Not Through Loving You by Patricia Preston (17)

“No,” she cried with joy. “It’s not a joke. It’s Stevie!”

The photographs were of her and Stevie sitting together at the table on the deck. Her memory rewound to that day when she, Stevie, and Aaron had eaten a pancake breakfast out on the deck. Stevie had pulled his chair over beside her and proceeded to show Aaron how to woo a woman. She had played along for fun.

In the photographs, she and Stevie did appear to be a couple. He had his arm draped around her shoulders, and they were hugged up together, being silly. In one shot, she had her head on his shoulder. In another, she was planting a kiss on his cheek. She would say the most romantic one was where she was trying to feed him a bite of pancakes that were soaked with syrup. It looked like a bad wedding shot of the bride feeding the groom a piece of cake.

Julian continued to frown. “That’s the guy you’ve been seeing? He looks like a college kid.”

“He is. That’s Stevie. He’s Aaron’s younger brother,” she explained. “We were just goofing off one morning. I can’t believe it!” She had expected something else. The floodgates of relief opened inside her.

“I think he’s a cute boy.” Sheila cradled a white coffee cup.

“He’s very personable,” Gilda added.

Julian shook his head as he looked at the photos. “For starters, I’m glad you two are dressed. But what is it with the stupid expressions?”

“Dad, we were just being silly. Aaron was sitting on the other side of the table, watching us.” She recalled his deep laughter. She liked hearing Aaron laugh. Sighing, she glanced at the photos of her and Stevie. She was so thankful the intimate moments she had shared with Aaron would belong to no one but her and him.

“Would either of you like some coffee?” Sheila looked from Lia to Gilda.

“I would love some.” Lia needed the caffeine, and Gilda decided to have some, too.

Lia turned to her father. “What do you think? The photos aren’t explicit at all. There’s no reason to worry now. Right?” She smiled.

“Maybe you know that you and what’s-his-name are just goofing off, but no one else does,” Julian replied. “You’re hanging onto him. Leaning against him. Kissing his cheek. Feeding him. Plus both of you look high.”

“We weren’t high. We were acting.”

“That’s some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen.”

Well, Dad, we could’ve been naked in a tree house. She accepted a cup of coffee from Sheila. “Thank you.” She wondered how Sheila had put up with her father for so long.

Julian studied the screen. “We’ve got to come up with a way to defuse this. Discredit Wilkes. Ruin the story. In some ways, that might not be too hard because nobody’s gonna believe you would choose that guy over Dallas.”

“Shallow,” Gilda said as she sat in the armchair and sipped her coffee.

“Reality,” Julian threw back. He turned to Lia. “I’ll need all the info you can give me on this guy. There’s a notepad in the drawer. Then I’ll call Conner,” he thought aloud.

She sat at the desk and took the pen and pad from the drawer. How much did she know about Stevie? He’s fun to be around. Rarely serious. A scoundrel. He loves to take selfies. At that last thought, she looked up at the photos on the screen, and she saw Stevie’s phone in his hand.

He had taken selfies of them that morning.

Dots began to connect in her mind. “Stevie,” she whispered. Then she whirled around in the desk chair. “What if we publish the photos first?”

“Sweetie.” Julian spoke to her as if she were a little girl. “Wilkes would know immediately where they came from and who hired the hackers.”

“Stevie took selfies. He always takes selfies, and he took a bunch of them that morning. They’ll be different from these, but it’s still me and him at the same time and same place.” Her heart pounded. “What if we posted them all over social media this weekend? Before Wilkes publishes his article. Maybe we could come up with an angle, and Conner could get it published on the news media sites.”

Julian gave her words consideration. “It just might work.”

“I’ll call Stevie.” She hopped out of the chair and retrieved her phone. When she had decided to let Stevie drive the Jag, she had put his phone number in her contacts just in case she needed to track him down.

“Stevie. It’s Lia,” she said when he answered. “Have you got a minute?”

“Just call me the Love Doctor.”

Lia ignored that remark as she had learned that off-the-wall was Stevie’s style. Sitting at the desk again, she tapped her phone on speaker. “Here’s the deal. I’ve found out the paparazzi took pictures of you and me together. Not me and Aaron like I thought.”

“Me and you? Whoa.”

“It was when we were having breakfast on the deck—eating pancakes and acting like a couple.” She jogged his memory. “You took a lot of selfies that morning. Do you still have them?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve got them.”

Lia smiled at her father. “Stevie, would you like to have that red Jag?”

Julian shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets.

“You want me to kill Aaron for you?” Stevie said.

She chuckled and explained the tabloid was going to use the photos to show she was cheating on Dallas. “I want to counteract that with the selfies you took. Have you posted any of them online? Like on Facebook?”

