Claudia gasped, fueling Riley’s rant.
“It doesn’t matter to me if we prove this or not,” Riley said. “I know the truth, and so do you, and you’re the one who will have to live with the guilt of knowing how low you sank and how many lives you hurt along the way.” Riley pushed the End button on the phone.
“Jesus, you did it.” Jade wrapped Riley in her arms.
“Wow, you go, girlfriend!” Savannah laughed, embracing both Jade and Riley.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Max added.
Riley’s mother stood in the doorway with a proud smile that filled her eyes with tears. “Now, that’s the girl I raised.”
Tears streamed down Riley’s cheeks. Her legs trembled. She collapsed into her friends’ arms, hoping to hell that she hadn’t just done the absolute wrong thing.
Chapter Forty-Two
JOSH STARED AT the photo on the cover of the New York Post, his cell phone pressed against his ear. Kelly, his publicist, had been hammering him for ten minutes about not calling her last night when Claudia had showed up.
“I could have jumped them on this, Josh. You know that. Even if I couldn’t have stopped the presses, I could have had a rival article written. Now it will look like you’re just covering your ass with a retaliatory article,” Kelly said.
“I realize that. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Did you tell Riley when it happened at least? Is she prepared?”
“No,” he said, realizing his mistake. “I was too pissed, and by the time I settled down from being angry, I wasn’t thinking about the newspapers,” he admitted. He’d been too wrapped up in figuring out what he’d do about Riley if her name was never cleared. The impact this situation would have on his career had yet to be seen, but if this crap never went away, if Riley was linked in articles and photos as a design thief, how would he overcome that? He wasn’t prepared for the rage that ripped through him over the past twelve hours and still held him prisoner. Just seeing the goddamned picture of him and Claudia made him want to rip someone’s head off and throw it into the East River.
“You have to always—always—be thinking about the newspapers. Especially now. Damn it, Josh. I’ll do what I can, but you’d better get in touch with Riley. If she’s seen this, as I’m sure she has—hell, everyone has—then you’ve got a lot of explaining to do. I swear it’s like you fell in love and lost all your faculties.”
I swear it’s like you fell in love and lost all your faculties. If that was her impression, then what was everyone else thinking? His mind came back to Riley. It always came back to Riley. He pictured her trusting eyes, her smile when he told her he loved her. He did love her. Damn it, I do love her. But he also loved his career, and his career wouldn’t survive if he couldn’t contain the rage that kept his fisted hands at the ready.
When his phone rang, he brought it to his ear, distracted by the argument going on between his heart and his mind.
“Hello?” he said.
“What the hell are you doing?” Treat fumed.
“Nothing,” Josh snapped.
“Max is over at Riley’s right now; so is Savannah. They’re trying to clean up this mess so you don’t lose your girlfriend.”
Josh didn’t answer. My girlfriend.
“Listen, little brother. I don’t know what’s going on, but if you want to salvage your relationship with Riley, I don’t think hanging out with Claudia is the way to do it.”
“Damn it, Treat. Do you really think I’d do that? She showed up and the photographer snapped the photo, and then she was gone. I’m not thrilled about any of this shit.”
“Did you tell Riley when they took the picture?” Treat asked.
Josh closed his eyes. “No,” he snapped.
“It’s like you want this relationship to fall apart.” Treat softened his tone. “Josh, what’s going on with you?”
Josh didn’t have an answer.
“Open your front door,” Treat said.
Josh went to his front door and opened it, watching Treat, in person, lower the phone from his ear and open his arms. Josh felt like a needy kid again as he accepted his brother’s strong embrace, and he felt his protective, steely resolve begin to thaw.
“What are you doing here?” Josh asked.
“You’re used to the upside of the media circus. I’ve been on both sides. I figured you might need some support.” Treat headed for the kitchen. “I’m starved. You have eggs?”
