Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“You go ahead. I have to fix my dress,” I say.
His brows furrow slightly, but after a moment of searching my face, he steps out of the car. The driver shuts the door behind him, and I look out to see him button and adjust his jacket. He’s standing next to the driver when Milly, one of Mom’s employees, walks over and tells him something. Finn says something and points toward me with his thumb, but Milly shakes her head and grabs his arm.
I fix my dress as I watch him pull away from her. Whatever he says to Milly makes her shake her head in an exasperated way and walk away. When she’s gone, Finn opens the door and slides back inside the car, shutting it behind him. The driver folds his arms and stands in front of it.
“What are you doing?”
“What are you doing?” he counters, eyes blazing, jaw clenched.
“I was fixing my dress.”
His eyes narrow. “Don’t play stupid, Josslyn.”
I stare at him for a moment. “Fine. I was giving you an out.”
“I don’t need an out,” he snaps. “Do you?”
“No,” I scoff. “You’re the one who doesn’t like your picture taken, and you’re being weird.”
“I’m being weird?” He chuckles darkly. “I’m not the one who told her mother to send someone to walk us in separately.”
I purse my lips. “I didn’t do that. My mother offered and I figured it was for the best.”
“For who? You or me?”
“You!”
He stares at me for a long moment. “Let’s go.”
“Fine. Let’s go.” I follow him out of the car.
29
FINN
If you want to feel invisible at a party, take Josslyn as your date. I’ve spent most of the evening trying not to let the amount of male attention she gets bother me. And consequently, trying not to think about why it bothers me. It’s baffling. Maybe I am acting weird. I feel weird. Uncomfortable. When was the last time I felt uncomfortable? If ever.
When I woke up this morning and she was gone, I should have felt indifferent. Or relieved. Instead, I felt … strange. Empty. The feeling remained until I saw her again, looking like that, and it sent me into another tailspin. What is she doing to me? None of this was supposed to happen.
Being inside her last night … the way she moved, the sounds she made, the way she looked at me—fuck. I push the memories aside. The last thing I need is to sit across from her stepbrother who happens to be my teammate, with a hard-on. I fucking knew this would happen. I knew if anyone had the power to turn me inside out, it would be her.
I need to go back to the basics and find out who was in that room with my sister. The story the world has been told is that it was all a tragedy—that she got stuck inside Onyx during a fire. The lead detective has all but shut a lid on the whole thing, which I know is my father’s doing. Richard Barlow would rather make it disappear and act like none of it happened. He’d rather pretend Mallory is in Europe. It worked for me while I was still living in Nevada, but being back here makes it impossible to deny her absence. Watching Josslyn live her life, posting videos and pictures, and going to parties as if nothing happened, makes it worse. A nearly blinding light shines on my face, and I blink in time to hear the click, click, click of the camera in front of me.
“One more,” the photographer says, smiling. “Aren’t you two the cutest?”
Another snap and then they’re gone, and I take out my vibrating phone to see a call from my mother. Normally, I let it go to voicemail, but being in Fairview means I can run into her at any moment, so I excuse myself and answer it as I walk to the nearest door.
“I just received a call from Patricia Abbott telling me you’re on a public date,” she says by way of greeting.
“I’m at a charity event.”
“With a date.”
“Yes, for charity,” I say, not bothering to bite back my irritation.
I knew I’d receive a call from her, but I didn’t expect it to be while I was still here. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since I ran into Patricia earlier and she’s been watching me since. Guaranteed she’s already dug up whatever dirt she can find on Josslyn and determined she doesn’t have an “impressive pedigree.” It would explain my mother’s urgency on the matter. She speaks about marriage like women are horses and I’m their prized stallion. It doesn’t help that my mother and Patricia Abbott have been trying to set me up with her daughter our entire lives. Forget the fact that Traci has been in a committed relationship for five years and I have absolutely no interest in her.