Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“Love you, Valley, but I’m not in the fucking mood.”
“You know what has never stopped me from nagging? A guy not being in the mood,” she said, moving forward to lean against the railing. “So, what’s her name?”
“Who?”
“Oh, come on. You’ve checked your phone four times since I walked out here. I know lovesick when I see it. What’s her name?”
“Cammie. And I’m not in love with her.”
“Just a little infatuated then,” she said. “Which is still a big deal. How are you doing? These are big feelings for you.”
“Are you really talking to me like I’m a pre-schooler?”
“Are you really dealing with your emotions like a pre-schooler?” she shot back.
Valley was a teacher at the Labret Academy. Which was a fancy-ass school for the ultra-rich elite children.
It was a giant, sprawling school that they’d built over in Mareville—home of the ultra-rich elite parents.
Growing up in a big family, she’d always had an affinity for children. And after a year in public school, she decided she wanted to work somewhere that gave teachers the respect and salary and budgets they deserved. Despite the fact that, because of the Family, she’d never have to worry about the money.
It’s the principle of the thing.
“So I need to point you to the feelings chart?” she asked, smirking at me.
“You have a feelings chart?”
“Some kids aren’t raised in positive-parenting environments. They don’t know how to communicate their feelings. Charts help. And since you have that I’m a big strong man, I don’t have emotions thing going for you, I think I might need to start carrying a pocket chart.”
“I can’t talk to you about it because it has to do with work,” I told her.
“This woman has to do with work?” she asked, shaking her head. “What is it with the men in this family? Can any of your meet a woman at the supermarket?”
“Sure. If Smush didn’t go to the supermarket for us,” I said, nodding.
“So, minus the details you can’t tell me about, you like this woman?”
“It’s complicated, but yes.”
“And she’s ghosting you?”
“Like I said, it’s complicated. But I always talk to her at night around nine.”
“It’s ten.”
“Yeah, but…”
“I mean I give a guy a grace period of ten minutes before I turn off my phone. Respect my time, or you won’t be privy to it, you know?”
“I don’t think she’s like that, Valley,” I said, shaking my head. “And there are… reasons we need to be in touch at night.”
“Alright, well, text her and explain then.”
“I can’t. It’s—“
“Complicated,” she cut me off.
“Yeah.”
“On a scale of one to you-getting-shot-and-Josie-getting-kidnapped, how worried are you about her right now?”
“Somewhere in the middle.”
“So, you’re leaving,” she concluded.
“I have to.”
“Okay. I will tell everyone that something came up. Do you want me to find Nino and August?”
“No. They’ll head back when they are done here. I am going to just go and check things out.”
“Okay. Be careful, will you?”
“Always, Valls,” I said, moving closer to press a kiss to her cheek.
“I want to meet her, you know,” she called as I moved down the steps of the porch, wanting to avoid going back into the house. “She’s got to be pretty awesome if you looked twice at her.”
She was.
And I was dying to bring her to meet my family.
I just had to make sure she was okay first.
As it would turn out, all my worrying wasn’t for nothing.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cammie
I honestly didn’t know if I was supposed to be obsessing as much about the Massimo situation as I was.
It had been so long since I’d been with someone, and longer still since I’d been with someone I wasn’t already in a relationship with, that I felt really uncertain and out of my depths.
I mean, for all I knew, it was a one-time thing, and all my obsessing was a complete and utter waste of time.
At least it was time well wasted, though. It kept me distracted from the sad reality of my life.
A life that, if all went according to plan, was going to change drastically in a short amount of time.
It was killing me, not being able to tell Nicky and Lucas about how close we were to having whatever we wanted. But not telling them put them at less risk. Which was the most important part. I was willing to take all the risks on myself, but I wasn’t going to do that to them.
I was anxious about the, you know, event itself. But my whole part in it was relatively easy.
Lock the doors.
Hide in the bathtub.
Even if something went sideways, there was no way for Colin to know it was me who brought assassins into his home, so it would make sense if I heard gunshots and went to hide in the bathtub.
I mean, I couldn’t even let myself think about it going wrong. Because if it went wrong, that meant something could happen to Massimo. Or his brothers.