Escorting the Player (The Escort Collection 3)

"Aw, I'm sorry," I said. "There's just been so much going on."

"It's been sort of a whirlwind," Avery agreed.

Martha turned to Avery, inspecting her carefully, as if she were an expensive organic melon at a farmer's market. "Is this something you're used to? This lifestyle? The limelight?"

She shook her head. "No, ma'am."

My mother crossed her arms against her chest and eyed her with suspicion. "You seem like you're adjusting pretty well."

"Uh…let me show you the living room," I said, hustling my mother toward it.

"I'm going to let you two catch up." Avery retreated toward the kitchen. "Mrs. Layne, are you hungry? I was just about to make dinner."

"I could eat," Martha said. She didn't sound as grateful as I wished she had, but it was at least a start.

"You don't have to grill her, Ma. Avery's on my team." I sat down heavily on the couch and patted the chair next to me. My mother sat down warily, watching my face.

"You two seem pretty serious. At least from all the pictures I've seen," she sniffed.

I shrugged. "She's really sweet. She makes me happy." When I said it out loud to my mom, I realized how true it was.

"That's good, " Martha said. "I just want you to be careful this time. I don't want to see you go through what you went through with Jessica again."

"I won't." I leaned forward. "Avery isn't anything like that."

Martha was quiet for a moment, picking invisible lint off her clothes. "I spoke to Eric."

My heart squeezed. Eric couldn't have told her the truth about Avery. He wouldn't.

"He's worried about you." Her voice was neutral.

&

nbsp; "Oh yeah? Why is that?" My throat felt tight.

My mom looked up at me, a sad look on her face. "Are you really planning on lying to me, Chase? Your own mother?"

"Lying to you about what?"

"Lying about Avery," she said. She looked crestfallen. "Eric told me the truth. That he'd hired this girl for you."

I swallowed hard. I opened my mouth and then closed it. Fucking Eric.

Martha shook her head. "A prostitute? How could you disrespect women like that?"

"It's not like that," I said. "Eric hired her to pretend she was my girlfriend. We thought it would be a good counterattack to what Jessica and Pax were doing. It was never a sexual arrangement, mom. I was never paying her for sex." I winced and felt myself redden. I was pretty sure my mother and I hadn't had a conversation which included the word 'sex' since our mutually humiliating birds-and-bees talk in sixth grade.

"But you're still paying her, right?" Martha asked gently. "And you're having sex with her now?"

"Mom." I clenched my hands into fists. "Enough. And just wait until I get my hands on Eric—"

"The reason Eric told me is because he's your friend. And he's worried about you," she interrupted me. "He's worried that you care about her. And that the press is going to find out who she really is and that your career is never going to recover."

I swallowed hard. "Eric should've thought of that before he hired her." I should have, too.

"I don't think he was thinking or planning on you falling in love with her."

"Who said I was in love with her?"