More proof that he’s a great guy.
She felt a little queasy when she thought of her husband. Would this make the difference in their marriage? Or would it spell the end?
I know.
What in the world was she going to do? She couldn’t divorce Ben—she was still in love with him.
They’d just settled into their seats on the plane when Julian noticed that Charlotte kept glancing at her phone and frowning.
“Is that Heidelman?” he asked.
“No. He already sent me Luca’s contact information so I can reach him when we get there. Luca hasn’t sent the photos I requested, but Heidelman says he and Lilly are expecting to hear from us once we get to the villa.”
“We have a twelve-hour flight, and we’re going nine hours into the future. We won’t even arrive until tomorrow.”
“I know. I said it’d be around dinner, so I could have a chance to get settled and clean up.”
“So what’s wrong?”
She showed him a text from Cliff.
Don’t you think we should see each other before you go? Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves splitting up. Maybe we need to slow down and talk.
“He’s having second thoughts?”
“I guess. He wasn’t interested in talking the night he told me he wanted a divorce, so something’s changed.”
The date indicated this wasn’t a new message. “Looks like he sent that a few days ago.”
“He did. Right after that other picture of us at the coffee shop went viral, suggesting we were still ‘seeing’ each other.”
Julian had to laugh at how easy it’d been to set that up. “You haven’t responded yet?”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t decide what to say. I’m still hurt that he’d throw me out without an explanation. And I think he only sent that message because he feels threatened by you and the fact that I’m leaving the country.”
“He knows we’re going to Italy?”
“He knowsI’mgoing. I didn’t mention you.”
“The pictures we post should be fun, then.”
She shot him a skeptical look. “I don’t know about doing more of that. I think we’ve probably gone far enough.”
“Can you go too far when you’re dealing with a megalomaniac like Cliff?”
“I don’t want to ruin the playoffs.”
“He would never let anything ruin playoffs,” Julian said wryly, but lifted a hand in a stop position so she’d know he wasn’t going to continue going after Cliff. He knew the way he was talking about her soon-to-be-ex made her feel disloyal. “If you told him about Italy, did you tell him about Lilly?”
“I did. He was asking me to get my stuff from the house, but I was too busy preparing for the trip, and I needed a reason to put him off. I didn’t want to see him—didn’t think it would be good for my peace of mind. I have to hold it together for Lilly’s sake, you know? I can’t let my personal problems get in the way of the next few weeks. So I told him to have his driver drop off whatever I left behind at my folks’ house and be done with it.”
“Does he know you were adopted, too?”
“He knows everything.”
With her at the window, Julian reached around to lower the shade so the sun wouldn’t keep blinding him. “What’d he say?”
“Not much.”
