Hung Up on You

“Ari, I didn’t say we had to call it off permanently. We’ll just put the wedding off until this incident is cleared up.”

“No. It’s over. Here’s your ring.” She opened his hand and dropped the ring in it. “You can go now.”

He looked a bit taken aback, as if he’d expected her to argue or even plead. Well, there was no way that was ever going to happen.

She walked to the door and held it open. “Goodbye, Collin.”

“This is only until you get your life in order,” he said as he planted a gentle kiss on her forehead before walking out the door.

“No, it’s not. This is goodbye. Permanent. Whatever we had is over.”

Ari shut the door in his face and simply stood there staring at it.

What had she done?

She’d dated Collin since right after college. She’d met him as a student nurse, her first day at the hospital. They’d been together ever since.

What was she supposed to do now?

No job.

No fiancé.

No reputation to speak of.

What was she going to do?

She didn’t get to wonder long before her thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell.

For a second she thought it might be Collin coming back to say he was wrong, that he couldn’t live without her, that she was more important than his career. But the bell didn’t just ring one polite little ring. No, it was that long, continuous sound that didn’t leave a doubt in her mind who was on the other side of the door. And it wasn’t Collin.

Simon.

Simon Masterson.

He’d probably read the article and was back to blame her. She swung open the door, ready to take him on and give him a piece of her mind…because it was obvious he didn’t have one of his own.

She’d told him his plan wouldn’t work.

“I told you—” she started, then realized it wasn’t Simon. “Bubbi?”

“Shh,” her grandmother said. “Hurry up and let me in before they catch me.”

3

ARI HELD THE DOOR open as Bubbi wheeled her walker into the living room.

“Close that door and lock it before they find me. I think I gave them the slip, but who knows? They’re cagey enough to figure out where I was going.”

“Who are they?” Ari asked as she closed and locked the door.

“The home. Shady Pines. They probably sent some of their goons to bring me back. After all, they want my money.”

“What money do they want?” Ari asked weakly.

Bubbi had broken her hip last fall and moved to Shady Pines, an assisted-living apartment complex in the heart of the city.

“Money? Why, the money I pay to live there. And they’re not getting any more. I’ve run away.”

“Bubbi, you can’t run away. If you don’t want to live there anymore, we can make other arrangements.”

This couldn’t be happening.

Truly, Ari just couldn’t deal with one more thing.

Not one more.

Tabloids, her parents fighting, lost jobs, lost fiancés, and now a runaway Bubbi?

No, it just wasn’t fair.

Just one short week ago she’d thought her world was perfect and now it was perfectly awful.

“Okay, you’re right,” her grandmother admitted. “I didn’t run away, I rolled away. My walker and I rolled right out the front door, hailed a cab and came here. I thought about going to your parents, but things have been weird there since Ralph retired. So I need to borrow your guest room until I can find someplace else to live.”

“Bubbi, you know you’re welcome to stay with me, but I thought you liked the retirement community.”

“I thought I did as well. At least until that man moved in. Now, I can’t stand it. Everywhere I go he follows me, he talks to me. Why, he even asked me to dance.”

So this wasn’t about problems at the home, but about a man.

“A man,” Ari said, the statement akin to a curse.

That made sense.

Men did tend to muck up things.

Look at Simon…and Collin. They were certainly making a mess of her life, so it figured that a man was responsible for her grandmother running away from the home.

Ari wasn’t quite sure she understood the tie between running away and dancing, but she certainly sympathized with the man part.

“Problems dear?” Bubbi asked, obviously picking up on Ari’s distress.

“I lost my job at the institute, and Collin broke up with me,” she admitted.

“I’m sorry about the job, but not about Collin. I never did like him. Just like I don’t like Hiram. Taunting me by asking me to dance.”

“You ran away because a man asked you to dance?”