Losing Mr. Right

by Natalie Charles

  I’d never seen Vaughan lose her temper before, and I was shaken. Then I recalled my nana accusing Vaughan of pushing her off the ladder. I now knew it was entirely possible. “How dare you threaten me?”

  I stood so that we were face-to-face, fuming dangerously. “What’s the problem, Vaughan? Does this cost you business?”

  She growled and pushed me back. My spine hit the countertop and a burst of pain sparked through me. “You have no idea who you’re messing with.”

  “Oh, now the tough talk.” I tried not to wince as I righted myself again. “It’s over. There’s no one you can call. I’m going to do everything I can to shut this down.”

  “You idiot,” she spat. “Did it not occur to you that this building is useless as an inn? If I go out of business, your grandmother will lose everything.”

  Sorelle entered the room then and stood by my side. “Don’t listen to her,” she said. “The inns in this town are plenty busy.”

  “Who’s going to send her those fat monthly rent checks? They buy a lot of groceries.” Vaughan paused to watch me absorb her words. “You want to drive me out? I’m keeping your grandmother’s house heated.”

  I admit, it shook me. I’d thought I was doing the right thing by my nana, but was I actually harming her? Would Nana be better off if Vaughan continued to run her business her way? “Nana wants you out,” I said, but questioned to what extent my grandmother had thought it all through.

  Vaughan scoffed. “You think I want to do things this way? I’m trying to stay afloat. You think I don’t want … to run my business differently?” I sensed desperation in her voice and it was unsettling. “I’ve tried everything I could to rent these rooms. You were at the happy hour, remember? I try community events, I take out ads… . Nothing works.”

  I was uneasy on my own feet, worried that my ego was getting the best of me in my little revenge plan. “But you’re dragging my family down. I won’t allow it.”

  “Always so high and mighty.” She snorted and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “You don’t know the first thing about this. About anything.”

  We were speaking in angry whispers, and in the background I heard the Bible group laughing at a story Father MacGovern was telling. Maybe I was being naive, but I was certain that if Vaughan were gone, we’d figure out the rest. Nana could sell the inn and live comfortably off the proceeds for the rest of her life. I would see to it that she was protected.

  I looked Vaughan straight in her narrowing eyes. “I won’t stop until you’re gone. So tell me: What’s your plan to leave?”

  If looks could kill … Vaughan’s pupils dilated and shrank again and her jaw whitened at the hinges. Another round of laughter punctuated the heavy silence in the kitchen. Finally, she spoke. “I have some business to attend to.”

  “I asked you a question,” I hissed. “Don’t you dare leave this room.”

  She was the queen of dramatic exits, this one! But she stopped long enough to look back over her shoulder at me. “You’ve made a big mistake.”

  Sorelle wrapped her arm around my waist and pulled me against her side. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “Don’t listen to her.”

  Before I could reply, Brett entered the kitchen, saying, “It looks like rain—” He stopped when he saw Vaughan standing in front of him. “Hello.”

  Her back was to me when they confronted each other, but I heard her say, “Looks like I’m going to have to consider your offer.”

  Brett looked nervously from her to me. “Later,” he mouthed to Vaughan.

  Something was going on. “What are you talking about?” I asked. “What offer?”

  “It’s nothing,” he said quickly. But Vaughan turned.

  “Your boyfriend offered to buy me out of my lease. Isn’t that right, Brett?” Her tone was eerily saccharine. “You told me I should name my price. And I refused,” she added, looking at me. “But now I’m wondering if I should reconsider.”

  The information was coming too quickly. This didn’t make any sense. “Hold on. You were going to buy out Vaughan? How?”

  I felt dense, and from the expression on Vaughan’s face, she agreed. “Oh come on, Mindy. You mean he didn’t tell you he was doing this?”

  Brett’s mouth was open as he looked from me to Vaughan. He shifted on his feet. He looked so guilty that nausea set in. “Brett? What is this? Is this true?”

  He blinked once. “Yes.”

  “Why? How were you going to buy Vaughan out?”

