23. Lucas
23
LUCAS
The Hitching Post is the only bar in Green Acres. The sign on their front door says they also do weddings, because of course they do. Serena Lovelace can’t ignore a single opportunity to abuse a pun.
I’m not really in the mood to be out drinking, or to talk to anyone, but I’ve been searching for Brooke all day long and I couldn’t find her, and I can’t stand the idea of going back to the house alone.
So I left a note on the door of Susie’s house to let her know where I’d be and wandered over here.
Even though I never found Brooke, I ran into Pri-Annelise several times. Every time I saw her, she waved at me frantically and I responded by glaring and walking in the opposite direction.
Did I—as Jasper—buy her that giant, gaudy engagement ring? I am trying not to let Jasper’s personality take over, so I normally try to force any of his memories out of my head, but I need to know, so as I sit there at the bar, I half close my eyes and focus on Pri-Annelise and try to remember anything that I can about her .
She’s not entirely lying.
In this world, I was with her. I have hazy memories of taking her to dinner, taking her to bed, standing at department stores bored out of my skull while she shopped and I paid for her purchases... the memories are flooding through my head now. I remember arguments where she accused me of stringing her along and I hotly retorted that I had told her from the beginning that I was married to work and work would always come first...
Then an ultimatum—marry her or lose her . . .
And that’s it. Nothing after that.
I don’t know when any of this happened, and I don’t know if I proposed and just can’t remember it.
What I do know is I sort of liked her, didn’t love her, and never would have committed myself to her because she was getting in the way of my grand plan. The plan I’d turned over in my head since childhood—to show the people in my hometown what I was really all about.
In recent years, a number of businesses in downtown Green Acres had gotten themselves in a position where I could buy up their properties.
And I could completely remake the downtown, make it better, and make my mark on Green Acres in a way that nobody here could ever forget. They’d be grateful to me. I’d save them. I’d show them that Jasper Whitfield was a hero, not a loser.
Of course, I expected some resistance. I just hadn’t expected that every single person in town would accuse me of threatening their livelihoods. And say I was doing it for revenge.
I didn’t want to hurt anyone here. Did I? Was I doing this for the wrong reasons?
No. Damn it. I am already living too much in Jasper’s head. I can’t risk trying to rummage through his memories anymore, no matter how much I want to know what’s really going on with my alleged fiancée .
I take a deep breath and look around the room, struggling to reorient myself.
Theodore is sitting down the bar from me, and he gives me a half wave. He’s still not smiling, but he isn’t looking at me with hatred anymore. Right now he’s looking at me with skepticism, probably wondering what the truth is about Pri-Annelise.
I wave back. Officer Hernandez is sitting at one of the tables near me with another police officer, a stocky red-headed guy.
“Jasper?” an angry voice says. I glance over to see Mr. Vickers scowling at me. “You’ve got some nerve showing your face in public after what you did to our Susie. And to think, I was starting to come around to seeing your way of thinking.”
“You were?” I drain the rest of my whiskey.
“Well, maybe not entirely. I just could understand your motivation, because James Hardcastle is right; people didn’t do right by you when you were a little boy. I include myself in that. We should have stepped in to help, not assumed that you were just like your dad. Not that it makes it okay that you’re going to rip the heart out of this town with your stupid plans, but I can see why you were doing it.” He shakes his head. “But now it looks like I was right about you all along. Susie’s a good girl, and you did her dirty.”
“No, I did not,” I say heatedly. “I am not engaged to Pri-Annelise. I did not ask her to marry me. She is an ex-girlfriend who was pressuring me to marry her, and I said no.”
That much is true. I know it is. I remember it vividly. I just don’t know what came after that. For all I know, we share an apartment together back in New York and we were getting ready to announce our upcoming nuptials. God, I hope that’s not the truth.
“If you’re not really engaged, why is she wearing your ring?” Theodore calls out. “A ring like that, a rich guy would have had to buy for her. A rich guy like you.”
“I don’t know where she got that ring.” Guilt swells up in me. I’m an asshole, sure, but I’m not that kind of asshole. Not the cheating kind. I’m the kind of asshole who is overbearing and gets his own way and makes business deals happen no matter what, but I don’t lie and I don’t string people along.
And I don’t think I’m lying about the ring, but maybe I am? Does it count as lying if I don’t remember?
“So why would she wear it?” Theodore speaks up.
I shrug sullenly. “To pressure me into marrying her.”
“She said she had a picture of you and her together,” Mr. Vickers points out.
“Yes, she did. Obviously taken a while ago. Not here in town.” I hope. I know I didn’t get together with her in town. Did I? I would have to have had serious amnesia for that to happen without me recalling it afterwards.
Am I completely losing my mind? Did Jasper take over my consciousness and get together with that woman somehow?
