Second to None, page 14
“I’ve never met anyone else like you. I’ll never know anyone who is so much like me. I love you. Marry me.”
Tears came to my eyes. As they always did when I called them forth. I’d gotten the job for Academy with these tears, and, Jesus, they should give me an Academy Award for the ones that sprang up right now.
“Yes,” I gasped because there was nothing else I could say.
I threw my arms around him, and then his mouth was on mine, pressing a firm, hopeful kiss on my lips. He withdrew long enough to slide the enormous haloed ring on my finger. It glittered and shimmered as brightly as the sunset over the California coast.
I smiled for the cameras as if this were the best moment of my life. All the while, my stomach twisted in fear. All I knew was that I needed to talk to Maddox before this got back to him.
It was hours later before I was alone again in the safety of the bedroom at the Beverly Wilshire. Martin had booked us the penthouse to celebrate our engagement. But first, we’d met up with the cast of Academy at a private party he’d planned. Everyone had known but me.
I’d told Martin that I needed a moment to process and skipped upstairs to the hotel room. I had no idea how long I had before he would be up here, but I dialed Maddox before the door even closed behind me.
“Pick up. Pick up. Pick up,” I pleaded on the line.
“You’ve reached the voicemail of Maddox Nelson. Leave a message at the tone.”
I cursed violently and then dialed his number again. I had a dozen messages from everyone else in my life—Marley, Lila, my mother, and my dad—congratulating me and asking me so many excited questions about wedding plans. But I couldn’t reply to any of them. If they knew … that meant it had gotten back to Maddox. Shit.
I dialed again. I dialed until he picked up.
“Maddox,” I said.
The line was silent on the other end.
“So, you heard?”
Still nothing.
I sank into a chair and brought my hair to my mouth. Old habit that my hairdresser absolutely hated. But I was too anxious to do anything else.
“Please say something.”
“You lied to me,” he said hoarsely.
“I didn’t!”
“You’re engaged.”
I cringed at the words. “I am, but Maddox, I had no idea it was going to happen.”
“You could have said no.”
“I wish that were true.”
He snorted. I could practically see him sitting in the dark, shaking his head at the absurdity of me.
“I told you it was our last photographed event. I was going to break up with him when I got home and out of the spotlight.”
“You’ll never be out of the spotlight.”
He wasn’t wrong. I’d chosen this life, but I’d had every intention of ending it.
“It’s not what it looks like. I couldn’t end it when he was down on one knee in front of the entire paparazzi. Can you imagine what that would have done to me? Can you understand what it would have done to my career?”
“Ah, there it is. The thing that you actually care about.”
“Maddox, I care about you.”
And then he started laughing. “Oh, that’s … that’s good, Josie. Did you rehearse that?”
“What? No! Maddox, I’m serious. I was going to break up with him. I’m still going to find a way to end this.”
“I should have known,” he said, losing his mirth. “I should have known that all of this would end in flames. You said exactly what I needed to hear to fall for you all over again. And I fell for it.”
“That is not what happened,” I argued, my own anger boiling to the surface. “I would never do that to you, Maddox. Everything I said, I meant.”
“And somehow, you’re engaged to another man.”
I opened my mouth to argue with him again, but Martin’s voice rang through the penthouse. “Josephine, darling, where have you gone, my love?”
I cringed at those words. “Just one minute,” I called out.
“Ah, it sounds like your fiancé is wondering where you’ve run off to. You should probably go back to him.”
“Maddox, please …”
“Good-bye, Josie. I hope you’re both very happy.”
And then he hung up on me.
I stared down at the phone in shock. Tears threatened to come to my eyes, but I held them back. I couldn’t cry right now. I needed to figure out what the hell to do. Maddox wouldn’t forgive this. He thought I’d lied all those times I told him I wanted us back together. He thought I’d played him. That I’d been waiting for Martin to get back from filming in Croatia and that I’d dabbled with him until that point. It was so obvious … and so obviously untrue.
My heart ached as I stared down at the phone. I tried dialing him one more time, but it went instantly to voicemail.
He was gone.
He was really gone.
“My love,” Martin slurred, slamming his shoulder into the doorway of the bedroom. He was well past drunk. Everyone at the party had been feeding him alcohol as if he were hooked up to an IV. “What are you doing alone here in the dark? I missed your beautiful presence. I couldn’t wait another minute without you.”
“Martin, why did you propose to me?” I asked softly. At least I would get the truth from him. He always said exactly what he meant in his inebriated state.
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Was it a publicity stunt? Did your publicist put you up to this?”
His beautiful face scrunched in disbelief. “Of course not. No one suggested it. I want to spend my life with you.”
“You do?” I whispered.
He strode across the room and drew me up to him. His arms were so strong and secure around me. His face open and honest. “How could you think otherwise? I love you, Josie. I’ve loved you for far too long. I was honestly too shy to act on it. You were so intimidating in your strength and endless beauty.”
