In Over His Head

Chapter 32

"It's everywhere. The paper rags by tomorrow, most likely all the mums in line at the grocery will see these."

Kevin leaned on the desk at the villa, phone at his ear. He stared out the window, the rain pounding across it and the defeat of that statement let all the air out of him like a rapidly deflating balloon. It was early, no one else was up yet, and the moment he opened his laptop and logged into Slack, Mo rang him with the news.

"Is my mother raging yet?"

"Don't know. Renna called James, who then called me and asked if you were aware since he hadn't heard from you, so I assume it's already been brought up to her. The Tatler, the Sun, the Enquirer all have you on their news sites with pictures. You'll need to make a statement."

"It'll just fuel the bloody paps. Got questions about Cressy as well, so I need to find out where that came from."

Mo let out a superbly Scottish grunt into the phone. "Och. Wasn't from this camp, of course. Could be someone who overheard your mum prattling on to a friend at a dinner? You never know how these rumours start."

Kevin clicked over to the Tatler out of morbid curiosity and he suddenly couldn't breathe. Right on the front page, with a headline of "A tall glass of red, if you please", underneath another tagline of "Staffer 'wines' her way into Rathwell's arms?" was Sharla and himself.

The picture they picked was from the backdrop publicity photos. They were looking into one another's eyes. He had his arm firmly around Sharla's waist, her standing sideways and snug to his hip, one gold-sandaled foot pointed out through the vibrant, green silk. Her arm hung down with her clutch perfectly held, her hair cascading over her shoulder. His eyes darted back and forth between them. They looked every inch in love.

He wanted to show Sharla this photo and demand she see herself the way he did. Fucking beautiful. The most beautiful woman he'd ever known. There with him, in that moment, every bit of her capable of standing with the world's elite.

But he sobered as he studied the picture. The way they were locked into one another said something else to the world. Was that truly what he looked like when he looked at her? It was as plain as the nose on his face that there was something between them, with that photo. He right-clicked it and saved it to his desktop, and quickly grabbed the others peppering the site.

Sharla was going to lose her ever-loving mind when she saw these.

"Kevin... Kevin," Mo intoned in his ear. "Where'd you go?"

"Have you looked at the pictures?" he asked, his voice taking on a strange gravelled sound as he cleared his throat.

There was a pause on the other end of the line, then a soft "Yes. Intimately stunning."

He couldn't have picked better words to describe that photo. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine the next frame was him dipping her back dramatically to kiss her. They looked...

"I'm in for it when mum sees these. But I'm thinking I'm going to tell her to stuff it because if she sees these maybe it'll be enough to convince her to change her opinion of Shar. I mean, look at her Mo... She's magnificent and—"

Mo sighed. "I know, but I don't think it will be that simple."

"No, it won't be. I'm in a fucking corner with this," he said and Mo hmmed into the phone.

"No, love, you aren't. These things have a way of coming to a head and then poof, you're fine. So piss on that. Whom you love is not negotiable. It is a leap of faith, and she'll make it eventually."

"My mum, or Shar?"

"Both of them," Mop clipped. "Now listen, I need to start the day here, I can hear Peter already bangin' away downstairs and if I let him make the coffee, it'll pickle my stomach before the day's through."