Communion (On My Knees Duet 3)

“Not really. I think they just want a game plan. They’re committed to you, PL. You get that, right? The board is still behind you. Even after last night. Even after they all know about the baby story, they’re still going to be with you.”

Most of them reached out already today, letting me know they’re not upset that Rayne and I took off to Vegas. Which is…nice. It really is.

“I don’t really get it,” I tell Pearl. “But I want to.”

Maybe they don’t think they can oust me without a lot of blowback from progressives.

Pearl stands up and holds her hand out for me. “Let’s go do this. I bet you’ll leave feeling better.”

Pearl is right. The meeting lasts more than two hours, but it’s okay. The entire board seems on the same page, even working with our new consultants to brainstorm ways to paint me and Vanny as the “good guys.”

There’s some phone footage that shows Rayne looking terrified as he pulls the hat off his face and realizes the guy is right beside him and Eden. You can see him wondering what to do, and it’s pretty clear when he throws that punch that it’s self-defense. We call our contact at TMZ and connect them to this person with the Twitter vid; that way, TMZ, at least, will push the footage that makes Vance look better.

At one point in the meeting, Frank Piedmont looks right at me and says, “We’re going to weather this storm.” Like this one-liner pep talk.

I leave the meeting with a lightness in my chest that I wasn’t expecting, just like Pearl said I would.

“Love you, PL,” she says as she packs up and I walk through the open-concept workspace outside my office.

“Love you too, Pearl.”

“Even after a few years as my pal, you find that awkward, don’t you?”

I smile sadly at her. She smiles back. “You won’t, eventually. You’ll understand that it’s okay to be loved. And you’ll feel it.”

Tears well in my eyes as I nod. “Thank you,” I rasp, and I make a speedy exit, stopping in the stairwell to wipe a tear off my cheek.

You’ll understand that it’s okay to be loved.

I do understand, I tell myself as I walk toward the car. I feel loved.

But more tears seep out as I think about the way I feel with Vanny wrapped around me from behind, going to sleep at night. Sometimes I feel…weird about it. Like he’s going to wake up one day and he’ll realize that this isn’t what he wanted. That I’m not what he was hoping I would be.

Every sign points to the fact that Vance loves me. I don’t think he’ll ever leave me. But then I feel bad about that.

I get into the car and make a note in my phone to tell Derek this stuff. As much as I don’t want to. I need to try to be more healthy—for Vance. And Eden. I rub my eyes as I dial V, pulling out of the parking garage.

He sounds on edge, his voice a little tight as he asks, “How’d it go?”

“Honestly?” I smile. “It was pretty great. They’re on board. We’ve got lots of things planned to make you look like the hero—which you are. People can see you were the victim.” I hear a baby sound, and ask, “What’s she doing?”

“She’s just eating. That’s all she does, isn’t it?” he croons as if he’s speaking to her and not me, and I smile so big that it makes my cheeks hurt.

“Have you been on Twitter?” he asks, and he says it like it’s casual.

"Don't go on there, Vanny. Just lie low."

"Lay low," he mutters.

"That's grammatically incorrect."

"They teach you that up in the Ivy League?"

I snicker. "Maybe. You icing the hand, Rayne baby?" My voice goes low and rough on those last two words.

"Nah. Can't do that and also hold our little pillowcase babe."

"Yeah, I saw that.” I rub my temple as I brake for a stop sign, not sure if I should laugh or cry. “You put her in a pillow case to go and get the burger?"

"Don't even pretend that shit's not next level genius."

"It looked..." Ridiculous. "Hilarious."

"So we're both on the news, huh? A man and his pillow case baby?"

"That's right. You're both all over…all the places. We’re setting something up so the footage of you looking more favorable is widely distributed."

He makes a soft sound. "Hope so. I'm sorry if I handled it wrong."

“I’ve seen all the videos, Rayne. From every angle. You handled it just fine. What I hated is how scared you looked when you noticed he was right there kneeling down beside you.”

“I was scared. My arm was hurting and he caught me off guard. It made me feel sick,” he rasps, “that I let that asshole near her.”