Page 51 of The Publicity Stunt

This is what she remembered her family gatherings during the holidays being like. Having a large group of people gathered together to celebrate and eat with, just being and joking, is something she always tried to forget she missed. With Kace's family, she might have a chance at it again. The thought makes her happier than she thought possible.

"You don't have concerts over Christmas, right?" Kace asks, his mouth at her ear.

She shakes her head no. "I give the team time with their families, so I made sure we have a two-week break over Christmas. Why?"

"Come here for Christmas. Dad would love to have you, and everyone else will be on better behavior because the shock will have worn off."

"You really want me to spend Christmas with you?"

He kisses the top of her head. "I'd spend every day with you, if I could. And it would be fun. If your team okays it, you could stay here. We could wear footie pajamas, make Santa's naughty list in my bedroom, and wake up to a houseful of crazy kids hopped up on sugar and tearing open presents. It'll be great."

Her heart flutters at the thought. "They make footie pajamas in giant size?" she jokes.

"Haha," he laughs and tickles her. The three-year-old looks annoyed he's disrupted them, and Kace takes him off Bri's lap to fly around the air. "You think you can take my girl? Huh? Is that what you think?"

The little boy laughs, kicking his feet in the air as Kace swings him around. "More! More!"

Bri sits back and takes in the scene of everyone. Christmas with a family again instead of by herself. It sounds perfect, and she's already picked out presents for just about everyone in her mind.

Chapter Seventeen

Kace

Sitting in Bri's dressing room while he waits for his girl feels like an eternity. She plays her last concert before the holiday break, and he wants to spend as much time as possible with her. He spent most of the past two days coming up with a plan to make sure they can spend every moment together. He's not playing while she's on hiatus from entertaining millions of people.

"Talk about whipped," he says and sees a message from Brett with a link to an article. "But there's no one I'd rather be with."

Kace gasps at the headline and clicks on the article to see what exactly happened.

"Johanna McDaniels has been caught in a web of lies, starting with her claim that Easton Duffy fathered her unborn baby," he reads aloud. "Duffy's camp said his management team started asking questions when he shared the ultrasound images of his unborn child, and the document showed how far along the baby was. Based on the timeline, many believed this child couldn't be Duffy's, and court ordered tests confirmed this yesterday afternoon."

Oh, he can't wait for Bri to come in here. She's going to die when she sees this. Her ex humiliated himself by simply being... well, himself. Stupid.

"When confronted, McDaniels admitted to sleeping with multiple men, and Duffy was the only one willing to stick around. Because of this, she told him the baby was his, knowing it wasn't."

Kace can still hear the sound from the concert, so he calls Brett.

"Did you read the article?"

"What the actual fuck?" he asks, laughing.

Brett laughs with him. "I thought the dude was stupid before, but this takes the cake."

"Bri said the pregnancy told her he started cheating long before he got caught. Turns out, the dude's just too stupid to figure out how conception works."

"Is this going to bother Bri? Finding out Easton cheated and showed off his pregnant girlfriend when it was all just a stupid lie?"

Kace thinks for a moment, rather confident in his answer. "She won't care. She's over him."

"I saw an interview she did saying you two were officially together. I thought you weren't going to make an official statement."

"We weren't, but after the way things have been going, we decided to make it official."

"Wait, this is still a publicity thing, right?"

Realizing just how long it's been since Brett and he have gotten together, he never filled him in. "I guess we haven't talked in a while. It's not for publicity anymore. It hasn't been for a while."

"You're really in a relationship with her?"

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