“No way. I wouldn’t post pictures of me with my brother’s girlfriend. I got standards.”

“Okay.” She tapped the pen against the pad as she looked at the computer screen. “We need to post them, but first we’ve got to come up with a plausible explanation.”

“I’m a super-fan.” Stevie rolled out the most plausible of explanations. “I’ve got selfies of Dallas and me, too. I haven’t posted any of those yet. Didn’t figure Aaron would be too happy about that.”

“Yeah,” she said softly. She couldn’t think about Aaron right now.

Julian stepped up to the desk. “He has pictures of himself and Dallas as well as you?”

“That’s what he said,” Lia answered. “Stevie, my father’s here.”

“Music mogul. Cool.”

Julian pinched the bridge of his nose. “The fan angle might work.”

“I got this,” Stevie said suddenly. “A super-fan’s last wish comes true. Eating breakfast with Lia Montgomery and meeting Dallas Peyton. How cool is that? I can make it happen.”

Lia disagreed. “Stevie, not the ‘last wish’ thing. That’s a little overboard.” She feared Stevie might go way overboard.

Julian spoke in a decisive voice. “Hey, Stevie, this is Julian Montgomery. Make something happen and that red Jaguar is yours.”

“What?” Stevie gasped. “For real?”

“For real,” Julian answered.

“I can make it happen. I am your go-to guy for making it happen, dude.”

Still worried, Lia picked up her phone. “It has to be believable. Remember that, and before you post anything, you send me a copy. We need to look at it first.” She definitely thought that was the wise thing to do. “We’re planning to share your posts with our media outlets.”

“Fame, baby. I was born for shit like this,” he said. “You’re gonna love it. Everybody’s gonna love it. I got this. I promise.”

Two hours later, Stevie had made good on his promise. Lia sat at the desk and read the post that would accompany more than a dozen photographs of her and Stevie and Stevie and Dallas.

Julian stood behind Lia, reading the text. She looked over her shoulder. “It’s not bad. Do you think it’ll work?”

“All we need is doubt,” Julian said. “First rule of politics. Create doubt when it comes to your opponent. The kid’s got a story with photographs of himself with you and Dallas to back it up. That will create doubt when it comes to Wilkes’s piece, and before I’m done, I hope Wilkes will pull it completely. Tell the kid we’re good to go and forward that to Conner. I’m going to call him.”

Julian tapped his phone and got the publicist on the phone. As Lia sent the emails, Julian told Conner about Lia losing her half-sister. “Do a press release about that and how Lia has been working through her grief and how she related to this kid, Stevie. Bring in Dallas. It needs to be online first thing in the morning.”

Gilda smiled at Lia. “Ambition that knows no limit.”

Julian didn’t look up as he made another call. “Dallas,” he said as he stepped onto the balcony for privacy.

Lia wrapped the archangel shawl around her arms as she slumped in the chair. “Every bone in my body is aching. I just want to lie down.”

“I’ve turned down the covers in your bedroom, and there’s some lavender body wash in the shower that I think you’ll love,” Sheila told her.

Lia stood and gave Sheila a hug. “You’re the best.” For a long as Lia had known her, Sheila had always done kind things for others without ever being asked.

After a hot shower, Lia rummaged in her suitcase for something to sleep in. Her phone started vibrating and her heart did a little flip, hoping it was Aaron. Instead, it was Stevie.

“I just wanted to check back with you. Not about the pictures,” he said. He paused a moment. “Are you okay?” She was talking to serious Stevie.

Her eyes misted. “I’m definitely not good, but I’ll be all right. Thank you for asking.”

“Are you coming back?”

Stevie’s question bruised her tender heart. “I don’t think I can. I understand why he’s mad and why he told me not to come back. It’s not that.” She suppressed a sniffle.

“On the flight over here, reality settled in. What kind of future can you have with someone who has no faith in you? I told him the truth about Dallas and me. I never misled him. I love Aaron, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough. And if that’s not enough, what more is there? I don’t know. I’m really tired and not thinking straight.”

“Aaron screwed up.” Stevie sighed. “Everybody thinks I’m the family screw-up. This time it’s Aaron.”

“I don’t think you’re a screw-up.”

“I’m totally available, you know,” Stevie pitched, and she grinned. “And I’d treat you right. We could have an open relationship—”

She interrupted. “Stevie, it’s after midnight here. I’m going to bed.”

“Sure. When you get back to Nashville, give me a shout. We’ll tear up the town.”

“Love you.”

She put the phone aside and sprawled beneath the soft comforter. When you had jet lag and a totally exhausted mind and body, not even a broken heart could keep you awake.

