Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 136025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“Are you here for business or pleasure? We have an excellent guidebook of Cleveland if you’re sightseeing. Let me just…” She crouches to find a brochure in the cabinet.
Maximoff puts his arm on the counter. “We’re just here for tomorrow—”
“Izzy!” A girl rushes out of the back employees only room, dressed in an identical blue blazer, and she waves her cellphone. Squealing. “Izzy, Izzy, you have to see this!”
Maximoff rotates, his back to them.
Izzy clears her throat and whispers, “We have guests, Sana.”
Sana swings her head to me. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry…” Her voice trails off, and she eyes my neck tattoos and my lip, nose, and brow piercing, plus my earring. She presses her lips together to keep from smiling. “Sorry, it’s just that the H.M.C. FanCon announced its first city.” She spins to Izzy. “And they’re coming here.” She bounces on her feet with a grin.
I smile and pop my gum in my mouth. I step back a little from the counter. Just so I can see Maximoff.
His lips rise, and he mouths, should I tell them? He realizes it’s only a matter of time, too.
I shake my head and mouth, not yet.
“The FanCon is in this hotel?” Izzy asks.
“Not here here,” Sana clarifies and speaks to me. “It’s in the Regala Hotel, much larger and more convention space. It’s one mile from here. I can give you directions if you need them.”
I suck in a breath and decide to irritate Maximoff a little. “Never heard of an H.M.C. FanCon.”
He shoots me a look.
My smile stretches.
Sana gawks. “Have you not been online in the past twenty-four hours?”
“I’ve been working,” I say easily. “Is it about comics or something?”
“No, it’s the biggest meet-and-greet tour of the past decade.” Sana rocks on the balls of her feet. “Maximoff Hale, Sullivan Meadows, Jane, Charlie and Beckett Cobalt will all be in the same room together. We haven’t seen that…ever.”
“In years,” Izzy corrects. “They’ve probably been together at least once.” She slides over a brochure. “Here’s that sightseeing guide I mentioned before—”
“Izzy, this is all the sightseeing he needs,” Sana says and then turns to me. “You should look into the FanCon. Tickets will sell out soon.”
Izzy nods. “I heard they’ll go within the hour.”
Maximoff smiles a more heartfelt one. He’s dedicated most of his time to raise money for charity, and knowing this tour helps other people means everything to him.
I rub my thumb over my lip piercing. “What would you do if you saw one of them?”
“The five?” Sana asks, hand to her heart. “I live for any photographs of them together. Can you imagine the camaraderie? The friendship? The loyalty?”
I can do better than imagine. I’ve seen the friendship and loyalty with all of them but two. Charlie and Maximoff created a fissure within “the five” that’s palpable. They haven’t even spoken one word to each other since we started driving.
I chew my gum slower and lean into the counter. “Not a photo. If you met them in real life.”
“Like at the FanCon?” Sana asks.
I’m worried she may faint if Maximoff turns around. It wouldn’t be the first time. The most memorable was in Philly at Lucky’s Diner. A boy passed out on a plate of pancakes when Maximoff waved to him. Someone shouted for a doctor, and no one stood, so I assessed the kid.
He suffered only from embarrassment.
“Who’s your favorite?” Izzy suddenly asks me.
I tilt my head. “Favorite…?”
“Favorite Hale, Meadows, or Cobalt.” She pushes up her glasses. “Mine is Lily Calloway. She’s…” Izzy just smiles.
I know. Lily is endearing. I miss how she’d text me random shit about tortilla-shaped blankets and superhero memes. But she hasn’t messaged me since I broke her trust.
“Mine is Ryke Meadows,” Sana chimes in. “He’s such a DILF.”
Maximoff barely flinches, used to people fawning over his parents and uncles and aunts.
I restrain a laugh. “That’s great—”
“And I love all the Cobalts,” Sana adds, “except for Jane Cobalt.”
This took a bad turn. I tap the counter, tentative, and I’m about to interject. But she speaks quickly.
“She’s always seemed pretentious and just unmotivated. Everyone in her family has done something extraordinary, and she’s just…blah. If I was a Cobalt, I wouldn’t be wasting my potential like her.”
Shit.
Maximoff mouths, I can’t.
He can’t reveal himself now. He’d crush this girl.
I hold onto the key cards. I can’t let him go to a room without me.
Here’s some unspoken history catalogued only by security (not public): two men tried to jump Maximoff in a hotel hallway when he was fifteen. Unprovoked. His old bodyguard escorted him to safety, but that shit is why he’s stuck with me 24/7.
Izzy asks me again, “So who’s your favorite?”
“Maximoff Hale,” I say without pause.
His chest lifts in an aroused breath.
My smile is killing me. I rub my mouth a couple times.