Wedding Bell Blues by Meg Benjamin

Author:Meg Benjamin [Benjamin, Meg]
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 2010-08-12T14:51:30.071000+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Pete rinsed off his shoes with the garden hose in the

backyard. Fortunately, they didn't appear to have suffered

any major damage. He wished he could say the same for

Janie Dupree.

She sat on the lowest step of the fire escape, absently

scratching Olive's ears. He tried to decide if the blank look in

her eyes came from exhaustion or pain. Whichever it was, he

decided, he needed to do something about it. He didn't stop

to wonder when Janie Dupree had become his responsibility.

She just had.

"So are you hungry? Thirsty? Need to throw something? I

have some bricks you can toss." His voice was unnaturally

hearty. Pete suspected he sounded like an asshole, but he

wasn't quite sure how to stop.

Janie raised her blank gaze to his, the corners of her

mouth inching up faintly. "You don't have to take care of me,

Pete. I'm okay. Really."

Just what he'd said to Cal earlier in the week. He suddenly

had a lot more sympathy for his brother's point of view. Pete

squinted at her. She didn't look okay, but maybe that

depended on your definition of okay. He walked over and sat

beside her on the step, his wet shoes squishing. Olive stayed

where she was, curled between them. "Quite a night."

"Quite a week. Quite a month, now that I think about it."

Janie scratched Olive's ears again, staring off into the night

sky.

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by Meg Benjamin

He blew out a breath. The whole thing was like pretending

the mud-covered elephant in the room wasn't there. "He's an

asshole, Janie. Probably always has been. You must know

that."

Janie nodded. "Oh, yeah."

"It had nothing to do with you."

She nodded again, then shrugged. "It had something to do

with me, but not much. And whatever happened to me was

nothing compared to what happened to Lars."

Pete groaned, leaning back against the step. "Would you

believe I forgot about that part of it—just for a minute?"

Olive stretched out, resting her muzzle on Janie's foot.

"We never were all that ... serious, Otto and me." She

narrowed her eyes, staring up at a streetlight. "We've dated

for a couple of months, but I always knew he wasn't going to

be The One."

"Yeah?" Pete leaned back on his elbows. He wasn't the

kind of man people shared confidences with as a rule, but at

least he knew how to keep his mouth shut.

"People in town really look up to him, though. When this

gets out, it's going to be a blow to the town's pride. They'll

probably find a way to blame Sherice. Or the Toleffson family.

Or me. Probably me."

Janie stroked Olive's ears. Olive was the one who was

really making out in this situation, Pete reflected. "How can

they blame you?"

"They'll figure Otto wasn't getting enough action at home

so he had to find something on the side." Her voice sounded

remarkably matter-of-fact.

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"Gee," Pete mused, "so Konigsburgers are assholes just

like the rest of us."

"The thing is, though, they're all going to assume I'm

heartbroken about losing him, so they'll feel like they need to

tiptoe around me or find some way to make me feel better."

She grimaced. "I'm going to hate that."

"Yeah, I can see how you would. Maybe you could find the

bull goose gossip in town and tell her Otto was always a jerk.

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