by Mari Carr
“He dumped her at nine last night and already has a new girlfriend?”
“Yeah. I’ll let you piece out what that means.”
It meant Charley’s ex was a cheating prick. “Who the fuck was she dating? Do I know him?”
“Yeah. You and Ben gradu—”
“Ben? Ben Jerome?”
“Yeah.”
“Charley was dating Ben Jerome?” Ben’s family was the wealthiest in town—not that it was too hard to achieve that honor in their neck of the woods where factory workers were a dime a dozen. Ben’s dad was the local judge and a pompous dick, but Ben had been okay. A little boring but not a jerk. At least in high school anyway.
“They’ve been dating the last three years.”
“That’s a long time.”
“Yeah. They were a great couple the first two years, but Ben changed in the last year. Shades of his father started appearing.”
“That’s not good. Judge Jerome is an asshole.”
Bella sniffed. “Apparently, the fruit didn’t fall far from the tree. Ben works at Bryant and Beauchamp’s accounting firm. He kept telling Charley he couldn’t think about getting married until he had his career in hand. A couple months ago he made partner. So when he said he had something big to discuss with her last night, she thought…well, she thought he was going to ask her to marry him. She had her heart set on eloping in Vegas this weekend.”
“And instead…”
“He told her he was seeing Beverly Bryant.”
He whistled.
Damn.
And he thought his night had sucked.
“His boss’s daughter?” he asked.
“Ben told her she had to know it wouldn’t work out between them, that they were too different, that he needed a wife who would understand and support his career.”
“How fucking hard is it to be an accountant?” he muttered.
“That’s what I said! Anyway, here we are in Vegas and she’s not doing so well. She’s out in the living room of my suite. Actually…give me a second…it’s too quiet out there. I better check on her.”
He heard a door open and his sister stopped talking to him to address someone else.
“Where the hell did you get that?” she asked Charley.
He only heard a muffled response, none of the words decipherable.
“For God’s sake, Charley. Put the salami down. I’m almost finished with my phone call. Then we’ll go to the casino and play the slots.”
The door closed again.
“Sorry about that.”
“Salami?” he asked.
“She ordered a meat and cheese platter from room service.”
“Of course she did,” he deadpanned, torn between laughing and cussing.
“I just can’t stand the thought of her walking into that wedding reception tomorrow alone, having to put on a happy face, while Ben and Beverly rub her nose in their relationship.”
“As much as I’d like to—”
“Ben is a huge hockey fan. It was one of the few things he and Charley had in common. If she walks into the wedding on your arm, she gets a win. It’s a way we can shove karma right down that asshole’s throat.”
He chuckled. Bella was a big believer in karma, always finding comfort in the concept that people who do wrong will get theirs in the end.
What the hell?
Charley might actually be the perfect companion for him. Drinking and fucking it off didn’t appear to be options.
Charley was always a lot of fun, with an off-color sense of humor that matched his and an easy laugh. Maybe commiserating with an old friend would do the trick. They could bitch and moan about their shitty weeks together.
“Fine. I’ll take Charley to the wedding.”
Bella squealed loudly. “Seriously? Oh my God. You are the best brother on the planet. The two of you will have a blast, I promise.”
A blast seemed well beyond his reach.
At this point, he’d settle for merely tolerable.
Chapter Two
“Who has the greatest best friend on the planet?”
Charley lowered the wine bottle she was chugging from as Bella emerged from the bedroom of her hotel suite.
“Jimmy Fallon.”
“What?”
The answer seemed pretty obvious to Charley. “Um, JT. Who wouldn’t want Justin Timberlake as their best friend?”
Bella rolled her eyes. “Guess again.”
She had at least three more smart-ass answers in the can, but she was in no mood to play games. “I give up. Who?”
“You, you idiot. I just landed you a date for the wedding. A stellar date.”
She shook her head. “No. Fuuuuuck no. I’ve been single all of twenty-four hours. I’m going to need a lot more cheese, wine, and time before I even consider going out with someone else.”
“It’s with Alex.”
Charley froze for a second, certain she’d heard Bella wrong. Then she started going through the list of Alexes she knew who were invited to the wedding. She could only come up with one and there was no way…
“Alex who?” she asked, forcing her so-called best friend to confirm her fears.
Bella gave her an exasperated look. “My brother, of course. Who else would I be talking about?”
“Alex has more sense than—”
Ah.
The pieces fell into place.
“What did you tell him?” Charley asked.
Bella shrugged. A sure sign that her best friend had told her brother all about the most humiliating thing that had ever happened to her. “I just said that your date fell through.”
“You go to hell for lying, Bells.”
“What does it matter what I told him. The fact is he wants to take you to the wedding.”
Want was definitely the wrong word.
If she knew Bella—and she did—she knew her friend wouldn’t take no for an answer. So what she’d set up for her was a pity date with a reluctant suitor.
“Call him back. Let him off the hook.”
Bella shook her head. “No.”
“There’s no way I’m going to the wedding with Alex. I know you forced him to take me.”
