AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His eyes flicked to the women at the kitchen table, then back to me. “You sure?”
The conversation in the kitchen had stopped. Everyone was looking at me.
Mortifying. This was fucking mortifying.
I swallowed hard and shrugged, both to appear casual and to try to release the knotting tension in my shoulders. “Yeah, I’m good.”
The solution was simple. Do what I’d always done when it came to Marigold. Ignore her. Pretend she wasn’t there. Look away. She wasn’t important, she wasn’t beautiful, she wasn’t mine.
I couldn’t do it. That old pattern of behavior should have fit like an old pair of jeans, but apparently I’d outgrown them. Couldn’t get them on if I’d tried.
My eyes locked on hers for a long moment. Her lips parted and a hint of color flushed her cheeks.
I could see Annika watching me. She knew. My sister knew and she was staring at me, horrified, like I’d just murdered someone in front of her.
This was a disaster.
“I just remembered I gotta go.” I spun around and walked out the door.
I was halfway home before my brain started working again. I didn’t remember getting in my truck or backing up or going down the driveway. It was like coming to after being shocked, except I was driving through town, eyes fixed on the pavement instead of looking up into Marigold’s beautiful face.
“Pull yourself together, man!”
I let out a long breath. I didn’t know what had just happened to me, but something about hearing Marigold describe the best date of her life—one that had not been with me—and my dad catching me staring at her, and my sister’s horrified expression, had completely short-circuited my brain.
I had an ache in my chest. Why did that hurt so much?
So she’d been on a date with a guy who clearly had bank. I wasn’t rich, but I had something he didn’t. Something better than a big-ass bank account.
I was Zachary Haven. And I was the one who was in love with her.
This wasn’t a problem. It was a challenge. A dare. A battle.
All’s fair in love and war, and I was going to win.
No matter what.
Such a Cool Guy
BRIELLE
With a yawn, Brielle stretched like a cat, then glanced at the time. A little after six. She hadn’t meant to take such a long nap, but it probably didn’t matter. After all, she didn’t have anywhere else to be.
John had brought her more clothes, along with some makeup and other girly stuff. She had some cash, but he’d insisted she keep it. He said he didn’t mind paying if it would help her out.
He was such a cool guy.
More and more, she was starting to feel like she really was his princess in a tower. Except she wasn’t a real princess and the tower was a cabin. But it was like something out of a fairy tale.
Vegas was still the goal, obviously. But the more Brielle thought about it, the more staying through the winter seemed like a good idea. She wanted to see what it looked like when the cabin was covered in snow.
And if one of the times John came out to check on her, he got snowed in and couldn’t leave, would that be so terrible?
She heard him knock and sprang out of bed so she could smooth down her hair and fix her clothes. She didn’t want him to think she was lazy and just sleeping all the time.
“Brielle?” he called from downstairs.
“Yeah, coming.”
