“Oops, gotta go,” Pauline sang. “Sorry I couldn’t tell you anything. What did you say your name was? In case I run into her.”
With a mumbled “thanks” he ended the call, pretending he hadn’t heard her question.
Charlie tossed the phone aside so he could rub his face with both hands. What had he done? He should have put his foot down with Mugsy as soon as she showed up at the resort, instead of being a pushover.
So what if she sold me out to the tabloids?he could have said.I still prefer her to every other girl I’ve ever met.
No one was perfect—least of all Charlie. He’d been lying in bed feeling sorry for himself, when Jean was the one who’d suffered.
Part of him had been clinging to the idea that she was still there at Dolphin Bay, where he could imagine her going about her day. Only now the final tie between them had snapped.
The one thing he felt certain about was that Jean would never forgive him.
And he would never forget her.
Top 10 Reasons Charlie Pike Is Boyfriend Goals
The Hot Sauce, Celebrity Shag of the Week
He’s hot. That face, am I right?
Tall. Wear those heels, girl. He’s not going to mind.
Old-fashioned. Did you see him hold that door for her?
Free beer. He’ll bring the party, thanks to a lifetime supply of Pike’s Pale Ale.
Don’t have to worry about his ex calling you out. No socials = no baggage.
Smart. Those glasses say “if there’s a zombie apocalypse, I know what to do.”
Not an actor. Finally, someone who isn’t worried about his angles.
Country house. Sometimes you need to get away and pet some cute animals.
Has his own money. Is there anything worse than a freeloader?
Silent storm. Enough said.
Chapter 15
After a trio of first-class flights (which Jean was annoyed with herself for being too stressed to appreciate) and a fortune in extra luggage fees, they finally made it to Charlie’s home state.
Hildy returned from the rental-car counter in high spirits.
“I got us a Jeep,” she announced, dangling the key ring from her index finger.
The postage-stamp-size regional airport was still a two-hour drive from the Pike estate on the far western edge of South Dakota, hence the need for a vehicle.
“Are we going off-roading?” Jean had pictured more of a country estate, maybe a hedge maze and some topiaries, but the view out the window of the terminal was all tall grass waving in the wind. It was giving majorLittle House on the Prairievibes.
“If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doingin style,as my second-to-last stepaunt used to say” was Hildy’s ambiguous reply.
“She died?”
“They sent her to a farm upstate.” Hildy snickered at her own joke. “Kidding. It was one of my uncle’s semiannual divorces. Slightly more common than a leap year.”
“Ah.”
