Page 19 of All Yours

“Then, it’ll be a repeat of the past in the news,” I quipped. “Besides the statement Jen crafted is short and to the point.”

“You trust this Jen person who just shows up from nowhere and says your parents hired her?” He asked.

I slouched back onto the couch next to Jonah. “I may be an enormous disappointment to my parents, but my public image is something they are concerned with. So yeah, even now they’re gonna try to jump in to salvage whatever was left of mine.”

“Do you have to go along with it?” Eden asked.

“I don’t guess I do. But if the press finds me, it might be good to have a plan in place.”

“I say silence is golden,” Jonah said. “Just ignore the whole thing, and if you don’t feed it, it’ll go away.”

I shrugged, confused. What Jonah was saying made sense, but so did Jen when she was talking.

“So, are we not going to talk about the part where Jonah’s your boyfriend?” Lauren asked.

“You were here. What else was I supposed to do?” I cried. Why wouldn’t she just let this go?

“What happens when his family reads that?” Lauren asked, pacing the room like a caged tiger.

The realization steamrolled right through me. “Oh, my god. Your mother.”

“It’ll be fine,” he said.

“No. I’m not Jewish. She’s gonna be furious.”

“My dad’s not Jewish. He never even pretended to convert. So, she doesn’t have any room to complain.”

That had never stopped her before. She’d been on a mission to pair her son with any other Jewish girl in the county ever since Chasity left town.

“This is just pretend, right?” Eden asked.

“Of course, it’s just pretend,” Jonah snapped. A little too fast. Was the thought of being romantically tied to me that repulsive to him?

I took a deep breath to steady myself. “Are you going along with it?”

“We say nothing unless it comes up, then we can go on dates, if necessary.”

Necessary? I tried to stuff down whatever feeling that was tearing through my chest. I should have told Jen the truth from the start—that I’m a sad, damaged, lonely little freak who can’t get a boyfriend.

“We hang out a lot, anyway. So it shouldn’t be that difficult,” Jonah said.

“No, not too difficult.” I repeated the word he used, letting it fall flat. “Y’all, I’m exhausted and getting a headache. It’s time to call it a night.”

“I’m here if you need me,” Eden said, standing.

“Call me if you need anything,” Lauren said. “I’ll check in tomorrow.”

Eden and Lauren left, but Jonah remained on my couch. I closed the door behind Lauren, and turning to Jonah, leveled him with a stare.

“Did I say something wrong?” he asked, sliding his palms down his jeans.

“No,” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest. “I should have cleared it up to begin with. It’s an imposition, and I shouldn’t put that on you right now. You have enough going on with the building project.”

“I wouldn’t call it an imposition,” he caught me in his dark brown eyes. “But you know my advice on how this is best handled.”

“Silence. But my humiliation will not go away with me not saying anything. That book and whatever the hell it says are still out there and people are going to read it and think—”

“That the asshole waited seven years to tell this story. He’s only doing it because his tennis career is in the toilet and no one’s talking about him.” Jonah massaged his temples in small circles.

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