Page 51 of Mr. Charming

I’m disappointed I didn’t think of that angle or how he could benefit from Bud’s stupid idea.

“But you’d have to leave Chicago,” I whisper.

He nods, looking so sad and disappointed that I want to crawl into his lap and hold him. “Yeah, that sucks, but…” He shrugs and frowns. “Not much I can do about it. I doubt Bud is leaving, and I don’t want to play for someone who doesn’t believe in me.”

It feels like déjà vu from when Jana and Kane tried to get him back after they’d traded him away. He’s being proud, but I don’t know, maybe that’s not such a bad thing like I thought it was back then.

“Well, if you’re serious, I have a lot of ideas.”

He nods, and for the rest of the flight, I tell him what I’ve sketched out. I show him some of the stuff I have, and he chimes in with some good ideas too. That’s the thing with Tweetie, he’s always been really good about his social media. I suppose it’s easy when you’re Mr. Charming. I used to handle it for him when we were dating, but most of the time people just loved him because he’s such an authentic person. You can try to hate him if you want, but you’ll end up loving him all the same. Which is exactly my problem.

The plane lands, and Tweetie doesn’t leave my side as we file off, but I get my bag first, so I go outside and order a rideshare.

I’m waiting at the curb when he walks out of the airport with Conor and Rowan. Tweetie glances in my direction and stops as Conor and Rowan wave goodbye to me and slide into their waiting vehicle.

“Hey, you’re alone?” he asks with a frown.

I hold up my phone. “Car is five minutes away.”

He looks around and holds out his hand. “Can I see your phone?”

“Why?”

“I just want to see where they are.” His hand inches closer, so I hand my phone to him. He presses a button, hands me back my phone, then grabs the handle of my suitcase. “Let’s go.”

“Excuse me?” I ask, not moving.

He’s walking toward the black SUV Rowan and Conor already got into. “You’re not staying out here at two in the morning waiting for a fucking rideshare. You know who probably drives those things at this time of the morning?” He doesn’t stop or even turn around.

“Tweetie!” I follow, glancing at my phone to see that my rideshare has been canceled.

“Bad people drive those things in the middle of the night, Tedi. You need to take your safety seriously.” He pats the back of the SUV, and the back door lifts.

Rowan and Conor are in the third row as if they knew this would be the result of Tweetie coming over to me. “Hi, Tedi,” they say in unison, looking over their shoulders at us.

“I’m out of your way. I can wait,” I say to them.

“Do you live in Chicago?” Conor asks.

“Yes.”

“Then you’re not out of our way.” He turns back around.

“And Kyleigh has a mean streak. She’d kill me if we didn’t give you a ride,” Rowan says.

Tweetie smiles at me. “See? Get in.”

I hesitate.

Tweetie shuts the back door and steps around to me. “Either you get in or I pick you up and put you in, but standing on this curb waiting for some creep to pick you up isn’t an option.”

“I’m pretty sure they get background checks.”

“Maybe, but you’re not going to be the headline story tomorrow morning.” He opens the back door. “Get in, so we can all go get some sleep.”

I walk over to Tweetie, stopping before climbing in. “Thank you.”

He smiles at me. A true smile that I haven’t seen directed at me in years, and my heart pitter-patters, remembering what it felt like to be on the receiving end of that smile for so long.

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