  Vaughan spun toward me with pure contempt in her eyes. “With money. Lots and lots of it. But you know what?” She looked back to him. “On second thought, I’m not selling after all. I like it here.”

  I looked to Brett for an explanation, but his eyes were directed at the floor. “Can we have a minute alone?” he asked quietly.

  Vaughan left first, an ugly smirk on her face. Sorelle gave my arm a little squeeze before following her through the doorway. Then Brett and I were alone. Even the laughter in the sitting room had died down. I leaned my back against the counter but it was sore from where I’d hit my spine. “Talk.” I had nothing more to say.

  He stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Then he took a deep breath and lifted his head. “I have some money.”

  “Sounds that way.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Who are you?”

  His eyes looked sad, his shoulders lowered. “I’m me. Brett Hannigan. I’m a software designer and yes, I have some money in the bank. It’s not a big deal.”

  “How much are we talking about?”

  “I honestly don’t know. Millions. I have an accountant.”

  I kept staring at him. You’d think this would be good news. You’d think I’d swoon at the thought of dating a millionaire. But I felt nothing but shock that he’d kept so much from me—and for what reason? It was like he didn’t trust me at all. “That house you live in,” I said. “Is it yours?”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah.”

  “Oh my gosh.” I took a seat on one of the stools. My back hurt, and I could feel the bruise settling across my spine even if I couldn’t see it. Between my back and my heart, though, the pain in my chest was worse. “You’ve done nothing but lie to me. Do you realize this? I believed you.”

  It was more than that. I was foolish for having felt pity for Brett, for having thought that he was a free spirit, like Sorelle, who was cobbling together a living by walking people. I’d always thought there was something so pure about him. He’d made a fool out of me. “I thought you were different.”

  “Mindy. I’m still the same person.”

  “You’re a liar,” I snapped. “You hid yourself from me.”

  “I told you everything about myself! I told you about David and all of my guilt.”

  It wasn’t enough. I’d come to love a man who made me look at love differently. “But why would you be so dishonest about something as trivial as money?”

  Now it was Brett’s turn to fold his arms. “You think millions of dollars are trivial?”

  Yes. When we were spending every free moment together. When I’d trusted him with my fears and my hopes and my body. When I’d started to believe that he was the one person I would cling to for the rest of my life and never allow to leave. When all of that had happened, yes. The money didn’t matter. And then I realized. “You didn’t trust me.”

  He thought I was a gold digger. It gutted me.

  BRETT

  IT WAS over. Somehow, I’d known it would come to an ugly sort of end, even though I’d hoped to avoid it. Autumn was coming and Jon had made arrangements for my flight back to Seattle. Mindy didn’t know about that, either. It was like I had these two different lives and I didn’t know how to combine them. And this was exactly what had stopped me from disclosing my background sooner. Mindy looking at me differently. Money changes things. She could have looked at me with a strange kind of admiration, but instead she was looking at me with hurt in thos
e beautiful brown eyes.

  “Of course I trust you,” I said, but this was cheap. If I trusted her, then why had I concealed so much?

  Mindy hid her face behind her hands. When she lowered them, her voice was calm. “You’re buying an interest in my grandmother’s inn. Why?”

  Duh. “It’s for you. Because you wanted Vaughan out.”

  “I wanted her out weeks ago.”

  “But the summer’s almost over. I wanted you to be happy.”

  “And so this is what you do, you throw your money around? I hope you don’t expect me to be impressed or grateful.”

  “I don’t,” I said simply. “I didn’t even want you to know about it.”

  Okay, so I guess she didn’t want the truth, because she was glaring at me like I’d just kicked her cat. “After all the time we’ve spent together, I can’t believe you never told me about any of this.”

  “I wanted to.” I reached up to scratch the back of my neck. “It’s an awkward conversation to have.”

  I mean, how do you broach that topic? Here, let me buy your groceries, ’cause I have hundreds of millions of dollars. Or, Have I mentioned that I’m rich?

