Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 146548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 733(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 733(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Farrow nods understandingly, and he takes a swig from his pint.
I glance at my sister, checking on her briefly to see if she’s okay, before I look back at Oscar. “Does Donnelly know?” I wonder.
Oscar picks up his beer. “It’d be a little difficult to keep that from him, considering.”
“You’re around each other all the time,” I say into a nod. It makes sense since Beckett and Charlie live together. Their bodyguards would have to be close, too. And I glance at Farrow enough to ask, “Does that make you the third wheel?”
Farrow almost laughs. “I’m better than that, wolf scout.” His smile stretches while he stares right into me. “Plus, I’ve got the guy.”
Yeah, I try hard not to smile back at that. Critical failure.
Oscar slow-claps and then cranes his neck past us to glance at the bar. “What do we know about Highland?”
Farrow sets down his beer glass. “Straight.”
Oscar reaches for a pretzel bite. “We sure?”
“You have a crush on him?” I ask.
Oscar chokes on his food and smacks his chest a couple times. Farrow is laughing, but I’m not sure if it’s at me or Oscar.
“What’d I say?” My brows furrow.
“Crush.” Oscar shoots me a look. “Bro, do I look like your thirteen-year-old sister?”
“I don’t know, Oliveira,” Farrow says easily. “You could pull off goth.” Farrow runs his fingers up the back of my neck. It feels really good and distracts me from the fact that I’m not always great at fitting into their easy banter.
Tom drops a bowling ball a few lanes away and the clatter distracts us.
Great. I’m about to rise, but Oscar slips out of the booth first. “I’m going to go help your cousin not break a toe,” he tells me. I think in part to give me some alone time with Farrow, who appears at ease, but heaviness sits behind his eyes that I’m pretty sure Oscar can see as well as I can.
After Oscar walks down the lanes, I turn to face Farrow. He tugs off his boot and puts on the bowling shoe. He looks back at me, and I know something’s wrong.
“You want to talk about it?” I have to ask.
His chest falls, but he shakes his head. “Not today, wolf scout.”
I nod and practice some patience.
“You.” Kinney’s voice pitches. “You were late.” My little sister approaches with a goblet of purple liquid and a cinnamon stick.
“That looks disgusting,” I tell her.
“It tastes like hell and the bottom of my soul,” she says, slurping a large sip from the straw and then setting an epic glare onto Farrow.
I shoot her a warning look to go easy on him.
Farrow finishes tying his bowling shoes. “Next time I’ll be the first one here, Kinney.”
“There won’t be a next time. Your membership has been—”
“Kinney,” I say forcefully. “You want to be mad at someone, I’m right here.”
She shifts her glare to me.
“No,” Farrow says, leaning back casually. “If she wants to kick me out, let her kick me out.”
Hurt flashes in her eyes and then she shakes it off by staring up at the ceiling. Like she’s annoyed. She’s not. She just wants this day to go better than it has.
And I really want this Holly girl’s number so I can fix this.
“But Kinney,” Farrow says. “If you do kick me out, I’ll still show up with my boyfriend.”
She slides into the booth next to him, her lips pressed in a line. As though she gives no fucks, but she’s almost smiling. “Fine,” she deadpans. “Membership reinstated.”
My shoulders loosen a bit, and I push the basket of chips towards Kinney. Just as she goes to grab a handful, her phone rings.
“Is that Holly?” I ask.
She checks her phone. “No.” But she’s not frowning in disappointment. Kinney hoists the phone, preparing for FaceTime. “Hey,” she greets.
“Is she there?” Audrey Cobalt asks, her whimsical voice on the line.
Kinney shakes her head. “MIA. I can’t text her for a fourth time. It’d be desperate.”
“I disagree,” Audrey replies. “Desperation is just another word for madly devoted. You should try again. Fifth and sixth times are the charm, they say.”
Kinney smiles and then flashes the screen to Farrow and me.
Red hair, pale freckled skin, and a smile that could charm just about anyone stares back at me. Her lavish pink room looks like it was made for a princess.
You know Audrey Virginia Cobalt as the thirteen-year-old hopeless romantic. In her spare time, she reads adult romance novels and narrates all the “blush-worthy” parts on her Instagram. You think she talks like she’s been factory-made from a Jane Austen novel, and you salivate for any photo she takes with her big sister Jane. You wonder what it would be like to grow up as the youngest with five Cobalt brothers, but she rarely tells you.
I know her as my little cousin, the baby in the entire Hale, Meadows, Cobalt brood. The girl who bakes cookies for her crushes that are far out of her league. Who falls madly in love with the idea of love more than the actual reality. She’s fiercely loyal to her friends and just as fierce to her family.