Page 72 of Bad Reputation

“Eh, he was paying me back for something I said a few months ago. Just an observation.”

“About how he loves Tasha?” Maggie would’ve shoved the words back into her mouth if she could, but she was curious.

“Yup. Which everyone knows ... except for Tasha.”

“She knows too,” Maggie said.

“You think?”

“Believe me when I say Tasha Russell of all people is aware when a man is in love with her.”

“Then why is she jerking him around?”

“I don’t think she is.” If anything, Maggie suspected Tasha was mostly in love with Ryan too. She was different with him than she was with Cole. Tasha rarely met Ryan’s eyes, but she looked for him in every room. Whatever the conversation, she was more invested in his attitude toward her than she was with anyone else. “But she’s your friend. I wouldn’t want to speculate. It isn’t any of my business, anyhow.” Maggie needed to change the subject. This was feeling more than a little like a confession. “We’re more than halfway done with the filming. How are you feeling about it?”

“You never really know until you see it.”

“Do you watch your own stuff?”

“Sometimes. Drew puts together highlight reels.”

Oh right, his agent. Cole mentioned him often. “Well, I heard Zoya tell Libby you’re doing the best work of your career. That people are going to feel as if they’re seeing you for the first time.”

“What do you expect her to say? She’s not going to be like, ‘Oh, Cole sucks. This season will be totally mediocre compared to season two.’”

“Oh my God, wasn’t Callie White great as Lucy last season? That wedding banquet scene in the last episode—I was convinced she was going to kill everyone.”

“Tasha told me that’s what happens in the book.”

“I’m sure that’s how Tasha would’ve liked to play it. But I was glad Lucy got her happy ending.” Zoya had been very clear that she saw the series as being romantic before it was anything else and that the main couples would always be happy.

Softly, Cole said, “Me too.”

And there he was, watching her again like he had been when he’d been talking to Libby.

Earlier, she’d wanted to askWhat’s your dream?Now was the moment—but boundaries.

She’d kept it together this far, and there were only six weeks left to go on this shoot. So all she said was “Well, I should get to bed too.”

Too bad she’d be alone.

Chapter 18

INT. COLE’S TRAILER

One Month Later

Do you need anything else from me?

Cole stared at the last text he’d sent Libby in the encrypted app she liked to use. After Tasha had decided to share everything with her, Libby had been working nonstop on her story about Vincent Minna as filming for season three ofWaverleyneared its end.

Cole and Libby had done several interviews by phone, but he’d also reached out to PAs he knew who’d worked for Vincent and had shared Libby’s contact information with them. When he’d asked Tasha about her own conversations with Libby, she had given him vague updates like “The snake is in the henhouse” and “The sparrow flies at dawn.” He had no idea if that meant they were about to nail the guy, if it was some kind of spy code, or if Tasha was messing with him.

Probably the last one.

But he hadn’t been able to shake the sense that what he’d said to Maggie was true—he ought to have known about Vincent, and he should’ve done more to protect the people around him. The guilt wassharp enough, heavy enough, that it had obliterated the other issue. The Drew-wouldn’t-like-it issue.

Cole was supposed to keep his hands clean and his public face cheerful and inoffensive. This wasn’t a story in which Cole was directly involved. He hadn’t witnessed the bad behavior, it hadn’t been directed at him, and so it wasn’t any of his business. He didn’t even have to ask; he knew that was what Drew would say.

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