Page 16 of All Yours

“There you are.” A voice came up behind me. “We’ve got a problem.”

Yeah, a big problem. Unable to tear my eyes off the screen, I stared at yet another photo of Sloane and Sebastian on the split screen while Sebastian spoke with a big stupid grin on his face and closed caption words flying across the bottom of the screen. What the hell?

“Jonah, did you hear me?” A hand shook my shoulder. “We have a problem.” I tore my eyes from the television and found Camden. “The investors are here.”

“What?” As his words registered. “They’re like four hours early.”

“I just got a phone call. They came in last night and want to get a jump on it,” Camden said. In a button-down dress shirt and corduroys, he looked out of place among the work boot crowd mingling about. “They’re on their way.”

“Did you tell them to meet us here?” I asked, still trying to shake the cobwebs from my brain and compartmentalize what I’d just learned. I’d have to push it out of my mind for now.

“Yeah. We can get them coffee and talk a bit before heading over there in the cold.” He held up his tablet. “Have all the renderings and everything to show them.”

I nodded.

“Everything alright?”

I glanced back up at the television, but they’d moved on to the next story. “Apparently Sebastian Sinclair wrote a memoir that talks about Sloane. I didn’t even know they were together.”

“Seriously? You’ve seen the video, right?”

“That had to do with him?” I asked, following him to a table and sliding into a seat.

“That kind of anger was definitely a woman screwed over. It was his car, after all.” He laughed. “I’m guessing that asshole deserved it. But she was the one who lost her career.”

I considered his words. The car video was the last one, but others existed of the young tennis star having several public meltdowns. But that last one had resulted in her arrest, leaving tennis, and subsequent life seeking anonymity. We’d never spoken about the videos until our fight. I told her I hadn’t seen them because she wanted to leave that part of her life behind her, and at the start, I did whatever it took to make her happy and comfortable with me. Now that jerk weed publishing a tell-all book would jeopardize all that she’d worked for. Her name change would only keep her safe for so long.

“They’re here,” Camden said, standing.

“Who?” I asked, confused after being pulled from my thoughts.

“Theinvestors,” he whispered. “Get your head in the game.”

A few hours later, I found myself once again trudging up the leaf covered walkway at Sloane’s cabin. I’d pulled it together enough to meet with the investors but made up an excuse and ducked out of the job site early. The whole project wouldn’t fall apart in a couple hours, I hoped. I couldn’t get the whole thing out of my mind, and an awful lump sat in the pit of my stomach over our fight. The door jerked open as I raised my fist to knock.

“What the hell did you do?” Lauren asked.

“Not write a tell-all book.”

“You think that’s funny?” Lauren narrowed her eyes.

“Oh, come on,” I said, irritation rising. “Nothing is funny about any of it. That’s why I’m here to tell her I’m sorry.”

“Let him in.” Sloane’s voice was barely audible.

Lauren sighed, then stepped back to let me pass.

Sloane’s living room was dark, with the curtains drawn and the only light coming from the backdoor. Eden sat curled on the end of the couch, crying, and Sloane stood and came towards me and, throwing her arms around my waist, she buried her face in my chest.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, voice cracking. Her little body trembled in my arms.

“No, I’m the one that’s sorry,” I said, squeezing her to me, inhaling the fresh aroma coming from her hair I closed my eyes for a moment enjoying the comfort of her softness and needing to protect her from the world.

“You have nothing to be sorry about. I overreacted.”

“No, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed.” I whispered into her hair. “It wasn’t my place to decide how to handle it.”

“Now we have bigger issues,” Lauren said. “You need to contact a lawyer.”

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