Page 1 of The One I Love

CHAPTERONE

Silver Creek was crawling with paparazzi. Eve Driskill was used to photographers trying to take photos of her family and had learned to use it to her advantage when it came to promotion of her new cosmetics line.

But, after spending the last few hours helping her boyfriend, Anson, re-create a painful event from his past, a media circus was the last thing he needed. Thankful for his Range Rover’s tinted windows, she directed him into the gated, underground garage of the high-rise.

With a quick kiss good-bye—and a reminder that Anson should not stop to talk to any journalists while his emotions were still so raw from the re-creation—Eve slipped out of the car and made her way to the private elevator.

She took the elevator to her unit, grateful she’d chosen to live here when she’d returned from California instead of getting an apartment with friends in a less private location. At least here it was easy to keep the paparazzi at bay.

She pulled her phone out to check online for what had everyone so stirred up and remembered with a start that she’d powered it down earlier when she and Anson had arrived at the party house from ten years ago.

As she waited for her phone to come on, she tried not to stress. Whatever was going on could be anything, possibly something with one of her siblings, who were popular targets of online gossip.

Her parents were both too boring to evoke much press these days. Her grandfather Johnny was capable of telling anyone off on any given day, so she supposed that was a possibility.

But it more than likely had something to do with one of her sibs.

Things had died down since her older sister, Nyla, had married Deron Flock. For so many years, the Flocks and Driskills had feuded like they were the Montagues and Capulets. Her sister and Deron falling in love had helped bridge the gap. Though the hostility had eased between the two families, some of the tension was still there.

Her brothers JR, Cameron and Miles? As far as Eve knew, nothing much was going on with them.

Then she smiled. Maybe the hubbubwasabout her. Could one of her videos have gone super viral? Had her cosmetics line, launching in the fall, caught some celebrity’s eye?

Eve’s heart pounded as she hurried out of the elevator and slipped into her apartment. That had to be it. Her marketing crew had been making inquiries, so the only question was, which celebrity had gotten on board?

In her apartment, her phone connected to Wi-Fi and exploded.

Emails, texts and voicemails galore.

Being a child of the social media generation, that’s where Eve went first, eager to see her followers sharing the good news.

Her smile faded as she read some of the comments.

Spoiled rich girl

Media whore

Craven slut

Eve clicked on a video link. Two seconds in, she knew where this was going, and she really, really didn’t want to go there.

Jason Evers had been her boyfriend for most of her freshman year in college. They’d parted amicably. The honors student from Iowa was the last person she’d ever thought would secretly record them having sex.

When he’d contacted her last month after seeing a TV interview she’d done, he’d mentioned several times that he was an attorney in San Diego now. Apparently, he’d gotten an offer from a prestigious Denver firm and was considering relocating.

It had seemed, at least to her, that he was feeling her out about the two of them reconnecting. She’d made it clear—gently, of course—that any media reports he’d seen about her and Anson were accurate—they were indeed a couple.

Jason had had no hard feelings, or so she’d thought. Leaking the recording to the media didn’t make sense.

After watching the video all the way through, she set down her phone with trembling fingers. No longer able to stand, she dropped down on the sofa, her heart racing.

Eve knew she shouldn’t be surprised, but she was. She’d grown up during a time when everything everyone did was subject to being recorded whether they wanted it to be or not. From an early age, she’d learned to ignore the insult when an unflattering pic of her made its way onto the internet.

This… She stared at her phone in disbelief. This was different. What she and Jason had shared during their six months together had been private.

Or so she’d believed.

From the moment her father had bought the Grizzlies football team, her life and those of her sibs had been under the microscope. She’d learned to choose her friends carefully, and that had included the boys she’d dated.

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