Page 32 of Charlie and Her Sweet Escape
“Rosie. It’s been a long day, and it’s not even half over.” I let out a huff of frustration. “Spell. It. Out.”
She held up a hand like a balance scale. “Charlie needs to get married.” Then her other hand. “And I have youon recordsaying you’d do anything for her.” She then smooshed her hands together in a way that made my stomach tense. “See what I’m saying here?”
Yeah, I did. The words sat between us like sudden knowledge of an unexpected storm when we were far out at sea. Like I needed to make the decision to face the storm or turn back. “You want me and Charlie to get married?”
“Yes!” she squealed. “Isn’t it perfect?”
“And this wasJules’sidea?”
“Sure was!”
“So if I call him right now, he’ll stand by this being the best course of action.”
“Um,” she hedged, looking out the window. “Technically he doesn’t think it’s ethical or smart, but he’s the one who joked that finding a new husband would solve all her problems.”
“And does Charlie think his joke is a feasible plan?”
Rosie picked at a corner of her pink nail polish.
“She knows you’re proposing this tome—” She snorted at the wordpropose, and I cut a glare at her. “—right?” I asked, eventhough I already knew the answer. Even though I knew my sister better than almost anyone. But hope is the thing with feathers, or whatever that Emily Dickinson poem on Mrs. Mabel’s bumper sticker said. My hope had way too many feathers right now.
“She doesn’t know in an intellectual sense.”
“Does she know inanysense?”
“You two have amazing chemistry, Ben. Viewers will love it. They already have the B-roll of you doing the initial interview, and you’re so much better than Greg. They’re getting an upgrade. Charlie will get to live her dream and earn enough money to help her mom pay off all her debt. And you’ll finally get over Lily and see that the perfect woman for you has been right in front of you all along. Plus, Charlie and I will besisters!”
I gripped the steering wheel, wishing we weren’t pulling up to my townhouse already. Wishing that Rosie had gone with Charlie in her car, and this conversation had never happened. Charlie? The perfect woman for me? I mean, she was a really cool girl. She was funny and cute and all my favorite scents combined. She deserved way better than that jerk Greg.
But she was my little sister’s best friend. The girl I teased about ab sketches and who had a killer swing on the softball field. If she wore pigtails, I would definitely tug them.
“I’m over Lily,” I said, pulling into my parking spot.
“That’s the part you’re going to focus on?”
“Well, I am.” But seriously. First Mrs. Mabel, now Rosie. What vibes was I giving off that made everyone think I had a thing for Charlie? DidCharliethink I had a thing for her too? “Is all of this so you can be officially related to your best friend?” I asked at the sudden realization.
“Some of it. But, like, a very small part. Hardly worth even mentioning.”
“Why’d you mention it, then?”
She pushed her lips out like I’d stumped her, then pointed out my window. “Look at her, Ben!”
I watched Charlie get out of her car and trudge toward my front door. Her shoulders were slumped, and her bun had drooped to her shoulders.
Every part of me—on the soul-deep level ofneedingto help people, especially people I loved who’d been dealt a crappy hand and were so visibly struggling—longed to fix this for her. But marriage was so extreme. Could I really marry Charlie, just to help her?
She leaned against the railing of my townhouse stairs, her back to us, and her entire body shuddered as she released a long exhale.
Greg had better hope he saw me before I saw him, and was wise enough to turn in the other direction. Because any wisdom I might have had, that I’d earned from long, hard years of helping raise my little sister, from the heartbreak of losing my parents, from working on and learning to respect the ocean—wisdom that should keep me from starting fights and going on television and proposing to my sister’s best friend … All that wisdom was giving me the double bird as it backed far, far away.
If we won, I could pay for the repairs I needed for my shop.
And it would be the adventure of a lifetime.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, hard. But the urge to help Charlie, by any means necessary, regardless of any other incentive, took solid root. “Jules is going to freak out if she agrees to this.”
Rosie’s grin widened. “Bennett, that’s the best part.”
