“Uh-oh.” Rebecca glanced down at the screen with her. “That’s not good. From who?”
Taryn scrolled through. “Lots of unknown numbers and—” The name that came up on the screen had her breath stalling for a moment. “And some other ones.”
Kincaid peeked over. “Lucas. The bastard. How dare he call?”
Liv snorted. “How do you know he’s a bastard? She’s never told us what happened. Maybe she broke his heart. Maybe he’s a nice guy and they just didn’t click.”
“I know because of simple math,” Kincaid said matter-of-factly. “Lucas in her life equaled happy, upbeat Taryn. Lucas out of her life equals won’t-stop-working, grumpy Taryn. He broke up with her. Therefore, he is the bastard.”
Taryn stared at her phone. Shaw had left a message. But so had a bunch of other numbers. She couldn’t deal with the Shaw message yet. She hit the button to play one from an unknown number on speaker. “Hi, Dr. Landry, this is Casey Carrigan from Channel Four. We talked at your event a few weeks ago. I was hoping you could make a comment about your relationship with Shaw Miller.”
Taryn’s stomach flipped and she dropped the phone, trying to stop the message from playing. It clattered to the floor.
Kincaid blinked. “Wait, what?”
“Shaw Miller?” Rebecca asked, brow knitting. “What the hell is she talking about?”
The next message started automatically before Taryn could get her phone back in her hands. Another reporter from some website. “Dr. Landry, a video has surfaced. We understand you must be in shock, but we’d like to speak to you about how you’re feeling about Shaw Miller conning you…”
With shaking hands, Taryn hit Pause, her fingers going numb. “Oh God.”
All her friends had stopped what they were doing. Rebecca sat down next to her at the table, eyes wide. “Taryn, what’s going on? What are they talking about? Conning?”
“Shaw Miller,” Kincaid said sharply. “As in Joseph Miller’s brother?”
Taryn put her hand to her forehead, her vision cartwheeling for a moment. They knew. Someone knew. Shaw had been outed. Oh God. That was why he was calling.
She closed her eyes. “No.”
“Honey, you’re scaring me,” Kincaid said, her hand going to Taryn’s shoulder. “What are they talking about?”
There was no denying it now. All these messages. Everyone knew. What video? She couldn’t even begin to know. Them kissing somewhere? At the gym? At the bar?
She stood abruptly, the room tilting. “I need a minute.”
Her friends backed up, giving her space. She put her phone to her ear to listen to Shaw’s message. His words were rushed, tumbling over each other, frantic.
“Taryn, it’s Shaw. I’m sorry to tell you like this, but a story got out about us. A video from karaoke. Don’t answer your door or phone if you don’t know who it is. I told the reporter you had no id
ea who I was. I’ll be gone before they can get any more information out of me. Just deny everything. Say you never saw me again after that night. We met at the bar, sang, and that was it. Say you were drunk.” There was a pause, a thumping in the background. “And, Taryn, I’m so sorry for all of this. I never meant to drag you into my mess. I loved the time we spent together.” The phone went silent for a second. “No, I think I probably just straight-up love you. I know that coming from me, it could never be enough, but I thought you should know. Take care of yourself, songbird.”
Taryn stared at her phone. Her heart was racing. Her skin was damp. Someone had found out who he was and had linked him to her. That was enough of a shock. But Shaw’s parting words had her knees going out from under her. She leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. He’d covered for her. He loved her.
Shaw loved her.
But it wasn’t enough.
Her friends hurried to her side again, all crouching down around her. Liv pressed her hand on Taryn’s knee. “Tell us what’s going on. Please. You look like you’re going to faint.”
Taryn stared at their expectant faces. “Lucas is Shaw. Shaw Miller.”
Three sets of eyes went wide. Rebecca made a horrified sound.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Kincaid said, standing straight up with murder in her eyes. “Lucas… He pretended…to you…and he’s… I’m going to disembowel the sonofabitch. What’s his address?”
“I’m calling Finn,” Liv said, rising and going into instant motion as well. “This is like…rape or something…something illegal. Oh my God, Taryn. I’m so sorry. What sick bastard would—”
Taryn lifted a hand. Shaw’s words rang in her ear but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t. “I knew.”