Page 15 of Texas-Sized Scandal

But that didn’t ease the feeling in his gut that something bad was about to happen. He thought about the message his assistant had given him from his dad earlier. Was his father the cause of the bad feeling? Or was it simply that for the first time in his life, he had to look out for someone else and he wasn’t sure he could protect Melinda?

Melinda hit the mute button on her phone when her dad’s number popped up. He was the last person she wanted to talk to. She’d been doing her best to be there for him and to help him through this trying time, but he hadn’t approved of her and Slade being on the same committee and she was pretty sure he was about to issue some sort of autocratic decree regarding her and Slade. And as much as she always tried to frame her father’s overbearing ways as the only way he knew how to love her, she wasn’t in the mood to be placating.

The meeting had gone well but there had been paparazzi and gossip bloggers waiting when she’d exited, and it had taken all of her willpower to just smile and walk calmly around them and not run for her car like she wanted to.

She knew that Slade thought an engagement would be a nice barrier between her and the media, and she had to be honest and admit she was beginning to believe that it would work. With her dad just out of jail on the dropped embezzlement charges, and the rumors swirling that he might know more about the Vincent Hamm murder, and her own scandalous embrace captured at the opera, maybe an engagement would be just the thing to make them all lose interest.

“Ms. Perry, can you confirm that you are dating Slade Bartelli?”

She kept walking, tried to keep her shoulders straight and her head up. Her personal life was no one’s business but her own. She hadn’t used the media to build her business or her charities. She’d done it through hard work.

“Don’t want to talk about that?” the guy said. “What about the rumor that your father is a suspect in the Vincent Hamm murder? Want to discuss that?”

She took a deep breath. She knew that engaging the guy would be akin to trying to be reasonable with a quack on social media. Whatever she said or didn’t say he was going to spin to fit his own narrative.

“You always were the boring Perry. Interesting that you are now the one in the spotlight. Some think it’s because you’re trying to cover for your father and the illegal activities of Slade Bartelli.”

That hit a nerve. She lost her temper, turning on her heel to confront the portly man following so closely behind her. “I can see, sir, that you are a man with very little manners and probably even less brain, so I’m going to speak slowly and use small words, so you don’t get confused. My father is a good man who hasn’t done anything wrong. And Slade has spent his entire life being more transparent about every dealing he’s ever had than most businesses you consider legitimate. You can make stuff up about them all day, but in the end, it will only prove that you’re a complete moron. That’s all I have to say.”

She turned back around, hurried to her car, got inside and turned the air conditioner on full blast so that maybe it would cool her down. She put her sunglasses on and slowly drove out of the parking lot despite the fact that she wanted to speed away. She wanted to race out of Houston and keep driving north until she reached Oklahoma. Someplace where no one would know her and she could find some peace and quiet.

It was impossible to say that she needed time to think away from Slade when everyone she encountered kept bringing him up. She pulled into the CVS parking lot at the next block and drove around back and just parked the car. She put her head on the steering wheel and closed her eyes.

In all her days, she’d never expected her family name to be raked through the mud. She had also never thought that she’d be pregnant and having an affair with a bad boy...man. But Slade wasn’t a bad man.

She wished there were some way she could be Slade’s temporary fiancée and not fall in love with him. But she knew herself. She couldn’t walk around telling people they were getting married and not fantasize about it.

In her mind, she easily pictured the wedding dress she’d choose—a simple Givenchy satin gown with a ballet neckline and fitted bodice with a flowing skirt. She could picture it in her mind and that was a mistake.Temporary, she reminded herself. That was all he’d offered her.

Something to get her through the odious reporters who wouldn’t stop with their questions.

And unless she really did leave Texas, there was no way she was going to be able to distance herself from Slade. Normally she’d ask Angela for advice, but her sister wasn’t returning her calls at the moment and her father... Well, he’d never been an advice giver.

This decision was going to be all on her.

And to be honest, she knew what she was going to do. Had known since the moment that he’d said those ridiculous sweet words. She was going to say yes and become Slade Bartelli’s fiancée in the eyes of Houston and the world. Everyone would see a couple who cared deeply for each other and had decided to commit their lives to one another. She felt tears burn her eyes because it was the secret dream she’d always harbored. But maybe it was time to be realistic. Maybe this temporary thing with Slade was all she’d have when it came to men. But she would have a child.

A family of her own.

One where no one was demanding. She and the child would have each other. Already Melinda felt better. And Angela. The child would have a wonderful auntie too. And if sometimes Melinda wished that things had worked out differently, then she would keep that to herself. She lifted her head off the steering wheel, wiped her eyes and picked up her phone.

This was a business deal. A PR stunt to distract the society reporters and bloggers, and when the heat died down, they would go back to their normal lives. Slade had been honest about not wanting a family and she knew that at the end of the day, she’d be raising the child on her own.

She was okay with that.

Really, she was.

And maybe if she repeated it often enough to herself, she’d start to believe it.

Six

Dinner at Philomena Conti’s house was something that Melinda always looked forward to. Given all the craziness in her life currently, she definitely needed it tonight. She and Slade had postponed the previous week. She just hadn’t been ready to talk to anyone about the engagement until they’d had time to sort a few details out. It had been a week since the news of her and Slade had broken, and she was no closer to figuring out what to do next now than she had been then.

“Jeeves, play my soothing playlist.”

“Playing your soothing playlist,” the in-home automated assistant said.

Melinda went back to getting ready, thinking about Philomena. She had a joie de vivre that drew people to her. Over the years since they had started serving on the art council together, Melinda had found her to be almost a kindred spirit.

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