckled. “What I mean is, she’s very creative and she likes you, so she’s not going to host anything…small.”

Calla stopped walking. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I think this is a case of fighting fire with fire, or more specifically, a celebrity with a celebrity.” He put his hands on her shoulders and bent down to meet her gaze. “Trust me.”

“I do.” She tried to smile, but didn’t feel like she succeeded.

He knocked and they went right in.

“Grandmother, are you home?”

“In the family room, dear boy.”

“Where’s that?” Calla whispered. “Don’t remember.”

“Just off the kitchen.” He kept hold of her hand as they walked through the house. “I’ll meet you there in a second. I have to make a quick call.”

“Okay.” Calla continued on and found the old woman was sitting at a small bistro-style table with a cup of hot coffee in front of her as well as a bowl of fruit and yogurt. She had a tablet on the table and was reading from it.

“You two are all over the internet. Some kind of love triangle with Jeff MacKay?”

Famous, eccentric, and tech savvy. Maddy Clarke really was a constant surprise.

“Not our fault,” Calla said. “We’re just trying to keep up with the rumors.”

“What rumors?” Alex asked, joining the two women at the table.

“You’re all anyone’s talking about today,” Maddy said to her grandson.

“We know,” Alex said, batting puppy-dog eyes at his grandmother. “That’s why we’re here.”

“Oh?” she asked, glancing from Alex to Calla and back again.

“Let me explain,” Alex suggested. “Grab a seat, dear. I’ll get you a cup of coffee.”

It took Alex a half an hour to explain the situation to his grandmother’s satisfaction. Even then she had a lot of questions.

“So, you want to throw an engagement party even though you’re
not
engaged?” Maddy sounded as incredulous as Calla sometimes felt about the whole situation.

“As far as the world is concerned, we
are
engaged,” Alex said as matter-of-factly as one would state their eye color.

“Interesting.” His grandmother wore an expression that seemed uncomfortable on her face. Confusion.

Dread coiled round and round in the pit of Calla’s belly. “Maybe we should consider something else,” she said to Alex. “I’m not sure this is the right thing to do.”

“Why, because I’m old?” Maddy asked with a sharp edge to her voice. “Because I’m his grandmother?”

“Because I got him into this mess,” Calla said, twisting her fingers into a knot. “And I don’t want to drag anyone else in, too.”

“Jeff MacKay is a bully and a spoiled brat, which means two things in this city,” Maddy said, putting one hand over Calla’s. “He doesn’t hear the word ‘no’ very often, and he won’t accept no for an answer if he does hear it. Unless you’re prepared to drop everything and go back to Chicago, the only way to win against him is to put on a better, more believable show than he does.”

“Alex said the same thing yesterday, so we attempted to put on a
show
. It doesn’t seem to have worked.”

Maddy winced. “That’s because it was pathetic as far as performances went.”

Calla laughed at her disgusted expression. She couldn’t help it. “I’m sorry, this isn’t funny. Really, it isn’t.”

“Of course it’s funny,” Alex said. “It’s a comedy of errors.”

“Indeed.” Maddy said. “So, let’s do a better job in act two. We’ll have a party and we’re going to invite Jeff MacKay.”

“Um,
what
?” Calla asked as diffidently as she could.

“I’m going to host your engagement party and invite Jeff MacKay to show the world that bygones are bygones amongst the three of you. He’ll have to be on his best behavior because the world will be watching him like a bug under a microscope.”

“What if he doesn’t come?”

“Oh, he’ll come.” Maddy’s smile was the picture of innocence. “His invitation will be very public. He’ll look like a poor loser if he doesn’t show up.”

“The press will be watching us, too,” Calla said.

“Yes, so you’ll have to be as convincing about your relationship as you were during Sunday dinner. You completely fooled everyone.” She gave Calla a look that shouted
liar, liar
. “Me included.”

Calla glanced away. This was much harder than she thought it would be. Pretending feelings for a man she actually had feelings for. That’s why it had been convincing. She really liked Alex. Really,
really
liked him.

“So, what do you suggest?” Alex asked.

“I think we should have an elegant dinner party. Chef Roger owes me a favor, as does that singer who everyone is comparing to Frank Sinatra, what’s his name? Oh yes, Joseph Masters. We’ll invite fifty or so people. Let me know who you want on the guest list, Alex. We’ll dangle Calla in front of MacKay all evening without giving him the opportunity to talk to her without you glued to her side.”