Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 122125 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122125 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I quickly realize that a stack of cards sits in the center of the table, and they’re meant to be used as a fun game for everyone to play. Challenge yourself tonight, the framed instructions read.
You should do it, my inner wild child nudges.
My body rocks as someone bumps into me from the side. I look up, ready to rumble, but it’s just my sister.
She reads the same instructions at the center of the table and shakes me excitedly, smiling. “Ohh, that looks fun.”
I nod calmly in agreement.
“If you do one, I’ll do one,” Lydia adds, jerking her head toward the stack of cards that I’ve seen at least twenty people take from over the past five minutes.
“Why the hell not, huh? When in New York, right?” I wink at her, and we both reach forward to grab a card.
She takes it upon herself to go first, turning her card over and silently reading the words.
“What’s it say, Lyd?”
“Surprise someone with a sexy kiss.” She grins at me, and I snort.
“Well, that’s an easy one, considering you’re here with your wife.”
Lydia just giggles but then turns around to close the distance between herself and Lou, who is still chatting with the bearded hipster and the black bob. Yes, I’m sure they have names, but I’m not sure I’m invested in learning them.
Their conversation quickly comes to a halt—Lou is literally midsentence—when Lydia steps up and places both hands on her wife’s pretty face and tugs her closer for a slow, exploratory kiss.
It lasts long enough for the bearded man to make amused eye contact with me and for Lou to fall into the kiss, threading her fingers into Lydia’s hair.
It’s taken me a while to weave my way through the mingling crowd to get over to them, but when I do, I tease, “Get a room, you two!”
Lydia ends the kiss at my callout, giggling as she pulls away, while Lou looks half dazed, quirking a brow as if to ask, “What was that for?”
My sister holds up her card, and Lou reads it, smiling the entire time.
“Mission accomplished, hun.”
Lydia places one last smacking, playful kiss to her wife’s lips before turning to me and tapping the card that’s still in my hand with one nosy index finger. “Okay, Rae. Your turn.”
I lift it closer to my face and read the challenge silently to myself.
“Ah, ah, read it aloud.”
I roll my eyes but concede to Lydia’s demands. “Make the hottest guy in the room remember you for the rest of his life.”
Lydia bursts into laughter immediately, and I glare.
“Pretty sure your challenge was way easier than mine.”
“Yeah, but this one is right up your alley.”
I scrunch up my nose. “What’s that supposed to mean? That I’m a floozy?”
Lydia laughs. “You know exactly what it means, Rae. You’ve always been the girl who thrives off a challenge. Especially, when it comes to two things…”
“And what would those two things be?”
“Men and rebelling against our father.”
“The rebelling against our father, I get, but men? I don’t see the connection.”
“Get real,” she retorts through a snort. “You are the OG love ’em and leave ’em party girl from back in the day.”
“I wasn’t that bad.”
“I watched our father drag a boy out of your room at three in the morning, and then, for two weeks straight, that boy called our house non-fucking-stop. Dragged out of our house, shoeless and by the waistband of his boxer shorts, and he still couldn’t walk away from you. Trust me, Rae, you are that girl. And I absolutely adore you for it.”
“You do realize I was only seventeen, right? It’s been a long time since I was that much trouble.”
“Not that long.”
I roll my eyes. “The only reason you never had to sneak people into your room was because Dad didn’t realize you were into girls.”
“That was definitely an advantage for me.” Lydia giggles and nods. “But this isn’t about me. It’s about you. And that card in your hand.”
“You know, I came back to New York to be the professional, responsible adult our father has always wanted me to be.”
“Bo-ring,” she teases, letting her mouth pop on each syllable. “Now, who’s the lucky guy?”
“You’re a bad influence.”
“Says the girl who talked me into lying for her for two months straight so our father thought she was at some kind of library-themed summer camp, when in reality, she was touring the country with her rocker boyfriend in a beat-up van that probably shouldn’t have been allowed on the road.”
Well, shit. If I keep giving her openings, she’s really going to make her point. Yes, I, Rachel Rose, used to be known for making some questionable judgments. But I’m trying to be different now. I’m trying to be good.
“Get out there and be the badass goddess I know you to be,” Lydia orders with a little grin as she leans closer to Lou to wrap her arms around her wife’s waist.