Page 109 of Bad Reputation

“Cole should be home in the next few hours. And you’re going to be ... incredibly jealous.”

The thing was, Maggie didn’t doubt Cole’s worth for an instant, just as she didn’t doubt her feelings for him.

So what exactly was the problem?

Chapter 26

INT. GYM LOCKER ROOM

Ryan sparred better with his fists than with a sword, that was for sure. After an hour in the ring with him, Cole was exhausted, which had been the point. He didn’t need to train that badly. But he did need to make his mind stop its constant whirring.

He dropped to a bench in the locker room, breathing hard. “You fight well, man.”

“That’s my job.” Ryan, as ever, couldn’t take a compliment. “How you holding up?”

“I’m climbing the walls.”

In between wondering if Maggie would ever forgive him, Cole had taken a few swings at himself. His blunder had put everything he’d worked toward for almost twenty years in jeopardy. He still didn’t know exactly how he’d misstepped, but he knew he had.

Brett had sent him a roundup of the responses that morning, and it boiled down to this: If Cole had seduced the intimacy coordinator forWaverley, well, wasn’t that exactly what Cody Rhodes would do?

It made him want to break cinder blocks apart with his bare hands.

All he’d wanted to do was shed his irresponsible reputation, and instead, he’d confirmed it in a way that had wrecked Maggie’s career.

“How’s Maggie? Tasha wants a full report. She’s worried.”

Tasha didn’t bring a lot of people into her circle, but those who made it, she would fight for, tooth and nail, hammer and claw. Cole suspected Maggie was, or might soon be, in Tasha’s flock. And heaven help whoever was responsible for this story then. They’d have to deal with both ColeandTasha.

That would make a good subject for their next movie together—if they got to make another movie together.

“She’s not great,” Cole admitted. “After she got fired, she cried for a long time. Her best friend is flying down from Oregon this morning.”

“Good. She didn’t want to come hit things with you?”

“That’s not her style.” Cole kept to himself that she’d slept in the guest room last night, and that their conversation over coffee this morning had felt more like they were roommates. That he hadn’t kissed or touched her since the story had dropped. He was trying to be patient, but frankly, he was down to his final drops of the stuff.

“She ought to try it. It might help.”

In Cole’s bag, his phone sounded. It was Brett. “I gotta get this,” he said to Ryan before answering. “Hey, do you have any news?”

“I do.” His publicist said it extremely carefully, and Cole’s gut dropped into his shoes.

“Was it Vincent Minna?” Cole demanded. “Because I will go on every talk show on the planet and burn his world down if he hurt Maggie.” He’d restrained himself in the UK at Tasha’s command, but he would not do it again if the guy was responsible for this.

“It wasn’t Vincent.”

That brought Cole up short. “Someone from the production?”

“It was Drew.”

Like in an old screwball comedy, Cole almost checked his ears for wax. Because he was certain he hadn’t heard that right. “It was ... Drew?” he repeated back to Brett. “DrewBowen? My agent?”

That simply couldn’t be right. It had to be another Drew. Or maybe Brett was misinformed.

“I didn’t believe it either. But he pitched the story to someone else, too, a reporter named Hope Acosta, and she forwarded me the email.”

“Wait. You’re telling me he didn’t just give some quotes but that he planted the story? He sent someone a fuckingemailabout it?” Cole yelled that bit, and Ryan’s brows shot up into his hairline. “He meant for this to happen? It wasn’t like—like, a mistake?” For a second, Cole tried to imagine what kind of mistake could’ve resulted in theBoulevard Babblestory, but not even the wildest screwball comedy had plot twists that unexpected.

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