Page 31 of Kiss Me at Midnight
From her assistant Nina:How do you want to handle this?She’d attached a link and several follow up messages which basically were asking Lily the same thing:Do we have a comment? Lily assumed a picture of she and Jud leaving the benefit the other night had finally gone viral. She went to the next message.
From Violet:Tell me where you are.She’d attached a link, too, and followed up the link with more questions about Lily being okay or needing the cavalry. Lily ignored the link, now assuming two pictures were circulating–the one after the animal rescue benefit and the one taken at the dock yesterday.
From Dad:Tell me this isn’t you.He’d included a link, which was unusual for him, and then added increasingly agitated queries about her safety. But he sounded judgy, as if she’d done something wrong. This time, Lily clicked on the link.
The first thing she saw was the headline:Titanium Talon Makes Summer Heat.
Lily scrolled down, took in the picture, dropped her phone, and screamed.
Grandma Dotty sat up. “Who died?”
“It’s not who died. It’s who’s going to die.” Lily snatched up her phone and scrolled through the rest of the post. “It says stay tuned for more exclusive pictures. Gah!”
Footsteps pounded down the hallway. Someone pounded on the door.
Blood pounded in Lily’s temples.What am I going to do? I’ll be the laughingstock of the state house.
“Lily? Dotty? Who screamed?” It was Jud.
Lily tugged on the still damp terry bathrobe from last night and opened the door. “Tell me how this happened?” She turned her phone screen toward him.
It was a picture of them kissing outside this very door last night.
This very door.
Lily pulled Jud inside. The ocean wasn’t moving the yacht the way it had last night. They’d docked. “We’re in Norfolk? Good. We’re getting off the boat.” She began returning messages.
To Nina:No comment.
To Violet:We docked in Norfolk. Grandma Dotty and I are on the Cohen yacht. We’ll arrive in Charleston tomorrow. Don’t worry. You told me to get a life. I’m okay.
To Dad:It isn’t me.
But it was her. And she didn’t want Jud to think what everyone who saw that picture assumed–that if they hadn’t slept together yet, they were going to.
“What’s going on?” Grandma Dotty got out of bed and put on her bathrobe. “Nice glasses, Clark Kent.”
Lily had barely registered Jud’s specs when he’d come in. They were a lot like hers.
“What am I going to do?” Lily showed her grandmother the photo.
“Why do you have to explain anything?” Jud was angry, pacing the small room with heavy steps. “We’re dating.”
“We’re not dating,” Lily said coldly.
“It looks like it to me.” Dotty went into the small bathroom. “The question is who took the picture?”
“It was after midnight.” Jud stomped around. “There was no one out but Paulo unless…” He rushed out to the hallway and then darted back in, slamming the door. “There’s a camera out there, hidden in a hideous metal light fixture. The same style light that’s in every public space on this yacht.”
“Abe,” Lily ground out. “He just remodeled, remember? Get dressed. We need to confront him and then leave. He has no right.”
“He has every right.” Jud tried to put his arm around Lily. “We signed away rights to pictures.”
“I assumed he meant wedding pictures.” She brushed him off. “Are you on his side now?” So much for Hot Meals and Shelter being secure for another year. “What happened to settling down and dating with a future in mind? This looks like you haven’t settled down at all!”
“Are you dating or not?” Grandma Dotty wrinkled her brow. “I’m so confused.
“We’re dating,” Jud said through gritted teeth.
