Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Why the hell had I gotten my hopes up? Why had I let myself be fooled that Court was somehow a different person?
He’d yelled at me for judging him and assuming he was a playboy. But then shown up with Poppy fucking Arlington on his arm. He might coach youth lacrosse in secret, but it didn’t excuse the way he acted. One or two good deeds didn’t cancel out years of asshole behavior.
The truth was, Court Kensington was a train wreck.
As much as all of my research had indicated from the get-go. Lark had said that he was a playboy. That he’d fucked around his entire life. Even his mother had feared hiring me because no woman resisted Court’s charms.
She’d been right, of course, and it made it all the worse.
I slammed my hand into the restroom door and nearly struck a girl in the face. “Sorry,” I muttered and hastened inside.
I locked myself inside an empty stall. I needed a minute alone, away from this stupid fucking Upper East Side world that threatened to swallow me whole.
I took a few deep, healing breaths, using my jiu-jitsu training exercises to try to calm down. I wished I’d had enough space to go through the tai chi forms. But the breathing techniques would have to do.
The most obvious answer was to leave the reception. I wasn’t a part of this world. Not in the same sense. I hadn’t grown up here. I didn’t have a trust fund to fall back on. I’d just worked my ass off.
But the other part of me said that I should stay and prove he couldn’t get to me. Because he’d done this on purpose. He’d taken my spark of hope and lit it on fire, burning it all to cinders. And I didn’t want anyone, not even Court Kensington, to think that they could force me out of a space.
When my heart finally stopped racing, I exited the restroom and found only one other person waiting at the sinks.
“Katherine,” I said with a note of surprise.
“I barred the door. Someone is going to get mad soon,” she said with a disinterested shrug. “But you and I should talk.”
“Uh… should we? About what?”
“You and Court.”
“What about me and Court?”
Katherine shot me a look. “To survive the Upper East Side, you have to be observant. Being married to Camden has only honed that skill. I saw your little exchange. The body language. Everything that wasn’t said. You’re together.”
“We’re not…”
“Then, you’re just fucking?”
I cringed and deflated against the sink. “Is it that obvious?”
“To me.” She frowned. “I have some experience with Kensington men.”
“Oh, right. You and Penn were together.”
She glanced away and then back. “We were. On and off.” Katherine shrugged. She looked fierce and hard. But her fierceness was for me. Her hardness against the man who had hurt me. “I knew Court hadn’t brought that dipshit Poppy for no reason. Even he wouldn’t stoop that low. He clearly wanted to make you jealous. And it worked.”
“I’m not jealous,” I said at once.
Katherine looked incredulous. “So, you just spend a lot of time in the restroom for no reason?”
“No,” I grumbled. Christ, was I jealous?
“Look, just take some advice from someone who knows. Don’t fall for a Kensington.”
“I haven’t… I don’t…”
But the more I thought about it. Maybe… I had.
I took responsibility for what had happened over Labor Day. I’d pushed him away. I’d let fear come between us. I’d assumed a lot about his character. Even if I wanted to strangle him right now, we’d had the start of something, and I’d smothered it. I’d projected my feelings about what was going on with Josh onto the situation. Colored it through the lens of my shattered heart until it all looked distorted.
But if I didn’t care, would I be this upset?
I shouldn’t give two shits that he’d shown up with Poppy. If it had just been sex, then it wouldn’t matter.
But it did.
Oh god.
I took a step back. My hand went to my mouth.
I liked him.
Oh no. This was… no.
“Maybe it’s too late for that,” Katherine said, seeing my distress. “It usually is too late when it comes to a Kensington. But if you want my advice, don’t nurture it. Let him have his Poppy Arlington. Forget about him. Forget it all.” She nearly choked on her words. “Otherwise, he’ll just leave you for a nobody from nowhere. And you’ll have to watch him parade around with his new wife as if the last fifteen years didn’t matter.”
Katherine’s heartbreak cut deep.
I knew that pain. Knew the depth of betrayal that came from it.
That was the pain I’d had when Josh stomped on my heart and deigned to say I was overreacting.
I didn’t know why Katherine let herself be vulnerable with me. But I wouldn’t break the facade by telling her that I was actually the nobody from nowhere. She didn’t really know that about me. Pretty much nobody did. Josh and Lark and Poise gave me social proof in these cutthroat industries. But I was no different than Natalie.