Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
“What are you doing here anyway? And how did you get in?”
She sidestepped Bowie. “I made a copy of your key.”
I sighed heavily through my nose. God, if that wasn’t the epitome of my family. “Lovely. Guess I’m having the locks changed.”
“You’re too lazy to do it,” she said, unbothered by my threat. “Anyway, I’m here to discuss the wedding.”
She plopped onto my leather couch. The one where I’d gone down on Harley the night before. A smirk came to my lips at the memory.
“What? Why do you look like that?”
“Nothing. I don’t want to talk about the wedding.”
“But I saw her dress!” Ashleigh said, pulling up her phone. She shoved it toward me. “How gawdy. If she’d married you, I would have picked out something way better. And these bridesmaids dresses.” She gagged.
“She wasn’t going to marry me,” I said with a shake of my head. “And her dress was perfect. You’re just being catty.”
Ashleigh reared back, pulling her phone to her chest. “Well, excuse me. Since when did you get over Annie Donoghue?”
Last night.
Well, no, that wasn’t true. It had been puttering out for years. Ever since she’d started dating Jordan. But it was last night when I realized that I’d been hanging on to nothing. Neither of us wanted it. Neither of us had ever really stood a chance. And it was better this way.
“A long time ago,” I told her. “I don’t want to bitch about the wedding. And I have plans, so if that’s all you’re here for, you should go.”
“Plans?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah. I’m going kayaking.”
I almost mentioned Harley, but fuck if I wanted to keep this all to myself. The last thing—and I mean, the very last thing I needed—was my obnoxious sister getting her claws into the girl of my dreams.
“Boring.” She looked down at her manicure. “All of that time outside. Tans are so early 2000s, brother of mine.”
“Sure,” I said with a headshake as she came to her feet. “Thanks for letting me know.”
“Make sure you wear sunscreen, okay?”
“I will wear sunscreen.”
She was nearly to the door when she turned back around. “But, like, did Julian look happy?”
It took everything in me not to roll my eyes.
Julian and Ashleigh had dated for two years before she fucked it up royally. It was one of the many reasons that Wrights and Sinclairs didn’t socialize. Another reason not to tell Ashleigh about the Wright who had spent all night in my bed.
“He was with Jennifer,” I told her.
She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah. Gross.” She sighed again. “Did anything interesting happen at all? You can tell me, you know.”
My sister, the queen of gossip.
Hmm, the queen of gossip might actually know something about the Wrights that I didn’t since I’d distanced myself.
“I met the new Wrights who’d moved here from Seattle. The ones who were a secret family.”
“Old news,” she said with a hand wave. “I can’t believe you hadn’t met them before this.”
I shrugged. “We don’t run in the same circles.”
“Of course not. Weston is a musician. Whitton works for Wright Construction. And the youngest—what’s her name? Harley—she is in college at Tech.”
I sputtered out an, “Excuse me?”
She tilted her head. “What?”
“She’s at Tech?”
“Yeah?” she said like I was an idiot. “That’s why Whitton moved with her. She got a full ride and started last semester as a freshman.”
Ashleigh continued detailing everything she’d gleaned from her sleuthing of the family, but I didn’t hear any of it.
The one word was ringing in my ears.
Freshman.
Harley…couldn’t be a freshman.
That…that wasn’t even remotely possible.
That would make her…eighteen? Nineteen?
But she…
She…
Fuck.
She’d been drinking. She knew more about wine than me. She’d been wild in bed, asking for exactly what she wanted. She had similar tastes and hopes and dreams as me. I just…could not compute.
“Chase?” Ashleigh asked with narrowed eyes. “Are you okay?”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah. Totally fine.”
Lie.
I was frozen.
This was not happening.
I’d known she was young, but not that young.
What the fuck was I going to do? Because I could not date a fucking teenager. Not even one that was perfect for me.
8
Harley
Erika was still asleep in her bunk when I got back into my dorm in the dress I’d worn to the wedding. She rolled over when I flicked on a side light and cracked an eye open.
“Well, well, well,” my roommate said, “look who is doing the walk of shame after all the shit you give me?”
“I have no shame about my late night…”
“Early morning,” Erika countered.
“I have no shame about what happened,” I told her with a grin.
Then, I snatched a spare towel and grabbed a fresh change of clothes.
“Well, what’s his name?” Erika tilted her head. “Or her?”
“I think you have a lock on all the girls in our dorm, Erika.”
Erika grinned, pulling her bright pink comforter tighter around her. “Yeah, yeah. Well, what can I say? I’m prolific.”