One More Day (The Alexanders 1)

Chapter Twenty-One

“You aren’t going to like this.”

Raina looked up from her lounger and frowned at Sam. “You’re blocking my sun.”

“You don’t need to soak up rays. You have a natural tan.”

Sam moved until he was completely obscuring the sunlight. Raina turned her face in the opposite direction, determined to ignore him. The shoot had ended the previous day and she had a feeling the pictures weren’t going to be her best. It sucked to think she might have blown one of the biggest opportunities she’d ever had. Especially since she wasn’t sure why.

Liar.

Okay, she knew exactly why she hadn’t been able to concentrate. She’d been thinking about Ridley meeting the Alexanders. She’d been thinking about Nick.

“I’m not going away.” Sam’s voice cut into her thoughts again.

Finally she rolled over and glared at him.

“I have twisted my body into the most unnatural positions for the past three days. Do you know how hard it is to look sexy while wearing a thong bikini and kneeling on gritty sand? I need my sunlight. I’ve earned the right to lie here and ache in peace.”

Sam plopped down next to her lounge chair. “Your sister is on the cover of Sizzle and several other major tabloids.”

Raina lifted her head. “She’s on what?”

He didn’t answer, just held up one of the magazines in his hand. She immediately recognized Ridley. She looked amazing and she was wearing one of the sexy little Narciso Rodriguez dresses she’d picked up in Europe a few months ago.

“She’s not going to like this.” Raina sat up and took the magazine.

Sam pointed at the cover. “It’s not a bad picture. It could have been worse.”

“Leggy’s Sister Lands A Rich Hottie,” Raina read out loud. “So much for keeping a low profile. I’m surprised they didn’t think it was me.”

“If it wasn’t well publicized that you’re here in the Bahamas for the S.I. shoot, they probably would have thought so.”

Raina flopped back down with an exaggerated sigh. “She is not only going to hate the fact that her face is plastered on a cheap tabloid, but she’ll definitely object to the implication that she’s a gold digger. Personally, I don’t care, but she will.”

“That’s because you are a gold digger.”

“What good is gold if you don’t dig for it? It’s not like the men I date are with me for my charming personality.” She rolled her eyes and reached a hand over to her beach bag. She rummaged around for a while until she found her cell phone, then typed out a quick text.

“Okay, consider that your good deed for the day. I’ve warned her so she won’t freak out if someone mentions the pictures. Now go away.”

Sam got up. “You know you love me.”

“That was never in question.”

* * *

Ridley groaned as she read the text message.

Tabloid pictures?

She was downstairs reading a book. Not that she remembered anything she’d read so far. It had mainly been a distraction. Something to keep her mind off the fact that Raina was due back home tomorrow.

One more day and then she’d have to leave.

“It’s not like you’ll be in a foreign country.”

It was silly to feel like she was losing something when she’d only be one street over. This was a good thing. Once she was at Raina’s house, she could put a full-sized garden in the backyard. Raina had always loved flowers, too, even if she hadn’t the slightest clue how to take care of them.

It would be a fun project and her first official design job under her new business. A business that she would own all by herself. A few months ago she might have turned it down just because she didn’t want her first job to come from her sister, but Jackson’s words had stayed with her.

That’s what people who care about you do. They help you.

She wasn’t measuring her success in dollar signs anymore and she definitely wasn’t trying to do everything on her own. Having the support of family and friends wasn’t something to be ashamed of. If she’d learned that lesson a little earlier she could have saved herself a lot of trouble.

Plus, it would be good for her and Jackson to get back to normal. When she wasn’t hiding out at his house and worrying about being stalked. They’d gotten together under very unusual circumstances and if they were ever going to have a chance, they needed to see how their relationship fared under normal conditions.

Either way, it was time for her to stop living in a fantasy world and get back to reality.

She put down her book and walked up the stairs. Jackson had offered her the use of his laptop many times, but she’d never had any reason to need it. She could access her e-mail and read any news stories that interested her on her phone. Tabloid pictures, however, she needed a laptop to view. If she was going to see tacky photos of herself, she might as well get the full image.

“Jackson? Are you here?” She stuck her head in his office and looked around. He’d been working a lot more lately, bringing things home from the office to review. She hadn’t been back with him to watch a recording session yet, something she regretted.

She sat in his office chair and flipped open the lid of the laptop. It powered on immediately and she clicked on the Guest icon. A few minutes later, she had the pictures up on the screen.

Leggy’s Sister Lands A Rich Hottie!

Ridley skimmed the article. It was typical tabloid fare, big on insinuations and thin on facts. Somehow they managed to make it seem like both she and her sister were opportunistic sluts. Great.

The pictures themselves weren’t that bad. One was taken outside Sweeties as they’d entered. Jackson had his arm around her and one hand up as if to ward off the photographers. She’d had her head down but she was peeking up at Jackson with a little smile on her face.

It was probably the happiest she’d looked in a long time.

“Well, I’m glad Raina warned me, but I’m not going to let a stupid tabloid ruin my day.” She surfed the web for a little while, reading random news articles and looking at trailers for a few movies that had just come out.

“Maybe Raina and I will go to a movie when she comes back.” She could at least write down the names of the ones that looked interesting. Then she could look up the show times for the coming weekend.

She looked around for a pad of paper and a pencil, but there was nothing on the desk. After the first time she’d cleaned in here, Jackson had really been trying to keep it neat. His version of neat appeared to be shoving everything that used to be on the top of the desk into the drawers. She pulled out the closest one and rifled through the papers and folders in her way, lifting them one by one so she could see if there were any pencils or pens beneath.

DAVID RANDALL FINEMORE

RIDLEY ANNE WELLS

Ridley stopped and pulled out the two manila envelopes. She opened the one labeled with her name first. Her mouth fell open as she scanned the documents inside. It looked like a criminal background check along with personal information about her family, her friends, and what she’d accomplished in college. There was even a copy of her driver’s license photo from Florida.

“He had me investigated,” she whispered. Disappointment crashed through her as she stuffed the pages back into the folder.

She’d known Eli was investigating to see who was messing around with her bank accounts, but she hadn’t expected he’d pull up such personal details. This wasn’t the type of search you did on an innocent person. This was the type of search you did when you were looking for dirt.