Bella crossed her arms, a sure indicator she wasn’t going to give in. “Charlotte,” she said in the same tone Charley’s mother used whenever she said or did something annoying.
“I’m going by Charley again.”
Bella smiled, as if she’d just turned some miraculous corner.
She hadn’t.
Charley just couldn’t stand to hear her own God-given name anymore because of…him.
Ben Jerome, the world’s biggest dickhead.
It had been Ben’s suggestion that everyone start calling her Charlotte, insisting Charley was a childish nickname and no one would view her as an adult if she kept answering to it.
She could see now it was just another quiet, insidious way he’d tried to mold her into what he wanted her to be rather than accepting her for who she was.
Bella had tried to point all those things out to her the last few months—from her new feminine attire to selling her beloved, beat-up pickup truck to dumping her nickname—but Charley had refused to acknowledge any of it, foolishly believing that true love took work and compromise.
What she’d failed to see until the veil was pulled away last night was that she was the one bending over backwards to accommodate him, while Ben hadn’t changed one single thing for her.
Cheating, son of a bitch, motherfucker.
Bella came over to the couch and sat down next to Charley. She reached for the wine bottle and took a big swig. “Welcome back, Charley.”
Charley leaned over and put her head on her best friend’s shoulder, fighting the urge to cry.
She never cried.
Like neeeeever, but there was a fat lump in her throat right now that told her she was in danger.
Bella wrapped her arm around her shoulders and squeezed comfortingly. Charley had alway
s been more at home in a big group of guys than with girls.
Bella was the one exception. She always had been. She’d been her best friend forever—something Charley chalked up to an opposites-attract kind of thing. Bella was uber-girlie, while she was hardcore tomboy, and yet it worked.
“Vegas is going to suck.”
Bella sighed. “No, it’s not. You do realize people come here for more than just the tacky chapels and eloping.”
“I know, but…I really thought…”
“What are you most upset about, Charley? Losing Ben or finding out he was cheating on you?”
Until Bella asked the question, Charley had never considered that what she was calling a broken heart might actually be wounded pride and disappointment. Ben had made a fool of her, and feeling stupid pissed her off.
“He was my first boyfriend. My first…my only…”
Her confession explained nothing.
Or maybe everything.
“I know. And I know how much you always wanted to date—in high school and college.”
“Guys never looked at me like a girl they’d ask out. I was always the confidante or another freaking buddy. Ben…liked me. At least at the beginning. I think.”
Bella tightened her arm around Charley, no small feat considering Charley had her by a good six inches. Bella was petite and curvy, while Charley was all long limbs and sharp angles. “He did like you. In all fairness to him, I think he even loved you. But it boils down to this—you challenged him. Beverly never will. And because he’s shallow and selfish and lazy, he’s chosen the path of least resistance. You deserve better than that. You deserve someone who sees all the things I see—how funny, smart, sensitive, spontaneous, and real you are.”
“I haven’t been very real lately.”
Somehow, slowly, over the past year or so, Ben had drawn her away from her friends and into his circle.
Instead of chugging beer at a sports bar while watching hockey on the big screen, her evenings had turned to cocktail parties and wine tastings, discussing politics, as Ben schmoozed his way into a partnership at the accounting firm.
And instead of dropping everything to go on a long hike or a spontaneous road trip just because it was a sunny spring day, their lives had suddenly become planned down to the second, all impulsiveness snuffed out in favor of routine.
Charley sucked at routine.
“You made a rookie mistake, Charley. You thought changing would make Ben love you. That’s something girls have been doing since the beginning of time. And if we’re being really honest, you decided making those changes would be easier than looking for someone better suited to you.”
Bella had a knack for calling things as she saw them.
It was why Charley loved her so much.
Except for now. When she preferred being pissed off and blaming Ben for everything rather than forcing herself to do some serious introspection.
Bella wasn’t wrong, but Charley was in too much of a mood to tell her so.
Of course, Bella didn’t need those words.
Smug woman knew she was right.
“So now, you have experience under your belt. It’s time to find a man who will love you for you, and if he can’t, instead of changing yourself, you’ll kick him to the curb and move on to the next one.”
“Yeah. Right. Because I have a line of guys just waiting to ask me out.” Charley meant that sarcastically, but hearing it out loud, she realized she just sounded pathetic.
“You have a date tomorrow night.”
She scoffed. “That doesn’t count.”
“Make it count.”
Bella’s comment took her aback, and she struggled to understand her best friend’s intentions. “Are you pimping me out to your brother or your brother out to me?”
Bella laughed loudly. “God. This is what I’m talking about, Charley. No one ever has to guess where they stand with you. You have a question or a thought, you just say it. I wish I had half of your boldness.”
It was the first time Bella had ever confessed to wishing she were like Charley.
Truth was Bella was the cool girl in school, the one every other female in their class tried to emulate—except Charley, of course.
Charley could never pull off Bella’s kind of cool and never wanted to. It required too much time in front of a mirror or at the mall.
“You’re bold,” Charley said, not sure how else to respond.