No. I don’t believe he has that much of a hold over me. She’s lying.
What worries me, though, is the look on Pri-Annelise’s face. Like she genuinely cares about Jasper, like he—I—am breaking her heart. That means that at least at some point, there was something real there.
“Well, what’s going on with you and Susie?” Mr. Vickers asks.
“With all due respect, she and I are both adults and that is between us. A gentleman never tells,” I say sternly.
“I just don’t know what to think of you anymore.” Mr. Vickers chews his lower lip. “Are you really going to rip up the downtown?”
“I don’t know,” I sigh. “I have been rethinking my plans and whether they’re best for Green Acres.”
“You have?” His eyes widen in surprise. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
Is he kidding ?
I’ve only said it aloud like several dozen times since I arrived, in public, in front of just about every citizen of Green Acres.
But maybe I needed to wait this long for the storyline to accept it. I had to let Brooke drag me around town and make me meet all the small business owners so I’d have a chance to have a change of heart. If that’s the case, I bet Brooke’s book is vibrating like mad right now.
Brooke. Where the hell is she?
And shouldn’t she have more faith in me?
We are in a fictional universe. Obviously I, Lucas Sheffield, never had an affair with that woman. Brooke must know that. Maybe Jasper did ask that woman to marry him. She can’t blame me for what Jasper did in the past, before we got here. That’s crazy.
And as for Pri flying into town regularly to sneak in a little afternoon delight—that’s even crazier, now that I think about it. This town is gossipier than a middle-school cheerleading squad.
“Hey, listen. You know how Pri-Annelise claimed that she’d been visiting me in town so we could mess around?” I say indignantly to Mr. Vickers.
“Yes, so?”
“How could that possibly happen without anyone in town noticing? Nothing in this town goes unnoticed. A total stranger to the town, especially a woman who looks like that, showing up to meet me? Where in town could this have happened without everyone noticing? How could she have snuck into town repeatedly? She was driven here in a limo. Like everyone in town would have missed seeing a limo driving through Green Acres. How many limos do you see in town?”
“Well, none.” Mr. Vickers strokes his chin. “You do make a good point there.”
I nod, feeling aggrieved. “A damned good point. Broo—I mean, Susie should have stuck around to let me explain it to her. She knows me better than anyone in the world. And instead of waiting to hear my side of the story, she has a tantrum and storms off.”
“So it’s all Susie’s fault?” An infuriated voice calls out.
I twist around in my bar stool to see Brenda stomping over to me. The normally meek, mild Brenda is blazing with fury.
“I did not say that.” I scowl at her. “It’s only partly her fault.”
“Partly her fault!” Brenda yells. “Have you lost your mind? Because she has. Because of you!”
I look at her in alarm. “What do you mean, she’s lost her mind?’
“She thinks that we’re all fictional characters and that you have to act out your parts in a romance novel so you can go home to the quote unquote real world.”
“She said that?” I echo in astonishment. Damn it, Brooke can’t be telling people that. It might mess up the storyline entirely and make it impossible for us to get home.
“Well, it was probably the three glasses of wine talking.”
Oh, crap. Brooke is not a drinker. Half a wine spritzer makes her silly. “You let her have three glasses of wine?” I demand indignantly.
“So tonight is ‘blame everybody but yourself’ night, is it?” Brenda is standing a foot away from me, and her face is flushed with anger.
Officer Hernandez stands up and makes his way towards our table.
I’m slightly drunk and entirely frustrated. It feels like being back home with my father, who blamed me for everything whether I did it or not. Supplier’s truck crashed? I should have picked a different supplier. Business partner had a heart attack? I should have picked a healthier business partner.
“You know where Brooke is, don’t you? You tell Brooke that I want to talk to her,” I snap at Brenda .
“I’ll tell you where you can shove it.” She pokes her finger at my chest.
“Figures you’d take her side. Well, Brooke is being ridiculous. And I’m not partly to blame. Brooke is entirely to blame for believing that woman. I am going to find her and make her see reason.”
Brenda’s reply is to grab my drink and throw it in my face.
“Brenda!” Officer Hernandez shouts.
“And you! I’ve just about had it with you!” she yells at him.
“Had it with me? What did I do?” He shakes his head in bewilderment. “Listen, Brenda, I really don’t want to have to do this, but you just committed assault, and I have to place you under arrest.”
“Forget it. I’m fine, I don’t want to press charges,” I say, my eyes stinging and streaming with tears from the alcohol.
“Since I witnessed the assault, I don’t have a choice. You have the right to remain silent...”
“And you have the right to bite me!” Brenda yells.
Oh God.
These two are never getting together now. And Brooke will never talk to me again, and we are going to be stuck here forever.