He frowned in confusion, glancing down at what appeared to be a celebrity gossip site.
“Just read it,” she said quietly. “The headline says it all.”
He glanced back down, and immediately he understood.
“Danica Robinson calls off wedding to Hollywood legend,” he read. “Well. Fuck.”
Heather said nothing.
“It could be a rumor,” he said. “Isn’t eighty percent of this stuff BS?”
“This apparently falls in the twenty percent that’s not,” she said. “Danica’s rep has already made a statement.”
“What the hell happened, some big New Year’s Eve scandal?”
“Not even.” Heather snatched the phone out of his hand as he saw the first hints of temper brewing. “Listen to this.” She scrolled through the article until she found the spot she wanted and began to read out loud. “ ‘An inside source claims that there’s no surprise in the split. In fact, sources close to the Robinson empire claim that the wedding was a hoax from the beginning. A fake engagement agreed to by both sides to aid Mr. Stokes’s fading star, as well as the bad press Ms. Robinson had been getting about her serial dating ways.’ ”
Heather dropped the phone to the bed as though it had burned her. “That bitch used me. No wonder she didn’t want to be bothered with the wedding details. She didn’t want to waste her time on something that she knew would never happen.”
Much as Josh wanted to reassure Heather that there was likely some misunderstanding, he didn’t really think there was. He knew Danica all too well, and this was exactly the type of bullshit she would think was within her rights to pull.
“The article also says that the news broke prematurely,” Heather said. “Can you believe that? One week before the wedding is premature, apparently. Way too much notice. The original plan was probably to end the engagement the day of to really get tongues wagging. Front-page news right there.”
“Jesus,” he muttered. “What happened to speed it up?”
Heather picked up her phone again, scrolling through once more before handing it to him.
“Ah,” Josh said, as he glanced at a picture of Danica kissing a man that was most definitely not her pseudo-fiancé. The champagne and New Year’s hats indicated that the make-out session had happened last night.
“So she’s on damage control,” he said.
“She’s going to be seriously damaged when I get my hands on her,” Heather ground out, starting to pace the length of the bedroom back and forth.
Josh nearly smiled. He hated that this was happening to her, but feisty Heather was quite the sight to behold.
“I’ve got to go into the office,” she said finally, coming to a stop in front of the bed. “I need to start figuring out my game plan.”
“You mean on the cancellation.”
She nodded. “It’s easy enough on paper, but the trick is figuring out how to do it without burning bridges. I’m not even sure that’s possible. We rushed everything. The designer dress is custom. The wine is hand-selected from the top wineries, who all carefully selected their best bottles and already shipped them over. Then there’s the handmade centerpieces, the champagne from France, even the freaking ribbon is coming from Italy.” She shook her head. “This is a nightmare.”
“How can I help?”
She blew out a breath and looked up, a determined gleam in her eyes. “Sleep. Get better. If this doesn’t destroy my career—and I won’t let it—you can take me out to dinner. We’ll have too much to drink and curse Danica Robinson’s name. Petty, but it’ll make me feel better.”
“Sounds like a plan. Maybe we can throw banana bread into the mix?”
She chucked her phone at him before heading into the bathroom, and he laughed, only to stop abruptly at the slight discomfort on his left side.
Josh’s smile slowly dropped as icy dread ripped through him. Another symptom that he was all too familiar with. A harmless twinge that he knew from experience could mean something very harmful indeed.
Josh didn’t move.
Not as he listened to Heather mutter obscenities in the shower. Not as he listened to her—rightfully so—rage at Danica Robinson as she threw on jeans and a sweater and boots.