Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 21448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
“What are you doing?” I glare at her. “Why don’t you go talk to one of the jocks? They’d probably be less dickish than this guy.”
The girl looks so innocent. It almost breaks my heart that she’s gotten herself tangled up with Brent, who no doubt has some ulterior motive for hitting on her tonight.
“You need to calm down, Luna,” Brent says, his voice low and calm. “This is Chloe, Claire’s little sister. Claire asked me to come here tonight because there’s a guy on campus who’s been harassing Chloe, and she wanted me to look out and make sure nothing happened.”
I don’t know if I’m just imagining things or not, but all of a sudden, I start feeling warm inside. It’s right in my chest too, so I better not just be feeling like I’m about to puke again.
“Seriously?” I ask.
Brent and Chloe both nod. “Seriously,” she says.
Brent is looking at me right now the way he would look at me when we were together: his eyes filled with a bright twinkle and his lips twisted up in the most charming way imaginable.
Even if it was only a couple of days we spent together, nothing I do now to convince myself that he’s a terrible man can keep me from looking back on those days and feeling anything but elated.
“And what? Chloe just happened to be at this party tonight so you and I could just run into each other?” I ask. “What was that? Pure coincidence?”
Brent smiles and steps closer. He looms over me like a statue of masculinity. And even through the smell of cologne and perfume and beer and vape flavors, the scent of him through it all and settles familiarly in my nostrils.
“No, not coincidence.” Brent smiles, taking both my hands in his. “I’d say that’s the universe telling us something.”
My head is spinning now, but it has nothing to do with how much I’ve had to drink.
“Oh? And what’s that?”
“That even if you refuse to take my calls and refuse to come down to the farm to fill out purchase orders, you and I are still meant for each other.”
14
BRENT
My blood is still boiling from the image of Craig with his arm around Luna.
Part of me wants to go find him and beat the ever-living hell out of him, but I know that’s the wrong move. I don’t need to escalate things any further, and kicking the crap out of a kid ten years younger than me isn’t a good look.
I get what Luna was doing, though. She was trying to make me jealous, and it worked. What I want to know is if those two have been up to anything in the last three weeks that she and I haven’t seen each other.
She’s gone and ignited a little spark in my mind that I can’t seem to put out. But seeing as how she managed to get rid of Craig so quickly, my guess is it was all for show. But if he’s had his hands on her at all while I’ve been trying to get back in touch with her…
I push the thought into the back of my mind and look directly at Luna, who has clearly had too much to drink tonight. The angry little smile on her lips pops into a giggle.
“You and me are meant for each other?” she asks. “Did you really just say that?”
“I sure did.”
“What do you think this is? A rom-com and I’m just going to fall into your arms so you can sweep me back to my dorm and make sweet, sweet love to me?”
She’s looking back at me like she’s challenging me. My heart is about to rupture within my chest. I didn’t realize just how big tonight was going to be until this very moment, and now it’s like a floodgate of emotion has opened, and we’re both about to be carried away in the rush of the waters.
“Luna, I grew up on the farm and watched my dad run it as I dreamt of bigger and better things. Like getting out and becoming a bigtime lawyer or a surgeon. But my father insisted that the farm stay in the family. ‘This will all be yours’ he used to say. ‘You don’t appreciate it now, but one day you will.’”
Luna’s expression changes slightly. She looks at me like for the first time tonight, she’s actually seeing me. And not just the Brent she believes did her wrong.
“Okay?” she replies.
“But I didn’t listen. I busted my ass for a scholarship to NYU and left. Then one night during my sophomore year, my mom called and said his heart was giving out and he’d been rushed to the hospital.”
“Oh my God…”
“I packed a bag and sped home, but by the time I got there, it was too late. He was gone.”