“Actually, on second thought, don’t come here. Let me get out of the restaurant first and then...”
“You have no car,” Delaney pointed out. “If I show up, I can distract the photographers.”
She shook her head. She couldn’t let her friends solve this for her. “I will take care of this. I just... I was so shook I needed to talk.”
“Believe me, we get that, Pais,” Delaney said. “I’m going to send Lyle to come get you. You don’t need to wait for an Uber. He’ll text you when he’s there. Come out when you are ready.”
“And I’m going to send you all the info I can find on Sean and his life. Call us when you are home,” Olive told her.
“I will. Thank you both.”
“We love you,” Delaney said.
“I love you both too.”
She hung up, wiped the tears off her face and turned to face herself in the mirror. She’d been lied to before. Her dad had done it for years. But she knew she’d find a way to get through this. She had no choice, really, because she still had the baby to think about...
Paisley splashed water on her face and as the water went down the drain, she tried to tell herself all her belief and affection for Ja—For Sean did too. But it wasn’t that easy. She’d was still in a state of shock.
However, right now, she needed to switch to survival mode because she was going to have to face him before she left. She sighed. Well, fortunately for her, survival mode was what she did best. Having grown up the daughter of a con man, she and her family had moved around a lot when one of his schemes was either found out, or he’d run out of marks. The reason for their relocating was something that Paisley hadn’t realized until she was in college. She had mistakenly believed her father was being transferred around because of his work.
God, she was an idiot when it came to men. She’d believed her father all those years and had convinced herself she had a good bullshit meter, but now...she was questioning that.
How had she let Sean O’Neill fool her? He was one of the most lauded actors of their generation, but still, she’d always believed she was smarter than that.
She needed to get her head in the right space. She looked at herself in the mirror.
“You’re a badass,” she told her reflection. “You deserve to be loved by someone who doesn’t lie to you. And that man doesn’t deserve to see your pain.”
Then she straightened her shoulders and prayed that somehow she could get through the next hour without completely breaking down. She just wanted to get out of this restaurant and back—
Dammit.
He’d been living in the home she’d made for herself. She’d invited this liar into her sanctuary. But she’d worry about that later. Right now she had to get out of here.
Stay strong, Paisley.She took a deep, bracing breath, turned toward the door and opened it.
That could have gone better.
Sean was standing in the lobby area of the restaurant. The security guards were taking care of the paparazzi. But that was the least of his problems. He saw the muff that had been a gift on the floor, picked it up and realized how fucked up this all was. Anger rolled through him as he balled his fists, wanting to punch something. He took a few breaths to try to calm down, but when he screwed up this big, it wasn’t easy.
He wished there was a way he could push the blame for this onto the photographers and gossip sites that had been waiting for them, but he knewhewas responsible for this entire mess.
Trouble was, he just wasn’t sure how to fix it. His mind was running through a lifetime of acting roles, trying to find the right words and emotions to remedy this situation, but he came up empty. After all, he’d never played a man who had lied to a woman like Paisley.
That was a big part of the problem here. She wasn’t like anything he’d ever experienced before. Of course, with his inflated ego and his expectation that he could get anyone to forgive him, he’d just done what he needed to do for the role, never realizing how deeply he could hurt her. Or that, unlike in the past, he wasn’t going to be able to charm his way out of this. Most people allowed him more grace than he knew he deserved. But Paisley wasn’tmost people. He’d known that, but had allowed his arrogance to convince him he could smooth things over, anyway.
At first he’d told himself it was just sex that was drawing them together, but as the months went by he’d started to realize it was more than their hot physical attraction that kept him coming back for more. He genuinely liked Paisley and hadn’t meant to cause her any pain. But he couldn’t afford any press leaks, and as much as he cared for the beautiful brand-imaging expert, he hadn’t been able to trust her with the truth.
He realized now that she wasn’t going to accept that excuse.
He wished...well, that he felt something other than guilt, anger and regret. He knew he should feel more, but that emptiness inside of him just echoed like the cavern it was. He couldn’t even fake it around her because this was Paisley and he wanted to be real.
But when had he ever been?
He heard the door to the ladies’ room open and glanced over to see her emerge. Her eyes were red, the disgust and outrage clear on her face.
“I’m sorry.” That always seemed a good place to start.