  “You could’ve tried.” She looked away, toward the stove. “Is there anything else you want to tell me? Or am I going to find it out some other way?”

  I took a breath. “I’m leaving West Portsmouth in the fall. September third. I’m heading back to Seattle.”

  She appeared visibly shaken. “Oh.” She clutched her stomach. “That’s a big thing.”

  Mindy had reason to be upset about that. We’d had these talks about our future, and sometimes I felt like, can’t we just enjoy the moment? The future was going to be messy; there was no escaping it. “That’s not for almost three weeks,” I said. “That’s a lot of time.”

  “Is that what you’ve been working on when you’re alone?” she asked softly. “You never told me.”

  “Yes. I’ve had some ideas for new apps.” I held up my arms. “It’s what I do, Mindy.”

  “But see, I had no idea. Because every time I asked you about yourself, you were evasive.”

  “I didn’t come here to talk about all that. I came here to take a break from that part of my life. I’ve explained this to you.”

  I moved toward her but she shifted her body away from me. “You don’t get it. Here I thought I’d met this great guy who’d let me in and shared his life with me. But you didn’t. You’ve been hiding.” Her chin trembled and I realized I was the biggest jackass in the world. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice when you moved to Seattle?”

  The summer had been a beautiful daydream, and I hated that reality was creeping in. “I didn’t want to think about it,” I said. “I thought you wanted to keep it casual. I only wanted to enjoy where we are now.”

  “Where we are now is finished. You think what we have is casual?” She rose from the stool and backed away toward the side door. “I’m not in this for the short term, Brett. And I can’t be with a man who won’t be with me.”

  This was jarring. Breaking up with Mindy wasn’t something that was supposed to happen. You know those dreams where you’re trying to move, but you can’t? Your feet are stuck in place? That’s how I felt as I watched Mindy open the door and leave my life.

  CHAPTER 18

  BRETT

  I DON’T KNOW how long I stood there in the kitchen of the inn after Mindy left. It doesn’t matter. Nothing mattered except the fact that I’d messed up. Horribly.

  “Hey, everything okay?” Sorelle poked her head through the doorway. “Where’s Mindy?”

  I lifted my hands. “Not here.”

  I brushed past her and back into the hall, feeling the eyes on me as I passed the sitting room. “Brett?” Bree came forward. “Is everything okay?”

  “Fine.”

  I was still walking toward the door, but she reached out a hand to stop me. “Where’s Mindy?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Bree looked back at the roomful of guests. Now they were walking around, examining the clothing that Mindy had set out. “She’s supposed to run this boutique thing.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. Can you run it?”

  Her dark eyes flickered, but she recovered quickly. “Yeah, I can run it.”

  “Go for it.” Then I walked out the door.

  Everything about this sucked, and it was my fault. I had been going to tell her everything, I had. I’d been waiting for the right time, and then I would’ve told her about my money and how I was going to have to head west again. Reality creates problems. I just wanted more time to be happy.

  When I reached home, the emptiness hit me. The house was empty. My life was empty. Every footstep echoed on the tile floor, and still I felt restless. I should leave now. Go back home. Why not? There was nothing keeping me here except my garden, and the animals would take care of that. I’d pack up and leave and return home to be closer to my family and friends, and wasn’t that a kind of growth? I’d come east to escape my problems, and in the end I’d realized that the grass wasn’t greener. It sucked here, too. Mission accomplished.

  You love her. I could almost hear David as I walked around, straightening up so I could leave. Don’t let her go.

  “Like she ever wants to see me again.” That thought carved a hole in my chest. “Money ruins everything.”

  I’d never wanted to be rich. I’d only wanted to be good at my job. I’d never wanted the scrutiny that came with success. And then I realized that I now knew what I’d needed to know: Mindy hadn’t cared that I didn’t have money. She’d thought I walked people for spare change and had gotten lucky with my housing. Maybe she’d thought I was living off of my savings. But at least she hadn’t cared. And look—money had ruined our relationship anyway. I was cursed.

