Artie
I was a coward.
I embraced that.
I’d directed my driver to take me to the airport and had called in an old favor to a friend who’d let me borrow her private plane.
“Is this about what’s in the news?” Heather O’Keith had asked.
“I need out of Scotland,” was all I’d say.
“It’s about the news,” Heather replied matter-of-factly. “I can get you a plane out of Edinburgh. When will you be there?” We’d taken the next few minutes to discuss details, but before hanging up she had stopped and said, “I feel like it’s my duty to ask this next question.”
“Heather—” I began.
“No,” she said. “I’m speaking as a woman who tried to run from her past, not one that was as tough as yours, but one that still made me feel unworthy and incapable of being in a relationship.”
“I’m not . . .” But I couldn’t finish the words because I didn’t know what I was.
I was running. Part of me still felt unworthy.
But it had been different when it was just Pierce and me. A hard pill to swallow, of course, that the paparazzi might be trailing us, but also knowing that he’d been aware of the situation. That while it was something to be adjusted to, it wasn’t like his world would implode.
Movie sets were isolated and secure for the most part.
And soon another much juicier celebrity scandal would take top billing over just a director and a producer, even considering my past and our age difference.
It was just . . . begonias.
Or more clearly, Pierce’s lovely, perfectly, imperfect family.
Dory had security guards outside her home, trampling her flowers. Soon there would be paparazzi crowded on the street, filming into her house, following her around.
Following Marie and Kate.
Scaring the kids.
And it was the idea of Thomas being frightened by a huge intimidating man with a camera, screaming at him that had done it for me.
It didn’t matter if and when this blew over.
I couldn’t let my life bleed over into theirs.
“I’m not saying don’t take a second and think this through,” Heather said, and I knew she understood part of what I was going through. She was in a powerful position, had struggled her way through life and a shitty upbringing to make something of her life. And then that had all almost been unraveled when she’d met Clay Steele.
But they’d figured things out.
They were happily married with a successful joint company.
However, they didn’t have the paparazzi hounding them, potentially hurting their families, reporting on every sordid thing from their past.
So, as much as I appreciated her caution and support, I knew she could never get it.
“I’ve thought it through, Heath.”
Silence, then, “Okay.”
“I’ll call Colin and get you on a plane.”
“I owe you one.”
“Payment in the form of screeners, as always,” she said, voice joking, but I could tell she was worried about me.
I released a breath, forced my tone to be light. “As long as you keep giving me a discount rate on that secure distribution platform, then you’ve got a deal.”
“You’re on.” A beat. “You’ll call, though? If you need a pair of nonjudgmental ears to listen?”
“Yeah.” I blinked. “I’ll call.”
We said goodbye and hung up.
Two hours later I was at the airport.
Thirty minutes after that, we were in the air.