Page 75 of My Neighbor's Secret

“Whatever you need. Always. I hope you know that.”

My heart squeezes. That’s my brother for you. People can think what they want about some of his harder exterior edges, but this right here is the Max I know: a softie with a heart of gold, through and through.

“Hey, come on down for a couple days, if you can,” Max says. “We’re having a blast with Mom and Henry. It’d be awesome if you could join us for a bit. You’re on spring break, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll have to let you know about that. Gotta go, brother. I’ve got a tuition invoice to pay. Thank you again for saving me from catastrophe.”

After ending the call, I launch furiously into withdrawing all available funds from my credit cards, while Charlotte does the same on her end. Soon, however, with about ten minutes to spare before midnight, I’ve got a grand total of $21,816 sitting in my bank account. Enough to pay twenty grand to the school now, and still have a cushion for taxis and dinners in New Jersey and groceries and gas whenever we get home.

With shaking hands, I log into my school’s payment dashboard and submit the funds—and a moment later, at 11:54 pm, I get a confirmation email.Funds received.

“We did it,” I whisper hoarsely. I look at Charlotte, slack-jawed and trembling. “Youdid it, you fucking genius.”

“No, you got it right the first time. It was a team effort.”

I kiss her deeply, feeling like I’m bursting out of my skin. Like my heart is exploding with love for this incredible woman. “Thank you, Charlotte.Thank you.” Now more than ever, I want to hold her face in my hands and say, “I love you, Charlotte McDougal.” In fact, I want to get out of my SUV right now, climb onto the roof, and shout about my love for Charlotte to the entire world. But since I know that’s probably going to lead me straight to Heartbreak, USA, population Auggie Vaughn, I bite my tongue and smash my lips together and physically force the words to remain lodged in my throat.

“Let’s do some shows from our hotel room in New Jersey,” Charlotte says. “Whatever it takes, so you can pay the rest of that tuition invoice, as soon as possible. I don’t want that hanging over your head during the summer, when you’re working hard at an internship.”

I can’t help feeling like the subtext of that statement was “I don’t want you worrying about the rest of that money this summer, when I’m long gone.”

I smile ruefully. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll figure out the rest later. Right now, I only want to celebrate our accomplishment.We did it.We got the money to Carlo, and now we’ve paid enough of my tuition to secure my spot in the program.” I’m not saying it, but on top of all that, we’re also taking off for a week that’s going to be lots of fun, once we get through the birthday party tomorrow. After one night in New Jersey, we’ve decided to head to New York to do some sightseeing together, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. “Let’s focus on celebrating right now,” I say, “and not even think about doing any more shows for a while, okay? This wholeweek, we’ll be Auggie and Charlotte, and try to forget Superhero Salami Slinger and The Unicorn ever existed.”

27

CHARLOTTE

When the plane touches down in Newark, New Jersey, I turn on my phone, just like everyone around me. I’ve got a new text from Tessa. She’s attached a short video of Rudy and Lucky playing with the kids in her backyard. I heart the video and send her a text that we’ve landed safely.

“Auggie, look at this.” I nudge his shoulder next to me and show him the clip Tessa sent, and, predictably, he’s over the moon to see his furry buddy having the time of his life.

After Tessa’s text, I click into the next one from an unknown number. It’s from Carlo. He says he’s waiting for us in the baggage claim area and that he’ll drive us directly to Bella’s party. Due to weather, our flight was delayed this morning by quite a bit, so there’s no longer any time for Auggie and me to head to our hotel to relax and shower before the birthday party. Looks like our delay allowed Carlo to finish up whatever emergency kept him busy this morning—the one Carlo’s colleague referred to when he picked up the cash from us yesterday.

I’m not skeptical about Carlo having a new number. He changes his number frequently. Always has. When we dated, I thought that was because bodyguards for wealthy people can betargets of disgruntled crazies. Now that I know the true nature of Carlo’s profession, I have to assume he changes it frequently to keep one step ahead of the law and Mr. DiMarco’s enemies. Either way, I don’t doubt this text is actually from Carlo, so I quickly reply to thank him for coming to get us and confirm we’ll see him at baggage claim.

Our plane reaches the gate, and the captain says all obligatory things over the overhead speaker. I’m in a window seat, so I stay put and pull my scattered stuff together, while aisle seaters like Auggie pop up and retrieve luggage from overhead compartments.

As I’m grabbing my purse to stuff my phone into it, a new email notification pops onto my screen.It’s from the airline I interviewed with the other day. With bated breath, I swipe into my inbox and read the message . . . and then practically faint.They want me.They’re offering me a job. An incredible one that’s even better than the one I got laid off from—a guaranteed assignment to first or business class on a regular route between JFK and Heathrow. All the standard perks and some new ones I’ve never had before. Holy shit.I’ve hit the jackpot.

Aw, fuck.

When I keep reading, I see the one bad thing.

New York.

That’s where I’ll need to be based.

Well, that’s a bummer. I’m a west coast girlie, through and through. A native Angeleno.

Auggie.

He’s standing in the aisle, grabbing our rolling carry-ons from the overhead compartment. As he lifts his arms, his T-shirt rides up and I catch a glimpse of his toned abs. The faint treasure trail of light brown hair I’ve followed many times to the Promised Land beneath his waistband.

I look away, my heart thumping.What will happen with Auggie and me when I accept this job?LA to Seattle is about a three-hour flight, but New York to Seattle takes oversix hours.And that’s only if I can get a freedirectflight from New York to Seattle with my flight credits, which isn’t always the case. It could be a much longer travel day than that, if the stars don’t align. How often could I reasonably expect to make that trip, while based in New York and working full-time? Auggie certainly couldn’t visit me with any regularity withhisschedule. I’ve seen how busy school is for him. For the next two years, he’s going to be in Seattle, working hard to make his dreams come true. Realistically, could heevercome visit me, other than on spring break? Surely, the onus would be on me to make it work between us, long-distance, and I’m not sure I’m ready to take that on.

I dare to look at Auggie again, and this time, his blue eyes are on me. When our gazes meet, he grins. And just like that, I’m thinking stupid thoughts. Stuff like, “Maybe I should turn down this job and look for one based on the West Coast.” But I’d be foolish to turn down this golden opportunity, especially for a man I’ve only just met, basically. True, it feels like I’ve known Auggie forever, but we’ve only just met in reality. And jobs like this don’t come around very often. In fact, a job like this is literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

The line in the aisle begins moving in front of Auggie, and he motions for me to slide in front of him. I hobble into place and motion for him to hand me my rolling bag, but, true to form, Auggie says he’s got it.

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