Page 76 of Sing For Me

My phone starts ringing and I curse, releasing her so I can pull it from my pocket. Rose. I want to ignore it but I have a bad feeling about why she’s calling so I tap the accept button. “Rose?”

“Hey.” She sounds breathless and a stronger stab of unease hits me. “There are like, half a dozen photographers outside the apartment.”

I smack my hand against the steering wheel. “Shit.”

“They went nuts as soon as they saw me,” she says. “They were asking about Eva.”

“Yeah, they got us coming out of a restaurant,” I growl out.

“Oh, no. Is Eva freaking out?”

I glance over at her still huddled form. “It’s not great.”

“I’m sorry. Can I help at all? I can meet you somewhere?”

“Thanks, Rose,” I say. “I’ve got it.”

But I don’t have it, not at all. I don’t know what to do to break this fear that seems to be gripping her. “Look, call your dad, okay? He’ll send someone over to deal with the photographers.” I chew on my lip, hating that I’m not there with her. Rose has hated media attention our whole life, and everything with her ex a few years ago only made that much worse. I can hear in my cousin’s voice that she’s freaked out. But going over there right now, when I have Eva in my truck, will make everything so much worse for both of them. “Have your dad send a driver for you and Riv if you need to go out today,” I growl, frustrated as fuck that I can’t be in two places at once.

“I don’t think we need—”

“Please just do it. I don’t want to be worrying about the two of you getting surrounded or getting followed or…” I trail off, clenching my jaw. “Please, Rosie.”

“Okay,” she says softly. “We won’t drive ourselves for today.”

I release a breath just as Eva’s phone starts to ring, the sound muffled from her purse, which I see is clutched tightly in her fisted hands.

“Rose, I have to go. I’ll call you soon, okay?”

“Don’t worry about us,” she urges. “Everything is fine here.” I know she’s just trying to make me feel better but there’s not a lot I can do about it either way. I end the call then toss the phone into a cup holder before reaching across for Eva’s purse. She doesn’t want to let it go.

“That’s probably Marissa,” I tell her. “Let me get the phone, honey.”

She loosens her hold enough that I can pull it away. It’s tough to find the phone in the purse while I’m driving and the ringing stops before I manage it. But then it starts up again immediately.

“Sorry,” Eva whispers next to me and I realize that she’s finally raised her head. “Here, let me.” I glance over at her as she takes the purse, trying to read her face, but her expression is completely blank. She’s pale though, way too pale, and her eyes are huge in her face. When she pulls the phone from the purse, her hands are shaking.

“I’ll get it,” I say, taking it from her. Sure enough her best friend’s name is on the screen. “Marissa?”

“Will?” There’s a bite to the word, her normal professional veneer absent. “Is Eva with you?”

“She’s here. We just got mobbed by paparazzi coming out of a restaurant.”

She swears loudly. “They’re at the house, too.”

Fuck.

I glance over at Eva. She’s staring blankly out the window, shoulders rigid. “Marissa, they knew about us.”

“What?”

“The paparazzi. They knew I was going to be there with her.”

My phone in the cup holder dings and I glance down to see a text from Quinn on the screen. Since I’m out of free hands, I release the steering wheel long enough to tap the Bluetooth icon on my truck’s dashboard display and the text appears there.Dude, there’s a couple photographers outside the shop.

My stomach sinks. “There are photographers at my apartment,” I tell Marissa in a low voice, like maybe I can hide the news from Eva. “And at my shop.”

“So this isn’t just about her,” Marissa mutters. “Someone tipped them off about the two of you.”