“You’ll come around,” she said confidently. “Whoever said that doesn’t know our friendship. I know this is at least a little about your dad, but he’ll come around too. You’ll see.”
I changed the subject then. Jessie and I both knew the other’s position on the matter, and neither of us would give it up anytime soon.
“What’s new with you?” I asked.
She scrunched up her nose and shifted in her seat to pull her phone out of her pocket before handing it over. “It’s not really news about me. It’s about William. I never understood why he chose that girl. I had a bad feeling about her, and it turns out my gut was right.”
My heart constricted when I found myself staring at a picture of William, his face covered by his hand as he dodged reporters outside of some nightclub in LA late last night. A quick scroll through the accompanying article told me it’d been just after he’d found out that his fiancée of three months, Angelina Cross, was cheating on him.
Sadness rolled over me like a gentle wave. Even though William had become a man I no longer recognized, I would never wish anything bad for him.
When we’d been together, his eyes had always been bright. He’d worn primary colors and loved to laugh. These days, he was always brooding. He only ever seemed to wear black and looked more like a rock star on any given day than the small-town guy I’d known.
“Have you spoken to him?” I asked, placing her phone down on the counter in front of her. Touching it when it had something so terrible on it felt wrong.
She shook her head. “I’ve tried calling him a few times, but his phone is off. I’m willing to bet he’s passed out drunk somewhere.”
I let out a sigh. Poor William.
From the outside looking in, it always looked like he had it all together but now he was going to have to start all over again. I’d heard the rumors about how much of a ladies’ man he’d become—and that was putting the things I’d heard nicely.
While I didn’t doubt that he’d changed, I refused to believe his heart had. And his heart had always been good. I knew this would’ve been a devastating blow to him.
Maybe I should reach out to tell him I’m sorry. I considered it for about half a second before tossing the idea in the mental trash can.
William and I hadn’t spoken a word to each other in over six years, when we’d bumped into each other in town. He’d been visiting Jessie over the holidays and we’d only spoken for about a minute before going our separate ways. That was the only contact we’d had since he left town several years ago.
Besides, he wouldn’t want to hear from me anyway.
Chapter 5
WILLIAM
A long exhale came out of me as I laid my head back on the sofa. I scrubbed my hands over my face, unable to believe how quickly things had gone to shit. A little over twenty-four hours ago, I’d gotten home after work and grabbed a quick shower before heading out to meet Dave. I’d been whistling under my breath the whole damn time, feeling like I had the world at my feet.
I didn’t feel that way anymore. I wasn’t quite sure what I was feeling, but it was nothing good.
Dave had offered to cancel the meetings he had late this afternoon and stay with me, but I’d told him to go. It’d been a move I regretted making now.
I was home alone on a Saturday night wondering what the hell I should do with myself. The television was on and every channel I flicked to was talking about my engagement to the “beautiful actress, Angelina Cross.”
Reporters speculated about why she might’ve cheated—like there’d ever be an acceptable reason for something like that. Annoyance and anger simmered in my stomach, but I didn’t switch the TV off.
One way or another, I was going to find out what they were saying about us. It was better to do it while I was here alone than to be caught off guard again.
A perky blonde woman I’d never met nodded sagely onscreen, as if she was privy to details of our lives others weren’t. “You’re right, James. We have to wonder if her relationship with producer William Kent wasn’t as picture perfect as it seemed. It’s possible they’ve been having issues for a long time.”
James widened his eyes and looked right into the camera. “The question on everyone’s minds is whether the engagement is going to proceed. There hasn’t been any official word from either camp, and we’re all waiting with bated breath to find out if Hollywood has claimed the happiness of yet another one of its power couples.”
I snorted, shaking my head at their shit before a noise from the front door made me freeze. Flicking off the TV, I cocked my head like an idiot who thought it would make him hear better. Another noise reached my ears, sounding suspiciously like the door closing.
The only problem with that was that I wasn’t expecting anyone. There were only three people who had access to this house. One was me, the housekeeper was another, and then there was Angelina.
Just as I’d finished doing the math, her voice sang out from the direction of the door. “Honey, I’m home!”
It took a nanosecond for shock to set in. What the fuck is she doing here?
I shot to my feet as she rounded the corner into the open space at the front of the house. She was carrying plenty of bags and had obviously come straight from New York after a full day of shooting. I was pretty sure the jacket she was wearing was actually a part of the wardrobe set.
Normally, I’d have been thrilled she was home early. Even more so to know she hadn’t even bothered to change before coming back to me.
All I felt now was ice spreading through my veins. I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at her. “Why are you here?”
Those cerulean blue eyes I’d been so captivated by since the moment I’d met her filled with tears, and she dropped the bags before coming up to me. When she reached for me, I took a step back and lifted my hands.
“Don’t fucking touch me. Answer the question, Angelina. Why are you here?”
A single tear escaped and ran down her tanned cheek, her full lower lip quivering dramatically. “I’m here because we’re engaged, Will. I missed you and I wanted to see you.”
Disgust filled me and made my lips curl in a sneer I typically reserved for the paparazzi. “Yeah. I got how much you missed me when I saw all that footage of you plastered to another man.”
She took another step toward me, and I backed up even farther. More tears spilled from her eyes as she took in my expression. “I’m so, so sorry, baby. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I’m sorry. Tell me what I can do to make this right.”
Her shoulders shook and she averted her gaze, her fingers winding together in front of her. Angelina never fidgeted, and she sure as shit never looked away first. She was confident—some even called her self-assured to the point of arrogance. She was basically me in female form, and I wasn’t buying this act for a second.
“What’re you going to tell me next? That you tripped and he caught you with his lips?” I forced my face into a neutral mask. “You don’t do anything you don’t want to do. Don’t try to bullshit me. I know you, Angelina. You know me too. Profusely apologizing and telling me you didn’t mean to do it doesn’t mean a thing to me. Not now.”