“You were not shy,” I said with a strangled laugh.
“I was. I waited too long to make a move on you. I thought you were too good for me.”
“Be serious.” My face flushed at the words.
“I am,” he said, cupping my cheek. “I love you. I want to marry you. I want a life together.”
“But the publicity stunts …”
“Only started after we were together for months. I hadn’t planned any of it. I wanted you to be all mine. But when it all came out, I went along with it since it seemed like that was what you wanted.”
I blinked in surprise. “Truly?”
I felt wary of him and broken from what had just happened with Maddox. Martin was here. Solid and perfect and saying all the things I’d always wanted to hear from him.
“Forget the publicity. We don’t need it.” He brushed a kiss on my fingers. “We’ll elope. We can do it on Christmas. No one else has to even know.”
And I should have said no. I should have walked away and figured out how to be alone if I couldn’t have what I really wanted. But I didn’t do any of those things. I loved being loved. And I didn’t know how to be alone.
So, I said yes.
And by Christmas, Martin Harper was my husband.
21
ATLANTA
PRESENT
I slammed my mother’s journal shut with a strangled gasp.
Maddox would be here any moment to pick me up and drive me to Atlanta for my audition. I’d left the set early, unable to look at Martin Harper’s stupid face for an extra second. He’d asked if I wanted to go out with the rest of the cast. Nearly three years of marriage had taught me everything I needed to know about the look on his face when he had asked me out tonight. No way was I going there again. He’d ruined my relationship with Maddox once. I wasn’t letting that happen again.
After having a stilted dinner with my mother and her gentleman caller, Roger, I’d taken up residence on the back porch to read my mother’s journal until Maddox got here. I hadn’t had much time to read after being on set all day. Plus, I’d been putting off reading past that first summer with my mom and her tangled love triangle with my dad and Edward. I was worried about what I’d find, and it was honestly worse than I’d imagined.
I was supposed to stay the night with my dad tonight. How was I going to face him after reading this?
I stomped inside. I found my mother seated on a divan in the living room. Roger was shaking drinks together in the kitchen.
“You just gave me up,” I snapped.
Rebecca Charlotte Montgomery hardly looked fazed. “What’s that, dear?”
I tossed the precious journal onto the divan next to her. “I don’t want to read any more.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“How are you so calm?”
She took a sip of her drink. “I lived that life. I told you I had nothing to hide.”
Tears pricked my eyes, and I forced them back down. “You chose Edward over Dad and gave up custody of me. You didn’t even seem sad about it in the journal.”
“I got you every summer.”
“I hated that deal,” I snarled at her.
“I know, but it was the best that I could do.”
“You had this huge house and millions of dollars. How in the hell was that the best that you could do?”
“My reasons are in the journal.”
“I read it. You had no reasons in there. It was just bullshit about how you were protecting me.”
My mother nodded and set her drink down. She slowly came to her feet and took a step toward me. “That’s right.”
“Protecting me from what?”
And for the first time, my mother looked distant, as if remembering a long-ago pain. “Not what … who.”
I balked at that response. “Who?”
“Honey, everything all right?” Roger asked, stepping tentatively into the bedroom.
That look evaporated from her face, and she preened at the first sight of him. “Absolutely. Just having a chat with my daughter.”
“Mother,” I said. “Who were you protecting me from?”
She leaned forward and pressed a kiss against my forehead. “I’m proud of how you were raised, dear. Your father did a wonderful job. Isn’t that what matters?”
And then she swept past me and toward Roger, never answering my question. It didn’t make sense. She and Edward had been happy. Despite the circumstances of how they’d ended up together, I’d never seen a rift between them. Granted, I hadn’t seen much of Edward. He had been gone nearly every summer that I was here. But still, I would have been able to tell if she was unhappy, right?
The doorbell rang a moment later. I snatched the journal back up before answering it.
Maddox lifted his Ray-Bans as he took me in. “Everything all right?”
I shook my head. “Just … my mother.”
“Ah,” he said, not needing more explanation.
“Maddox Nelson,” my mother said behind me.
I rolled my eyes skyward.
Maddox just smiled. “Hello, Mrs. Montgomery.”
“Rebecca, please. Do take care of my daughter this weekend.”
“I certainly intend to.”
My mother’s gaze shifted back to me. She looked torn for a whole second before a smile hit her features again. “Read the rest of the journal, Josephine.”
I waved it at her. “Yeah, I guess I will.”
Then, I grabbed my suitcase, shouldered my purse, and followed Maddox out to his Jeep.
“So, what’s going on with you two now?” he asked as he pulled out of Savannah and headed north, toward Atlanta.
I huffed. “This damn journal. I thought it would bring us together, but all it does is make me furious with her.”
“What happened now?”
“She chose Edward and gave me up. She didn’t even have remorse. She said she did it to protect me from someone but won’t say who.”
“Edward?”
