Chapter 17

“She used to tell me the same thing.”

“You must miss her,” Brenna said. “Of all the stupid things to say. Forgive me.”

Sometimes when you lose something—or someone—it comes back in a different way, he thought. How could he tell her she was so like his aunt?

“No, it’s all right,” he said. “I do.”8

Though Smalley often accused Quinn of courting the press—the New York Rumours’spread being Exhibit A—he didn’t, not really. Reporters found him. And Quinn saw no reason to be unfriendly, particularly when it helped his causes, like the proposed orphanage and school.

But, as with most stars, he had learned soon enough that cultivating the press was like trying to ride a tiger. There was no way to control it.

“Novak, will your parents be coming for the big game?” a reporter asked after practice.

“Oh, no,” Quinn said. “They live in Indonesia, where they work for a big multinational company. It wouldn’t be fair to tear them away. They sent their best wishes, though.”