Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,63
sheets. She loved his fingers. Loved feeling them, holding them, touching them.
She closed her eyes and turned away.
She didn’t say goodbye, but she left anyway. She left a copy of their engagement pre-nup, her cell phone, and her ring lying on the kitchen counter.
Their time was up.
When she arrived home, the phone was ringing. It rang and it rang. She thought about unplugging it but knew he’d just show up on her door. She took a deep breath and answered the phone. She didn’t say anything, just listened to him breathe. Imagined him looking out at the buildings, his shirt half-buttoned, his bare feet sinking into the plush carpet. Her heart hurt thinking she’d never see him again. But she said, “Did I forget something?”
There was a pause and then he said, “Oh yeah, you forgot something. You’re fired.”
“What exactly are you firing me from? As of this morning I no longer work for O’Connor Capital. And as of last night I am no longer your hired fiancé. There’s nothing left.”
“There’s nothing left. . .” He said it slowly, not quite a question. More like he was tasting the words, seeing how they felt in his mouth.
Obviously, he didn’t like it very much because he nearly shouted, “Goddammit, Mackenzie. There’s nothing left, my ass.”
She couldn’t help her half-laugh, half-sob. And there was the Mr. Charming she knew.
“Ethan. I wish you the best. I know the OC will continue on well without me, although of course you’ll have to hire three people to replace my sales. And I know that you will find that woman who is worth half your fortune. Probably. Maybe. I really think you should abandon that tradition.”
“Mackenz–”
“Good-bye, Ethan.” She hung up and sat down on her couch.
She let herself cry this one time, just for a little while. Then wiped her tears and started packing up her house. Time to start her new non-life.
Ethan’s grandmother answered the door with her eyebrows furrowed. “Why the hell aren’t you in L.A.?”
Ethan pushed his way in. “She doesn’t love me.”
Ellen slammed the door shut behind him. “Coward. I never thought I’d say that to my own grandson. But that’s what you are. A coward. And a chicken. A lily-livered chicken.” She flung her hands into the air. “A spineless, yellow-bellied coward.”
He started laughing, his shoulders shaking silently. He headed to the kitchen, grabbing two beers and handing one to her, a smile still on his face.
He said, “It’s karma, that’s what it is. How many women have fallen hopelessly in love with me? It was my turn.”
“What you’re telling me is that you’re not a coward. You’re just stupid.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s worse.”
“I am everything she doesn’t want.”
“But she wants you anyway? I don’t know what you think love is supposed to feel like but that’s as good a description as any.”
“She’s too smart to fall for me.”
Ellen snorted. “If those good looks you were cursed with, along with that charm you constantly deploy, and a copious amount of cash at your disposal can’t get the woman you love to lose her mind long enough to get a ring on her finger, I don’t know what the point was.”
“You do know all that is why she doesn’t want me, right?”
“She wants you. She just wishes she didn’t.” Ellen watched him take a swig of beer and shook her head. “Go get her, numnuts.”
“Grandma!” He shook his head, laughing. “I haven’t heard that word since grandfather died.”
“Your grandfather was high and mighty and born with a silver spoon up his backside, just like you. Who do you think taught him that word?”
He laughed again. “Then how come I’ve never heard you say it until now?”
“Because it reminds me of him.”
He looked at her carefully, seeing the sorrow in her words. “You still miss him?”
“Of course I do.”
He said, “So some love is forever.”
She eyed him. “Some love is.”
“Mackenzie doesn’t think so. She thinks forever love is luck.”
Ellen smiled. “It is. It’s luck and guts and not being dumb. Right now you’re one out of three.” She patted his knee. “But your grandfather only had one out of three at one point, too.”
He raised his eyebrow. “You’re saying grandfather didn’t have any guts? Grandfather?” His grandfather had been a terror. Balls of steel when markets were crashing and others were cracking.
She leaned back, a far away look in her eye. “When it came to love. He’d seen his parents’ unhappy marriage and thought there wasn’t anything else