Leave it to Treat to fall right back into Mom mode. Ever since Josh could remember, when he or his siblings were having a hard time, Treat would swoop in and cook for them and figure out how to fix things—or at least make them feel better. At this point, Josh needed all the help he could get.
“Fridge,” Josh answered.
Treat whipped up egg-white omelets and toasted whole-wheat bread while Josh explained what had happened with Claudia and the quandary his mind was now tackling.
“So, let me get this straight,” Treat said as he handed Josh a full plate of food. “After two days, you’re ready to tell the world about your feelings for Riley; then this shit happens, and now you’re questioning if you can stand behind her if she never gets cleared because you’re afraid that a year from now, or ten years from now, you might kill someone if they badmouth her? Even though you know she’s innocent.”
Josh speared a hunk of eggs with his fork and nodded. “I’m an asshole.”
Treat shook his head. “Yeah, you are. Riley is dealing with seeing you and Claudia together and you haven’t called her?”
“I was going to…”
“But you wanted to figure out your own shit first.” Treat narrowed his dark eyes, pinning him to his chair. “Don’t be surprised if you’ve already lost her. I thought you were smarter than that, Josh.”
Josh threw his fork down on the table. “Goddamn it. I don’t know what I am. I love her. I adore her, Treat. Every ounce of me wants to be with her. But what if someone says something about her and I lose it? Then we’re right back in this shit storm again, with Riley going through it all as the innocent goddamned party. And what if that means losing what I’ve created? I’m not like you. I can’t give up what I’ve built. I love my work. I love my business, and trust me, I know just how much of a self-centered asshole that makes me.”
“It does,” Treat said with a nod.
“No shit.”
“Why do you see this as all or nothing? You know how these things go. It’s a setback, Josh. So what if you fall back a year or two while this thing blows over? You climbed that ladder once; you’ll climb it again. And as far as losing it goes, or hitting someone, you’re a Braden. Your first line of defense isn’t your fists. You might feel like it’s going to be, but your mind will always override that physical side.”
Josh ran his hand through his hair. “I want an assurance that I’m not going to kill someone, and…” He pushed past his embarrassment and admitted what he’d been thinking for the last twenty-four hours. “I want to be like you and be ready and willing to give it all up for the woman I love. I know that would make me so much more of a man, but—”
“Bullshit,” Treat said with another glare. “Being a man has nothing to do with giving up anything. I built my business to prove something to myself and to my family. That was it. There was no love built into that. I love negotiating, but I could have done that in any business. I could have built a business on resorts, sailboats, or freaking playground equipment, for all I care. You built your business based on something you love, and you wouldn’t love doing any other work the way you love designing. Hell, we’ve known that since you were six years old.” Treat shook his head.
“What are you getting at?” Josh asked.
Treat sighed. “What makes a man isn’t what he’ll give up, Josh. It’s the grace in which he lives his life. The level of honesty and the moral code he lives by. The ethics of being aboveboard, and…” Treat looked away.
“And?”
Treat drew his eyes back to Josh, and when he spoke, his voice was tender. “And the value he places on those he loves combined with the efforts he takes to protect them. Those are the qualities that make a man. What I did wasn’t manly. What I did was sort of cowardly.” Treat laughed. “I would have walked through a field of dinosaurs to be with Max. Nothing else mattered to me. Doling out my responsibilities for work to enable me to be by her side was weak. It was the easy way out, but it made me happy, and I’m okay with that. I could have fought for her to bend to my lifestyle, and she probably would have. No, she definitely would have. But I can tell you this. Working on Dad’s ranch and running my businesses remotely was worth it. I’ve never been happier than when I’m with Max.”
“It wasn’t weak. It was chivalrous,” Josh said.
“Hardly,” Treat said. “Okay, maybe to some people. But, Josh, we all have our own paths to happiness. Yours doesn’t have to include giving up your career. You just need to figure out if you can live with the world around you seeing Riley one way when you know her to be another.”