Page 53 of Crossing the Line
“She’s sick, X.” Her shoulders slumped. Somehow, her mother’s indiscretions made Waverly feel like both a victim and a failure.
“No shit. What kind of a mother sells out her own daughter like that?”
“She’d been drinking for a week straight. Her ‘baby’ was turning eighteen, and that meant she was old enough to be the mother of an adult. Aging in this industry can be traumatic, especially for women. The drinking makes her do things that she wouldn’t normally do.”
“That’s no fucking excuse,” he said, and then he was pulling her in and holding her. “I knew from the angle that someone had to take them from inside the house. I just assumed it was some asshole guest.”
She could hear his heart beating steadily against her ear. Its staccato beat told her he was still angry, but it wasn’t with her for once. He was angry on her behalf.
“I had a photo shoot coming up and didn’t want tan lines. I thought I had the place to myself. The pictures came out on my eighteenth birthday, but I knew from the landscaping and other details that they were taken earlier than that. So I stormed into my lawyer’s office that afternoon, just a few hours before my party.
“He reached out to the publisher immediately, saying we had proof that these were taken when I was underage. And five minutes later the guy was on the phone, dropping the bomb. My mother sent them the pictures. There was a part that I was up for, but it was more adult than my other work. She thought it would help the studio with their decision.” She gave a bitter laugh and rested her cheek against his chest. “I had to leave my lawyer’s office and go to the party that she and my father threw for me.”
Xavier’s hand stroked her hair, the back of her neck. It felt so good and so safe to be in his arms.
“I had to call Gwendolyn in to help clean it up. The tabloid could have gone public with it all, but between Gwendolyn and my attorney, they backed down fast. The settlement with the tabloid was that they wouldn’t reveal their source if I didn’t pursue charges and a lawsuit. None of the parties involved would ever speak of it again. And it worked. I got the part. Everybody won. Gwendolyn told my father what had happened, and the next day, we checked my mother into rehab.”
“I’m so sorry, Angel,” he said, his lips moving against her hair.
“I should be apologizing to you,” she said, pulling back to look up at him. “She’s not just screwing with my reputation now, she’s dragging you into it.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
“You made Gwendolyn smile. And laugh,” Waverly said.
“This face is a curse sometimes,” he said, raising the back of his hand to his forehead.
The martyr act got a laugh out of her. “Poor Xavier Saint. Too pretty for life.”
“What is it they say about honey and flies?”
“Aha! So you were after something,” Waverly said, crossing her arms. They began to walk slowly around the corkscrew path that led inward to the statue garden.
“She was very adamant about you doing all of the pre-premiere press, which meant you’d be running all over L.A. for the next week.”
“Gwendolyn wasn’t overly concerned about Ganim,” Waverly said. “I think she’s seen it all before, and if I get kidnapped and murdered, it would make the movie a blockbuster with all the press attention.”
“Sometimes I feel like I’m working for Satan and the Nazis in this town,” Xavier sighed.
Waverly laughed again. “Now who’s being dramatic?”
“Anyway, Gwendolyn and I were able to hash out a deal that we both find acceptable for your media appearances. You’ll be doing all the radio shows from here and the shoot for the Behind the Scenes blog will be moved from the hotel to the main house.”
“My mother will approve. She loves having shoots here.”
“Then instead of a dozen interviews scattered all over town, you and Liam will do a screening and press junket at the Four Seasons for a day. She’s having a press agent make the arrangements now.”
“That was a very productive twenty minutes,” Waverly said.
“I have to coordinate with Kate, but I think we’re going to be able to keep your outside exposure limited before the premiere.”
“Is that security speak for keeping me under lock and key?”
“I thought it was a much nicer way of putting it, though now that I know we have a direct threat living on the property, I’m considering locking you away in a remote cabin with no running water or WIFI.”
“Haven’t I suffered enough?”
“I’m going to have to talk to her, Waverly.” She knew it would have to be done. If Gwendolyn couldn’t convince her mother that not all attention was good attention, Xavier could at least scare her into behaving for a while.
