Page 216 of The Charlie Method

“Yes, she has.”

“Dad flipped out when I told him.”

“Yes, he did.”

“So what do I do?”

The silence on the other end of the line is loud.

“I know,” I grumble. “It’s a shitty move.”

“Very much so,” she says wryly.

Frustration seizes my throat. “I get that. But it’s exactly the kind of work I want to do. I can’t just wait around for the next opportunity. This is right in front of me.”

“Will, you can’t take that job. It would be terrible for your father’s image. Do you realize what it would look like? His own son working for the opposition? It would tear him apart.”

I gnaw on the inside of my cheek. I knew she’d say something like that. But hearing it still makes my chest tighten.

“Fuck his image, Kels. I’m tired of living my life worrying about what it looks like for him. This is my career. My life.”

“I know, honey,” she says. “But you’ve worked so hard to get to where you are, and I just worry that taking this job will make everything more difficult. Not only for him but foryou. The media machine will spin this, and it won’t be kind. It’ll become a mess you don’t need.”

“I can handle the media. And I don’t care what they write about me.”

“Listen to me, Will. Sometimes, the right job isn’t the one that comes first. It’s the one that fits with who you are. And I don’t think this is it.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Whatever you decide, though, I’ll support you.”

Will she? Because it sounds like this is one of those rare times when she’s firmly siding with my father.

But maybe that’s telling. Maybe it’s a sign that this job is not the way to go.

After we hang up, I’m no closer to figuring out what the hell to do. Her advice lingers in the back of my mind, but I hate that a part of me feels obligated to consider my dad’s image in all this.

When I get home, I hear Beckett’s voice before I even open the door.

“Yo, Larsen!” he calls out as soon as I walk in. “Got news.”

I toss my jacket on the hook in the front hall. “What kind of news?”

He grins from his perch on the couch, looking way too excited for someone whose team got knocked out in the semi-finals last night.

I’m still pissed about that. The game had been tied nearly the entire time. We could’ve taken that shit to overtime. Instead, Nazzy took the stupidest penalty known to man, giving Michigan State a power play thirty seconds before the last buzzer. They scored, and we lost. The end.

Certainly not the greatest way to end an otherwise flawless season, but I also can’t complain, considering we won the championship last year. You can’t win ’em all, right?

“I got a job offer,” Beckett reveals.

“Seriously? That’s great, man. Where?”

“Sydney.”

“No shit?”

“Yeah. Ocean conservation work.” He leans forward on his forearms, looking like a kid who just found out he’s going to Disney World. “But that’s not the best part. I talked to Charlie. She came by to chill for a bit when you were out with Colson.”

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