Page 135 of Dirty Like Zane
“There was a story this morning online,” I told her. “Brody sent it to me. I’m sure he sent it to you, too… but you know how I confiscated yourphone?”
She blinked at me, and I could see her pulling the pieces together in her head. How I’d bounced out of bed this morning and grabbed her phone, shoved it down my pants and told her she wasn’t working today because we were gonna spend the daytogether.
Then she pulled her hands from mine. “Yes…?” she said,warily.
“Our wedding in Vegas was mentioned in thearticle.”
She stared at me. “What about ourwedding?”
“It was an eyewitness account. From someone who wasthere.”
“I know what an eyewitness account is,” she said, her tone cooling. “Are you telling me my dad talked to the media aboutus?”
“It wasn’t your dad. It was that girl he brought to thewedding.”
“Maxxi?” She gaped at me, stunned. “That little… My dad’s girlfriend talked to the media aboutus?”
“She, uh, said a whole shitload of stuff about your dad, too. We weren’t exactly the focus of the story. But yeah, she threw our wedding in there. I’m thinking they must’ve had a falling out or something? And she felt the need to expose all his private shit to try to hurthim?”
“Oh.” Maggie sat down on the edge of the bed. “Shit,” she muttered. And that wasit.
She was taking this pretty fucking well, considering I’d been mentally preparing for a screamingfit.
There was a knock on the door. “The pilot requests that you take your seats and buckle in…” the flight attendant called in, for the secondtime.
“We’ve gotta go sit down,” I told Maggie gently, reaching forher.
She looked up at me, but she didn’t take my hand. And that’s when I really saw the look in hereyes.
Nope. She wasn’t taking thiswell.
Not atall.
“You stole my phone and hijacked me so I couldn’t see it? So I couldn’treact?”
“So it wouldn’t totally ruin your day,” I corrected her, “and we could talk about it before either of usreacted.”
She stared at me. She wasn’t yelling, but somehow, as she glanced at my hand and refused to take it, this felt worse. She looked resigned and fucking disappointed, like she couldn’t even be bothered to fight. “You don’t even care, doyou?”
“Of course Icare.”
“You care how I’m going to react. But you don’t care that it’s outthere.”
“I’m not gonna lie to you, Maggie. I don’t give a shit that it’s outthere.”
She got to her feet and looked into my eyes, ignoring the hand I’d offered her. She shook her head at me with that disappointment in her eyes. She didn’t touch me, but somehow it felt worse than a slap in theface.
Then she whispered, “I need to talk to my dad,” and left theroom.
Chapter Nineteen
Maggie
Iarrivedat my dad’s place in Las Vegas late that afternoon. I’d considered simply calling him, but then it would’ve been too easy for him to just hang up on me. Instead I’d texted him to confirm that he’d be home, and got my ass on aplane.
While I was on the plane, I’d reread the offending article repeatedly—it was rapidly circulating the less-reputable entertainment gossip sites—and I knew I was making the rightmove.
This was really more of a go-ream-him-out-in-personsituation.
