“As I tried to tell her, before she blocked my number,” Adriana said.
Funny how he and Mugsy had both run away and been chased here by the women they—well, he couldn’t speak for Mugsy, but Charlie knew how he felt about Jean. He hoped Mugsy would give happiness a chance, but it wasn’t for him to tell her what that meant. For now, she still looked like her conscience was scratching her like a sandpaper shirt.
“Some things are too personal to share,” he told his oldest friend. “I know how that feels. And I’ll always love you, so stop worrying.”
Mugsy cleared her throat. Emma handed her a lace-edged handkerchief.
Smithson tapped his gigantic watch. “You know I get paid by the hour? The sexy part is over, so let’s wrap this up.” Crossing his arms, he turned to stare at Jean.
“I’m not scared of you, Smitty the Shitter.” She stuck her tongue out at him.
“What did you call me?” He took a step toward her.
“You heard me. Did you really think people were going to believe someone left a whole Toblerone on the seat of your bumper car? Please.”
“How do you know—uh, what are you talking about?”
“You really don’t remember me? Maybe if you search that tiny little organ you call a brain, it’ll come to you. Travel back to yourhigh school days.” She made wibbly-wobbly fingers in his face. “A little burger joint you trashed.”
He squinted at her. Jean stared back.
“Holy shit. Cheese Fries? I can’t believe it’s you. Didn’t recognize you without the uniform.” Smithson looked her up and down. “Are you stalking me? You always were kind of obsessed.”
“No, you absolute dipshit. I’m here for Charlie. He’s the one I’m in love with!”
Mrs. Pike gave a gasp that turned into a sigh of delight.
Sergeant Cowboy clapped. “Speak your truth, short stack.”
Several phones dinged at once. Mr. Koenig frowned as he checked his notifications.
“What is it?” Mr. Pike asked, fumbling for his own phone. “Pike’s Past Its Peak.” His voice faded as he read. “That’s… quite a headline.” He blinked rapidly, as if trying not to cry.
Charlie didn’t have an alert set up for brewery news, so he borrowed Mugsy’s phone to see what had pushed his father to this unprecedented state. It was short but to the point:
The beer company better known for the private life of scion Charlie Pike IV is on the auction block, according to inside sources.
You didn’t have to be a business genius to know that wasn’t the image his father had been desperate to project this weekend.
“What did I tell you?” Smithson slapped Mr. Pike’s desk with the flat of his hand. “Somebody’s been talking to the press, and I think we both know who it was.”
Jean’s friend Hildy glanced over Mr. Koenig’s shoulder, scanning the screen of his phone. “Mmmm, no. Even if corporate news was my beat, which it’s not,Beverage Business Quarterlyis not a Johnson Media property. Nice try.”
“Then who ratted us out?” Mr. Pike asked the room at large. “It had to be someone with insider knowledge.”
Smithson made a show of starting to say something beforecutting himself off with a shake of the head, wiping a hand over his mouth like he needed to physically contain the words.
“What is it?” Mr. Pike asked.
“I’m just thinking, maybe it was Chuck.”
Charlie pointed at himself, certain he’d misheard.
“Your dad told me how you’re always trying to bail on the business.” Smithson shrugged, as if it were a casual remark instead of a devastating accusation. “Don’t really have a head for the game.”
“That is not what I said,” Mr. Pike protested.
“Charlie would never—” Jean and Mugsy spoke at the same time, breaking off to look at each other like two cats grudgingly accepting the other’s existence while reserving the right to brawl later.
