Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“Way to violate the bro code, man,” Davis apprised me with a shake of his head.
I laughed, and he smiled back, and I heard Bodhi sigh beside me like everything was going to be okay.
When Bridget returned, she waited while Bodhi took a sip. His eyes widened, which made her smile.
“This is awesome,” he told her.
She gave him a waggle of her eyebrows, passed Hayden his drink, and then passed me a small quiche that smelled amazing.
“It’s just cheese and spinach. I didn’t know if you were a bacon man or not.”
“I am, but this is perfect,” I assured her, and noted that her smile lingered on me before she left to take other orders.
“She is smitten as usual,” Bodhi said with a grunt.
“The hell is that supposed to mean?”
“As always, you’re effortlessly charming.”
“Me?”
“Yes,” Davis said, and when I looked at him, he was grinning. “I had no idea. Bodhi never said this about you.”
“No? He didn’t tell you how awesome I was?”
Davis chuckled. “He didn’t, but he did say other things.”
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
“Just how long you’ve been partners, and that for his entire career, there’s been you.”
“That’s true,” I agreed, digging into the quiche.
“You could share,” Bodhi goaded me.
“It’s tiny,” I griped at him.
“Remember to chew.”
“I always chew, unlike Dorsey.”
“All those brothers of his, remember?”
I grinned at him, and he shook his head, taking from my lap the cloth napkin Bridget had brought me and wiping my face.
When Bridget passed us with a tray full of drinks, Hayden asked her if they might all have quiche.
“We’re about to take off,” she informed him, her tone icy. “And I brought that from home, Mr. Burdine.”
He nodded as she left.
“She hates me.”
Bodhi snickered, I shrugged, and Davis agreed that yes, she certainly did.
During the flight, Hayden walked Bodhi around the plane to meet friends of his father’s who would be at the wedding and had caught a ride on the Burdine private jet. These were favors rich people did for one another. But I gave rides to friends too, albeit in my car; it was basically the same.
We had left around eleven in the morning, and after the nearly five-hour flight, arrived right around two in the afternoon Pacific time. It was a Friday, so there was no traffic at that time, and the twenty of us got off the plane. I thanked Bridget before I left, shaking her hand, holding tight, and she did the same. She even waved when I turned and looked back.
“Did she wave at him?” one of the other passengers asked.
In the terminal, we all made our way to the arrivals area and walked outside just as it started to rain, but fortunately, we were under the parking structure before the sky exploded. There was a van, like the kind that picked up people for tours, to get us out to Hayden’s family compound on Mercer Island.
I’d thought, when Hayden said island, that there would be a bridge, or that we’d have to get on another plane, or that, at least, it would take a while to get there. None of that was the case. It took us maybe fifteen minutes to get there, and since I had the window seat and was rested after my nap on the plane, I was admiring the scenery.
“It’s beautiful here,” I said to Hayden, leaning forward around Bodhi to look at him across the aisle.
“I agree,” he replied, smiling. “Wait until you see the house, Jed.”
I nodded, leaned back, and noted how weird Bodhi looked.
“What’s with you?” I asked under my breath.
He shook his head.
“Fuck you, don’t blow me off,” I warned him. “What? Do you need to go to the bathroom? Got a headache from day drinkin’?”
His scowl was dark. “Will you just sit there and shut the fuck up?”
“I will remind you that you’re the one who wanted me here.”
“I know, and I’m rethinking.”
I grinned at him. “Oh, buddy, I could be on a plane home, like, right now.”
His jaw clenched.
“Seriously,” I said, my hand on his knee. “What?”
His brows furrowed. “I don’t— I just feel…off.”
“Sick or somethin’ else?”
“Something else.”
I nodded. “Okay, then. Tell me if you need me.”
“That might be the issue.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” he grumbled. “Are you okay? Do you need another ibuprofen?”
“Not at the moment,” I said, moving the small pillow Bridget had given me to put between my bicep and my chest. “This is helping quite a bit.”
“Yeah, who knew she was trained as a nurse too.”
I cackled.
“I hate you.”
“I am aware,” I teased him, moving my hand away from his knee and going back to admiring the view outside my window.
I had no idea what a compound was in this context, but I imagined something more like a French chateau or an English manor house than what we rolled up on. I had an image in my mind of the word mansion, and that was not at all what I was looking at. It was a glorious marvel right on the lake. I’d never been in a more gorgeous home in my life.