Page 40 of Charlie and Her Sweet Escape

---

I just talked to Sheriff Savage.

Haydn

Do you really call your father-in-law Sheriff Savage?

Rosie

I want you to imagine sitting across from him at dinner while he’s wearing his uniform, staring at you sternly, and addressing him casually as Ken.

Jules

If anyone could do it, it’s you, Rosie.

Rosie

Even I don’t have the audacity.

Rosie

He’s going to hold Bennett and Greg for a few hours until they both cool off.

Haydn

What did Greg get taken in for?

Jules

Being a pain in the butt.

Haydn

That’s an arrestable offense?

Jules

It is in a small town.

Haydn

Has Bennett ever punched someone before?

Rosie

No.

Jules

Interesting.

Spending the evening in a jail cell was not how I’d pictured my wedding night with Charlie. To be fair, I hadn’t pictured it much at all—that was a dangerous slope I wasn’t ready to go down.

Sheriff Savage had put Greg and me in two separate holding cells. I sat on the dingy cement floor, my back against the wall, my suit coat, vest, and bow tie draped across my knees. It smelled like urine and bleach, and there were a couple of questionable stains on the chair.

I flexed my sore knuckles. Even now, hours later, when I thought about the terrible things Greg had said to Charlie—and the resigned look on her face, like she believed everything he’d said, like she’d heard him say it all before—I wanted to break through this wall and whale on him again.

Any reservations I might have had about marrying Charlie were completely gone. I’d do it again, just to be a barrier between her and Greg.

Metal screeching against metal sounded down the hallway, followed by the rumbles of a conversation that was too low to hear clearly.

---