That got him stopping on the porch step. He didn’t like the sound of that. “Why wouldn’t she?”
Darby lifted her shoulder. “I just figured Kellan Carver wouldn’t want to live here. This doesn’t seem like the kind of place that would suit him.”
Lawson huffed, put his hands on his hips. “Is there something you’re trying to tell me? Because I’m not getting it.”
“Oh.” Darby blinked. “I thought you knew.”
“Knew what?” Lawson growled.
Darby shook her head, mumbled another “Oh,” and she took out her phone. She hit the play button on a video and showed it to him. It was a video of Kellan giving an interview to reporters. Not in California, either. It appeared to be in front of the Longhorn Bar.
“Yeah, you heard me right,” Kellan said, sounding like the cocky ass that he was. He swiped his hand through his hair and flashed that Hollywood smile. “Eve Cooper’s daughter, Tessie, is my child. Our child,” Kellan corrected himself.
For shit’s sake. What was this about?
The bombshell lie caused a flurry of questions, and the photographers were clicking off a boatload of pictures. Pictures of Kellan’s lying, smiling face.
“Don’t worry,” Kellan went on. “I’ll be sharing lots of details and pics of me, Eve and our kiddos when we start our new life together.” He outstretched his arms. “Baby-Cakes, I’m on my way home to you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
EVE SQUEALED AND did a happy dance around her bathroom. She’d never been so glad to get her period. Finally, something was going her way. And she didn’t even mind the cramps and bloating she was going to have for the next three days.
Nope.
Because this meant the condom malfunction wasn’t an issue. She’d been right about it being the wrong time of the month. Of course, at the time she hadn’t known if she was right or not, but that also wasn’t an issue since the period proved she had nothing to worry about. Well, nothing related to an unplanned pregnancy, anyway. She’d already had two of those, so it was best not to add another.
She finished her shower, hit her playlist on her phone and continued dancing around her bedroom while wearing only her bra and panties. Since Cassidy, Tessie and Aiden were still with Mila, it meant there’d be no one in the house to hear her celebrate, so she cranked up the volume and did something she hadn’t done in years. She jumped on her bed and used it as a trampoline.
The jumping lasted a couple of seconds until she landed wrong, perhaps pulling a groin muscle. The pain put somewhat of a damper on her celebration, but it didn’t completely kill the natural buzz. She was going to pour herself a big glass of wine and dig out the pint of Ooey Gooey she’d stashed in the freezer. Not exactly a gourmet pairing, but she didn’t care.
She tugged on a pair of shorts, which normally would have been a reminder for her to lose weight—and to skip the Ooey Gooey—but she squeezed into them anyway. She threw on a top, yanked open the door.
And nearly had a heart attack.
Because there was a wall of people in front of her. Tessie, Cassidy and Lawson. Mila was standing behind them, and she had Aiden on her hip. All of them, including Aiden, had very concerned looks on their faces.
“Oh, God. What happened?” Eve blurted out.
No one jumped to answer that, but Lawson, Tessie and Cassidy all took out their phones. They hit the play buttons, seconds apart, and the same video started playing at staggered intervals. It was a video of Kellan, that much she could see, but because the three audios were competing with each other, it was next to impossible to hear what he was saying. However, Eve did catch a word here and there.
Tessie. Child. Baby-Cakes.
She scowled because she didn’t want any of those words coming out of Kellan’s mouth. Eve poked the buttons on each of the phones to stop the videos and the garbled dialogue.
“Give me the condensed version,” Eve insisted. “What did he say?”
Tessie’s eyes narrowed. Cassidy rolled her eyes. And it was Lawson who eventually answered her. “Kellan’s in Wrangler’s Creek, and he just told reporters that Tessie was his daughter and that all four of you were ready to start your new life together.” A muscle flickered in his jaw. “He promised photos.”
Lots of really bad curse words went through her head, but they thankfully didn’t make it out of her mouth because her throat muscles clamped up. The clamping was from the shock followed by the jolt of really bad anger.
“He did what?” Eve howled. She figured her outrage should have been enough to confirm to everyone in the room that Kellan was lying.
It apparently wasn’t though.
“You told me Kellan wasn’t my father,” Tessie said, and she was back to using the tone that was a mix of angst, anger and defiance.
“He’s not.” And Eve repeated that to Lawson. There was no need to verify it to Cassidy because she knew the truth.
“His fans will believe Kellan,” Tessie insisted, “and it’ll only cause more of those creeps and photographers to hound us. He must have believed this is what you wanted him to do.”
Eve sighed. “No. Kellan is an idiot. He did it because it was what he wanted to do.” Another sigh. “He might have thought he was helping, that this would be enough of a distraction to overshadow the rehab stories.”
It wouldn’t overshadow anything though. The rehab would just get folded into this, and Tessie was right. It would create a firestorm of publicity that no one under this roof wanted.
But Kellan would. He lived for firestorms of publicity.
That gave Eve a new wallop of anger, and she snatched up her phone to call the doofus. No answer. It went to voice mail, and she had to listen to his recorded gag-worthy greeting—“Hey, it’s Kell. Say something sweet to me, and I’ll get back to you with something sweeter.”—before she could leave him a message that definitely didn’t fall into the sweet category.
“Call me, you asshole.” Eve instantly regretted using the crude term. Even though it was accurate. Still, she’d said it in front of Tessie and Aiden.
“You know why Kellan did this,” Cassidy said. It wasn’t a question.
Yes, Eve did know. “This will get Kellan’s name in the tabloids. It could spur some new interest in a reunion show for Demon High.”
Tessie’s mouth dropped open. “You’re not doing Demon High again, are you?”
“No,” Eve quickly reassured her. She repeated that no to Lawson. “Not a chance, but Kellan’s been pressuring me for years.”
“Yes, because he can’t get another acting job where women drool over him and fondle his horns,” Cassidy interjected.
That was true, as well. “You said Kellan was here in town?” Eve asked Lawson.
He nodded. “He was at the Longhorn when he did that lying sack of crap interview. According to the time it was uploaded on the internet, he talked to those reporters only an hour ago. You want me to kick his butt for doing this?”