Page 123 of How Good It Was (Excess All Areas 3)

Izabel grinned. “I’m just imagining Matt wandering around a Paris hotel in his boxer briefs, trying to find Luke. He’s a bit useless on too little sleep.”

“Aren’t we all,” she said, glancing at the increasing number of notifications on her phone. “I can’t bear to look,” she said.

“Have you read any of it?” Izabel asked.

Memories of the comments made her shiver. “Yeah. Mostly negative. With some loyals saying they want to wait until I make a statement. The headlines are pretty awful.”

“Did you know I studied public relations as part of my degree?”

Willow’s stomach flipped. “You did?”

“Yeah. So while we wait for Luke to call, why don’t we start to build a plan? For a start, grant me access to all your platforms. You aren’t to read any of the stuff posted over the next forty-eight hours. It’s too stressful. I’ll read it and make a list of themes your statement should address. And then, we’ll document it and send out a press release. Granted, this is a bigger press release than anything I’ve ever worked on, but it shouldn’t be hard. I’ll set up an email address for all enquires so they filter to one place. Then, we’ll pin the statement to all your platforms. And maybe when—”

“Thanks, Iz,” Willow whispered, reaching for Izabel’s hands.

Izabel smiled as she nodded. “Anytime, sis.”

Luke slammed upright in bed. “What the fuck?” he muttered as he reached for the lamp. The phone in his hotel room was ringing, while someone hammered on the door.

The red lights of the digital clock in the room accusingly told him it was half past four in the morning.

“One second,” he shouted grumpily as he reached for his joggers and pulled them on.

He yanked open the door to find Matt in the hallway. With his T-shirt crooked, his shorts wrinkled, and his feet bare, Matt looked as dishevelled as he felt. They’d only been in bed two hours.

“There’s nothing wrong with the baby, but you need to call Willow.”

His heart dropped in his chest with a thud that reverberated through his ribs.

“What happened?” he said, grabbing his phone.

Five missed calls.

Matt opened his phone and pointed it in Luke’s direction.

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The worst, a photograph of the two of them, the last one posted to her social media platforms. It was after their talk on the rocks, where he bared his soul to her. They’d wandered back to the hotel, hand in hand. And after a glass of wine where he’d thanked his lucky stars that she was still with him, she’d taken the picture.

It was the backdrop of his phone, because in that moment, he’d felt that life might be conquerable. To see it bashed online hurt.

He dialled Willow, is heart racing as he waited for her to pick up.

“Flower,” he said as Willow’s face appeared on his screen. At his words, a tear spilled over her lashes and his heart cracked for her. “We’ll figure it out. Together. I promise.”

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I should never have asked you to do this.”

“One second, babe.” He looked at Matt. “Get me home, mate. As soon as we can, yeah?”

“Alex is already on it. I’ll stop by his room to see what he found. United front, yeah? All of us have your back. And Willow’s.”

“Thanks, mate.”

He waited to respond to Willow until the door clicked shut. “You don’t need to be sorry. If you’d come to me back then with anything else, the promise of a relationship, I wouldn’t have listened. It’s because of that contract I’m here. I’m not sorry in the least.”

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