Page 98 of No Match Found
“The Grant fangirl. I remember. Well, Viv, I know you said you liked Tanner, but I’m afraid he did you dirty. Andyoumust’ve been fangirling over Grant too for Tanner to stalk you afterward for this picture.”
“I was not fangirling.” I tried to remember what things had been like between Grant and me on the date. Maybe we’d acted in some sort of way to elicit interest from Tanner, but the guy had been so fixated on Grant, I’d be surprised if he’d noticed. “Have you read the article?”
“Yep. He makes a few thinly veiled insinuations about Grant’s integrity,andhe talks about you and Grant having a 12% compatibility score. Did you tell him about that?”
“What? Of course not!” My brows drew together. “I didn’t even know at the time.”
And how couldhehave known? The entire situation made less sense now that the percentage was in the picture. But it’s not like he couldn’t have weaseled the information out of someone whodidknow.
My stomach swam. The photo was invasive; the 12% stat? That felt like standing on a stage naked. My only consolation was the low-budget look of the website. This wasn’t the sort of place getting major web traffic.
“How did you even find this?” Iasked.
“A friend sent it to me on TikTok. It’s got…a lot of views.”
My chest clenched. “It does? And what do you mean on TikTok?”
“Someone made a video about the article.”
The door opened, and Grant stopped short in the doorway. Grant, whose integrity—the thing he valued most—had been called into question.
Katie grimaced. “I’ll leave you two to discuss.”
“Discuss what?” Grant asked as she passed him and left the office.
I blew a breath through my lips. “This.” I turned my computer screen and the photo of us toward him.
His brows went up, and he approached. After analyzing it for a minute, he tipped his head to the side likenot bad.“We look good.”
“Grant,” I said severely, though I was privately glad we agreed on that point. “This is bad.” I scrolled up to the headline.
He leaned over my shoulder, putting a hand on the desk.
I glanced up at him. This man had no idea whatgiving spacemeant.
And I loved it.
But now was not the time.
Brow furrowed, he put his hand over mine on the mouse, scrolled down, and we read the article silently.
The littleVbetween his brows had deepened considerably by the time he stood straight, crossed his arms, and rested his fist against his chin. “Looks like Tanner took my advice about finding the story no one else had told yet.”
“Why do you think it’s Tanner? I mean, that’s who I thought of too, but there’s no way to be sure, right?”
“It just makes sense.”
“But how could he know about the 12% thing?”
“He’s a journalist, Vivian. We’re diggers. One of your employees must’ve told him.”
I hated that idea. Would one of them have done somethinglike that? I buy them cookies, and they spill company and personal secrets to the press? Between that and the paparazzi photo, my privacy felt nearly nonexistent.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“For what?”
“For what he said about your integrity.”
