Page 181 of You've Got Hate Mail
Ten leaps off the couch and holds out a fist, then meets Pip in the middle of the sitting room, where they do a handshake that would take me at least an hour to learn, complete with butt-wiggling and hip-bumping and jazz hands at the end.
“Mabel hates Ten because he’s an ass,” Olivia murmurs to me as she pushes me toward the kitchen.
“He’s not an ass. He just has…personality,” Samantha whispers on my other side.
“Not a great one.”
“I think it’s all an act to hide his insecurities since he was the one who got the most attention fromOn the Rhodes.”
“He’s a grown-ass man who can choose to do better at any point.”
Having experienced going viral firsthand, I can appreciate insecurities that come from attention, even if I’m unsure of how he apparently handles it.
“Whatcha been up to, Pipster?” Ten asks behind us.
“Playing hard and wrecking hearts,” she says.
“Wicked.”
“You?”
“Playing hearts and wrecking hard.”
“Epic.”
“Caro, we’re so excited to host your wedding,” Samantha says as we reach the kitchen. “Sit. Coffee? Oh, wait, you like tea. Teakettle’s going on. Which kind of coffee cake? Rhubarb cream or traditional streusel? And you have to tell us all about how Mike proposed.”
For once, I’m not the most verbally vomity person in the room.
I’m actually mildly speechless.
I join Mabel as she’s refilling her coffee cup with a shaky hand.
“What can I do?” I murmur.
“Keep him the fuck away from me.”
I shoot a look down the hallway, then back at Mabel.
Definitely not the time to ask what happened.
It’s time to be helpful. “Any restrictions?”
“No.”
“None at all?”
“Keep him from doing anything that’ll require anyone to call for any kind of emergency services beyond what Heath can do here, and don’t let him kill Pip.”
That’s not an ominous request at all. “On it.”
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
She snorts softly. “I give it an hour before it’s not.”
I text Heath on my way back to the living room, giving him the heads-up that Ginny’s brother, Ten, is here in place of Mike, and asking if he knows what happened between Mabel and Ten.
