Flirting with Pete: A Novel

Flirting with Pete: A Novel

In this “d ramatic and satisfying” ( The Houston Chronicle ) New York Times bestseller, a female psychologist becomes involved in the case history of a troubled young woman after finding a journal in the Boston townhouse recently bequeathed to her by her estranged father. Casey Ellis is in lonely place in her life. Her mother remains in a comatose state several years after a terrible accident when Casey is rocked by the news that her estranged father has suddenly died. Although she never met him, she held onto the hope that someday her father—the celebrated psychologist Dr. Cornelis Unger—might reach out to her. So it comes as a shock when she learns that she has inherited his beautiful townhouse in Boston’s exclusive Beacon Hill. Sensing that her father had an ulterior motive in leaving her the property, Casey searches the house and finds a strange, incomplete manuscript. It tells the harrowing story of a young woman named Jenny who was abused by her parents. When her mother was murdered, her father was sent to prison. After only six years in jail, he is about to be released, and Jenny knows she has to escape. Her way out appears in the form of a man named Pete who shows up on his motorcycle and offers to whisk her away. Convinced the story is true, Casey sets out to find the rest of the pages and help Jenny. With the discovery of each additional segment, she learns more about Jenny, about herself, and about Cornelius Unger. Will it be the key to understanding not only her father’s past but also that of the man Casey has come to love? Moving and highly emotional, Flirting with Pete is “another ‘I didn’t want to put it down’ novel from Delinsky” ( Library Journal ). Houston Chronicle Dramatic and satisfying. "Houston Chronicle" Dramatic and satisfying. "Houston Chronicle"Dramatic and satisfying. "Houston Chronicle" Dramatic and satisfying. "Houston Chronicle" Dramatic and satisfying. Barbara Delinsky has written more than twenty New York Times bestselling novels, with over thirty million copies in print. Her books are highly emotional, character-driven studies of marriage, parenthood, sibling rivalry, and friendship. She is also the author of a breast cancer handbook. A breast cancer survivor herself, Barbara donates her author proceeds from the handbook to fund a research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Visit her at BarbaraDelinsky.com. Flirting with Pete Chapter One BOSTON The memorial service was held in a dark stone church on Boston’s Marlboro Street, not far from where Cornelius Unger had lived and worked. It took place on a sunny Wednesday in June, three weeks after the man’s death, just as he had instructed. Whatever had occurred before then had been private and small. Casey Ellis had not been invited. She sat four rows from the back of the church, and a more genteel audience she couldn’t imagine. There was no sniffling, no whispering, no sighs or moans or wails. Sorrow was not a factor here. This was a professional gathering, a crowd of men and women wearing the neutral shades of those who would rather see than be seen. These were researchers and therapists, present today because Connie Unger had been an eminent leader in their field for more than forty years. The packed house attested as much to the man’s longevity as to his brilliance. Casey would have bet on the fact that of the several hundred gathered here, she was the only one with an emotional stake, and she included his wife in the count. It was well known that the renowned Dr. Unger kept his spouse in a lovely home on the North Shore, where she did her own thing, while he lived alone in Boston and visited her on the occasional weekend. Connie liked private time. He disliked social gatherings. He had colleagues, not friends, and if he had family in the form of sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, or cousins, no one knew of them. He had never had children with his wife. Casey was his daughter by a woman he had never married, a woman to whom he had never said more than a dozen words after their single night together. Since no one here knew about that night or about Casey, to them she was just one more face in the crowd. On the other hand, she knew quite a few people here, though not thanks to her father. He had never acknowledged her, had never reached out, offered help, opened a door. There had never been child support. Casey’s mother hadn’t asked for it, and by the time Casey learned the name of her father, she was so heavily into teenage defiance that she wouldn’t have approached the man if her life had depended on it. Elements of that defiance remained. Casey was pleased to sit near the back of the church, just one more colleague taking a long lunch hour. She was pleased to think that her presence here was more than the man deserved. She was pleased to think that she would leave the church and never look back. Focusing on these things was easier than acknowledging the loss. She had never fo