Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Familiarity hit me. I glanced from Sarah to Aria to Jared.
I knew him.
He was Sarah’s cousin. I’d witnessed the awful moment he’d told Sarah that their grandfather had died. Their grandfather … the farmer.
From whom Jared had inherited the farm.
Oh my God.
“Jared, this is my little sister, Allegra. She’s only twenty and in college in the States,” Aria added pointedly.
My head whipped around as I glowered at my sister. At her not-so-subtle warning.
But as Sarah and Theo approached and everyone greeted one another, I let my gaze wander to Jared. Whatever warmth had been in his expression was gone, replaced by a guarded look when our eyes met.
That wariness hurt more than it should, considering we barely knew each other, so as a whole group of us huddled around a booth, I did my best to be friendly to everyone. To engage. But my body was still wound up from the anticipation of sex and the disappointment of it not happening. I couldn’t help the way my attention drifted back to Jared as he sat directly opposite me. I wanted that warmth back. I wanted him to reveal his obvious attraction from earlier. He wouldn’t.
So I pestered him with questions about the farm, showing him my interest had not waned upon the discovery that our family members were friends.
But his interest had waned.
Jared made that perfectly obvious when he excused himself from our table and began flirting with some woman at the bar. She was attractive and definitely older than me.
They left together.
And I told myself the crushing feeling in my chest was an overreaction, and I should probably talk to my therapist about why.
Yet I think I knew why.
Some people I met, when they discovered who my family was, just wanted to hang around me to be near the spotlight and success and fame. Others assumed negative things about me, that I was spoiled and pampered and didn’t know a damn thing about real life. My own family thought that, so why not him?
Or—my rational mind fought through my insecurities—maybe he realized it was too complicated to hook up with someone in his friendship circle.
It doesn’t matter, anyway, I told myself as I left the bar with my sister and her fiancé. I didn’t want to hook up with a guy who could so easily trade in sex with me for someone else on the same night. That was a turnoff. I didn’t want to be interchangeable.
Even if it was just sex … I wanted to feel wanted for me in that moment, not just a body.
I had more important things to worry about than a stupid attraction to Jared McCulloch.
Like where I was going to live when college finished next year. What I was going to do. How I was going to build my business as an artist. How I could find a way to be close to Aria, who was the one person in the world who made me feel safe.
So much to think about.
When you’re a kid, no one talks about how overwhelming being an adult will be. One minute, there’s structure and safety and rules to guide you … and the next you’re flung out into the big wide world and expected to fly with wings you’ve never used before.
It didn’t help when those wings were a little broken.
But I had to figure out how to use mine. And fast.
One
Allegra
Present day
Edinburgh Airport, Scotland
Sudden nerves filled my belly as I watched the frown deepen on the customs attendant’s face. This was taking longer than it usually did, and I should know. Since graduating from art school four years ago, I’d been flying back and forth to Scotland. Legally, I could only stay for six months on a visitor’s visa, so I’d fly wherever the wind blew me for a few months and then fly back to Scotland for another six months.
Suddenly, she looked up, expression blank. “You’ll need to come with me, Ms. Howard.”
My heart thudded in my chest. “Why?”
“Come with me, please,” she insisted sharply.
Okay. Yeah. Don’t argue with customs officials, Allegra!
Feeling like I was being led to jail, I followed the short, scary woman beyond the customs desks, ignoring the curious gazes of the other passengers behind me. She held open a door for me, gesturing me inside a small room.
Thankfully, I didn’t have a ton of luggage because I’d slowly brought everything I needed over here these last few years. But I was going to miss my connecting flight to Inverness if whatever this was didn’t end soon. I said as much to the attendant and she ignored me, gesturing toward a standard table with a chair on either side. To my frazzled, jet-lagged brain, it looked like an interrogation room.
I let go of my small carry-on roller bag and slumped into the chair. “What’s going on?”