Page 79 of Sapphire Storm

She laughed silently. Elbows propped on the counter, sherubbed her face with both hands. “Vanity Fair,” she finally said.

He waited for her to continue. She didn’t.

“The magazine?”

She nodded.

“What about it?”

“They’re going to profile her. For the first time. Becauseof this wedding. Most of her career they’ve dismissed her like a B-list nobody.Now they’re assigning a reporter to her the night of the wedding, and it’sgoing to be part of a career retrospective.”

Ethan took the slowest, deepest breath he could. “And that’sa reason I’m supposed to understand?”

Rachel rubbed her forehead. “Not necessarily. It’s just howmy mother works.”

“And you’re going along with it.”

Rachel lifted her chin defiantly. “Last time I checked,she’s the only mother I’ve got.”

“And you want to be famous.”

“Okay, I’m sure this morning with Romy was kind of awkward—”

Ethan sputtered. “Awkward. That’s one way of putting it.”

At the bitterness in his laughter, she flinched. He lookedaway from her quickly, busying himself with a rag and the one vaguely dirtycorner of his counter.

“Look,” she said quietly. “I came because I know my momprobably told him not to say anything to you about what was really going on andso he probably jetted out this morning with some weird excuse. I wanted you toknow this wedding isn’t real. You guys can still pursue whatever it is that’shappening between you two.”

Tired of distracting himself with meaningless tasks, Ethantossed the rag aside and turned to face his houseguest. He picked up his phone.“How much do you know about my history with Roman?” he asked her.

“History? You guys met, like, a few days ago. Imean, I know he’s got it bad for you. We talked about you for like an hour onTuesday. But all he kept saying was that you were never going to give him ashot because he was too young. Then when he texted that you guys were in SanDiego, I was so happy ’cause I know how crazy he is about you. I mean, that’swhy I’m here, because I didn’t want this fake wedding to get in the way ofwhatever’s starting with you guys.”

Ethan took several breaths to consider what he was about todo next. Yes, he was doubting everything he’d come to believe about Roman, butRachel had just revealed to him that the celebrity wedding of the year was asham, and she’d done it to protect what she thought was her best friend’sbudding relationship. Maybe she could be trusted.

“Eighteen years ago I worked as an escort in New York.Roman’s father was one of my clients. His mother found out, and she broughtRoman into the city one night to confront us, and he saw us kissing. He wasseven.”

She was an excellent actress, but he was fairly sure theastonishment he was seeing now couldn’t be faked.

“Why are you having the wedding at Sapphire Cove, Rachel?”

She shook her head. “I don’t… I think it was either going tobe there or Montage because they’re both big and nice and close to the Castle.”

“And which one did Roman suggest?”

After a tense silence, she whispered, “Sapphire Cove.”

Ethan nodded and began scrolling to his text thread withRoman as he continued. “I was a guest judge on a reality show. He recognizedme. He wanted you to have the wedding there so that he and I could be reunited.And on Saturday, he scheduled a tasting in the penthouse suite where he triedto take his clothes off and get me in bed. When I didn’t bite, he confronted meabout our past and admitted that his plan had been to make a false accusationagainst me to get me fired.”

Rachel shook her head, but her breaths were high and sharp.“But he didn’t do it, right? I mean, none of that happened. You guys are…youguys are…”

He placed Roman’s good-bye text on the counter in front ofher. “Thisis the explanation I woke up to this morning. This was hisgood-bye.”

As if the phone might be hot to the touch, Rachel pulled ittoward her carefully. And when she read the words on screen, her breaths wentsilent. “No,” she finally whispered, “I don’t believe this. I don’t believe hewrote this. I mean, why did your text go to green?”

“He’s forty thousand feet in the air with your mother. Hisphone’s probably off.”

“They weren’t wheels up by ten a.m.”

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