Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
“Hey.” It felt like the whole world softened when she was around. “Sorry, sweetheart. I was trying to get away from whatever Kala and Coop are doing and not paying attention. You okay?”
She smiled up at him, tucking a piece of golden-brown hair behind her ear. “What did she do now? I thought they were mad at each other.”
“I don’t think that would stop them.” TJ fell into step beside her. This was pretty much where he always wanted to be.
He wanted it so much he couldn’t ever risk not having it. Despite her big brain, she was so young. Barely sixteen and already graduating as the valedictorian of the class. He would be almost nineteen when he graduated because his parents had been advised to hold him back from starting kindergarten. Yup. He’d been too dumb to start school with everyone else.
“And you have to stop calling me sweetheart,” she said with a curl to her lips. “Dennis isn’t exactly my boyfriend, but I don’t want him to get the wrong idea about us.”
Guilt flashed through him, but he shoved it back. It was better for her to be a little hurt now than utterly be humiliated. Even if Dennis had been honest that he truly liked Lou, it would have gotten out if she’d gone to prom with him.
If she’d slept with him…
“Will do,” he promised. “No more sweethearts. Only LouLous.”
Her nose wrinkled into the cutest expression. “Weirdo. I’m going to be late. See you at lunch.”
“Wouldn’t miss it.” He watched as she walked away.
It was better this way. This was how it had to be.
* * * *
“I just…I thought he liked me.” Lou took the tissue Kenzie offered her.
She’d been crying all day over that jerk face. At least in the privacy of her own room, she could let it rip.
This was what she got for being full of herself. She’d eagerly accepted Dennis’s invite to the prom because it meant TJ wouldn’t have to step up and offer to be her date. That had been in the works, or so she’d heard. It had been a relief when Dennis had asked her. Everyone would know she and TJ were going as friends. And everyone would know that wasn’t what she wanted.
She was pathetic. She wasn’t really crying over stupid Dennis.
She was crying over TJ. Always, always TJ. Theo Taggart, Jr. She’d met him and suddenly understood why girls went crazy for boys. Though she’d only ever truly wanted TJ. She’d thought if she spent time with Dennis, maybe her heart could change.
Kenzie settled in beside her. “Do you want Kala to kill him?”
“Already offered.” Kala sat on her other side.
Lou sniffled. She’d been positively energized this morning thinking about the fact that she had a date. Maybe this would prove to her that she wasn’t forever cursed to love a boy who couldn’t love her back.
And then Dennis had stopped her after trig and explained that he’d forgotten he’d promised to take someone else to prom and crap, he felt bad, but them’s the breaks. Or something like that. It had been fast and he’d practically run away from her, leaving her standing in the middle of the hall with tears in her eyes.
“I think he found someone he wanted to go with more than me.” It was hard to be the youngest person in her class. She’d only legally been able to drive the second half of her senior year. Not that she hadn’t practiced. TJ let her use his car so she could get some time behind the wheel. He would take her and his sister, Devi, out of the city and patiently teach them.
Her mom got too nervous. Her dad often fell asleep because he was the chillest human on earth.
TJ was a close second. She’d never told him how comfortable she was with him, how the energy he gave off calmed her. TJ was solid. Like her dad.
TJ could calm her down when she got wound up. He brought her out of her head when she thought too much. She enjoyed who she was when she was around TJ.
But while TJ was perfect for her, she wasn’t the right one for him.
“I could kill her, too,” Kala replied. “Just have to find out who she is and the hit will be in.”
“We’re not killing anyone,” Kenzie said, sitting up straighter.
Lou blessed the day these two came into her life. She’d been twelve when the older girls had taken her under their wings, and Lou had friends for the first time. Kala especially, but Kenzie had been there for her, too. When her mother had married Boomer Ward, she’d become a part of this big found family. Boomer worked with the twins’ parents at their company McKay-Taggart. It was more than a workplace. Suddenly Lou found herself accepted by some of the coolest kids she’d ever met.