Page 53 of Making the Save
“You know damn well what. Sydney Malloy was my celebrity crush. You stole her from me.”
Liam never had a clue how I’d crushed on her too. Because, fuck it, I didn’t crush on celebrities. That was not something I ever did.
Until her. Until that album with the green eyes that seemed to reach inside me.
“It should have been me at that golf outing,” Liam shook his head. “Lucky for you, I’m an excellent loser.”
“You’re the worst sore loser in the known universe, it’s why you win everything.”
“Oh, that’s right,” he smiled. His face got serious. “Dude, what are you going to do? The shit they’re saying about her…”
“We’re staying married,” I told him.
“What?” His eyebrows arched in what I called the Liam Surprise Face.
“For a while. For the summer, I guess. Just until the press forgets about us and moves on. Syd’s got all this pressure from her label and she’s convinced they’re looking to drop her and this drama we’re in only makes it worse. I’ve got nothing better to do, so I’m going to help her out.”
“You’re going to help her out, by being married to her. Okay, brother.” Liam nodded like everything I said made sense. “Was that what you were doing out there in the ocean? Helping her out?”
I winced. “How bad did it look?”
“Not bad, depending on your point of view, but I know you. You’re not losing your head and forgetting there are about twenty people on the beach taking pictures of you without beinginto it. If you get my drift.”
“I haven’t beenintoanything. We’re not complicating this situation with sex.” Even as I repeated the words Syd and I had agreed to, they sounded weak to my own ears. We weren’t two days into this marriage and already I was having a hard time keeping my hands off her.
Liam laughed. “Dude…I saw that kiss. It looked complicated.”
“It was for the paparazzi, to make our relationship look real.”
“Mission accomplished, I’d say. But there are paparazzi around all the time. You gonna spend your days making out? I mean… there are worse things.”
He had no idea. The way Sydney melted into my arms… I could spend days getting her to moan and shake against me. Learning what she liked. What she loved. I wanted to make hercome on my fingers. Against my tongue. I wanted to taste every part of her, and she wanted it too.
Stupid rules.
“Yeah. That’s the problem. There are all these people around. What we need is to get away from everyone.”
The bathroom door opened and the smell of freshly showered Sydney filled the bungalow.
“Yes, okay. I’m turning it on now,” Syd walked into the living room in cream sweatpants and an oversized hoodie. Her phone was pressed to her ear and she ignored us as she picked up the remote for the TV that was tucked into the corner of the room. “Yes, Beatrice…. I’m not… but I need to know what he’s saying. Yes, I’ll call you if I need you.”
“What is it?” I asked, fully attuned to her sudden tension.
“Remember when I said John Bernard was a big asshole? He’s proving it right now on Celebrity Truth.”
She clicked over to the right channel and the actor’s face filled the screen. He was handsome in that slick thin way of some actors. Personally, I thought he was overrated and that was before I knew he’d been a jerk to Sydney.
“You’re saying she was cheating on you the whole time you were together?”
It was that red head who had interviewed us. Tricia Yonish. She was the one talking to John Bernard on a flower filled deck overlooking a pool. Probably in his posh LA home.
“Not the whole time. But let’s face it. She said they met while we were still together. And I don’t think anybody buys that they just suddenly got married one night. That’s why I agreed to come on and talk to you. Everyone thought I was the bad guy in our relationship. I was the cheater. Look at poor sweet innocent Sydney Malloy. She wrote a song about me cheating on her while she was with some, some…hockey player!”
“I didn’t write that song about him,” Sydney said, her voice dull. “He wasn’t worth that much thought.”
I took the clicker from her hand and shut off the TV. “You don’t need to watch that crap.”
“He’s going to make everyone believe he’s the victim,” she said, looking up at me with furious green eyes.