Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 164705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
She stuck her pinky out, a glob of sauce on the tip. “Promise?”
I looped mine around hers and shook. “Promise.”
“It feels like the sky is falling.”
“If the sky falls, I’ll hold it up for you.”
Briar Rose grinned, satisfied by my answer, and proceeded to finish off the croissant.
After she cleared out every single plate, I took her to the nearest hotel room and tucked her on a settee in the lobby as I paid for a room. With the key card nestled in my front pocket, I carried Briar Rose honeymoon-style to our suite. By then, she’d long since knocked out, snoring against my chest, which pounded like a jackhammer.
My phone danced in my pocket. Dad. Or maybe Seb. They’d both decided to tag team me, riding my ass about bailing on the lake house. Sure, they liked Cuddlebug a lot, but they couldn’t understand why I had to drop everything just to be here. Not when she’d join me in America in a handful of weeks for freshman move-in day.
The handover, the company presentations, the board meetings. Dad threatened to hand it all over to Seb, which frankly, sounded like a good time.
Briar Rose and I thought the worst job in the world was being an empty suit. Her – because she blamed her dad’s work ambitions for her loneliness. And me – because I wanted to do something that made me happy. I didn’t know what that was, but she’d promised to help me find out.
The ringtone died in my front pocket, then restarted all over again as I maneuvered Briar Rose onto one arm and inserted the key card into its hole with the other. I kicked the door open and careened inside with my passed-out girlfriend still in my arms.
She hacked out a snore of gargantuan proportions when I collapsed onto the king-sized bed with her.
I fished my phone out, jerking my hair by the roots as I swiped the screen to answer the call. “What?”
“You’re fired,” Seb announced with an obvious Cheshire grin.
I shot up and wrestled my jacket off my shoulders, rummaging my pockets for my wallet. “You’re not my boss.”
“Not yet.” Sebastian tsked. “Dad is super pissed, though. He thinks you bailed for pussy.” He paused for a second. “In other words, he knows the truth.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it.” I threw a glance behind my shoulder to check on Cuddlebug. Out cold.
“Even if I know it, Dad doesn’t.”
I found my wallet in my back pocket. “Don’t care.”
Truly. Not sure what difference the presence a nineteen-year-old college kid would make in the hostile takeover of a failing Savannah hotel. They’d survive without me.
And also, I’d never ditch the official internship to get laid. Even if it meant finally doing the deed with the girl I’d loved ever since I was potty trained. (She beat me to that by a whole six months, by the way.) Plus, Seb would make a better CEO than me anyway. My baby brother had the intellectual and analytical advantage over me, though I made up for it with stubborn drive.
“You should.” Seb paused for theatrics. “I convinced Dad to give me the keys to the North Oaks ranch at the end of the summer.”
“Motherfucker,” I seethed, stomping out of the room. Cuddlebug needed water and painkillers. Stat. “You knew I wanted to take Briar Rose there.”
I’d planned everything. I’d invite all of my close friends to the Minnesota ranch to introduce her to people I knew she’d get along with. Romeo. Zach. Some girls from Harvard that weren’t mean girls. Come fall, she would storm onto campus with a fleet of friends. It would not be a repeat of Surval Montreux.
Now Seb beat me to it.
He always had a competitive streak. Life was one big, fat race to him.
“You snooze, you lose, buddy.” My baby brother chuckled. The familiar crackle of a beer can opening accompanied it. The douchebag probably had his feet mounted over Dad’s office desk, his phone pinned between his ear and shoulder. “I have big plans for that ranch. Lots of parties.”
I blasted in and out of the elevator, pouring onto the Parisian street. “Yeah, yeah.”
“You know I’m a sucker for a good lake. I need to keep my rowing schedule intact for next season.”
I pushed the door open to a pharmacy, ambling straight to the stupid drunk tourist section, stocked full of painkillers, anti-nausea medicine, and small toiletry bottles. “You forgot to ask why I’m here.”
While I considered Romeo and Zach my closest friends, Sebastian had been born to be my best friend. Literally. Mom said she created him for me after I kept clutching onto my cousin’s son with my baby death grip.
Still, he didn’t know a lot about Cuddlebug’s situation. (Hell, Rom and Zach didn’t even believe she existed.) Partly because I wanted to protect her privacy, but mostly because Seb didn’t give two shits about anyone who wasn’t himself.