She snorted. This had been the problem all along. He was wrapped up in that one thing, knew there was no way to go public, and assumed a defensive posture because what else could he do.
But that was the thing. They could do plenty. Whoever went to the trouble of checking the code to find a time date stamp only proved the point. If it was really Phae in that reflection, she had some fast-talking to do.
“Sweetie, I’ve got this, okay?”
He exploded. “Oh, for god’s sake, Paige, this is a fucking nightmare. If this gets out, everyone will believe I was sleeping with a teenager and I got her a job in my next movie. Phae’s career will implode, and I’ll probably be looking at charges. That’s how this shit goes these days, right?”
It wouldn’t help if he blew a fuse. She cautiously pushed him onto the sofa, murmuring, “Edward, Edward, Edward … listen to me.”
He looked so … wounded. She’d been a fool for not watching the sex tape before now. The obvious had always been there—it just took till now to see it.
His face contorted with the emotions tearing him up. She snapped her fingers two inches from his nose. “Edward! Are you listening?” His answer was a hoarse grunt. Good enough.
“The tape isn’t a fake,” she announced but stuttered to a halt mid-sentence when a look of anger flashed on his face, so she hurried on. “And that’s going to end up being a good thing.”
“Excuse me?”
She suspected that anyone else would have just had their head ripped off.
“Okay, first of all … we need to get this thing to someone who knows about this stuff. Date markers and whatever else. I just watched that damn thing half a dozen times, and it’s definitely Phae in the reflection.”
“Do you hear what you’re saying?”
She chuckled. He glared. He still didn’t see.
“Sweetie, if the time date thing is for real, and it is Phae, there won’t be any need for the Banning Private Reserve to suffer further indignity. Your junk is in the clear, lover boy, because … where were we nineteen months ago? Huh? Think about it. Count on your fingers if you must, but there you have it. Do the math.”
She hummed lightly and crossed her arms, waiting. In a minute, he leaped to his feet.
“You’re a genius!”
Paige giggled. “That bonus check just keeps getting bigger and bigger. We were in New Zealand for months. And where did Phae grow up? Cincinnati? Case closed.”
He wrapped her in a huge hug. “Thank you.”
She would have liked that embrace to linger, but there were still issues to address. “I think someone might be following us.”
“I know. After that kid and the selfie thing happened, it was only a matter of time. Last night, when I stopped at the general store, I got a lot of looks and whispers.”
“We should stop dicking around then and head to your parents’ place.”
“I thought you wanted to fly to Texas first and do a quick turnaround with your folks?”
“True, but they’ll understand. Dad was looking forward to Padre Island. He’d much rather go on vacation than almost anything else.”
Edward’s expression shuttered. Why?
“Anyway,” she hurried on, “I’ll touch base with Mickey and put him on the forensic angle. He’ll dig that we found a way to shut this rumor down with facts.”
He asked the question that addressed the four-hundred-pound rotting corpse in the room. “Do you think Joann had anything to do with this?”
She’d already picked that train of thought to death. “Probably. Throwing an underage girl scandal your way seems a great duck and cover. Push some of the pressure she and Markus must be feeling with Alan in jail and the FBI breathing fire over everything.”
Edward looked around at their Ass-Gard chariot and got kind of melancholy. “This has been fun. I’ll be sorry to give our temporary home up.”
“Me, too.”’
“Well, come on then, my little mystery solver. You’ve made Velma proud with your mad skills of deduction. Let’s organize our stuff and make ready to engage the warp drive.”
She groaned. “Oy, Mr. Banning. Mixing your character references is a tricky business. Scooby Do and Star Trek? Sheesh.”
It was good to laugh after the high emotion of the last two hours. Maybe by the time they got to Steven and Miriam’s, M would have found a way to shut this thing down for good and things could get back to normal.
“Ah-ha, ha-ha. Did you see that sign? Trespassers will be forced to sit for a portrait. Good one, Dad.” Edward chuckled.
Paige’s smile was amazing as they drove the last way to his parents’ sprawling home. The ranch-style arch at the head of the driveway featured a wrought iron B, and the minute it came into view, their excitement went supersonic.
His mom and dad were arm in arm on the porch wearing big happy smiles when they pulled up. A thunderbolt of love for these two amazing people shook him. Family was everything. He looked over at Paige and the thunderbolt struck again. She was wearing the same big happy smile. Meeting his gaze, she laid her hand on his forearm, looking at him with such love he nearly drowned in it. “Hurry,” she quipped playfully. “Get on up there to your mom before she explodes.”
Edward planted a hasty kiss on her sweet mouth, kicked open the driver’s door, and hit the ground running.
“Bride!” he bellowed as he bounded up the stairs into his mother’s waiting arms. Grabbing her, he held on tight and swung her in a hearty circle before dropping her with a thud onto the enormous wooden porch. “Mom, you look amazing.”
“You’re a shameless smooth-talker just like your father,” she chirped in that familiar singsong way she had. “But thank you for the compliment. Your mama raised you well.”
“I’ve missed you,” he murmured so only she would hear when he moved in for a second, longer mother-son embrace. When he pulled back, her hand was on the side of his face.
“I’m proud of you, son.”
He saw her eyes dart to Paige, who was impatiently hovering near the foot of the stairs. There was a lot of meaning in that look. He knew his folks were thrilled with the change in Paige and his relationship. His father had almost lost his shit altogether when Edward told him they were engaged and that she was wearing Gran’s ring. But the light shining in his mother’s eyes as she looked at her future daughter-in-law shook him deeply. Until that moment, he hadn’t realized how important his parents’ approval would be when he took a wife.
“Boy,” his dad barked in his usual jovial way. “You’ve done your old man a proper.”
Turning to the man who made him, he shook his hand before leaning seamlessly into a major hug. Dad heartily slapped him on the back with a deep chuckle. “I’ve had apple pie almost every night, and there are mountains of chocolate chip cookies. All signs of a happy woman and believe me, her mood has nothing to do with my old butt.”
They both turned to say something to his mom, but she was gone. Looking around, they found her down in the driveway doing the happy dance with Paige. She screeched like a two-year-old when his fiancée showed off her ring, earning an amused snicker from his dad.
“Your mom’s been shitting hearts and flowers ever since you two made it official. About time, too. We were getting tired of all the best friend nonsense. You have your head up your ass or something, boy?”
“Blow me, Dad,” he jeered in unison with another hearty backslap.
“Let’s break that up or we’ll be left standing here whistling Dixie while they start planning the wedding.”
“What?” His dad was joking, right?
When Steven Banning looked at his eldest son like he didn’t have the sense of a house pet, Edward could only stare at him blankly.