Breaking Stars (The Celebrity 2)

“Yes, sir.”

“So, now what? How long until that’s reported?”

I hadn’t ne

cessarily thought everything through, what my being here might do to Paige’s hard-earned reputation; I hadn’t even considered it. All I knew was that I needed to make things right with Paige, and I was only screwing it up more.

“I’d say it’s probably already live.” He pointed across the street where Colin stood talking to the lone paparazzi guy I had spoken to earlier, holding his cheek and swaying back and forth.

“Paige is going to kill me.” My cell phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it from my pants, seeing my mom’s name.

“Ma?”

“I’ve been following the gossip sites since you left. They’re saying awful things, things that polite people don’t say, Tatum.” Her voice cracked, and I knew her heart hurt for both myself and for the girl she’d grown to care about.

“I haven’t seen anything since I got here, but I appreciate the heads-up…again. And just so you’ll know…it’s going to get a little worse.”

“What have you done, son?”

“I might have hit Colin.”

She laughed into the phone, my mom actually laughed, which eased my anxiety a bit. “Good. I’m sure he deserved it. Now, have you seen her?”

“Briefly.” I all but sighed as the lobby telephone rang in the background, and Sam moved to answer it.

“She’s mad, isn’t she?” my mom asked.

“She is.”

“You don’t come back here until you’ve made things right. You hear me?”

“Yes, Mama,” I said with a smile, not wanting to let her down.

“’Bye, son. I love you,” she said, then ended the call before I could say my own good-bye.

“Tatum?”

I turned to find Sam holding the phone receiver out toward me.

“It’s Miss Quinn.”

“Quinn?” I asked before remembering that Paige’s best friend was named Quinn. “She’s calling for me?”

He nodded, and I reached over to accept the phone he offered me.

“Hello?”

“Oh, good,” a woman’s voice said. “You really are in town. Don’t move, I’m coming to get you.” Then she hung up.

A little numb with surprise, I handed the phone back to Sam. “She’s bossy.”

Sam laughed. “That she is, sir. But it suits her.”

I glanced outside where Colin had stood and noticed he was no longer there. Breathing out a sigh of relief, I braced myself for what was to come.

• • •

Quinn arrived shortly after hanging up in my ear.