She actually wouldn’t call Bella bold as much as…well…spoiled but in a way that wasn’t annoying, if that was even a thing.
“You and Alex have always been great friends. I’ve never admitted it, but sometimes I was jealous of your relationship. The two of you had a lot more in common than we do. There were times when I thought he would have preferred you as a little sister.”
She shook her head. “Trust me. He never thought of me as a sister.”
Bella’s brow creased and Charley knew Bella had misinterpreted her comment, so she clarified. “A kid brother, maybe. But never a sister.”
Bella laughed.
“You were good for him. You kept him humble. Always kicking his ass at hockey and punching him on the arm whenever he said something douche-y.”
“It didn’t make him less douche-y.”
Alex and Charley had been hockey teammates for most of their childhood, starting way back with 8U.
Long enough that he and the other guys forgot she was a girl. That meant she was privy to way too much of their locker room chatter.
“True,” Bella said, giggling.
Alex had been a cocky manwhore in high school and given the fact Charley had never seen him pictured with the same woman in the tabloids, it didn’t look like that fact had changed.
Neither had his taste in women.
He tended to go for the Barbie doll type, with long blonde hair, huge tits, and legs that stretched forever.
Brains optional.
“Has the guy ever had a girlfriend?”
Bella shook her head. “No, but his career doesn’t exactly lend itself to seriously dating someone, does it? I mean, he’s on the road with the team twenty-four weeks of the year, not counting playoffs and preseason and all the charity stuff he does.”
“Spoken like the perfect enabling sister.”
She gave Charley a shit-eating grin but didn’t deny it. “I’ve accepted the fact that Alex will never get married. I’m pretty sure he’ll never even have a long-term relationship. Bachelorhood is his shtick and he’s devoted to that and that alone. He told me once he’d never even have a dog because he didn’t want that kind of commitment. A dog! Seriously? Who doesn’t love dogs?”
Bella would set up a cot in the back of the SPCA and move in if they’d let her.
“We couldn’t get one because Ben was allergic.” Though now that Charley was single again…the idea of adopting a dog sounded very appealing.
Bella gave Charley a look that said that should have been her first red flag in regards to Ben.
“Besides, you and I both know, tomorrow isn’t a real date,” Bella said. “It’s called payback. Can you imagine Ben’s face when you walk in with Alex?”
Charley could.
And she liked it.
But real date or not, going to the wedding with Alex would break a streak she was secretly proud of.
Because she figured she was the only girl in high school who hadn’t fallen under Alex’s spell. The rest had squandered countless hours—and sheets of paper writing Mrs. Alex Stone in hearts—either dreaming of him, dating him, sleeping with him, or crying over him because he didn’t invite them to prom.
“You know, I’ve done a lot of things in my life that I’m proud of—graduating top of my class at Northwestern, publishing my first book, buying a new car with cash, but top of that list—without a doubt—is the fact that I never made a jackass of myself over your hot brother.”
Bella crinkled her nose. “You think he’s hot?”
Charley rolled her
eyes and ignored her friend’s question.
Any woman with eyes knew Alex was sex-on-a stick hot, but that didn’t mean Charley was going to add her notch to his bedpost. “It’s bad enough I let Ben make a fool of me.”
Bella sobered. “Aw, babe. He fooled everybody. Don’t kick yourself about that for a second longer.”
“To be honest, I think I’d be smarter to take a break from dating for a little while. I need to take a long, hard look at myself, figure out who I am, and how I can make sure I never let another guy try to change me into his version of ideal. I really miss my pickup truck.”
Bella reached over for a piece of Charley’s salami.
Charley slapped her hand away.
“That’s a smart thing to do, although, honestly, I think you already know who you are.”
Charley shrugged. “Maybe so, but I should probably wait until Ben gets the rest of his shit out of my apartment at least.”
“You can kick start your new life tomorrow with Alex…as friends,” Bella quickly added for clarification. “So you can still hold your head up high about not getting trapped in his sex web. Besides, the poor guy is taking the loss hard. I’m counting on you to help him.”
Charley appreciated her friend’s attempts at cheering her up, even if they were misguided. “You’re not going to let me or Alex off the hook, are you?”
“Nope. I consider my actions a public service. You and Alex are both down in the dumps. Better you commiserate alone in some quiet corner of the reception crying in your beer together rather than bring us all down. I don’t want to spend my night cheering you both up. It’s Vegas, baby. And I plan on getting drunk and dancing my ass off.”
Charley snorted at that, perfectly aware the sound wasn’t very ladylike. Ben used to give her shit for it.
God, how had she let herself become such a pushover?
Never again.
Those days were over.
Charley raised her right hand, in true I-swear-before-the-court style, as she considered her perfect man. “Hear me now. I will not marry a guy who doesn’t love me for myself, who hates the way I snort, who thinks my nickname is silly, who can’t hold his liquor, who is offended by my cursing, who won’t fly to Vegas on a moment’s notice to elope, who doesn’t love hockey as much as me…and who refuses to adopt a dog, allergies or not.”