Page 63 of Over & Out

“Really? Because that’s what I’ve been paying him to do.”

“And that’s essential. But think about how much more he could get from a bullshit tell-all where he paints himself the victim. Where he shows the world that you’re a careless, entitled ass.”

“What if I don’t care about my reputation? What if I give it all up now?”

“Right. Okay. See that through. Because if I know you, I know you’ve already let this go too far. So you walk off into the sunset with Chris. You toss away your father’s leverage—your career. Your father doesn’t walk away from that. He tells the whole story however he wants to. The one where you caused an accident and you felt so guilty that you hired the girl as your assistant. Then you seduced her. Then she made you quit the business. So you quit the movies that little kids in hospitals beg to watch over and over again.”

I clench and unclench my jaw. I can see exactly where this is going, and some childish part of me wants to walk out so I don’t have to hear her say it.

“He paints you as taking advantage of an innocent woman to cover up what you did, or he paints her as the Jezebel who stole you from the world. Take your pick. Either way, he wins.”

My chest feels like a rock, because Mabel’s right, of course. Half her job is handling my father, because she knew him. Sheknowshim. And she promised my mom itwas the one thing she’d always do. She’d look out for me by keeping him far, far away.

“Hopper,” she says, her voice softer now. “Now you know as well as I do what a tightrope we’re walking on here with Chris. And part of that is my fault. I thought the clause in your contract would be enough. You’ve never been tempted by a person on your staff in the past. You’ve been an honorable man, Hopper, and I need the world to see that. But you need to cut off whatever it is that’s happening between you two. For her sake.”

That stone in my chest weighs a thousand pounds. It snuffs out the last embers of the anger I came charging in here with. Because it’s not just that she’s right about Chris being impacted by this. She is; it kills me to admit that. But there’s more. My dad has information I’ve been paying him every fucking month to keep quiet. My darkest truth only a look from her conveys is the real problem.

Between that and Chris? I should know better. I never should have let my feelings for Chris grow. I should have stuck to my rules. But I had no idea just how hard it would be not to fall for her.

“So what now?” I ask after a grim silence falls between us. “Are you trying to tell me I should fire her? Because there’s no fucking way I’m doing that.”

“God no. Think of what a disaster that would be,” Mabel says. “No, keep her on. She’s only going to be with you for another two months, right? Keep it professional. Do not cross a single line. Just put on that bad boy persona, and whatever you do, don’t tell her about your father. It’ll spook her. Remember, your father has theresources to have people watch you. He’s done it before, and there’s zero reason to trust he’s not doing it right now. No matter how quickly I find them, he gets them back in. So keep things airtight. For everyone’s sake.”

“How the hell am I supposed to do that when I feel like I’m going to explode?”

“Hopper. You film this movie,” Mabel says gently. “You’re on set next week. Just stay there. It’ll be long days. You’ll be busy. Just forget you found this out. I’m sorry you did. You do all that, and your father has nothing to grab on to. Okay? Leave the rest to us.”

She’s walked up to me now, placed her hands on my shoulders. “You can do this, Hop. I know you can. It’ll be hard, but you’ve had your heart broken before.”

“Not like this,” I say bitterly. Not of my own doing.

She kisses me on the cheek. “Oh, sweetie.”

But I pull away from her. I walk out without saying goodbye. Because I have to get back to Redbeard Cove. And somehow, for her own good and still as my assistant, I have to keep Chris as far away from me as possible.

I kick the door of the adulterer as I pass and nearly break my toe.

It does nothing for my grim state of mind.

Chapter 20

Chris

“You okay?” Adrian leans forward on screen, whispering, as if we aren’t the only ones on the call.

“Totally,” I say, glancing over the laptop at Cindi, who’s whistling as she organizes Hopper’s vitamins for the next seven days. She was whistling as she skipped off to refill the order yesterday too. She and I are not the same.

Adrian leans back, folding his arms. “‘Totally.’ Yeah, that sounds truthful.”

I feel a lump growing in my throat, which I guess is better than the absolute rage my brain has seemed to err to since I got back from LA. Separately from Hopper, because apparently he headed to the airport mere minutes after I left his place.

“I want to hear about baby things,” I say. Inspired by Tru and Kevin, Adrian and his partner Len have been talking about adopting. There are plans in the works to visit an agency.

But Adrian levels a look at me. “It’s fine, Chris. No change since yesterday.”

Right. It was only yesterday we talked about it. Time has been moving like molasses since that night on the cliffside.

My stomach churns. The fact that I seriously thought Hopper might pull some Duke move and call to me outside my hotel window, begging forgiveness, is mortifying, even if it’s only in my head. Not only did he not do that, but we haven’t talked about what happened. The texts he sent that first night—all night—ended the next day. It felt so cold I swear I’ve still got frostbite.

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