So, Eve had been right about Darby’s perkiness. And Eve didn’t have to guess why the woman was in this giddy mood. She knew that Kellan was the baby’s father and not Lawson. Eve didn’t like that Kellan was using their son to milk some publicity, but at least now folks might not blame her for causing Lawson and Darby’s breakup.
“Kellan told the reporter that you’d be splitting time between LA and here,” Darby remarked. “He said that way you’d be ready if the studio goes through with the Demon High reunion.”
Those were obviously fishing-expedition comments. And they weren’t true. Eve had no plans to live anywhere but the place she’d bought from Lucian. Kellan knew that. The studio knew that. But yet it kept coming up—from Kellan.
Eve didn’t mind if that was one particular bridge that got burned, but anything she said to Darby could end up as some twisted version of a story in a tabloid. Once a reporter had heard Eve belch after downing a few swigs of a Diet Coke and then had reported that she had a rare intestinal disorder that could be life-threatening. It had resulted in her “hornies” fans sending her hundreds of cards, flowers, herbal remedies and baskets of horns.
When Eve’s silence dragged on, Darby gave a nervous smile and turned to Cassidy. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Darby Rester.”
“You’re Lawson’s ex. I heard about you. One of the other nurses mentioned you when I asked about Eve. I’m Cassidy Vale.”
Eve frowned at Cassidy. There was no need to rub that ex part in or make it seem as if she’d heard something unsavory about Darby, but Eve suspected it was Cassidy’s way of reminding Darby that she didn’t have a right to play the “I’m the wronged woman here” with Eve. After all, Lawson had been Eve’s ex long before Darby had come into the picture.
“Yes, Lawson,” Darby repeated. “I nearly forgot. He wanted me to tell you that he’s leaving on a long business trip and didn’t have time to stop by.”
There it was again. The little pang of disappointment because she wouldn’t be seeing Lawson anytime soon. Eve reminded herself that Lawson wasn’t hers to pang about, and this absence might be a good thing.
“Is Lawson, uh, all right?” Eve asked.
Darby blinked as if that was a trick question, but then the aha light went on in her eyes. “You mean because of the stitches. And the other cuts, concussion and the bruises. Yes, he’ll be fine.”
That was good. Except for the laundry list of injuries, of course.
“I know I’ve already bothered you with autographs,” Darby said a moment later. “But more of the staff had magazines and they were wondering if you’d sign them. No pressure. I can just leave them, and if you’re feeling up to it, that’s great. If not, I’m sure they’ll understand.”
Darby handed the magazines to Cassidy, and she looked at Eve as if waiting for her to say something about the covers or how she was feeling. Eve didn’t give her anything because of that whole fear-of-backfiring thing. Darby didn’t have any experience dealing with entertainment reporters who had sneaky ways of getting dirt. Of course, with whatever bull Kellan was doling out, it was possible the reporters had enough dirt to last them awhile.
Cassidy glanced at the magazine covers when Darby left, and she plucked one from the stack to show to Eve. “Remember this one?”
It was the one of Stavros and Ulyana in full costume, back to back, with stern looks on their made-up faces. Both of them were armed to the hilt with the prop weapons that managed to look real. Actually, the picture looked real, too.
Amazing, since it was heavily Photoshopped.
Eve measured out her life by specific events, and that cover was one of them. So were the events that had led up to it.
Eighteen years and two months ago, her drama class at the high school had been chosen to participate in an online audition for extras in a yet-to-be-named TV series. Eve had been going through a comic-book phase then, and since she really hadn’t planned on being an actress, she’d sent in a goofball rendition of an air fight scene that she’d “choreographed” to “Welcome to the Jungle” while wearing an old Halloween costume.
Apparently, the studio thought it was good enough for a real audition over Christmas break, but she hadn’t gotten her hopes up. She’d been so certain they’d choose a real actress. Certain, too, that she wouldn’t leave Lawson—even for a chance of fame in Hollywood. But she’d been young and naive enough to believe that if by some miracle she did get offered the part, she could have convinced Lawson to go with her.
The next “life measurement” had been Brett’s death. That’d been in January. Shortly afterward, things had changed between Lawson and her.
The double whammy of painful life measurements.
She’d still loved Lawson, but Eve had seen the resentment in his eyes and had known it would only grow. He might have never said it in words, but he blamed her for what’d happened. Just as she blamed herself.
That was the main reason she’d accepted the role when the studio had called, and she’d moved almost immediately. After she had made a clean break with Lawson, that is. Well, as clean of a break as she could make over something that was ripping her heart out.
Shortly thereafter, she’d started rehearsing for the filming of the first episode of Demon High. Another life measurement. The cover had been shot in July that year, and it and all the covers that followed for the next few months were done with a body double. As had been all of Eve’s action scenes on the set.
Because she’d been pregnant with Tessie.
Cassidy had known that, so had the rest of the cast, but it’d stayed a secret for years. Until Tessie had found out.
Tessie certainly hadn’t taken it well, either, when she’d learned that she wasn’t adopted after all, that she was indeed Eve’s biological daughter. Definitely another painful life measurement.
But Tessie’s anger was a drop in the bucket compared to what Lawson’s would be. He already hated her, but he would hate her a whole lot more if he ever found out the truth.
That he was Tessie’s father.
LAWSON WAS NOT daddy material. He’d always believed that when he was a teenager, but he’d thought he might change his mind when he became an adult.
Nope.
He was 100 percent certain of his particular stance in life after delivering Eve’s baby.
It had been like some kind of revelation—a foretelling from the fates, maybe—but holding that kid had reminded him of just how hard it would be to love a child and then have to let that kid loose in this crapshoot of a world.
A world where people died too young. Where hearts got crushed. And shit happened at an alarming rate. If he wanted that kind of pain in his life, he could just hit himself on the head with a big rock.
Or visit his brother Lucian, which he was about to do.
A rock to the head or seeing his oldest brother were on par, but the difference was, he could beat the crap out of Lucian should it become necessary. With a baby, there was no skill set to help with the fear of loving someone so much that it could break you for good. Lawson had been broken, several times, and he didn’t want another dose of that.
The best way to avoid a heart shit-kicking was to stay out of the “heart” business altogether. That meshed well with the no-fatherhood-for-him revelation. Commitments—those engagements, marriages and, yeah, kids—led to failure. And that wasn’t a theory,