Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Not this.
Not the actual truth.
“Gemma,” I growl in warning, gassing it to get us through a yellow light in a hurry. “Back off. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Her vicious black fingernail stabs in my direction. “Do not gaslight me. It’s so obvious!”
“I’m not gaslighting you—whatever the fuck that means,” I bark out in frustration. “I’m just saying mind your own damn business.”
“No.” She crosses her arms over her chest, scowling my way. “You will tell me. I won’t let it go until you admit you like Sloane.”
I don’t make it to the next light in time and end up having to slam on the brakes as it turns red. While we wait, I shoot my twin a withering glare. “Enough.”
“Okay, Dad,” she snips back. “You say it’s enough and I’ll back off.” She snorts out a laugh. “Seriously, you don’t get to do that to me and it works. Try again.”
Unbelievable.
How is it that I’m so obvious?
Do I walk around with fucking hearts in my eyes for all to see?
“You like her,” Gemma accuses, “because she’s hot and it’ll piss Mom off if you sleep with her!”
The light turns green and someone honks at me to go. I peel out, grinding my teeth to hold in mean words, but eventually, they burst out anyway.
“Fuck off. You and everyone else always think I’m out to ruin the world. Fuck you and fuck them.”
Gemma huffs and then starts rapid firing texts to someone. Probably Mom or Willa. Whatever. It’s not like I care if she tattles. Boo-fucking-hoo. I stood up for myself. I’m tired of everyone treating me like I’m rotten trash. My sister doesn’t get to demand to know my life and then throw a tantrum when I don’t tell her.
We drive the rest of the way to Sloane’s in pissed-off silence. When we reach her neighborhood, I start to panic. Will Sloane feel the tension between me and Gemma? Will she think it’s because of her?
Fuck.
I pull over just inside the neighborhood and put the vehicle in park. Turning in my seat, I try to meet my sister’s furious stare.
“Hey. Yo. Womb mate.”
Her lips twitch at one side. “Don’t call me that. Sounds incestuous.”
I do know what that word means. “Hardy har har.”
“I’m not trying to be a bitch, you know,” she says softly, not looking at me. “I just care about you. What I said was mean and uncalled for. I’m sorry.”
The tension in my shoulders eases up. “She is hot,” I admit with a stupid grin, “but I’m not going to sleep with her to make Mom mad. I would never do that to Sloane.”
She snaps her head my way, big blue eyes darting all over my face. Then she frowns at whatever she sees. “Oh, Dempsey. You don’t like her. You’re in love with her.”
My heart aches at her words. “Stupid and pointless. I know.”
She reaches one of her clawed hands my way and clutches my forearm. “I’m guessing she doesn’t know how much you like her?”
“Nope.”
“And you don’t want to tell her?”
“Fuck no,” I growl. “It’s humiliating enough that you know.”
“Unrequited love. Such a tragedy.”
“I don’t know what the hell unrequited means, but a tragedy seems fitting.”
“I’m going to find you someone sweet and perfect when we start PMU this fall,” she assures me. “Someone who’s going to love you right back.”
I have no doubt that Gemma will do her best to make that happen.
Unfortunately, I won’t be interested.
The thing about love is you can’t just wish it away even if you know you’ll never have a chance with the other person. No matter how much you want to deny it, it just won’t fucking go away.
Now that my secret is out, I continue driving us through Sloane’s neighborhood and park in her driveway. It’s hard to believe just a few days ago I was climbing into her bedroom window, craving a helluva lot more than just one sweet touch that would’ve been the death of me.
“I won’t say anything to anyone,” Gemma assures me. “Promise.”
I give her a nod of thanks before climbing out to face the woman I’m all in knots over. Before I reach the porch, the front door opens and Kaden races out.
“Duuuude, this is going to be awesome!”
I grin at him and we fist-bump before he heads for the car. Sloane turns her back to me as she locks the front door. She’s wearing jeans that hug her ass, showing off each and every sinful curve. Fuck, this is going to be difficult.
“Ready to get hot and sweaty?”
She swivels around, revealing her owlishly round eyes. “W-What?”
“Hiking,” I tease. “In the summer. We’re basically going to die.”
Her body relaxes and she laughs. “Just be thankful I forced that kid to put on deodorant. He actually tried to get out of it.”