Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
She smiles and cheers along with her friends, and the amount of pride I feel for her talent is insane. She’s not my girl—I made damn sure of that. But she is that girl.
“Thatch?” a booming male voice echoes from the speakers of the computer. Thatch waves commandingly at the girls to stop, but they’re ready for it, continuing anyway just as Ace’s briefing suggested they should.
More voices filter from the speakers.
“What is going on?”
“Do we have a bad connection?”
“I can see him sitting there. I’m positive we don’t have a bad connection.”
“Then what is he doing? Some kind of gesture?”
“Everything but convincing us why we should invest our money with him, that’s for damn sure.”
Thatch’s annoyed eyes finally break away from the cheerleaders and land on Ace, and for the first time since we entered the office, realization dawns. Ace gives his dad a big smile and two thumbs up, and I nearly choke on my saliva.
Holy shit, this family is crazy.
“You’re doing great, sweetie,” Ace calls toward his dad through cupped hands. “The Kelly Financial cheerleaders are so proud of you!”
In a split second, Thatch’s face goes from ticked off to cool, calm, and collected. It’s a face I’ve literally never seen my father make.
“Thatch? Hello?”
“Sorry, Todd,” Thatch responds with a neutral smile on his face. “Your surprise arrived earlier than expected.”
“Surprise?”
“Oh yeah. Just give me one second, boys,” Thatch states and stands up from his desk chair. “Ladies, can I just say that you are looking very gorgeous today?” He winks, and I don’t miss how all six cheerleaders smile at the compliment. “And…” He drops his voice to a whisper. “I would like to compensate you for your time.”
“What the fuck?” Ace starts to complain, but his dad is too busy schmoozing his accomplices to turn against him.
“Compensate us?” McKenzie asks, her interest more than piqued.
“Wait a minute, I—” Ace tries to stop what is happening, but Tonya holds her hand in the air in a very obvious shut up.
“Five hundred dollars each,” Thatch elucidates before winking at Ace.
“Hell yes,” McKenzie agrees, followed by a “That’s what I’m talking about,” from Kayla.
Scottie glances back at us, avoiding actually making eye contact with me, of course, but ultimately agrees to the generous offer. Thatch, the charming bastard that he is, even strides around his desk and gets them in a little pow-wow huddle as he tells them what he wants them to do.
I grab Ace’s shoulder and squeeze in support, and Blake continues to film as Thatch guides the now official Kelly Financial cheerleaders over to stand in front of the screen of his computer.
“Ladies, how about we show the boys at the Redstone Corporation how excited we are to have them on board.” Thatch’s grin is smug as his cheerleaders start up in another cheer.
This time, though, it’s all about the Redstone Corporation. By the end of it, the sounds of claps and laughter echo from the speakers of the computer, his audience completely swayed.
“Sorry to break it to you, Ace,” Blake comments on a laugh and wraps an arm around Ace’s shoulders. “But I think your dad just one-upped your one-up.”
Not only did Thatch run with being surprised by the Kelly Financial cheerleaders, but he actually used them to secure a deal with Redstone Corporation.
“V-I-C-T-O-R-Y,” I say with a shrug.
Ace shakes his head as the cheerleaders collect their money from Thatch and leave the office in smiles. Scottie doesn’t glance at me once on her way toward us at the door, and I can’t blame her.
Still, that doesn’t stop me from putting my body just slightly in the way of her exit.
“Sorry,” she mutters as she bumps me, falling into my body enough that I have to steady her by the shoulders. When she looks up and glares, I release them and clear the discomfort from my throat.
“No big deal.”
Silence forms a cloak over us and chokes the oxygen out of the air. I don’t know what to say to her. I know my goal after going home Sunday was to stop leading her on, so she’d have the freedom to find someone else—someone she deserves—but I don’t know that saying absolutely nothing at all was the way to go.
I don’t want her to hate me. I just… I want her to know she deserves better than what I have to offer.
“You…uh…going somewhere?” I ask dumbly. Clearly, she’s not planning to stay at Kelly Financial for the foreseeable future.
“I’m going back to school to study and catch up on the assignments I have to do. We have an away game in Ithaca this weekend, and the bus leaves tomorrow. I’ll be missing all of my classes after our English test.”
“How long is the drive?” I ask, unable to do anything but make lame small talk with her. It’s so fucking pathetic, but I’m desperate to keep her talking to me at all at this point.