“Trey!”
The sound of Travis shouting his name up the steps had him flopping back on the bed and throwing his elbow over his eyes.
“What?” he bellowed back, the habit of shouting back and forth across a house something he’d never really forgotten.
There wasn’t an immediate answer and he shook his head. “You know, it’s a beautiful morning. I’ve got a beautiful woman with me. I’d really like to be in my bed making love to her . . . but nooooo. . . .”
Travis appeared in the doorway. “Your neighbor is at the door,” he said, his voice curiously flat.
Trey stared at him, puzzled. “I don’t have time for this,” he said, shaking his head.
“Make time,” Travis suggested.
Trey headed out the door, muttering under his breath.
But when Ressa went to follow, Travis caught her elbow and held her back.
* * *
“Trey . . .”
He opened the door and wasn’t surprised when Nadine slid inside, moving past him as though he’d flung it opened and welcomed her with open arms.
The sight behind her was a little more disturbing—and it had him gritting his teeth. Two news vans. One reporter was all set up, the other still fumbling with her equipment, but the second they saw him, they both started shouting questions.
He slammed the door shut and put his back to it.
Not again. He’d never been as good at this as his brothers. He could handle it, yeah. But he hated it.
“I’m so sorry,” Nadine said, her voice soft. Sympathy filled her voice and she twisted the pearls at her neck.
“Sorry . . . ?” he asked. “For what?”
She waved a hand. “This. That . . . this woman you’re dating. Whoever she is. What she’s done. We never really met, but it’s awful what she did to you. I can’t imagine how you feel.”
“Hmm.”
Her gaze skipped to his, then away.
“Yeah, I bet you can’t.” He folded his arms over his chest, chewed on the inside of his lip for a second. There was an odd look in her eyes. It wasn’t guilt—not exactly. But it was something.
Going with his gut, he asked, “How long were you listening to us the other night?”
Blood rushed to her face. “I was—” A nervous laugh escaped. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You.”
Ressa’s voice came from the top of the steps.
Nadine jerked her head around, her jaw dropping at the sight of Ressa there, descending slowly.
“What . . . Trey, why is she here?” Nadine demanded.
He didn’t even have a chance to respond before Ressa came between them and none too subtly pushed him back. “Not what you need to be worrying about,” Ressa said, her voice sharp enough to cut. “Worry about me.”
Nadine backed up a step.
“Ressa, hold up a min—”
She whirled on him, her hair flying around her shoulders. “Oh, no. I don’t think so. You remember that little chat upstairs? You’re not letting me fight this all on my own because it involves you? Well, guess what? She did this because she’s jealous. I’m with you and she’s not. So that means it’s every bit as much about me as it is about you.”
Trey studied her and then slowly, backed away. He tucked his hands into his pockets and settled back against the door.
“Trey.” His name was a tremulous plea on Nadine’s lips. It scraped over his nerves like steel wool on an open wound. “You can’t think I had anything to do with this. All the interviews say it was her . . . they talked about her and her blog and everything. She could be doing this for publicity. It makes sense.”
“In what world?” Ressa snapped. “This is not the kind of publicity I want. Ever.”
Nadine’s green gaze bounced away, not connecting with Ressa’s. “She could be doing it just to toy with you. Who knows?”
“I know,” Trey said. He shoved away from the door. He laid a hand on Ressa’s shoulder. “This isn’t the kind of thing she’d do—she cares about me too much.”
Ressa felt some of the knots inside her dissolve. It was like he’d never even had any doubts.
Nadine’s porcelain skin went even whiter, though, and her mouth drew tighter. “But there’s proof—”
“I wonder how the proof will hold up if Trey decides to pursue any kind of legal action,” Travis asked, jogging down the stairs. “Ressa, I’m good on computers. You willing to let me access your laptop? We can clear that up right here. Seeing as how you’ve been with either your aunt or here with Trey—and us—for the past thirty-six hours, shouldn’t take much to figure out if you really did do that interview—since naturally, it was requested that everything be done via e-mail.”
He smiled thinly at Nadine. “Might have been harder to pull off if you’d done a live interview, I’m thinking.” Planting himself at Trey’s side, Travis glanced over at Ressa. “So . . . laptop?”
Ressa frowned. “I didn’t bring my laptop. It’s back at my house.”
“Hmmm. Okay. That simplifies it.” Travis shrugged. “Trey, that means if she did that online interview, it was from here. They said it was an exclusive online interview, obtained early yesterday . . . although, damn . . .”
Travis tsked. “You and your aunt were on the road, right? Were you typing and driving or what? Those are some hellaciously long interview questions.”
“Trav.” Trey bared his teeth. “Please feel free to check my computers. Ressa, would you let him check your phone?”
“That doesn’t prove—” Nadine stopped, sucked in a breath.
“Come off it,” Ressa suggested. “We all know. Thanks for almost costing me my job, by the way. I really appreciate that.”
Nadine shot a look to the left, then the right, before looking at Trey. “You really think I could do this?” she whispered.
“I didn’t want to. But the answer is pretty clear. What I don’t know is why?”
Nadine sniffed and moved to the door. “I can’t believe you think I’d . . .” Abruptly, she froze and her voice went tight. Slowly, she turned and the uncertain, nervous female just . . . faded. “I did it because I waited. All this time. I waited for you to see me and you never did.”
Then she spun back around and jerked the door open, half falling out in her determination to leave.
Travis sighed and shook his head. “I’ll make sure she gets home okay.”
“Behave,” Trey warned.
“I always do.” He shot them a wicked grin. “But for your sake, I’ll behave nicely.”
He slid out the door.
Trey went to shut it and the rush of voices caught his attention. Wincing, he glanced outside and saw that in the past few minutes, the two vans had multiplied to five.
“And here I was thinking I would be the one catching their attention,” Sebastian said from the living room, glancing around the arched doorway.
“Shut up or I’ll drag your scrawny ass out there.” Sighing, Trey reached down and caught Ressa’s hand. “You trust me?”
Her eyes flew wide.
“You aren’t serious.”
“I’m just going to address it, real quick,” he said. “They won’t go away until I give them something.”
She winced, look down at herself. “I’m a mess. I don’t have makeup on. My hair is probably a wreck. I’m wearing your shirt . . . I don’t have makeup on. I barely remembered to put a bra on!”
“You didn’t have to do that on my account,” Sebastian offered.
“I’m killing you when I’m done,” Trey warned. Then he reached up, smoothed her hair down. “They aren’t going to focus on any of that. You look beautiful.”
He pressed a kiss to her lips, remained there. “Trust me?”