Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 99040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
“Wait a second.” Olivia straightened. She lifted a hand to her lips. “Oh, my God. You won Miss Teen USA!”
Oh crap.
“Holy shit!” She practically bounced in her chair while Brooke sat there with a furrowed brow. “You know, the first time I saw you, I thought you looked strangely familiar. I just chalked it up to you reminding me of someone I knew from Chicago. That’s where I moved from,” she said with an eye-roll. “But now I know it’s from the Miss Teen USA pageant. I was a huge fan when I was younger.”
“Ha,” Brooke said with a shake of her head. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Shut up!” Olivia gave her friend a gentle shove. “I like what I like.”
For the first time, thinking about her history as a beauty queen didn’t come with near-crippling anxiety and regret. Instead, she laughed at the interaction between the two women she had no business befriending. “You two are a trip.”
“I’m right, though, aren’t I?” Olivia asked, beaming at her.
Jo sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I won Miss Teen USA over a decade ago.”
Brooke tilted her head. “You don’t sound too excited about it. It’s quite the accomplishment, Jo. Something you should be proud of.”
With a shrug, she stared down at her feet. “I hated every second of it from the time I was a small child until the day I finally quit. Being judged for how I looked, what I wore, and how I walked and performed. Every time, I felt like nothing more than a trained monkey dangling at the end of my mother’s string.” She blinked at the look of sympathy on both women’s faces. “Wow, sorry. Didn’t mean for that to get so therapy-session.”
What was it about these women that had her opening up and revealing parts of herself she never exposed?
“Seriously, no worries,” Olivia said as though strangers vomited their issues on her all the time. “Did you quit right after you won?”
Unease tightened her stomach. Both women waited for her answer with kind eyes and patient expressions. But did they really care? And why? Would they take this information back to Curly and his club so they could find a way to exploit her?
They had been the ones to ask for this truce of sorts.
Shame followed behind the thoughts tearing through her head. They had been nothing but sweet and friendly, offering a pleasant afternoon of chitchat and relaxation. Her suspicious nature had her doubting when neither woman gave her reason to. Tracker was the one who’d played her for a fool. Neither Brooke nor Olivia deserved to pay for his sins, and she wouldn’t make them unless they showed themselves to be untrustworthy.
“Kind of. I went to college and studied criminal justice, much to my family’s dismay. But I modeled all throughout school and for years after. I hated that just as much but the guilt of disappointing my family by quitting the pageants had me taking contract after contract. Finally, I woke up at twenty-nine, miserable and with nothing to show for it but a bunch of catalogs and magazines with my picture in them. I hadn’t done anything but smile and pose. I felt unfulfilled, so I quit and joined the police academy that day.”
“Good for you,” Olivia said. “I’d toast you if I had some champagne. Brooke and I both learned the hard way that life is too short to stay in a situation you don’t like.”
“Truth,” Brooke said, lifting an imaginary glass. They both laughed as they clinked their pretend champagne flutes.
The conversation drifted to lighter topics as the nail technicians arrived and the pedicures began. By the time they finished, Jo was having more fun than she’d had in ages. The three of them walked out together with freshly painted toes, all laughing at a story Brooke told about a foster dog staying with her.
“Well, well, well, you ladies look dramatically different now that your toes are a different color.”
Jo froze in her tracks as the giant biker known as Jinx lumbered toward them with his president at his side.
Brooke went straight to her ol’ man, kissing him deeply as Olivia said, “Don’t be jealous, Jinx. I told you, you’re welcome to join us any time.”
He shuddered. “I’m good, thanks.” It clicked then that they had an extra friend with them. “Officer Baker.” He frowned. “What the hell do you want?”
“Jinx.” Olivia frowned right back at him as though he didn’t tower over her and have a hundred pounds of muscle on her. “We all got pedicures together.”
“You got pedicures with a cop?” If possible, his scowl grew.
“Tone it down, brother,” Curly said. “Good afternoon, officer.”
“Good afternoon, Curly. Seeing as how I’m off duty and just spent a lovely hour relaxing with Brooke, why don’t we just go with Jo for now? Skip the officer stuff.”