“I didn’t know I needed one either,” he told her, “but then you showed up in the middle of a rainstorm, and it turned out I did.” He paused before adding, “Friends let friends help, especially with the tough stuff.”
“Thank you,” she said in a soft voice. “I know you mean well, but I can’t see that there’s anything you, or anyone else, can do at this point to erase what’s out there.”
“Like I said before, my family is really well connected.”
“Who could be connected enough to help get rid of the pictures?”
“My cousin is Smith Sullivan.”
“Smith Sullivan? The movie star?” Her eyes widened in a way that was almost comical, she was that shocked. “You’re one of those Sullivans?”
He nodded. “My brother Alec is really well connected too, since he sells half his planes to people in TV and movies. And I’ve got another cousin, Ian, who’s a billionaire. He’s got to know someone who might be able to help.”
“Wow. I had no idea. None at all. Although,” she said as she looked back toward the pictures hanging in his hallway, “I probably should have seen the family resemblance. Still,” she said with a shake of her head, “even if one of them was willing to get involved—and I definitely wouldn’t want to drag any of them into my mess—I already know there’s no way to erase the pictures.”
Ignoring the part about dragging his family into her mess for the moment, he said, “Maybe erasing them isn’t an option—not unless my sister can come up with some new software. But what if there’s a way to make sure no site or magazine ever runs them again?”
“How?”
“Someone like my cousin has got to have some power over the media. I’m thinking if he takes a stance against what happened to you, the major players aren’t going to want to piss him off.”
“Smith is easily one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, and I’m sure no one wants to get on his bad side,” she agreed. “But why would he do that for me? For someone he’s never even met, especially someone from reality TV, which is about as far south of his Oscar-winning movies as it gets.”
“Because he’s a good guy, for one. And because family supports family.”
“Of course he should support you. But I’m not family.”
“You’re with me, so you are.”
“No one is supposed to know I’m here, or even that we’ve met.” He watched panic bloom as she added, “You agreed.”
“I did, but things aren’t that simple anymore.” He put down her artwork and reached to pull her close again. “You’re not a stranger now, Rosa.”
He weighed letting out the word love. Wanted more than anything to tell her just how deep his feelings for her ran. But he knew she wasn’t ready to hear it yet, not when she was still trying to keep to an agreement that had been made before they’d come to know each other.
Still, he needed her to know, “I’m falling for you. My sister saw it in my paintings, saw what I feel for you, saw that I was already falling that first day.”
She swallowed hard, shook her head again. “You can’t.”
“I am. And I know I should have told you this before now, but that first day, after I took you to the motel, I called Smith.”
“You did what?” She yanked herself out of his arms, and he made himself let her go so that she could let the steam out. “How could you? You promised me you wouldn’t tell anyone we’d met.”
“I kept my promise, Rosa, but I also asked him if there was anything he could do to help you. I told him I couldn’t say more, just that it mattered to me.”
“He’s not stupid. He must have put two and two together.”
“Good.”
“I’ve already told you why that isn’t good. People will think you’ve lost your mind if you’re with me. They’ll look at your paintings differently. You’ll lose their respect.”
“If this is what losing my mind feels like, I’m all for it. And I learned early on that people’s reactions to my paintings don’t have a damn thing to do with me, but everything to do with them. As for respect? As long as I can look myself in the mirror every day, I’m good.”
“You don’t know how mean, how horrible people can be.”
He could see in her expression just how much vitriol she’d had to deal with over the years, and it only infuriated him further. It wasn’t just her mom and the creep photographer from whom he needed to defend her—it was millions of strangers who didn’t know the first thing about her, even if they thought they did.
“I don’t want you to end up hurt because of what people think of me.” Oscar got up to lean against her side, and she looked down at him. “You either.”