I shrugged. “I mean, that’s what the gossipers would have me believe. She murdered him,” I said, waggling my fingers at him. “Easier to think she did something horrible like that than to believe he overdosed.”
“But you don’t believe it anymore?”
“I don’t know what I believe,” I answered honestly.
“So, why did she choose Edward? Did you find that out?”
I sighed and slumped forward. It felt too close to reality to say the words out loud. “Uh, Dad wouldn’t take her back.”
Maddox cleared his throat. “I see.”
“Yeah. So … so she married Edward and gave up custody of me.” I met his gaze. “If she couldn’t have the man she loved, then she could at least try to be happy.”
“Ah.”
“I might have more in common with my mother than I knew. After all, I married Martin, right?”
“I wasn’t going to say that, Jos. That was a long time ago.”
“I know,” I whispered. “But I still regret how it all happened.”
He reached over and laced our fingers together. “We’re not repeating your mother’s history.”
“Yeah. It just … there are so many what-ifs in my head about us. I don’t want to repeat our own history. Let alone my mother’s.”
“You’re not planning to marry Martin again, are you?” he asked with a tilt to his lips.
“No!” I gasped, swatting at him.
“Then, I think we’re safe on that front.”
I laughed. “You’ve got jokes.”
“Hey, I saw him kissing you on set.”
“Yeah, and I went apoplectic and screamed at him.”
Maddox smirked. “Oh, I saw.”
“Felt good?”
He chuckled. “Maybe a little.”
“I’m still amazed you’re working on this movie.”
“Yeah, well, there’s one thing you haven’t considered.”
“What’s that?”
He took my hand and brought it to his lips. “You’re in the movie.”
We arrived in Atlanta four hours later. My stomach was in knots as my dad answered the door. He looked the same as ever—unruly hair as dark as night with week-old scruff. He was dressed in a paint-splattered T-shirt and shorts he’d had my entire life.
“You made it,” he said, pulling the door open for the pair of us. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Hey, Dad.” I threw my arms around him, squeezing the life out of him.
“Whoa there, Josie. It’s good to see you too.”
I laughed and released him. “Remember Maddox?”
“Nice to see you again, sir,” he said, holding his hand out.
My dad shook his hand. “Heard a lot about you, but I haven’t seen you since you were about fifteen. You’ve grown up.”
Maddox ran a hand through his curls. “A little, yeah.”
“Well, let’s get you inside.”
Dad took my suitcase out of my hand and carried it to my old room. It was no longer a place for me. More like an art room that happened to have a queen bed in it.
“Sorry about the mess,” he said, kicking at a tube of paint on the ground. “This room has the best light.”
“It doesn’t matter to me,” I assured him.
I’d tried to get Dad to move into something nicer when I got Academy money, but he was happy, living here. We’d bought the place, so he no longer had to rent, but he didn’t want anything bigger or better. That was all me. So, I’d given up on that and let him live the life he loved. He had the studio, which had taken off in the last couple of years, and I was so proud of him.
“You like beer?” my dad asked Maddox.
He laughed. “Yes, sir.”
“Ah, drop the sir bit. You can call me Charles.”
Maddox nodded and followed him into the kitchen. We were only here one night. Tomorrow, we’d be staying with Lila and Cole, but I couldn’t come into Atlanta without paying my dad a visit.
I changed into something more comfortable and found my dad and Maddox in front of an easel, holding beers and discussing the merits of the project. I completely disappeared as Maddox suggested some technique and my dad’s eyes got wide and excited as he learned that Maddox was also an artist.
“You told me he did visual effects,” my dad accused.
I laughed. “He does.”
“Art is my first passion though,” Maddox said. “I sketch a lot with charcoals or graphite when I need to clear my head or visualize what I want to create on the computer.”
“Oh no, I’m going to have to listen to nerdy art-boy talk all night, aren’t I?”
My dad beamed. “As if you’re not used to it.”
I was. And watching my father not just accept Maddox, but also immediately love him made my heart bloom. I hadn’t realized how similar they were until that moment as they ignored me and focused on the artwork.
All thoughts of bringing up my mother’s journal vanished. I’d made the same choice as my mother. I’d chosen the rich guy … twice. Instead of the artist who adored me. I wouldn’t make that same mistake again.
22
ATLANTA
PRESENT
I woke at the break of dawn to prepare for my audition. I’d thought I’d be more nervous, considering how much I wanted this part, but I felt ready. As if I’d been waiting my entire life for this. Maddox offered to drive me to the studio, which I considered denying, but I could see he was just as excited for me, so I let him.
Two hours later, it was all over. I was giddy as I traipsed out of the studio toward Maddox’s Jeep. He stepped out of the truck and grinned as I skipped toward him. I didn’t even think; I flung my arms around his neck and kissed him.
He laughed as he twirled me in place. “So, I’m guessing the audition went okay?” he asked as he set me back on my feet.
