Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry her date didn’t go well.”
I draw in a breath, count to ten. “Evie, please. I know you’re not telling me the truth about Misty. I know you and she have something going, and frankly, if that’s the case, I’m ready to tell the guys to end this event right now.”
“No, please!” She stands. “Don’t do that. Please.” Her tone holds a touch—more than a touch—of desperation.
“Evie, what—”
I jerk away from the door when someone knocks.
Without waiting for Evangeline, I turn and open it.
“Riv,” I say, looking into my friend’s eyes.
“I’ve got Brett and Alex waiting. We need to talk, Seb.”
“Yes, yes, go ahead.” Evangeline ushers me out of the room. “We can get back to this tomorrow, Sebastian.” She closes her door.
“What was that about?” River asks.
“Just trying to figure out what the fuck’s going on.” I shake my head. “As usual, she’s anything but forthcoming.”
“Misty was forthcoming tonight,” River says. “Of course, whether she was telling the truth or not... That’s another question.”
“Apparently your date didn’t go well.”
“Oh?” He lifts his eyebrows.
“Yeah. Misty ended up in Heather’s room crying her eyes out.”
River rolls his eyes. “She’s some piece of work.”
“Don’t I know it. Where are the others?”
“They’re waiting. Come on.”
River leads me toward Brett and Alex. They’re waiting right outside the pool house.
“I’d suggest the hot tub,” I say, “but the ladies may decide to join us.”
“Agreed.” Brett pulls out a pack of cigarettes. “Anyone want a smoke?”
“I thought you quit,” Alex says.
“I did.”
River steps forward and takes one. “Since we don’t have any bourbon out here, I’ll take one.”
Alex grabs a bottle sitting on the grass. “Come on, you guys. Did you really think I’d come unprepared?” He uncorks the bottle—it’s Angel’s Envy—and passes it to River.
River takes a drink and then hands it to me. “Damn, that’s good shit.”
I take a sip and pass the bottle to Brett, who’s taking a drag of his cigarette. “That shit’ll kill you,” I tell him.
He takes another drag and blows the smoke out his nostrils. It drifts away on the warm night breeze as he takes a drink.
“Hold onto your hats,” River says, “because you’re not going to believe what I found out.”
“Misty’s a bitch?” I ask.
“Honestly, I think we’ve got a chicken-egg situation here,” River says. “Misty’s playing someone, no doubt, but I haven’t figured out if it’s me or Evangeline. Or how it started.”
“You?”
“Yeah. Maybe even all four of us, but especially me, because I have the honor of being the man she’s set her sights on.”
Brett pats River on the back. “Nice going, Riv. You always wanted to best me at getting a lady.”
River rolls his eyes again. He and Brett share a bond that Alex and I don’t quite understand. They’ve known each other the longest, but they’re different as night and day. Still, they seem to get each other.
“Get this,” River says. “Misty claims she was adopted, and her birth mother was a woman named Lisa Patterson.”
The bottle of bourbon is back in my hands, and it slips through my fingers and lands on the grass with a thump. I pick it up quickly, making sure not to waste the contents.
“Say what?” Brett demands.
“Is your hearing going?” Riv says.
“No. I just can’t...”
“Neither could I.” River shakes his head.
“She’s Jake’s fucking sister?” Alex asks. “Half-sister?”
“Maybe. I don’t know if she’s telling the truth.” River grabs the bottle from me and takes a drink. “I figured she was lying. At first.”
“And now you don’t think she’s lying?” Alex asks.
“I was going to go through with it. Seduce her to get to the truth. But then I took a good long look at her, and fuck... I saw it. I saw Lisa’s cheeks and Lisa’s jawline. Hell, I even saw some of Jake in her. It was creepy.”
“Maybe you were seeing things,” I offer. “Maybe you wanted to find a reason not to fuck her.”
“If I was looking for a reason not to fuck her, I already had about a hundred.” River shakes his head. “Nope. I’m telling you. I think she’s serious. She only found out recently by snooping in her father’s papers. The birth certificate didn’t name a father. Apparently her parents paid Lisa twenty K for the baby.”
“I don’t remember Lisa ever being pregnant,” Brett says.
“Me neither.” From Alex.
“I don’t either,” River continues, “but there was that one summer Lisa took Jake to her parents’ and we didn’t see either of them until school started. Hell, I don’t know. We were kids. Would we have noticed?”
“I don’t know.” Brett takes another draw on his cigarette, his fine features tensed and his eyebrows drawn together. He looks anything but relaxed. So much for the cigarette having the desired effect.
“And there’s more,” River says. “She said she researched her birth mother, found out that Lisa lived in my hometown—our hometown—and she discovered Lisa had another child. A boy our age. She figured we’d know him.”