  You’re full of self-pity is what you are. Nut up and walk over to see her. Apologize for being an ass. Tell her that you love her and that you’ll work it out.

  It was raining, so I drove back to the cottage. I parked on the street and went over my speech. It doesn’t matter because we’re going to figure it out. We had to, because what we had was too special to let go. I’m sorry. Don’t give up on me.

  I unfastened my seat belt and was about to open the car door when I noticed a pickup truck parked in the driveway. Moments later, a man emerged from the cottage. My stomach tightened. Chase. A woman followed him. Mindy. They paused in front of the doorway in an embrace, and then Chase climbed into his truck.

  I gripped the steering wheel so tightly that I thought it would break off in my hands. So much for apologies. I started the car and drove home.

  MINDY

  WHEN I went back to the cottage after I walked out on Brett, I was alone. I was glad, because I needed it to be that way. I flung myself onto the couch and sobbed, sounding to my own ears like an injured animal. Of course Brett had used me like every other guy had. That was the only reason he’d lied about who he was and how he was leaving. I was nothing to him but a summer fling. What in the world was wrong with me?

  I didn’t want to be alone. It wasn’t late, and most of the cars were still in the lot at the inn. So I set out toward the inn feeling guarded, because although I didn’t want to run into Vaughan or Brett, I did need to be around some friendly faces.

  Inside, the Lit Chick boutique was in full swing, and Bree was at the center of it. “That’s not your color,” she said flatly as Luanne held up a yellow floral Emily dress. “That shade will wash out your complexion.”

  “Oh. What should I try, then?” Luanne set the dress back on the rack.

  “Here.” Bree handed her a green-patterned dress. “That’s going to bring out your eyes.”

  I watched for a few minutes as Bree helped another woman who was deciding on a scarf, and then assisted someone else in finding the right bra. After a while, she looked up and noticed me. “Hey,” she said, and her eyes flickered.

  I registered her discomfort and approached with
a smile. “You’re doing great. I mean, wow. You’re moving product!”

  She shrugged off the compliment. “This is easy. These clothes sell themselves.”

  But what I saw were women with their arms filled with clothing. “No,” I said. “You’re doing really well, Bree.”

  Joss and Mira had selected a few items. Vaughan was nowhere to be seen, and this was a relief. I approached Joss and said, “Have you seen Brett?”

  “He left right after you did,” said Sorelle, coming from behind me. “He probably went home.”

  I looked at the clock on the mantel. “I guess I shouldn’t have expected him to stick around.” Still, I was upset that he hadn’t come chasing after me. Why hadn’t he come to the cottage to talk?

  Because it’s over. I’d had plenty of experience with men who never called, who walked out the door and never looked back. This had seemed so different. How disappointing that it wasn’t.

  Sorelle smoothed her hand down my hair. “You okay? You want to talk?”

  “I’m just … sad.”

  “I know.” She linked her arm with mine. “Would a new bubble gum–pink underwire bra cheer you up?”

  “No.” But I cracked a little bit of a smile.

  “You’ll be okay,” she said. “Come on. Let’s sell some leggings.” It was the only reasonable thing to do.

  • • •

  AFTER THE Lit Chick boutique, Sorelle wanted to go out. “Girls’ night,” she said. “You, me, Joss, Mira, and Bree.”

  But I couldn’t bear it. “I just need a little space.”

  Now, as I sat alone in the cottage, I set a hand over my aching heart and doubled over to cry. I had to hand it to Brett: This was an all-new kind of pain. Chase had led me on for years, but even he had been more of a gentleman than to sleep with me while planning to move across the country. I had given Brett so much of myself that I wondered if I’d ever be able to love someone so openly again. At the moment, I didn’t think I’d be capable of it.

  I picked up my cell phone, conflicted as to whether I wanted to call someone or be alone. If I called Lettie, she’d understand … sort of. She was in a committed, honest relationship with Eric, though. She might not get it. Of course I couldn’t call my mom. She was busy with Michael and his kids, anyway. God help me, I texted Chase.