Melody leaned forward. “So with your father addressing his addiction, and your stalker behind bars, you and Rick are...?”
Chiara gave a nervous laugh. “Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with Rick. I love him.”
Melody leaned forward and shut off her voice recorder. “Perfect.”
Chiara blew a breath. “You think so?”
The reporter gave her a sympathetic look. “I know so. A headline will appear on the WE Magazine site in a few hours, and then we’ll go to press with the print edition for the end of the week.”
Hours. That’s all she had before Rick and the world would know what lay in her heart.
Best to keep occupied. She still needed to put in motion the last part of the plan, which she’d suggested to Odele.
* * *
Rick nearly fell out of his seat. I love him.
He’d followed the news link to WE Magazine in Odele’s text and got a sucker punch.
Looking around his now nearly bare and sparsely furnished rental, he felt the swoosh of air that he normally associated with a high-altitude stunt.
His cell phone rang, and it was Melody Banyon from WE Magazine.
“Do you have a public comment on Chiara Feran’s interview with us? She confirmed her pregnancy.”
Yes. No. I don’t know. “I won’t ask how you got my number.”
“I think you know the answer,” Melody replied, amusement in her voice.
Odele, of course.
And then with sudden clarity, he realized going for broke was the thing to do. His concerns about privacy, getting manipulated by the press, or even publicity-hungry actresses, flew out the window. He didn’t have time to think about whether this was another of Odele’s PR moves. He was done with charades, make-believe and pretend.
“Anything you’d like to say for the record?” Melody prompted again.
“Yes. My feelings for Chiara were real from the beginning. There was no pretending on my part.”
“And the baby news?”
Yeah, wow. Somehow tomorrow was today...but he couldn’t be more elated with every passing day. “It may not have been planned, but I’m happy about it.”
“Are you Prince Charming?”
He laughed ruefully. “I’ve enjoyed my privacy up until now. And I’ve liked keeping my aliases under wraps, but things are becoming public knowledge.”
Melody cleared her throat. “Okay, off the record now... I wouldn’t let Chiara get away if I were you. She’s scared, but I’ve seen you two together. You belong together.”
“And here I thought Chiara and I had done a good snow job convincing you that we really were a couple.”
“Not as good a snow job as you two have done on each other,” Melody replied.
Yeah. And suddenly he knew he had to follow through on the idea that Jordan had given him...
“Give me until tomorrow before you publish my comment, Melody. I want Chiara to be the first to know.”
“Of course!” the reporter responded with a smile in her voice.
Rick barely heard her. His mind was already buzzing with ideas for props for his next stunt.