Son of a bitch, I can’t believe I was just about to get CC to talk and my family interrupts me. I’m tempted to just ignore the knock, but I know CC won’t let me by with that. My only option is to get rid of them quickly and hope that she doesn’t backpedal. CC’s been better the last few days, but I know something has been bothering her since she left Florida and I had to follow her to Kentucky. I can’t let her weasel out of telling me. I need to know. More than that, I’m tired of dancing around how I feel about her. We’ve been together long enough; she should know that I’m here for the long haul. I should be able to tell my woman I love her without worrying it will make her run for the hills.
“Mom, I appreciate you being worried about—Oh, Riverton. What are you doing here?” I ask once I open the door and discover it’s him there.
“I’ll tell you what the fuck I’m doing here. Would you like to explain to me why the spokesman for my new line of golf merchandise was caught buck-naked running across the golf course during the most important match of the season?” he growls.
He probably has good reason for being upset. He has a lot of money tied up in this new venture. I sigh and hold my head down, knowing that this isn’t going to be over soon. I’m about to shut the door after him when his daughter walks in.
Just what I needed to make today an extra special shit pile.
“Listen, I know you’re upset and you have every reason to be, but it’s not as bad as you’re letting on. I already have my men on it to stop the media attention. We’ll contain this, and…”
“Contain this? You and that woman are already plastered across every tabloid rag out there,” he growls, shoving a couple folded newspapers into my gut. I put them on the table, grabbing the top one and opening it up. Fuck me running, it’s worse than I imagined. It’s a picture of me and CC running across the golf course in nothing but our birthday suits. The butts have been blurred out, but it clearly shows that we’re naked. The headline reads: “Golf’s bad boy caught once again with his pants down.”
“Fuck!” I growl.
“They get worse. Look at the next one,” Cammie says just as CC comes to my side looking broken. She leans in and reads the picture. She gives a soft cry that rips through me. Her hand covers her mouth when she sees the picture.
I’m almost afraid to read the next one, but I do. I have to because CC is already reaching for it. That’s when I discover that Cammie has a knack for understating. The headline on the inside is not only worse; it rocks my entire world: “Golf pro Grayson Lucas caught cheating on fiancé with her father’s secret love child.”
“What the fuck? We’ll sue the bastards. By the time I get done with them, they won’t own a paper to print their vicious lies in anymore,” I growl. “CC, you have to believe me, I will handle this,” I tell her, holding her shoulders and forcing her to look at me. When her face slowly lifts, I see those big tears in them I’ve come to hate. Her face has gone white. Fuck! I’ve got to find a way to fix this.
“Gray,” she whispers, but I just pull her close. I need to deal with Riverton and get them away from CC. She has too much to deal with; she doesn’t need them here, too.
“Why in the hell do they even think they can get away with printing this garbage? I mean, calling Cammie my fiancé? And who the fuck knows what was in their heads when they said that shit about you and CC. David, you have to admit this is overboard. You can help me take them down. We’ll file suit today.”
“It’s true,” CC whispers.
“Of course it’s not, baby. Don’t you worry about… What did you say?”
“I said it’s true, Gray.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask, confused. But when I look around the room, there are three sets of eyes on me. Three sets that don’t look the bit lost.
Three sets of eyes that look eerily alike.
“My mother… well, I’ve told you enough that you know she’s not the best person in the world.”
“Yeah, but…”
“She had an affair with… this man,” she tells me, indicating Riverton. “He had money and power and she thought that she could trap him into marriage by getting pregnant with me. The plan backfired because even as fucked up as Margaret was, she had no idea just how cold the bastard she was sleeping with was.” Her voice is still a whisper, but there’s a coldness in it. When I look up, I see she’s staring straight at Riverton.
“Jesus,” I mutter, not sure how I feel about this shit or the fact that she kept it from me. I mean, why? Why wouldn’t she tell me? I went into business with this asshole and that alone makes me sick. I don’t want to work with anyone who can’t even acknowledge his own daughter. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask her, not wanting to have this out with Riverton and his daughter around, but unable to keep myself from asking.