Page 47 of Breaking News

That gave us plenty of time to snag someone from the crowd for an interview. Actually, I could put Olivia on that task.

After checking my lipstick in a compact mirror, I looked up and searched for her. She was standing near the camera crew with her arms loosely crossed, watching everything unfold with wide, curious eyes. Just soaking it in. Something about that girl reminded me of my younger self; a young woman immersing herself in broadcast news for the first time and realizingthis is it.

But as much as I saw myself in her, I saw Graham, too. And it wasn’t just in her eyes or her bone structure, either. It was the way she carried herself. That whole awkward-but-confident thing? She had it, too. I smiled to myself as she politely grinned at the Chamber of Commerce president, arching one eyebrow at his back as he walked past.

That look wassoGraham.

And just like that, I was thinking about him again.Damn it.

I distracted myself with the note cards I’d prepared for later segments, inhaling through my nose as I reread them. After standing for a straight hour, my hips and thighs were already beginning to ache. And we were just getting started.

Olivia approached me from the side. “Isn’t that your ex-boyfriend?”

I glanced up from the cards, and sure enough, Xander was strolling up the sidewalk toward City Hall with a notebook tucked under his arm. My stomach knotted as soon as I saw him. Of course, he would be here—City Hall events like this were kind of his domain, too. I knew this. But that didn’t stop my breath from catching in my throat or my skin from crawling with guilt, as though I’d done something shameful. The last time Xander saw me, I was stumbling in the direction of Graham’s house. He was going to have questions, wasn’t he?

He strolled right up to us. “Thought I was going to see Chase here.”

“Sometimes they let me out of my cage,” I joked.

Olivia stood between us twisting her hair with her fingers, looking Xander up and down. She was looking at him the way most girls looked at Xander. How I used to look at him. But considering he was at least twice her age, he barely even gave her a glance.

Instead, he kept his eyes locked on me and cleared his throat. “Everything go okay Friday night?”

Oh God. Did he really want to get into this now? “Yes, Xander.” I flipped through some of my notecards without really absorbing what was on them. “Thanks for asking.”

“You were still there when I left.”

“I slept in,” I said, smoothing my hair with one hand. I prayed he wouldn’t mention Graham’s name. Olivia was paying close attention to this conversation, and I didn’t want to have to explain why I’d spent the night with her dad.

But Xander, adjusting the notebook in his arm, looked down at the ground and mumbled, “I bet Graham loved having you in—”

“Xander,” I quickly said, touching Olivia’s arm. “Have you met Graham’s daughter, Olivia?”

He blinked at her. “Mornin’.”

“Hi. I’ve read your articles,” Olivia said, still twirling her hair. “I love it when you’re sarcastic in them. Like last week, when you said, ‘in an astounding display of dueling egos’ about the city council meeting? That wassosnarky. I bet it pissed people off.”

I was glad she was rambling about this instead of focusing on his mention of her father. Xander scratched the back of his neck with an uncomfortable nod. “Uh, yeah. Pissing elected officials off is half the job.” He pulled his phone out to glance at the time before turning to me. “Can we chat in private for a quick minute before this starts?”

I wanted to say no, but everything was prepped and ready to go. Now all we had to do was wait, and unfortunately, I had a few minutes to spare. I handed Olivia my notecards and followed Xander halfway around the side of the City Hall building, where the noise of the gathering crowd faded slightly.

“Let’s make this quick, Xander,” I said, carefully stepping over the busted sidewalk where tree roots were crumbling the concrete. “I don’t want to miss anything.”

He turned around. “Are we good, me and you?”

“Of course we are. Why?” I asked, furrowing my brows.

“Maybe because you got insanely belligerent with me on Friday night and went out of your way to get under my skin?”

I sighed. “I know, and I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve my drunken belligerence. But… you kind of got under my skin, too, you know.” The words“you started it”were on the tip of my tongue.

“I know I did, and I was about to apologize about that. It was kind of an asshole move for me to imply you’d try to sleep with Graham.”

Right, because I would never do that.“Let’s just put it past us. We're going to keep seeing each other on assignments like this and at the Gardners’ on Friday nights. If Owen and whomever he hooked up with can put it past them, so can we. You know,whether it was Kendall or Erika or Abigail…” I let my voice trail off, secretly hoping he’d give me a clue.

Xander’s eyes lifted to mine, and he smirked. “I’m not telling you who it was.”

“It was worth a shot.” I chuckled, crossing my arms. “How did it go with you and Abigail after I left?”

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