Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 131789 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131789 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
I lift my head when RJ exits the double doors behind me. He glances around, startled to find me standing there rather than Sloane.
He wrinkles his forehead. “Sloane show up?”
His visible disappointment raises my hackles for some reason. He doesn’t even know her well enough to be disappointed she’s not here.
“Yeah, she did, but she said—” I pause abruptly, but disguise it as needing to check my phone. “One sec. Let me send this.”
I type a response to Amy, but my mind is elsewhere. It’s on Sloane and RJ and this totally pointless relationship they’ve fallen into. Who are they kidding? Either he’ll ditch her when he realizes he prefers to be an antisocial asshole, after all, or she’ll crush his heart into dust when she goes back to that jackass Duke. I don’t know why they’re even wasting each other’s time.
ME: I’ll pick you up, obviously.
AMY: I guess that could work.
“Silas?” RJ presses. “Sloane said…?”
I keep my gaze on my phone screen, speaking absent-mindedly. “Oh, right, yeah. She had to go home and grab something. Said to meet her at the bench on the path.”
He claps me on the arm. “Thanks. I’ll see you later.”
I don’t look up until RJ is several yards away. I watch his long strides eat up the grass as he crosses the lawn toward the path on its outskirts. Then I wrench my gaze away and assure myself I’m doing both of them a favor.
Chapter 45
Sloane
He’s waiting for me on the bench when I turn the corner. He must have just finished soccer practice to beat me here. Annoyance flickers through me as I sweep my gaze over him, the insolent way he stretches his long legs out in front of him, the small flask in his hand, resting on his knee.
“Well, I’m here. What’s so important that you threatened to tell my dad about me and RJ if I didn’t jump to your beck and call?”
Fenn has the decency to look sheepish. “Come on. You know I’d never do that. Just needed to find a way to get you here. You’ve been avoiding my texts.”
I stride toward him, but don’t join him on the bench. I remain standing, playing with the frayed hem of my T-shirt. I didn’t realize the thread had started to unravel. Gonna need to throw out this shirt.
“Sloane,” Fenn says irritably.
“What?” I grumble, equally annoyed. “I don’t know what you want from me. I already said I’d put in a good word with my dad. Casey said he’s letting you guys walk down to the lake this weekend, out of view of his precious cameras. Isn’t that progress enough for you?”
“That’s not why I’m here and you know it.”
An icy sensation tickles the spot between my shoulder blades. I gulp, forcing myself not to avoid his resigned blue eyes.
“I tried to talk to you about it at the swim meet last week. I had it all worked out in my head, but now I’m not sure how to broach the subject in a way that won’t get me punched in the dick.” Fenn mutters a quiet expletive. “RJ asked the question. Came out of nowhere and I didn’t know what else to say. So I lied.”
My heart stops. Then careens in a reckless pace that makes me light-headed. “Shit,” I whisper. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me before now?”
His jaw drops. “Are you kidding me? You’ve been avoiding me, you asshole. And don’t pretend it’s because you’re protective of Case. You knew we’d have to talk about this eventually.”
He’s right. On weak knees, I walk to the bench and sit beside him. When he passes me his flask, I accept it without a word and take a long swig. The burn of whiskey goes right to my gut.
“Why the hell did you lie?” I ask miserably.
“I panicked. And now it’s too late to take it back.” Fenn rakes a hand through his blond hair. “So I think it’s probably in both our best interests if you don’t tell him we hooked up.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I say flatly.
“Right. But if he asks…”
“Why do you care?”
“I care about RJ.”
“Since when?” I challenge. “Silas says you didn’t bother learning his name when your parents got married.”
“Yeah, well, a lot has changed since then,” Fenn says, his voice gruff. He sips his whiskey. “I don’t know. Whatever. It’s stupid. But the idea of having a stepbrother is growing on me. We’re getting closer lately and I don’t want something that happened ages ago to mess all that up.”
Neither do I.
A feeling of helplessness grabs hold of my throat. God, this is…bad. I’d barely spared a thought to our unfortunate hookup since it’d happened. Now my brain won’t shut up about it. As I sit there ruminating on it, I can’t help wondering if keeping it from RJ is the bigger mistake.