Page 117 of Places I've Never Been

Mattie looked at her eldest sister. “What’s going on?”

Lizzie cleared her throat. “We thought a family meeting was in order. You have a decision to make, and you aren’t making it.”

Mattie glanced around at the other two, who looked at her with eager but cautious expressions. “Which decision is that?”

“The kick-Adam-to-the-curb decision,” Della said. “It’s time to put him out of his misery and move on. Kat agrees with me.”

“But Renic and I don’t,” Lizzie said. “We think you should hear him out. It’ll give you closure.”

“I say he’s had enough of your time,” Della said.

Mattie looked at Piper. “And you?”

“I think…” Piper looked like she was wrestling with some internal conflict.

“You think I should walk away,” Mattie supplied.

Piper had been firmly anti-Adam when the photo landed on the internet, but the past week she’d been quiet, like she was trying to stay out of it.

“No.” Piper shook her head. “No I don’t.”

“Tell her, Piper,” Lizzie said gently. “She deserves to know. She can’t make a decision without all the facts.”

Mattie frowned. “What facts?”

Piper gestured for the server. “Bring us a round of mimosas, please?”

The server nodded and hurried off.

“Piper?” Mattie hugged herself, worried by Piper’s reluctance to explain.

Piper saw her face and relented. “A couple of days after you got back, Adam came to see me at the studio. He told me a few things.”

“Like what?” Mattie couldn’t imagine what Adam had said to get on Piper’s good side after everything that had happened.

“He said he fired his manager.”

Mattie sat back. “Really. They’ve been with that guy forever.”

Piper nodded. “Yeah. It’s a pretty big statement to ditch a relationship like that.”

“So what?” Della said. “I don’t see how that makes up for what he did.”

“Maybe it doesn’t,” Piper conceded, “but Adam bought out the rest of the photos that guy took and had the ones thatwere posted pulled off the site. That won’t stop it from spreading, because it had been tweeted and retweeted, but still. That’s why you aren’t on the home page anymore. Adam paid to have it removed.”

The mimosas arrived, and Mattie took a long sip.

Piper studied hers without drinking. “That’s not all he said.”

“Oh?” Mattie watched her sister over the rim of the glass.

Piper exchanged glances with Lizzie, who nodded encouragingly. “He told me he loves you. Shouted it, actually.”

Mattie put the glass down. Condensation dripped down the sides onto the table while tears bubbled in her eyes.I’m not sorry I got the chance to love you. She remembered the exact words Adam had shouted at her because she’d replayed them over and over in her mind. She’d thought he meant he wasn’t sorry he slept with her, which she’d taken a step further to mean he wasn’t sorry he got that award-winning shot of her naked. But maybe he’d meant something else. Something more.

Della snorted. “Like that means anything.”

“It means something, Della,” Piper snapped. “It means a lot.”

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