Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 82949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
I don’t think we share that same common ground.
“Your mom saved me from a dog when I was five years old.” Dion clears his throat from behind me, and I don’t bother to look when I feel him right beside me. I can’t hide the surprise on my face. “My mom had made me deliver newspapers to make money. Mr. Harper’s Pomeranian chased me out his gate and bit my ass.”
I burst out laughing, rolling my lips behind my teeth. “I’m sorry. I’m not laughing…”
“No, no, you totally are.” He lowers himself down onto the sandy step, and I quickly divert my eyes back to the ocean when I notice him watching me. “Your mom was a good woman, Shi.” His gaze drifts off in front of himself before he whispers, so low I almost miss it, “It’s why it can’t be you.”
My mouth opens, ready to ask him what he means by that when Cooper’s arms wrap around my torso. Tears prick the corner of my eyes again, and I swallow past the rock forming in my throat. “I’m so sorry, baby girl.”
I turn in his arms and wrap my arms around his neck. There’s a kind of comfort that comes from having a best friend. The kind of friendship you know that you can turn to even when you’re at your lowest.
“I, Coop—”
“Shhh…” His bright blue eyes glisten with unshed tears as he brings his thumb to my cheek and swipes mine off. “Don’t need to talk. I’m here for as long as you need.” Cooper looks down at his cousin, his brow curving upward. “Unless two Quinns are too much?”
“No.” I shake my head, resting it on his shoulder.
“I know it’s only been a day, but we need to talk about—”
I wave my hand up in front of me. “Ma always wanted to be cremated and scattered over the ocean.”
Cooper follows my sight. “Alright. Well, we can do that.”
“Low-key.” I swipe the excess tears off my cheeks. “I don’t want to make it a big thing. She wouldn’t have wanted that anyway.”
Cooper chuckles, wrapping his arm around the back of my head and gesturing me down to the stair beside Dion. “Miss P didn’t like half the people in this town. I can’t imagine her wanting anyone really anywhere near her.”
A sad smile touches my lips, and before I can swipe it away, the realization of everything hits me like a Mack truck. “I’m never going to see her again.”
Silence stretches between the three of us. It almost feels strange. Or maybe I expect it to feel strange, and the fact that it doesn’t is alarming to me.
“Well, Dion, good fucking job at making the police hang around,” Malyk says from behind us.
He rounds my side, slowly lowering himself on the other, and I watch as confusion washes over Cooper’s face. I already know the questions he wants to ask, but I also know my best friend, and as much as he’s a demander of secrets—especially if they’re mine—he won’t step on my toes to get to the answers.
I hope.
I slid my hand across the marble counter, tracing the cracks and lines. I knew what I was going to ask the second I stepped back in here. The week before was slow. I hadn’t heard anything from either of them which worked. It was the only way to do it.
A glass was placed on the counter. A tattoo-covered hand over the top. “You know what you’re doing?”
I found his eyes instantly, tilting my head to the side. “I don’t know. Should I know?”
He gave nothing away. I hated it about him. He was painfully aloof. He could be undressing you or planning your murder. You’d never know. “Then I guess we will figure it out.”
The music slipped to a slower tune as the chatter around us quietened. I could feel my skin tingle, the alcohol long since settling through my blood. The lights flicked on, pointing toward the stage. I turned, brushing my long hair over my shoulder. A girl hung by her ankles by rope, leading up to the ceiling. Completely nude, she raised her head up at us, the bloodred lipstick on her lips smudged in a wide smile. The black mascara that lined her eyes was smudged, and there was something about her that made me uneasy. It’s as the first time I had seen it. Usually, they danced. They had sex. They did other things as other people had sex with them.
This was different. I felt it.
I looked over her body, careful not to flinch. One movement and they’d know. They always knew, and I had to be careful.
So fucking careful.
Her skin was unblemished, her hair pin straight.
Maybe she was there as a prop. Acting.
The bidding started, and I hung back, clearing my throat. I didn’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that.