Page 50 of All Yours

I stopped adding water to the coffeemaker mid pour. Jonah was beside me and took the coffeepot from me.

“What else did it say?” I asked.

Lauren held up her phone. “It gets worse—”

“I should just read it myself, right?” I crossed the room to retrieve my phone. “It’s important to see what’s out there now.” The comforting aroma of brewing coffee wafted through the house. Powering on my phone, I took it to the couch.

As the website loaded, I gasped at the photo, unrolling down my phone. “They posted a newer blog about the Halloween Party last night.” And there at the top of the entry was a photo of Jonah and me kissing in the parking lot of Lou’s under the headlineAll Treats and No Tricks. It was dark, and we were in shadow against the lit-up building, but it was us. Someone was following us and taking our picture. I stared in horror.

“Oh my god, you guys kissed?” Lauren blurted out, staring at her phone. She’d seen the new post.

“No,” I replied automatically.

“There’s a photo.” Lauren held out her phone.

“It’s in silhouette. It could be someone else.”

“But it’s not.” Lauren insisted and read from the blog. “Halloween was all treat for Julia Simmons, now Sloane Thompkins, and carpenter, boyfriend Jonah Barnes. Some things remain the same for Julia as she stumbled drunkenly around the bar and had to be carried outside by her boyfriend. While she has a new name, her behavior certainly hasn’t changed…”

“I had a little too much at a Halloween party, and they act like I get loaded every day.” My stomach churned.

“I’m not a carpenter,” Jonah said, handing me a mug of coffee. He took the seat beside me on the couch.

“That’swhat you got from that?” I asked. “Someone was watching us.” I held up the photo for him to see.

“Isn’t that what they’re supposed to see? That PR lady wanted you in a stable relationship.”

“Stop making sense before I’ve had coffee.” I scowled at him.

He grinned and took a sip from his mug.

“My eagle-eyed source reported Julia was drinking and flirting with another man before her boyfriend arrived at the Halloween party,” Lauren read. “It would appear that small-town life has not calmed the wild-child of tennis.”

I flinched at the old nickname. It was like a punch to the face. The papers printed that every time I did something, they’d say the wild-child of tennis is at it again. It was humiliating to have that moniker thrown back at me. Jonah’s hand gripped my knee, but I didn’t look at him.

“You can stop now,” Jonah said. “I think we’ve heard enough.

Lauren pocketed the phone and moved to the coffee maker.

“What’s with the ‘wild-child of tennis’?” Camden asked, taking a seat in the chair.

“The press dubbed me that back in the day. Whenever I wouldn’t cooperate with my parents or wanted to blow off steam, they’d drag out that wild-child nonsense. No one ever asked if I wanted to dedicate my entire childhood to pursuing an adult career. My dad kept insisting that I practice even more than the academy required. I got to a place where I didn’t want to do any of it. Being a teenager with fame and some money, I had access to do stupid stuff, and I did.” I took a sip of the coffee and sat the mug on the end table and slouched back on the sofa.

Jonah reached over and pulled me to him. I relaxed into him, with his arms around me, the tightness in my chest loosened.

“Sounds like you were overwhelmed and not emotionally mature enough to deal with the pressure,” Camden said.

“Winning Wimbledon at fourteen was the worst thing that could have ever happened,” I agreed, pulling away from Jonah. “My parents had very high expectations for me. I loved playing, but they drove that love straight out of me. I spent years miserable. Then, my playing suffered, the press loved to talk about my partying, and my boyfriend started cheating on me with an underwear model. And, well, y’all are up to date on what happened after that.”

“I’m sorry all of that happened,” he said, squeezing my knee.

Lauren returned to the living room with a mug of coffee.

“No wonder you’ve always been so private,” Camden said.

And now there I was with my worst fears coming true, with my face splashed all over tabloids again. Tears welled in the corners of my eyes, and I quickly blinked them away. What the hell was happening? I don’t show that kind of emotion to people. That’s not who I am. I picked up my mug and took another sip of coffee. For a man who doesn’t eat sugar, Jonah always over sweetened my coffee. My phone buzzed and Jen Birdsong’s name appeared on the screen.

“Who is it?” Jonah asked.

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