Love Me Sweet (Bell Harbor, #3)

She snuffled into it. “A positive spin? Haven’t you been paying attention? I’m involved in a sex scandal, the police believe I faked my own disappearance, and the man I love thinks I’m a liar and a fake.”


His dark eyes widened as he looked over at her. “Man you love? You’ve come a long way since yesterday, yeah? I thought he was just the landlord.”

Delaney threw the damp tissue on the table. “We had a really good night last night.”

Reggie chuckled harder. “I should say so. Look, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, and your man is the type to fall hard. He’ll come around. Like I told you, he’s got that same sappy love-look in his eyes just like you.”

She sighed. “You didn’t see him when he stormed in here and threw this magazine at my feet.” She pointed to where it now sat on the coffee table.

Reggie leaned over and picked it up. It made her sick to look at, but she’d read it anyway, just so she’d know what kind of lies Grant had been exposed to. A new knot twisted in her gut. “The article was pretty awful. All those sources close to quotes basically mean the reporters make up whatever they want. They accused me of everything shy of being pregnant with an alien baby.” She took a big gulp of beer. “And apparently there is some suggestion of a love triangle. Does anyone know you’re here? You could end up in the papers.”

He tossed the magazine back on the table. “I would love to be your fictional other man. You know what they say. No press is bad press.”

She set her bottle down next to her glossy picture. “I would argue that the person who said that wasn’t trying to outrun a sex scandal.”

Reggie cocked his head. “Maybe not, but it seems to me that running from this is like trying to outrun a bear.”

“How so?”

His shoulders rose and fell. “It can’t be done, so your safest bet is to just stand still.”

“Stand still? How does that help me?”

“If you stand still, a bear will only eat you if he’s hungry.”

Something must be lost in translation here. His hillbilly advice was not going to help this California girl. “Great, except reporters aren’t bears. They’re more like . . . piranhas or sharks, or . . . oh, I don’t know. Whatever kind of animal shreds you to pieces just for the fun of it.”

“OK, sharks then. You know how to outswim a shark?”

“No.”

“That’s because you can’t, but you can punch them in the nose. You can go on the offensive and startle them. Maybe that’s what you need to do in this situation.”

“Go on the offensive?” Apparently the animal kingdom analogies had morphed into sports talk.

“Yeah. Now, Lord knows, darlin’, I’ve never been accused of overthinking a situation, but I do know that facing stuff head-on is better than running. Stand your ground.” He put his feet up on the coffee table and crossed his legs at the ankles. “I know this is none of my business, but if you were my girl and some guy released a video like that jackass did, I’d go after him every which way. Sue him, have him arrested, sic some Rottweilers on his ass, or something. Seems like this was all his doing.”

Delaney’s cheeks heated up. “I did some doing.”

“Did you have the expectation of privacy?” His expression was serious.

“What?” Her expression was surely one of surprise.

Reggie chuckled and took a sip of beer. “OK, so we watch a lot of Law & Order on the tour bus, but I’m not fooling. Check with your lawyer ’cause that guy did a terrible thing and he certainly broke the law. I mean, you know I love me the honeys, and I’ve had some wild times on that bus, but I would never, ever record a woman without her consent. A real man would never do that. I see you running from this situation, but he’s the one who should be ashamed, don’t you think?”

She’d never really thought about it that way before. She was so busy feeling victimized, but Boyd was the one who should be ashamed. Boyd had violated her trust. He’d exploited their relationship for fame and financial gain without caring how she’d be humiliated. It really was reprehensible.

Reggie took another sip of beer. “You know what else? I think maybe you should tell people about the baby hats.”

“The baby hats? Why?”

“Yeah, the baby hats. You’re worried over what folks think of you, and you’ve got everybody’s attention right now, so take this chance to tell them about all the nice stuff you do, like making hats for all those poor little bald kids. If you offer up some happy shit, maybe those reporters will stop looking for the nasty stuff. I’m telling you, honeybun, this is all about how you spin it from here on out. You’re a celebrity and you can’t do much about that, but people love a comeback story. So tell them how you ran away to find yourself, or some new-wave thing like that. You’re from California. They’ll buy that. Tell everybody how you’ve grown from this hardship or whatever. Shucks, tell them anything you want to, but take charge of it. Be the sheepdog and not the sheep.”

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