Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 158848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 529(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 158848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 529(@300wpm)
Hayden pokes at one of the pancakes with a fork and wrinkles her nose.
“Just eat around the burned bits.” Kyla flings the top two pancakes onto Hayden’s plate.
Chuckling, I jab my fork into the next pancake and drag it onto my plate. “They look fine.”
“You can have the syrup first,” Kyla says, passing the big, tan jug to me while giving Hayden a stink-eye.
“You and Darcy should’ve gone first since you made the pancakes.” I quickly drizzle maple syrup on my pancake and push the jug into the middle of the counter.
I scrape a piece of pancake from the top layer, careful to avoid the thick, charred bottom and stick it in my mouth. Sweet, warm blueberries and cinnamon bursts over my tongue. “Mmm, they’re good,” I say around my mouthful.
Kyla sticks her tongue out at Hayden.
Before they can get into it again, I take a sip of water and announce, “So I couldn’t stop thinking about what Torch said and I ended up watching that episode again last night.”
Everyone stops eating and stares at me.
“Molly, no!” Kyla gasps and slaps her hands over her mouth, like I just announced I murdered a baby bunny. “Why?”
I trace my fork in a wavy pattern through the maple syrup on my plate, then stab a stray blueberry. “I don’t know. Remy believes him too.”
Darcy announces, “Bros before—”
“He’s literally her bro.” Hayden glares at Darcy, then nods at me. “Go on.”
“They’re all being weird about it or at least weird around me about it, but I think Eraser and Ella believe him too.” I flick my gaze at Hayden. “And you remember how pissed they were that night.”
Hayden shrugs. “But they’ve all been friends a long time. He didn’t cheat on them. He cheated on you.”
“Allegedly!” Kyla announces.
“There’s nothing alleged about it,” Darcy counters, holding her curled hands up to her eyes like a pair of binoculars. “We saw it.”
“Nope. No way.” Kyla shakes her head violently. “We all saw Griff on prom night. He never took his eyes off Molly. And he was so sweet to us, even though we barged into their room. I refuse to believe he did that to her.”
I stare at her in wide-eyed shock. Kyla spent a good portion of the summer consoling me, but she never voiced any of this. Now that I’ve given her an opening, apparently, she’s airing out all her doubts.
She crosses her arms over her chest and continues, “Besides, I don’t trust any of those so-called ‘reality’ shows. You remember that stupid one we watched with the washed-up rock star who was supposedly looking for love? That dude was in a whole-ass relationship with his baby momma the entire time. Both seasons!”
“Oh yeah!” Darcy’s eyes widen. “How embarrassing for his family.”
“That happened on Matchmaker Mansion too.” Jenn snaps her fingers. “One of the women trying to date the bachelor was actually married to a woman.”
“What season?” Hayden pushes her plate away, picks up her phone, and starts swiping her fingers across the screen.
Jenn shrugs and stabs her fork through three layers of pancakes. “I don’t remember.”
“Don’t they make them sign agreements not to talk about the show and stuff?” Darcy asks. “How do you know if that’s even true?”
“Technically, it wasn’t talking about the show, if other people came forward and said, ‘hey I attended that chick’s wedding last year, why is she on a dating show now?’ Right?” Jenn lifts her eyebrows for emphasis.
“Okay, fair.” Darcy nods.
All of this is giving me a headache. I wish I’d never opened my mouth at all. In fact, if I’m wishing for things, I wish I’d never gone to Zips last night. No one—except Griff—understood my stupid devil bunny costume. Everyone else thought I was some weird dominatrix with a bunny fetish. Forget the costume. Seeing Griff again after so much time had flipped my heart upside down.
“Well, Griff wasn’t supposed to be on a dating show at all,” I remind them. “It was supposed to be about becoming the best cage fighter.”
“Hey, remember Redneck Roadhouse?” Kyla says with an eager edge to her voice. “The one your friend Shelby Morgan was on—”
“She’s not my friend,” I correct. Friend. I wish. I’ve gotten to talk to Shelby once and I made a total ass of myself. “Remy knows her fiancé.”
“Yeah,” Darcy says slowly, her eyes widening as she comes to a realization about something. “Shelby ended up in the middle of a love triangle with Ruby what’s-her-tits and that other guy while she was on that show.”
“No,” Kyla says. “Shelby did an interview not that long ago and said that was all fake.”
“Right! The show said they were going to sue her and then—” Darcy snaps her fingers and lowers her voice. “Dawson Roads told ‘em go ahead and try it,” she finishes in a terrible impression of the famous country singer’s Tennessee accent.