Page 61 of An Inconvenient Plan
Claire winked. “I’m the same way.”
Hailey got quiet. It seemed that wink was meant to imply Hailey might be that way too. Was she? Was that why they kept butting heads?
Claire went on. “Things didn’t work so well in the beginning. It was kiss, fight, kiss, fight. Except substitute fuck for kiss.”
Everyone laughed. Hailey just sat there on the edge of her seat, dying to know the answer to the impossible Josh question.
Claire shook her head, smiling. “There was just a lot of energy sparking in all different directions.” She paused dramatically and the room went absolutely silent. Even Rose’s ears perked up from her perch on Hailey’s lap. “Until he made what we call in the movie business a grand romantic gesture.”
“I thought Jake wasn’t romantic,” Mad said. “What’d he do?”
Claire seemed lost in memory for a moment. “It might not have been romantic in the classic sense of the word, but what he did was something that meant a lot to me. He arranged to buy out Blake’s contract for the Fierce trilogy movies when Blake was giving me a hard time and, when I declined, he told me he’d invest in my movie’s marketing campaign. You have to understand I was so stressed at the time, all of my money was invested in production for the first Fierce trilogy movie, and I had little left for marketing. All I had was good buzz from the press and that was turning on me. He basically played my knight in shining armor.”
“Josh doesn’t have that kind of money,” Mad pointed out.
Claire tossed a chip at Mad. “You’re as unromantic as your brothers. It was the gesture, the sacrifice he was willing to make on my behalf, not the money. I didn’t accept either offer. Oh, wait! There was more. He offered to sell his company and travel to wherever I was filming just to be with me.”
The women murmured in astonishment. This was news to them. Jake’s company was worth billions.
“You didn’t accept that either,” Hailey said. “It was the gesture.”
“Yup!” Claire took a sip of her sparkling water, her hazel eyes warm on Hailey’s. “Josh made a gesture for you.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“He showed up at book club.”
That was true. It hadn’t felt like a romantic gesture. It had all been rather awkward, a little sweet too. He did give her that accidental pregnancy romance. The only gift he’d ever given her.
“A-a-nd,” Claire dragged out the word for the next supposed gesture, “he took a night off work to go to a club with you.”
Hailey huffed. “That was to show up Phillip. You can’t even believe what’s been going on with those two cocks.”
Everyone laughed. Hailey laughed too and then she told them every last detail from Josh’s zero effort to their fights and hot sex. She finished with a report on Phillip’s princely behavior with all the roses, his interest in investing in her, and his dreamy proposal.
“Holy shit!” Mad exclaimed.
“They’re both acting like idiots,” Claire pronounced.
“Maybe they’re both in love with her,” Sabrina suggested in her soothing counselor voice. Sabrina was very pro committed loving relationship.
That was the weird thing. She didn’t think Phillip could possibly be in love with her that fast. But Josh. They’d known each other so long she supposed it was possible. But Josh hadn’t expressed that. He hadn’t expressed much of anything. Did she love him? She’d thought love would be this beautifully romantic thing, and that was definitely not what she had with Josh. He made her furious, made her come undone. The problem was this, no matter how mad she got, she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him, couldn’t seem to keep away.
“Phillip’s just using her to fix his rep,” Mad said with a scowl. She always took Josh’s side no matter what. Family first. Hailey hadn’t told her friends about her mom flaking on Joe for just this reason. She knew Mad would take her dad’s side and dump Hailey as a best friend. She needed Mad in her life. No one else cut through the BS and spoke her truth the way Mad did. It had always helped Hailey immensely, except where Josh was concerned. Her mom had better not screw this up for her. If her mom had just talked to Joe instead of running away to who-knew-where, Hailey was sure Joe would calm her down and assure her he loved her. He was just that kind of wonderful man.
“Do you love Josh?” Claire asked.
Hailey jolted. All eyes were on her. She let out a shaky breath. “I don’t know. I’m so confused. He promised me a courtship, but all I got was one dinner and a lot of nothing.”
“Call him on it,” Claire said. “Say exactly what you want and why. Trust me, if you’re not direct, he’s not going to read between the lines. He might be smart, but he’s up on guy speak not the subtlety of woman speak. Jake’s the same way. Now me, I’ve learned to be direct working in the industry. You’re still fairly…”
“Girly,” Mad finished for her.
“Subtle.” Claire smiled. “I get it. Women are raised not to make a fuss, to smooth things over, to be polite and poised. Maybe your pageant training contributed to that, but life is not a pageant, and you don’t need to please him. What you need is to stand up for yourself and what you want.”
Sabrina piped up. “I don’t know if that’s the right tactic in this particular case. It could easily escalate between her and Josh. I think she should withdraw from this weird dynamic. Let the men miss her and realize the depth of their feelings. Their actions after that will tell Hailey all she needs to know.”
But what if Josh didn’t do anything? What if it was just Phillip urging her to save Villroy and his reputation and be a bona fide princess?
