Page 47 of The Breakup

Chapter 10

“I’ll just be a minute,” I told Bella. “I’ll grab Camp and be right back.” I didn’t want her coming into my mom’s house and having my sister grill her. I knew how Charlie could be, and Bella didn’t have the armor to fend off barbs from my bitchy sister.

She gave me a smile. “Sure.”

We had barely slept the night before. Maybe two hours this morning. She looked tired, her face free of makeup, shadows under her eyes. But she didn’t seem upset. If anything, she exuded a sense of peace and calm. Like she knew she’d made the right decision even if her entire world had exploded. I reached out and tweaked her nose. “Be right back, pretty girl.”

Bella and I had talked easily in the middle of the night for hours, until the fire died down and the sun had risen. She wasn’t the entitled rich girl I had assumed she was. She wasn’t even the superficial material girl she seemed like she could be. She was exactly what I had thought she was—sweet and kind. But she was also intelligent and thoughtful and passionate.

Man, I had fucked up. I had thought I could just have sex with her and be done with it. Things were getting way too complicated already and it had only been a day.

I went inside my mom’s house and spotted my son in his high chair. “Hey, buddy!”

He gave me a grin, his mouth smeared in oatmeal.

“Hey,” I said to my sister, who looked tired. “Where’s Mom?”

“Church. It’s Sunday.”

I lifted Camp up and hugged him to me. There was just something about his baby smell and the weight of him in my arms that made life worth living. He was awesome. I started pacing the kitchen, just so I could bounce him up and down and see him smile. “I’m taking Camp for the day.”

“Where are you going?” Charlie sipped her coffee, her hair sticking up.

“The camp. I’m staying there with Bella.”

Charlie choked on her coffee. “Dude, are you insane?” she squawked at me. “There is a missing person’s report out on that girl! Her dad is a fricking billionaire and her fiancé is a lawyer.”

I couldn’t exactly argue that I wasn’t being stupid. Because I was. “Why the hell would they file a missing person’s report? I didn’t kidnap her. She texted me asking me to pick her up. So I did.”

“And you hid her in the woods and screwed her.” Charlie rubbed her temples. “Oh my God. I’m going to have a father and a brother in prison and another one in rehab. This is just great.”

That annoyed me. I stopped pacing. “I didn’t do anything illegal. And neither did she. She’s an adult. Walking out on your wedding isn’t a crime. Now get me some of your clothes for her to wear. All she has is a wedding dress.”

“I think that makes me an accessory.”

“To what? What crime did Bella commit? Failure to yield to a dickhead? Aggravated assault on a wedding veil? Illegal possession of crystals?”

This was all fucking ludicrous.

Despite herself, Charlie cracked a smile. “You’re having a lot of fun with those, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” I shrugged. “I helped a friend if that’s what you want to call it. Bella’s family is out of control if they’ve involved the cops. This is all an overblown misunderstanding.”

There was a knock on the door. We both froze. I don’t know why. But given what Charlie had just told me my first reaction was that it was danger.

“What do we do?” Charlie whispered. She started to walk backward like she could disappear down the hallway.

“Answer it,” I told her. “Bella is in the car. We have to get rid of whoever it is.” Bella was my concern. I wasn’t worried about me.

“I hope it’s a guy cop,” she murmured. “I can get them to do what I want.”

And she thought the men in our family were the fucked-up ones? I rolled my eyes as she fluffed her chest by yanking on her bra straps.

But when she pulled the door open, me hanging back in the kitchen, I saw it was Bella.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she said. “But it’s very hot in the car. Can I come inside and get a glass of water?”

“Sure,” Charlie said, her voice flat. She opened the door wide, turned, and left Bella standing in the doorway.

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