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)
“I think you should move in with me.”
“Wait. What?” I push myself away from him and sit up straight.
“You think it’s too soon,” he states rather than asks.
“Umm … yeah.”
“We already have a key to each other’s apartments and sleep together every night. What’s the difference?”
My stomach dips. “Not too long ago, you were insisting this was a one-time hookup. You were upset that you were attracted to me—”
“Because I knew this was inevitable and part of me didn’t want to accept that since we had that…” he waves a hand in the direction of the dining area, “to deal with.”
“We still have that…” I mimic his hand gesture, “to deal with.”
“But we’re dealing with it together.” He runs his hands up and down my sides with a hungry expression on his face that makes me wiggle on his lap.
“You were also totally against relationships.”
He brings one of his hands to the side of my face and caresses it softly. “That was before. I already told you, I want everything with you, and that includes waking up with you in my arms every morning. We’ve done great so far.”
“We haven’t even gone out in public,” I point out.
He raises an eyebrow. “And whose fault is that?”
“Your mother doesn’t even know about us!”
He rolls his eyes. “Who cares? I’ll tell her the next time I speak to her.”
“Well, I kind of care, since I know for a fact she’s not going to approve of me.”
“I’m not sure that’s true, but, again, who cares?”
My lips purse. “Is it true she has a list of potential wives for you?”
He laughs. “She probably does, but this isn’t the 1800s, Joss.”
The doorbell rings, and I push myself off him. He stands and as I turn to go, he grabs my hand and looks at me with one of his intense, serious expressions.
“This conversation isn’t over.”
I nod, take my hand back, and practically speed walk to the door. I’ve never been more grateful for Livie’s impeccable timing.
41
JOSSLYN
Iwatch Livie’s brows rise and dip as she reads each entry. She walked in, looked at the two of us, laughed, asked for a drink, and hasn’t spoken since. From the expression on her face, I know she has the same uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. When she looks up at us from across the dining table, her dark brown eyes are wide.
“Did your parents see this?” Livie says after a moment and looks at Finn.
He nods. My stomach twists again. I can’t even imagine what they must have thought about this. About me.
Livie and I look at each other for a long moment, having a wordless conversation. I plead with her not to make a big deal about the entries about me and only focus on the others, and she responds that she absolutely will make a big deal about it.
“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised by this,” she says finally, as she takes a sip of wine.
“Do you have any idea who she might be talking about?” Finn asks. “Who was picking her up?”
“No. I hadn’t spoken to Mallory in like nine months before that night.”
“But you were around her at Josslyn’s house,” he says.
She glances at me and searches my face. From the way her expression falls, I know I won’t like whatever she’s going to say next. She looks at Finn again. “You don’t think it was an accident.”
“No.”
Her eyes jump to mine. “No. You’re not doing this again.”
I squeeze Finn’s hand. “Even if it was an accident, someone was in there with her.”
She looks at Finn. “You can’t drag Josslyn into this!”
“He’s not dragging me into anything!”
Her eyes pierce mine. “You’re not doing this to yourself again.” She glances at Finn. “Do you understand what you’re doing to her? When your sister died, Josslyn missed two months of games. She barely left her apartment. You can’t make her re—”
“He’s not making me do anything,” I tell Livie, my voice surprisingly calm.
“I thought your parents made it clear they didn’t want anyone looking into this,” she says, looking at Finn again.
“They did.” His hand tenses beneath mine. “They’re convinced it was suicide.”
My face whips to his. “What?”
“In the beginning, my parents asked if it could have been suicide and the detectives said anything was possible. That was when my parents forced them to shut down the investigation.”
“How could they force the police to…” I pause, frowning. “They can’t possibly have that much power. This is the legal system!”
“This is Fairview,” he says simply.
I slide my hand away from his and sit back in my chair. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, considering everything I know has happened here and was swept under the rug, but still.
“Why would you bring Josslyn into this? You already know she didn’t lie to you about anything. She told you everything she knows about that sex group your sister was involved with. Can’t you leave her the fuck—”