Page 90 of Forever Fighting
“Quinn and Sky,” I reply silently.
He nods and blows off some of the steam so he can take a sip.
“Brae, are you even listening?” Quinn asks.
“What do you want me to say?” I reply, leaning against the buffet and turning out toward the water so I don’t have to lookat Roman. “I don’t know what to say. I haven’t seen the pictures yet, and I’m not excited to.”
“You realize someone has been following us,” Roman jumps in, and my head flips back to him, my eyes wide. Because shit. He’s right. How did I miss that?
He takes the phone from my hand and sets it to speakerphone.
“Yes,” Quinn agrees. “That’s exactly what it means. That’s seriously scary stuff.”
I blink at Roman, my suddenly trembling hand covering my lips. He draws me into his side and kisses the top of my head. “Hey, it’s okay,” he whispers, but it’s not okay. Not even close.
“The kissing pictures look like they were shot from far away,” Skylar notes and Roman pulls out his phone for me to see what we’re dealing with. “Like, I don’t think someone is there beside you getting these.”
He hands me his phone and I scroll through the article.
“Likely from one of the boats we saw offshore,” Roman agrees.
“Roman Fritz!” Skylar yells at her cousin. “I cannot believe you married my best friend. Your best friend. You’d better be good to her or you’ll have to deal with me and I’m pregnant, so you know my hormones are not to be trifled with.”
He chuckles. “Promise.”
“Good. Now back to this. They knew exactly where you were and when you were going to be there or at the very least, they were stalking the beach.”
I flip through photos on various sites before I can’t handle it anymore and hand it back to him. “It’s the beach right in front of our villa,” I whisper, completely shaken by this. “That’s where we were. Do we know who it is? Who started this? The pics I just saw were on freaking IG and TikTok.”
“Intertainmentand shortly afterBoston Nineposted it,” Quinn informs me, her voice the equivalent of a grimace.
Boston Nine. As in Adam’s company.
“Fuck,” I hiss, momentarily closing my eyes. I look up at Roman. “I’m so sorry,” I tell him.
“Listen, you know Forest is already on this,” Sky states. “I don’t want to know how, but he’ll dig and get you info, and in the meantime, you two have stuff to figure out.”
“Thank you, ladies. I love you, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. Don’t be mad at Roman. That was all me. I’ll call you later, okay. He and I need to talk.”
“Bye. Love you!” they sing out, and I disconnect the call and set my phone down just as it rings again. Adam. Naturally. I decline the call and take my coffee back from Roman, who is quietly observing me.
“Freak-out on a scale of one to ten?”
I laugh. “Oh, you know, about ten thousand. Tell me how bad this is?” I ask.
“Depends on your definition of bad. Forest is looking into it, but someone obtained our marriage license. Either it was leaked from them or someone found it since it’s a public record. They somehow knew where we were and followed us here. That’s the fucked-up part, but it’s not uncommon. My name is all over this place with my restaurant being here and us meeting with that other chef the first night. I don’t know if they’re at the resort or offshore in a boat or what, but it seems like they were offshore, going by the pictures.”
“Fabulous. But Adam’s company got it right afterIntertainment?”
“Yes. He called me too, but I was on with my assistant and my PR staff.”
I scrunch my nose. “You have PR staff?”
“For the restaurants, yeah.”
“Right. Of course.” I blow out a breath. “This is all my fault. I plunged you into a scandal all because I was stupid and drunk and thought it would be so funny if we got married.”
He shrugs. “I don’t care that much. Not my first scandal and definitely not the first time people are talking about me. I never cared about what people thought of me, and I doubt it’ll impact my restaurants. Scandal brings people in, actually.”
