But it was better to lie right now.
“Really?” Mrs. Pennington asked.
“Of course.”
Charlotte scrunched her nose and tip-toed through the sand toward Ursula. When she reached her, a wave rushed up and completely drenched her boot. The chill shot through her feet and her calves. Her fingers were already turning blue.
“Ursula?” Charlotte said. Her voice hardly cut through the wind.
Ursula slowly turned her face toward Charlotte. The motion was strangely robotic, and her eyes were glassy, proof of her drunkenness.
Still, her eyeliner was killer.
She was every bit the classic movie star the world wanted her to be. Just a little bit more messed up, as well.
“Ursula, what are you doing out here?” Charlotte asked softly.
Ursula staggered a bit. Charlotte was ready to throw herself forward if only to save that gorgeous wedding dress from being drenched in the waves.
“I don’t think I really love him,” Ursula stated. She bit hard on her lower lip and let a few tears fall.
“Okay. That’s okay. Um. Why don’t we go inside and talk about it a little bit more?”
“I just think I’m doing it because my agent said the public wanted to watch me grow up,” she continued. “I got my first Oscar when I was twenty-four years old. And now, I’m nearing thirty, and I’m like—what’s next? So I guess this is next?”
“It doesn’t have to be next if you don’t want it to be.” Charlotte willed the girl to get cold enough to take this introspective conversation indoors.
“But then what? I go in there and tell Orion that this is all a farce? And really—I mean, if we’re getting down to the actual facts here, I don’t believe that he didn’t cheat on me, either on his bachelor week, or after an away game, or...”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Charlotte argued, trying to knock some sense into her.
Ursula’s lower lip bubbled. She dropped her chin toward her chest, totally defeated. Charlotte reached forward, grabbed her elbow—which was as cold as steel in winter—and said, “Let’s get you inside, okay? I make the best hot cocoa known to man. Maybe I can make you some.”
Surprisingly, the idea of hot cocoa was the thing that finally got acclaimed actress Ursula Pennington away from the hungry waves and back inside. When they arrived back to the mansion, they entered the wing nearest Ursula’s suite. Ursula walked like a stunted model, her legs hardly bending at the knee. Charlotte and Mrs. Pennington hovered behind her. When Charlotte turned back to close the door of the wing, she found Everett there. She had completely forgotten about him in all the chaos.
“What’s up?” he asked, his beautiful eyes wide.
Charlotte heaved a sigh and spoke under her breath. “Apparently, Ursula is having second thoughts.”
“Oh, no.”
“I know.”
“You’ve gone through all this, just so she can cancel last-minute?”
“I know. I know. My head might spin off my neck,” Charlotte said, biting her lower lip as she felt her anxiety build.
“Well. Huh. Okay.” Everett scratched under his chin. “Maybe I can go talk to him.”
“To whom?”
“Orion.”
Charlotte shrugged. “I’m willing to try anything to get these two down the aisle. Ursula is convinced Orion cheated on her. Maybe if you can get him to say he didn’t?”
Everett considered this. “Do you think it’s immoral to try to force two people we don’t know to marry each other for the sake of our own personal gain?”
Charlotte laughed. The words were so outrageous. The whole thing was, actually. “We can’t force them to do anything. Let’s just see where the wind takes us today.”
At this, Everett lifted his camera and took another shot of Charlotte, standing there in the doorway. He inspected the photo on the little screen and laughed to himself.
“What’s so funny? Do I look like I’m having the worst day of my life?”
Everett’s blue eyes found hers again. “No. You look beautiful.”
With that, Everett turned and marched toward the other wing, which led toward Orion’s suite. Charlotte watched as the snow fluttered down around them. This was the strangest day.
Chapter Nineteen
Everett arrived outside Orion’s suite a few minutes later. His heart hummed in his throat; his skin was spiky with a chill, and his mind buzzed with a memory of Charlotte. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had looked at him like that. Like he, himself, owned the world and could give it to her.
A split-second after Everett knocked on the door, one of Orion’s seven-foot-tall teammates ripped it open and looked at him with a sour expression.
“Can I help you?” His eyes scanned down toward Everett’s camera. “No photos.”
“Oh, no. I’m actually here because of Ursula,” Everett explained. “I need to speak to Orion.”
“Orion doesn’t want to be spoken to,” the teammate boomed.
“I understand that. But it’s important.” Everett caught sight of Orion in the far end of the suite. He was hunched forward, his elbows on his knees, a glass of something that looked an awful lot like whiskey in his hand. “I know Ursula tried to call off the wedding. I think there’s a way we can save it.”
The silence stretched between all of them. Another teammate whispered something in Orion’s ear. Finally, Orion grunted and said, “Let the photographer in.”
The first teammate shut the door closed immediately after Everett stepped inside, nearly clipping it against the back of his boots. The mood in the suite was ominous. Orion himself looked as though he had been hit by a truck. He sipped more of his whiskey and gestured toward the chair in front of him.
“You said you think you can save my wedding? Sit down and tell me how,” he ordered. His words were heavy with sarcasm, and his eyes said, You think you, of all people, have the answers? Yeah. Right.
“Good afternoon, Orion,” Everett said as he sat down. “I was just downstairs with your fiancé. She really is upset
