Page 37 of Never Kiss and Tell

“Excuse me?” she snaps, taken aback.

“Isn’t it suspicious that you worked as a waitress up until you met him? You got pregnant with Tom and he died a year later, making you a very rich woman. Not to mention how healthy he was and you ordering them not to complete an autopsy.”

“What are you getting at?” she grits, lowering her voice.

“I’m telling you to leave Andi alone if you enjoy your life as it is. If she sheds another tear, I will make sure my stepfather goes for the full penalty of the law.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would.” I take a step back from her, needing some space from her perfume. “Oh, and her name’s Andi.”

Sarah eyes me, setting her champagne glass down, the pink lipstick mark on the brim catching my eye.

“What does you mother think, you shacking up with Andi’s brother?” She scoffs. “You didn’t think anyone would notice the tension between you two?”

“What my mother thinks is irrelevant. Marcus owes me a favor. Wouldn’t it piss you off if I got you locked up for free?”

“Bailey?”

I look over Sarah’s shoulder to see Andi standing in the doorway that leads back to the dressing rooms. She’s still in her dress, but most of her makeup is gone. Cried off.

“I think it’s time for you to leave, Sarah.”

Sarah looks back at Andi and Kendra, then at me. Silently, she grabs her overly expensive Louis Vuitton bag, purses her lips, and struts toward the door.

“Bitch,” she murmurs as she passes.

“Cunt.”

“I can’t believe you said that to her!” Andi exclaims with a laugh. After Kendra calmed her down, she came back from the dressing room to find a missing Sarah. I explained what happened and I don’t know that I’ve seen Andi that happy in a long time.

The rest of the appointment had gone well. Andi’s dress fit perfectly, despite what Mommy Dearest had to say, and we were even able to bring it home. It’s currently hung in the hallway closet of my rented house, next to mine, to avoid Tom seeing it at home.

Kendra went to do whatever Kendras do in their spare time and Andi and I came back to the house to make the centerpieces for her tables. Faux white flowers, wrapped with twine and centered in mason jars with small twinkling lights. Thirty of them.

“I just can’t stand that she said that to you. Who does she think she is?” I huff, tying a piece of twine too tightand having to start over. “I don’t understand how anyone that cruel can raise a man as nice as Tom.”

“Kind of like how people so nice raised a girl as horrible as Priscilla.”

That piques my curiosity. “Why do you say that?”

“Well,” Andi shrugs. “For starters, Priscilla is manipulative. She can play Charlie like a fiddle and he lets her because she’s familiar to him.”

“You mentioned he did time in jail because of her?”

I know I’m being nosy, but I’ve been dying to know just what kind of girl could land Charlie Coulter in jail. He’s made it perfectly clear: he has sex — not relationships. The man is a walking one-night stand.

Andi narrows her eyes at the flowers of mine she’s rearranging. I told you I’m not good at décor.

“She cheated with some rich kid. Charlie caught them, obviously, because it was in his bed. He beat his ass and spent a weekend in jail. He never told me who it was.”

In his bed. Been there, suffered through that. My mouth fills with saliva, a familiar nausea boiling in my stomach.

I clear my throat. “And did anything else come of it?”

Andi shakes her head. “The guy dropped the charges because Dad threatened to sue everyone for trespassing. We were at Mom’s funeral when it happened.” She tosses the flowers back in her lap. “What goes through your head to make you do something like that to someone you supposedly love?”

While we were at his mom’s funeral. The funeral he already blames himself for. My eyes burn, my heart achingfor Charlie.

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