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“Come with you?” she whispers as sternly as possible. “I should call the police.”
“I am helping him with his stalker,” I mouth.
Her face boomerangs.
“Are you talking abouther?” she asks and points.
I nod.
“Yeah, her,” I whisper. “I do not love Adrianne.”
“No one does,” mutters Gretchen. “I wish someone would do something about her.”
She taps her lips with her fingers. “I better be quiet,” she mouths.
I grabbed her pad and jot down;I just said I was his fiancé.Gretchen reads it and high-fives me. I wad up the note and discarded it. Holding my ringed finger, I bent backward to read her nameplate.
“Perfect,” she says, entirely onboard.
“See you, Gretchen,” I say and then mouth. “My name is Brynne. I am in a deal with Jack.”
“Ohhh,” Gretchen responds, forming an exaggerated O with her mouth. “Okay, thanks.”
I scurry from the office so I can make a clean getaway. I Uber back to Malibu, meeting Todd at the Point Zuma Café, where I grab my special salad. We sit outside on the streetside tables in the waning sun while I eat.
“Can I buy you food?” I asked cheerfully, pulling out the cash I owed him for the speedy delivery.
He pushes my hand away.
“I’ll give you a ride,” he says somberly. “You don’t have to pay me to do things for you.”
“This is for serving Jack with papers. You’re doing me a big favor, and besides, you’re my friend. I want to spend time with you,” I say. “Is everything okay?”
But I know what this is about. Todd likes me – but not in the way that I like him. I didn’t mean to lead him on, but I knew that was probably happening anyway. I should have gotten someone else to help me - I did what I did because it was convenient – which was selfish. And now I have hurt him.
“What’s going on with you and that dude?” he asks, his face drawn.
“Nothing,” I insist swiftly. “His name is Jack, and I just met him when I was chained to the porch.”
“So, he saw you in the buff?” Todd is just now realizing what that means.
“What did you think would happen when you helped me out?” I ask. “I had to grandstand to get attention and buy time. I didn’t know what else to do. And you were behind me.”
“That’s because I would do anything for you,” he says in a tone that breaks my heart. “I thought you knew that. Come on, Brynne, he’s old enough to be your father. That’s like deviant behavior.”
But the fact that he handcuffed me to the inn was a totally normal thing to do?
“Old enough to be my babysitter, maybe,” I joke.
As I try to give Todd my complete attention, I mentally replay myself kissing Jack Houston not twenty minutes ago.
“That’s even weirder,” he says sternly.
“He owns the inn, Todd,” I say. “The only thing I want from him is not to demolish it and let me have it back some way.”
“Saving the inn was a noble cause,” he says. “But I think it’s time for you to let it go. Find a new Calypso Inn. What happened to his wheels?”
“I gave the car back, and no, I’m not letting the inn go without a fight,” I say.
