Page 84 of Nothing But the Truth

Lucy couldn’t bite back her smile. Never did she think they would both get what they deserved in one fell swoop. She gave Chase a discreet nod, doing her best to put him out of his misery, as he was clearly dying to know what they were discussing. She could see a sheen of sweat on his brow from across the rooftop. “I think that is an excellent decision.”

“Well,” Joanna said, smiling warmly, “then perhaps I’ll go tell him.”

She left her at the bar, and by the time Lucy turned around and ordered a cosmo because she wanted something ridiculous to celebrate, she saw yet another familiar face enter the rooftop.

She felt like she was trapped in a bad movie where each next guest kept her pinned to the bar, coming to deliver their message like a Ghost of Birthday Present, and she’d never make it to the table now full of appetizers. She saw sliders and skewers and fancy little cheese platters. She was hungry, and the food was sitting right there, taunting her, but Leo Ash was approaching like sex on a stick in ripped skinny jeans, a deep V-neck tee, sunglasses even though it was dark, and a mop of tousled hair that probably hadn’t been washed in days. He wore silver rings on all his fingers, chipped black nail polish, and leather boots with a short heel that screamed rock n’ roll. He really had no business looking so attractive dressed like a total slob. And yet.

“Leo!” Lucy blurted. “What are you doing here?”

Despite inviting him, she hadn’t expected him to show up, not in a million years.

He whipped off his sunglasses and glanced over his shoulder like he might expect the crowd to mob him—which was a completely fair concern. But they played it cool. Another celebrity; no big deal. Lucy caught Oliver’s dramatic gape, his splayed palm to chest as if he just couldn’t believe his eyes. She casually shrugged and hoped Leo wasn’t about to make a huge scene.

“Happy birthday, Luce,” he said, and kissed her cheek. He smelled of cigarettes and musky cologne, and she was not surprised at all when he rapped on the bar and ordered a double Johnnie Walker. “You doing okay? You seemed a little... stressed when you called earlier.”

With everything else that had happened that afternoon, yelling at Leo on the phone felt like an age ago. The memory brought heat to her cheeks. “About that. I’m sorry—”

He shook his head. “No need to apologize. You’re right: I’m a total ass. And instead of being an ass, I’ve decided to do something.” He patted his jeans pockets, searching. When he came up empty, he reached into the breast pocket on his V-neck and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

“What’s this?” Lucy asked when he handed it to her. She almost dropped it.

A check for one hundred thousand dollars, made out to Lucy Green.

“It’s money.”

Her hands started sweating, leaving tiny prints on the paper marked with Leo’s famous signature. She’d never held so much money in her hands, check or otherwise. “Y-yes, I see that. But... why?”

The bartender brought his drink, and Leo swallowed it in a single gulp that would have sent Lucy to the floor retching. He breathed out a flammable breath and grinned at her like a three-year-old proud of a finger painting. “Because you told me to do something, so I’m doing something.”

“Yes, but how is handing me a check for a hundred grand doing something?” She used her patient Leo tone, the one she’d honed over years of managing his chaos.

She realized in that moment that she might in fact make a great mother someday because she had been mothering Leo Ash for years.

She sipped her cosmo because she couldn’t decide how she felt about that fact.

Leo cupped her face in his big, calloused, guitar-playing hands. His whisky breath burned her nose. “Because, dearest Lucy, you told me to donate to a worthy cause, and I figure you know much more about those than I do. I trust your judgment. Use the money as you see fit.”

She frowned, her face squished between his hands. “So, you’re passing this task to me.”

He shrugged and dropped his grip. “At least it’s a step in the right direction.”

She couldn’t fault him that. She looked at the check again and briefly thought of all the immoral things she could do with a hundred grand: buy a boat, take an obscenely luxurious vacation, take a year off from work and backpack through South America. But she knew the money wasn’t for her. She’d do her research and figure out where it could be put to the best use.

Leo leaned sideways on the bar, pushing out his chest and chewing a plastic straw. “Make sure you donate it in your name too; it’s my birthday present to you.” He waggled his fingers at the check like it was of little significance. In truth, it was chump change to him. A fraction of the profit he hauled in off his last show at the Forum.

But Lucy’s annoyance with him melted away as she realized he’d buried the lede, probably not on purpose. He wasn’t giving her homework; he was giving her money to give to whomever she wanted. And having become a multimillionaire as a teenager, his grasp on financial reality was loose. It was on-brand for him to hand her a hundred-thousand-dollar check not even in an envelope. She was surprised he didn’t show up with a bag of cash. “Leo, that’s... Wow. Thank you.”

He casually shrugged and pinched the straw from his mouth. “So, what’s up with the firm? Did that fucker Jonathan get fired?”

She blushed at the coarse reference, though she herself had had the same thought many times. “Yes. Joanna is taking over as CEO, and I’m being promoted to senior publicist.”

“Badass.”

“I know.”

He turned serious for a second. “Lucy, I just want to say that we both know you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and no one else in this town will put up with my shit. You are a saint, and I’d be lost without you. You deserve better than whatever that prick did to you, and I vow to do my part in making your job easier.”

She tipped her glass toward him with a smile. “I will gladly accept that vow.”

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