* * *

In Lafayette Falls, it was after six on Friday, and the medical center was quiet. Aaron left the pediatric floor for the hospital cafeteria. He didn’t want to eat dinner at the hospital, but he didn’t want to go home.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were taking a few weeks off,” Kayla had said when she ran into him in the physicians lounge. He had gotten the same question from the office manager when he’d shown up at the clinic this morning. What was he doing?

He had told everyone he was catching up on paperwork. He had cleaned up his office at the clinic and done some reorganizing. Anything to stay busy so he didn’t have to think about Lia or visualize that black SUV leaving his driveway.

In the cafeteria, he got a fish sandwich and slaw with a bottle of water. He had his choice of tables since most of the hospital employees had left for the day. A few visitors were grabbing a quick meal, and he avoided the areas where they were sitting. He chose an isolated corner table on the far side of the cafeteria with no one at any of the nearby tables. A good place to eat alone. He’d taken the first bite of his fish sandwich when he heard his name.

“Dr. Kendall.” Bethany Hewitt, Helen’s daughter, trotted toward him. Redheaded Bethany was a first-year nursing student following in her mother’s footsteps.

“Hi, Bethany. How’s it going?”

“I’m enjoying summer vacation,” she said. Then her face grew somber. “I just wanted to tell you how sorry I was to hear about your brother.”

“My brother?”

“Yeah. Stevie. I think he’s so cute. I was sorry to hear about his girlfriend getting killed in a wreck. That was, like, really sad.”

Girlfriend killed in a wreck? “Stevie told you that?” He wondered how Stevie and Bethany had met. Maybe he didn’t need to know.

“I just saw it on his Facebook page. I love that he got to meet Dallas and Lia. I wish I had a big brother like you, Dr. Kendall.”

Aaron put down his fish sandwich and wiped his hands on a paper napkin. “Could you show me the post?”

“Sure.” In two seconds flat, Bethany had the post on the screen of her smartphone. She handed the phone to Aaron, who tried not to act like he’d been hit by a stun gun as he read Stevie’s post.

“I love the photos,” Bethany said as Aaron scrolled through the selfies Stevie had taken of himself and Lia at the deck table and of himself and Dallas. “He’s gotten like five hundred comments and loads of shares. That’s awesome.”

Aaron handed Bethany her phone. “I’ll tell him you said hello.”

He waited until Bethany had disappeared before reaching into his pocket for his phone.

“Word up, bro,” Stevie answered Aaron’s call.

“Sorry about your dead girlfriend, Super-Fan,” Aaron retorted.

“You read my post. Cool, right?”

“I read a load of bullshit.” Aaron took a drink of his water.

“I’m helping Lia out. The paparazzi pictures were of us when we were goofing off at the table. They didn’t take pictures of you and her.”

Aaron froze with the water bottle in his hand. “You’ve talked to her since she left?”

“I’m there, dude.” He told Aaron about Lia calling him and how they had worked out a game plan to discredit the tabloid story. “I even spoke with the man himself, Julian Montgomery. And guess who’s getting a Jag out of this deal? Come to daddy.”

Aaron pushed his tray away. “I don’t even know what to say.”

“That’s your problem. You say the wrong things. You said the wrong things to Lia. You shouldn’t have run her off.”

“Run her off?” Aaron spat. “I did not run her off. I begged her to stay. I wanted her to stay, but she went to Paris with her cowboy.”

“Man, you are so wrong, and I hate to say this, bro, but you really screwed up this time.”

“Is that what you think?”

“I think you weren’t the only one hurt. I think maybe she needed you to have some confidence in her. Trust her. Be there for her. There’s always the other side of the fence.”

“From my side of the fence, it didn’t look like she wanted to stay. What was I going to do about that?”

“She’s gone now, and she told me she’s not coming back. Shitheads always end up alone, bro,” Stevie said. “Oh, FYI, she didn’t take the cowboy to Paris. He stayed in Nashville, if that makes you feel any better.”

Nothing made Aaron feel better.

As soon as he got home, he took a beer out of the fridge and headed to his bedroom. He didn’t care about watching television, running, sitting out on the deck, shooting a few hoops. Wearing only a pair of navy boxer shorts, he lay on the bed, propped up on pillows, drinking the beer.

Shitheads always end up alone, and here I am alone. He glanced at his phone on the bedside table, and he noticed the rose quartz beside the lamp. After he set his beer on the table, he picked up the pink rock.

Sitting against the bed pillows, he studied the pretty gemstone. The stone of the heart. He briefly smiled as he recalled bits and pieces of his and Lia’s conversation about the stone.

“You are an aphrodisiac, Doc. I think you must have a little outlaw in you.” He could almost hear her sultry voice with a hint of a song beneath it.

He rubbed the stone. No rock was going to fix the mess he’d made.

Only he could do that.