Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
I pulled, and he pulled harder.
Finally, realizing I wasn’t going to win this the easy way, I let go.
I hated making a spectacle of myself, and stupid Scott always managed to make one.
The moment I let go, the book went flying through the air to land somewhere beyond us.
I gritted my teeth and glared. “Leave me alone, Scott.”
“Sorry, no can do, sister.”
God, I hated when he called me that.
He was not anything like a brother should be, so I detested when he tried to act like one. As if just the moniker made it so.
Asswipe.
A throat cleared somewhere beyond us, and Scott and Sheldon parted, revealing Auden.
He split between the two men, coming toward me.
“Why didn’t you sit with me, darlin’?” he teased as he bent down and kissed me directly on the mouth.
I was so surprised that I gasped, and he took advantage by smoothing his hand to rest at the back of my neck, his thumb running a sweet path along my jaw. He swept his tongue in for a sweet kiss before pulling away and saying, “Hey.”
I swallowed hard before saying, “Hey.”
He placed my book back in my lap, then twisted so that he could see my brother, putting Sheldon at his back.
I realized rather quickly that he was purposefully dismissing the loser behind him.
It made me smile. It made Athena downright giggle.
“Scott,” Auden said, sounding just as annoyed as I’d been earlier. “Can you give her some space?”
Scott’s brows went up, and I saw the hesitation in his eyes as he gave me the space I wanted that he wasn’t willing to give me earlier.
Jerk.
It was also more than obvious that Auden made him nervous.
That was a surprise, because Scott was at the top of the food chain. I hadn’t seen him cower from a single person in my life.
It made me absolutely giddy inside to see him reacting in that way with Auden.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Scott snarled.
“What are you talking about?” Auden asked.
“You and my sister?” Scott stiffened, the veins in his neck popping out with his anger.
“She’s your sister?” Auden asked.
I knew he knew we were ‘related.’
He’d brought it up yesterday.
But Auden was acting like Scott was so insignificant to both me and himself that we hadn’t discussed him at all.
Well played, Auden. Well played.
Scott puffed up his chest, ready to fight now, but Sheldon appeared from behind Auden’s back and said, “Who are you?”
“I’m Maven’s man. Who are you?” Auden challenged sarcastically.
“I’m her ex-fiancé,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “There was never a fiancé title to be an ex.”
“Amen,” Athena said. “Dodged that bullet.”
“Why the fuck are you still here? Shouldn’t you be in your high school classes still?” Sheldon snarled at her.
I snorted.
Athena was young.
She was twenty-one, and far younger than I was. Than Sheldon was, too.
When Sheldon and I were together, he’d hated that I hung out with a ‘kid.’
Truthfully, I’d loved Athena the moment I met her. She was younger than me, sure, but she was mature for her age and always had been. We’d hit it off because of a book club we’d attended years ago and had stayed fast friends ever since.
Sheldon didn’t like Athena because she was too smart.
His words, exactly.
He hated feeling stupid when Athena was around, and it was inevitable that Athena wouldn’t dumb herself down enough that Sheldon could stand her.
“How about you go back to your table with your friends, and leave us alone to finish our food?” Athena suggested. “We only have twenty more minutes left before Maven has to go visit with her lawyer.”
Scott’s anger turned to me again, his eyes narrowing. “What lawyer?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know why I need a lawyer. It’s beneath you.” I stood up, my body brushing along Auden’s as I did. “You’re late.”
Since we were putting on a show…
“Come join us,” he suggested, his hand going to mine—the one still clutching the book.
I didn’t protest his hand tugging me toward his table.
I did, however, catch Athena’s hand and pull her along with me.
When we arrived at the Carter table, all eyes were on us.
Atlas’s were amused.
Quincy’s were narrowed and aimed at the assholes behind me.
The rest of them were ping ponging between the two emotions.
“This is Maven, as you know,” he said to the group as he tugged a chair to stuff it between myself and his brother, Quaid. “Athena is her best friend.”
I was smiling so big my face hurt.
He didn’t raise an eyebrow at introducing the two of us.
“Hi,” Athena waved.
“You’re Gavrel’s sister,” Gable said as he leaned back in the chair. “How are you doing?”
Athena went sad for a short second before shrugging. “Making it.”
She was.
Day by day.
“I was just encouraging her to work on an app to help find her sister who went missing when she was a child,” I said, changing the subject.