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“I didn’t have to work. Well, not that much. Just check in with the current residents and confirm future bookings. Nothing that would have taken the amount of time she was with you for.”
Blaire looked between us. “So, Elle, what did you and our very own Pinocchio talk about?”
“Um.” I shuffled in my seat. “It’s personal?”
“You’ll have to do better than that to get it past Blaire,” Alex said.
I figured.
“Okay, fine. We’ve already kind of talked,” I said, motioning to Theo. “And you obviously know something.” I motioned to Blaire. “She came over and asked me if I like Theo. I said sure, he’s a great guy, and tried to avoid going further because, well, it’s not my place to have any kind of talk with her about you dating.” I glanced at Theo, then looked at Blaire. “Then she told me she heard you, Blaire, tell Alex that you thought the reason I wouldn’t tell Theo I… potentially have feelings for him is because of her.”
“Wait, what?” Blaire balked.
“Whoa, hold on,” Theo said. “That’s what she told you?”
I nodded.
“No, girl, I didn’t say that. I told Alex I thought Theo wasn’t telling you he potentially had feelings for you because of Ari. Because of obvious reasons.”
“That’s what she told me,” Theo said slowly. “That she overheard you say that.”
“Then why would she tell me it the other way around?”
Alex grinned. “Because she’s trying to play you off. Let me guess: she saw something she shouldn’t have.”
“She might have seen us after I kissed her,” Theo said vaguely.
I blushed.
God, I felt like I was playing Truth or Dare.
“She gave me permission to kiss Elle, like she was my mother.” He fought back a laugh.
“Oh, my God. She did the same to me!” I swatted his arm. “This is ridiculous.”
“I agree,” Blaire said, picking up her glass. “But then you already know what I think about the two of you.”
“Blaire,” Alex said in a low voice.
“Oh, I know! Why doesn’t Ari come and sleep over tonight? Then you can sort it out.” She winked at me.
“Blaire,” Alex repeated. “You cannot force two people to be together just because it’s what you want.”
“I know, but I can try.”
I covered my eyes with my hand and laughed. “We’ve barely known each other two weeks, and he didn’t even like me for one of those.”
“I bet he wanted to screw—”
Alex didn’t even bother saying her name this time. He just leaned over and covered her mouth with his hand. “Problem solved.”
Theo laughed and nudged me under the table. “She’s hardly lying.”
I blushed again.
“Ah-ha!” Blaire said, triumphantly removing Alex’s hand from her mouth. “I knew it. We’ll take Ari tonight and—”
“For someone who told me he never gets a break, that’s the second time in a week someone has had Ari overnight,” I teased Theo.
“She’s only doing it because she thinks I need to get laid,” he muttered.
“You do need to,” Blaire shot back.
“I think it’s time to pay and go,” Alex said, raising his hand for Charity to get us the check. “With Adalyn,” he added. “Only Adalyn.”
Blaire pouted, but she didn’t say anything else.
Now was the moment to say that I thought I’d stay, but I didn’t.
I kept it to myself, because for now, I just wanted to breathe.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – ELLE
Three Weeks Later
“If your phone rings one more time, I’m going to throw it into the ocean.”
“Hey,” I said, taking the phone from Theo with my dirty hands. “You’re the one who said you weren’t going to plant on these seedlings.”
“No, because I’m the one who had to buy seventy-five pots from the bloody garden center,” he muttered.
Emily’s name was on the screen, and I rolled my eyes at him before I answered. “Hello?”
“Hello? Hello? I’ve called you fifteen times! Bethany a thousand! Not to mention Ben and your agent and your publicist!” she shrieked. “Nobody can get hold of you!”
“Okay, stop yelling,” I said, dusting my hand off on my bare thigh and walking into Theo’s house with both him and Ari staring after me. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
“What’s happened? They’ve found that rotten, sleazy, no good sonofabitch!”
I froze, a chill going over my entire body. “What?”
“They found him. He went into Canada, took out a shit ton of the money, and came back into the US. He’s been hiding in a place in Vermont under a fake name.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. Apparently, your video freaked him out and he went into major hiding in the hope he could get away with it. He might have done if you hadn’t hired Noelle. It meant the cops could bring in the editor and make her tell the truth.”
My legs buckled beneath me, but I was thankfully in front of the sofa, and that was what I collapsed onto. “I can’t believe they found him, Em.”
