Since she looked good and smelled good, and because she wasn’t cooking, that meant either he was (when he wasn’t) or they were going into town to grab a bite (which was what they were going to do), then later they’d come home and maybe watch some TV or read, but definitely in the end they’d go to bed and fuck, he felt she could take all the time she wanted.
“Yeah?” he prompted when she didn’t speak.
“Yes. And apparently this friend keeps track of a variety of things, including the Elsa Exchange.”
Suddenly, he wasn’t a big fan of hanging and listening to Chloe’s story, considering the Elsa Exchange was a YouTube gossip show with a massive following, and its sole commentator, Elsa Cohen, spent a lot of time keeping tabs, and sharing them, about Chloe’s and Judge’s families.
“What now, Coco?” he demanded.
She turned to him. “Did you know that Elsa found out Rix’s name, and she named him, fully, and also repeatedly, when she also showed several pictures of him, with you, with your dad, with Dru? This when she was doing all that reporting on us after your mom passed.”
He’d not spent a second watching the Elsa Exchange after Elsa had interviewed Corey Szabo’s ex-wife and rocked Chloe’s world, so he had no clue this had happened, though he did know their families were a favored topic of conversation.
Rix being pulled into that garbage, he liked this even less.
He felt his mouth get tight.
It went with the territory for Chloe. Her mom, Imogen Swan, and dad, Tom Pierce, were two of the most famous people on the planet (especially Genny, whose new hit program that had started streaming last month had put her back on top as Hollywood’s darling). Not to mention, Chloe had grown up essentially a family member of Corey Szabo, who was also one of the most famous people on earth, and on top of that, prior to his death, had been one of the richest.
Then, after her mom and dad divorced, Genny reunited with a lost love, Duncan Holloway, who was famous in his own right for being self-made, wealthy and an outspoken environmental activist.
Duncan was also, incidentally, Judge’s former boss.
Further, it came with the territory for Judge, whose father was born into brash Texas oil wealth, then went on to make his own considerable fortune, and as such, had been dogged by the gossips and paparazzi for decades.
Thus, when Chloe and Judge got together, and that was outed after Judge’s mom essentially, albeit inadvertently, killed herself after taking a cocktail of vodka and valium, they’d somehow become the It Couple.
This meant attention for them.
And the person who seemed most fixated on them was Elsa Cohen.
It also meant attention for others, like Chloe’s brother Matt, sister Sasha, and her soon-to-be stepbrothers, Sullivan and Gage. Lastly, it meant Dru.
As yet, Judge did not know it meant Rix.
“I’ll take your look that could kill as a no,” she drawled.
“What shit is she saying about Rix?”
“Nothing, apparently, outside the fact that he’s gorgeous, he’s a national hero, and he’s a stalwart friend.”
Judge could handle that.
He took a sip from his beer.
“Though, he’s even more of a hero than we thought, considering he’s posing as Alex’s boyfriend when she stands up as maid of honor at her sister’s wedding next month.”
Judge nearly snorted beer.
He successfully swallowed, looked to his girl, and asked, “What?”
“This acquaintance of Dru’s, she’s Alex’s sister. Her name is Blake, and, you should know, darling, Dru isn’t Blake’s biggest fan. She referred to her as a ‘mean girl,’ and I could tell by the way she talked about her the level of that is on the high end of the spectrum.”
Possible insight into why Alex was so quiet and shy.
“Anyway,” Chloe went on, “Blake is an avid watcher of Elsa, and she remembered Rix, including tales told of him being your best friend, so she was very keen to get Dru on the phone to discuss this Rix person after Blake’s sister, that being our Alex, told her he was her boyfriend and would be her plus one at the wedding.”
Well, shit.
“Things are weird between them,” he reminded her of something he’d mentioned before. “He definitely gets where she’s coming from now. He’s making an effort. I’m just not sure what kind of effort he’s making, because it’s not inappropriate, buying her coffees when he’s getting them for everyone, joking around with her. There’s still something…more to it.”
“Is that more him practicing to pretend to be her boyfriend next month in New York?” she queried hopefully.
Disappointingly, he had to dash her hopes.
“If Rix was gonna do that, he’d tell me.”
“So what is that more?”
“That more is, last Thursday in our meeting, he found out she visited Yavapai’s juvenile detention center, and I thought he was gonna go mildly apeshit…at me because I let her be around potentially dangerous youth.”
“Hmm…” she hummed, now it was her lips that were tipped up, and she turned back to the view.
“Don’t read anything into that, my beautiful but scheming matchmaker,” Judge warned. “Rix is a throwback.”
Chloe looked to him again, an eyebrow arching above her glasses. “A throwback?”
“He takes you out, he pays for dinner. If he has to park far away, he drops his date at the door and he’s the one who hoofs it. And he leaves her there to go get the car at the end of the night. Holding the door open. Pulling out a chair. If he’s wearing his legs, he gives up his seat to a woman, no matter her age and if he doesn’t know her. Offering his jacket if it’s cold. Shit like that.”
No lips tipped up, a full smile. “So, essentially, you, just rougher around the edges.”
“Peri, his ex, never filled up her own gas tank.”
“Again, you.”
Judge shook his head. “If your job meant you had to be around potentially, but nowhere near possibly dangerous individuals, I would not go mildly apeshit.”
“You totally would.”
He grinned at her.
Because he would.
“But I’d not stand in the way of you doing your job,” he noted.
“We are talking about how you behave with me, you being the love of my life, me being yours, doing this alluding to how Rix is behaving with Alex.”
He caught her drift, but felt it important to remind her. “Like I said, I think he would let me in on that, baby, if it was going there.”
“He would,” she agreed. “This means Alex’s mean girl sister did something mean which prompted Alex to grab on to the first guy she could think of when discussing her possible plus one, and for obvious reasons, that was Rix. A clever ploy, considering she has plenty of time to invent an excuse as to why he couldn’t come.”
“That sounds plausible.”
“So obviously, Rix has to go to New York with her, pretending to be her boyfriend.”
It was a long incredulous beat before Judge burst out laughing.
When he was done, though, he saw Chloe was not laughing.
Oh shit.
“Baby, don’t get involved.”
“I am absolutely, one hundred percent getting involved.”