“I will.” I almost hung up before I whispered, “Quinn?”

“Yeah, babe.”

“Why didn’t you tell me what the tabloids were saying about me?”

My car speakers blared out a raspy crackle as she breathed into her cell phone. “It only just started happening, I swear. And I figured it would all die down, but so far, your being away has only kept the talk going. I was going to tell you about it the next time you called me, but honestly—”

She paused for a long enough time that I thought our call dropped. “Quinn?”

“Sorry. It’s just that part of me didn’t want to tell you about it because you needed to be away from all this bullshit. You were having such a good time being free that I didn’t want to make you feel like you had to come back to your chains. I didn’t want to be the reason you came home before you were ready.”

Her words soaked into me, traveled through my body, and settled square in my heart. “You’re a good friend, Quinn.”

“The best,” she added with a small laugh.

“You are.”

“You understand, though, right? You aren’t mad at me?” she asked, her voice small.

“I do understand. I’m not mad. Thank you for always looking out for me.”

“I love you. I’ll see you when you get home. Hurry up. I miss you.”

“Miss you too. ’Bye.”

I disconnected the call before she said anything else and continued following the Mercedes in front of me.

• • •

After long days of monotonous driving, my apartment building was finally in view. Over time, the hurt I’d felt about Tatum’s reaction had been replaced by anger. It was the only way I could deal with everything my body and mind were currently attempting to process. As long as I was mad, I wasn’t sad or reeling in the loss.

Jayson and Colin still led the way, and I found myself annoyed even more by their heavy-handed behavior. I didn’t need a freaking escort into my own home.

As I pulled into the entrance, I was suddenly surrounded by hordes of people rushing to my car from every direction. I had almost forgotten what it was like to be accosted at every turn. Almost.

Being in Hanford had been such a relief in every way. I didn’t realize how stressed I had become by simply choosing this career. It’s amazing the things that you’ll live with and stop noticing because they become a part of you—like the weight of certain anxieties and burdens. You simply carry it all on your shoulders and forget it’s there because you eventually become used to the extra weight.

Cameras flashed all around me, blinding me even in the daylight. Reporters shouted questions so loudly, I couldn’t tune them out. It was worse than when I’d escaped to Quinn and Ryson’s house, so much worse.

No longer were the questions about Colin and his stupid cheating ways, but about my apparent inability to handle it all. Because why else would I have been gone for so long?

“Paige, did you really try to kill yourself?”

“How was rehab? What were you in for, sweetie?”

“We heard Colin found you and saved you. Are you two back together?”

“Do you have a drinking problem? Drug overdose?”

“Colin’s here! Did Colin bring you home from rehab? Is this a new start for you two?”

I stepped out of my car at the same time Colin exited Jayson’s. If I thought the flashes were blinding before, they were nothing in comparison to the flurry that started then. The press loved a good drama, and that was what my relationship with Colin had become since the news of his cheating broke.

Colin wrapped his arm around my lower back. When I tried to wiggle out of his grasp, his fingers dug deeper into my side.

“Get off me,” I hissed at him, knowing that this was the ultimate publicity stunt for him. What better way for him to save his own hide than to be seen with me? If Paige Lockwood could forgive Colin, then why couldn’t the rest of the world?

“Stop being so difficult, Paige,” he said through clenched teeth. “Let me help you inside.” He smiled brightly at the cameras before kissing the side of my head.

The moment his lips touched me, I recoiled and fought off the urge to puke all over my shoes. The paparazzi continued to shout, cameras continued to flash, and I no longer cared about any of it. I pressed my palms against Colin and shoved him away from me so hard he almost fell to the ground. I wished he would have.

“Stay away from me,” I yelled without considering the implications. “I don’t want you here!” I rushed into the lobby of my building and into a waiting elevator, in which Sam held the doors. It was nice to see a familiar, friendly face.

“They’ve been here for days, Miss Lockwood. It’s like they knew you were on your way back. They won’t leave,” Sam said, and his concern for me was touching.

I considered his words for only a moment before saying, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not true, right? All the things they’re saying?”

“No, Sam, it’s not true,” I said with a tired sigh. I was exhausted, and I’d only just returned.

A wide smile transformed his face. “I knew it. None of it sounded like you at all.”

Thankful to finally have someone on my side, I said, “Sam, please make sure that no one lets Colin or Jayson up to my apartment without verbal permission from me first. Okay? It’s important.”

I no longer trusted Jayson. I had only considered the notion before I left town, but was now convinced that he didn’t have my best interests at heart.

“No one will come up,” he said with a nod. “Except Miss Quinn and your family?”

“Perfect. No one except them. Thank you.”

“Anything for you.” He leaned around me and pressed the proper floor on button panel before slipping out of the elevator and leaving me alone.

As the doors closed, Tatum’s face appeared in my mind’s eye and I winced. Would I never see him again? Even the thought of that broke my heart. But right now I needed to focus and figure out my future, and not worry about the guy who sent me packing.

What the hell had I done to my career and reputation by leaving?

Just a Fling

Tatum

I hadn’t accomplished a damn thing since I pushed Paige out of town. My computer at the shop had been bookmarked up the ass with celebrity gossip sites and entertainment channels.

I was a man obsessed. Every time I saw a photo of Paige and Colin together, like the one splashed on every website of him walking her into her apartment building, his hand on her waist, I wanted to throw this piece-of-shit computer across the room and watch it shatter the same way my heart had.

As much as I wanted to believe they weren’t back together, there was no denying the pictures I saw. Even the one where it looked like she was shoving him away, but the photo was followed by a headline that made even me question exactly what I was seeing, and I had just spent weeks with the girl.

I needed to rein it in. Paige stopped being my business the minute I allowed her to drive away without me.

Knuckles rapped against the door frame of the shop’s office, forcing me to find some sense of inner calm. I leaned back in the squeaky swivel chair, and my eyes fell upon Celeste’s sad expression.

“What do you want? Come to rub it all in my face?” I ask snidely, knowing that Celeste wasn’t at all the cause of my ire and didn’t deserve it, but I’d been an unbearable bastard since Paige exited my life.

“Don’t be mean to me,” she snapped, and shame washed over me.

“I’m sorry.”

Pulling up the guest chair closer to me, she sat down uninvited. “I know you’re hurting, Tatum, that’s why I came. I know who ratted out Paige’s location, and I couldn’t keep that information from you. Not once I knew for sure.”

I leaned forward, my arms pressing down on top of my old man’s desk. “Who?”