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I jab at Jenson’s number and bring the phone to my ear. He answers almost immediately.
“Jodie is going to see this.”
Silence from his end.He didn’t even think of that.
“Probably,” he admits.
“Jenson, I can’t…she wasn’t supposed to know about any of this…”
What I don’t say is,It’ll break her heart. It’ll kill her to think I’ve gotten engaged, kept a secret from her, and it’ll kill her to find out I’m lying to every person from Maine to New York for money.
“This wasn’t part of the plan.”
In the beat of quiet, I picture him clenching and unclenching his jaw. “I’m sorry, Mel. It has to be done. No one would believe us if the engagement wasn’t announced in the papers, and when Roy offered the charity event as a possibility, I couldn’t turn him down.”
Now he’s the one leaving the truth out of it.I couldn’t say no because I need him to give me the company. It’s the only thing that matters.
Not me. Not even Jodie, who Jenson claims to care about. Funny way of showing it.
“So it’s all business, then?” I bite out. “I have to call Jodie and do damage control myself.”
He sounds stressed as he offers, “Do you want me to? Explain to her, I mean?”
“Explain what? That we started seeing each other again and I’ve been lying to her about it?” Iknowhe can hear the hurt in my voice. Iknowhe knows he messed up.
But he’s not backing down. “We’re coming down to the line here, Mel. We both need to make sacrifices. If it makes things easier, I can toss in another hundred grand.”
He makes the offer so casually that all at once, I feel worthless. Like someone he can buy, not someone he cares about.
“Fine.” I don’t acknowledge the money or thank him. There’s no use—he’s made it clear that this is happening whether he ran it by me or not.
And the articles are already out. Sooner or later, Jodie will see this. I can probably expect a call from her tonight, even.
“I’ll see you Monday,” I bite out, pulling the phone away and tapping the red “end call” button quickly.
I don’t want to hear any more logic from Jenson, as if that’s all life is to him—logical. A series of decisions to be made in order to get ahead, no matter who you hurt or disregard along the way.
As reality sets in, I start to wonder once again what happened to the good man I dated my senior year. The one who brought a handful of baby bunnies to a wildlife rehab center when their nest was exposed, the one who helped Jodie make buttermilk biscuits, and walked his elderly neighbor’s dog for free.
Wherever he is, he’s not in Boston. And he’s not the man I’m engaged to, fake or not.
Chapter20
Jenson
I’m pacing again. This is a throwback to when Mel stepped back into my life a month ago. A pulsing mess of anxiety, frustration, and anger.
But not at her. At myself.
You’re messing it all up again.
Strange that I carry so much guilt when Mel is the one who left Harwinton a decade ago. For good reason, I know now, but still.
“Does it fit?”
She doesn’t answer, but the bedroom door opens. Add that to the list of things rattling around in my brain like little mindfucks—Mel Atkinson in my bedroom. In my adult bedroom, only feet away from my king-sized bed, with weeks of fantasies trapped away in the back of my mind…the things I want to do to her…
But the look she gives me makes it clear that Mel wouldn’t let me touch her with a ten foot pole at this point. Especially not in that dress.
