Page 23 of Rafferty's Rules
‘I’m good,’ I reply with a brittle smile and a tiny shake of my head. ‘I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that the wedding didn’t go ahead. The week before our big day, my fiancé was arrested for solicitation.’ It sounds so much nicer than the way the news was delivered to me by a friend; William has been caught picking up a fifty-dollar hooker in his car.
How veryPretty Womanof him... the unfaithful, two-faced fuck.
And cursing in my head doesn’t count.
‘He was on a business trip, and my family tried to keep it from me—this happened four days before the wedding. Four days! And do you know what? The whole celibacy deal was his idea.’ That might’ve been a little TMI, judging by the way Rafferty’s head rears back as though slapped.
‘That’s rough.’
‘The roughest. And my family didn’t tell me for fear I’d do somethingunnecessary.’ My mouth twists, the words tasting like ash as Rafferty mouths a singular word.
‘Fuck.’
I still find it hard to believe they’d kept it from me. The people who love me thought they were doing what was best. How can that be?
‘What was their idea of unnecessary? The way I’m looking at this, you’d be well within your rights to run the fucker over for that. Maybe they thought they were saving you a prison sentence?’
Oh, if only...
‘Yeah, you’d think. But they were actually more worried I’d cancel the wedding. Which I did.’ Then they were furious.
‘What the fuck?’ he kind of growls. The good and angry kind of growl.
‘My fian—myexand his family are kind of a big deal in my hometown as well as my employer. I’m just in admin. I didn’t work for him or anything, but William, well, he was being groomed to take over.’
‘He’ll need to be groomed for a fuckin’ punch if I ever get near him.’
‘Yeah, well, he got one of those from me.’ In an outburst my mother called unseemly. ‘Plus, I also emailed a copy of the police report to the whole company using the office intranet system.’
‘Brutal!’ I try not to bask in his smile, but it’s hard when he’s literally the only sunshine in my day right now especially as the sun seems to be suddenly hiding behind the clouds. ‘What else?’
Well, I was going to leave my tale at that, butas he’s asking ...
‘Then I took his fifteen-thousand-dollar engagement ring to a jeweller and sold it for a fraction of that.’ Which I seem to have left scattered over the floor of a brothel.
‘You are a badarse, Lissa Montgomery.’ He raises his hand, and I have no option but to meet his high five. Of course, I don’t have to giggle.
‘I also pawned his golf clubs, but only after I used them to smash the lights on his Tesla. I hit him where it hurt.’
‘Right in the wallet, at a guess.’
I nod decisively. ‘The cheap ass wouldn’t give a nickel to see Jesus ridin’ a bicycle.’
Rafferty sets off laughing as though I’ve just told the best of jokes. ‘And what did he say after that?’
‘I wouldn’t know. I packed my bag and left on our honeymoon before he could claim a refund.’
‘The cruise?’ He might not look impressed, but my shoulders lift in agreement anyway. ‘His idea, right?’ I nod this time.
‘I wanted to come to Sydney, well, Australia. A cruise leaving from Sydney was supposed to be a compromise. I got two days out of our compromise.’
‘What a fucking tool.’
‘And then... ’ Rafferty looks positively gleeful at the possible delivery of some otherhell-hath-no-furymoment. I don’t join him because this is difficult to admit especially as he seems to have a better recollection of the events of the evening. ‘Then I appear to have gotten shit-faced drunk and taken myself off to a brothel for a little old-fashioned horizontal revenge.’
‘What’s good for the goose, eh?’
‘Yeah, but how in the heck did I end up in goose-land? Not a gander to be found!’
