Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 82271 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82271 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
I feel myself nodding; I don’t trust my words or the way that if I suddenly start talking, they’ll tumble out in an awkward and embarrassing amount of crying.
“I’m sorry.” Ari wraps her arms around my neck. “I’m so sorry.”
I’m finally able to mutter, “Thanks.”
“Let me get some clothes on and walk you back.”
I don’t say no because I don’t want to leave her for one second. By the time she’s dressed and we sneak out of the house it’s close to three in the morning and I know I’m only going to get a few hours of sleep.
We walk in silence across the grass toward the guys’ house.
Slowly, she fits her hand into mine and clutches it.
I let her, knowing that the cameras won’t pick anything up until we get closer to the pool.
Maybe ten more steps.
She squeezes it tight.
I turn to kiss her when a voice interrupts us. “Wow you guys are up late.”
I drop Ari’s hand and freeze. Five seconds go by before I turn around and smile. It’s Iseul. “Yeah well we had a contract to go over.”
Iseul has her running gear on and is dressed in all black, including her beanie. “Huh, I’ve never done contracts that late at night or I guess, early in the morning, then again I am up early for a run so, everyone has their hours.” She flashes me a cruel smile. “Anyway, hope the negotiations were good.”
She runs off.
Me and Ari just stand there next to each other.
“Will she,” Ari shudders. “Say anything?”
“Say what?” I pretend not to be effected. “That she saw us walking in the dark?”
“We were holding hands.”
“I don’t think she saw our hands.”
“And if she did?” Ari asks. “What’s our story?”
“Oh, we’ll come up with something like, he’s sad and she was comforting him and has been his friend for years, we’ll lie unless you want the truth. If I had a vote, it would be the truth, just so you know.”
“Truth.” She repeats. “So we tell everyone what? We’ve been involved for years? Kissing? Sneaking around? Sleeping together?”
I frown. “Is that all this is?” I want to punch a wall. “We aren’t just sneaking around and getting off, we love each other, big difference.”
“Yeah, but who would believe us?”
“Does it matter?”
“It always does, Sookie.”
I kiss her quickly on the forehead after looking around. “Go to bed, I’ll see you in a few hours, the call sheet has us up early and we have a lot of filming to do.”
“We’re good, right?” Ari asks.
I want to nod, I want to say yes, I want to do so many things, but I just confessed one of my darkest secrets and saw Israel while holding hands with Ari.
I need to be careful. We need to be careful. “We’re good.”
Ari’s smile reaches her eyes, making me smile back.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ari
I don’t hold his hand on the way back in because of the cameras and I can shake the feeling that Iseul is suspicious and already has a grudge all things considering, the last thing we need is for her to put a spotlight on Sookie.
I’m still processing the fact that he struggled with that all on his own through high school on top of the insane schedule of being a trainee.
Sookie walks into the house a few feet in front of me and looks down at his phone then curses.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” He slides the phone back into his jeans and gives me a smile. “Thanks for the information on the contract, a little boring but worth it.”
“Boring?” My eyes narrow. “Oh, I thought I made a few good points, some might even say I made you scream out in joy.”
“Some.” He smiles, the dimple in his right cheek is so damn adorable, I can tell he wants to kiss me again, he wants to reach out and grab me the way I want to grab him. The tension is almost unbearable, but I look up at the small black cameras in each corner of the room and kitchen blinking down at us and know better than to get any closer to him, they’d use the footage even if it destroyed him.
“Night.” He walks down the hall while I turn around and nearly run into Rae. He looks exhausted, his blonde hair’s ruffled, and he looks like he accidentally fell asleep in his jeans and white t-shirt.
Rae rubs his eyes. “What are you doing here so early? Was that Sookie?”
Shit, shit, shit. “Yeah, I had to go over some scheduling things and remind him of his contract, plus the Director wants him to play up his relationship again with both girls.” I lie smoothly, it’s more or less a white lie since technically it’s partially true. Director Simon did instruct him to do that.
Rae yawns wide behind his hand. “Sucks for him, guy’s not even legally allowed to date yet is he? Isn’t that part of his contract?”