Want to see what happens when Arrow and Grace return to the Beyond Justice forum a year later? Check out this exclusive bonus scene of a very accidental proposal!
And read on for Scottie’s BONUS EPILOGUE featuring a very desperate Jake Rodgers …
BONUS EPILOGUE
SCOTTIE
I’m staring at the photo that’s ruined my life, along with a hundred variations of it, all from that same stupid restaurant in Cleveland with Jake. Fletch and Poppy are in the background, but you don’t see anyone talking about them.
No, it’s all,“Jake Rodgers’ Secret Romance: Baseball’s Bad Boy Goes Public with Childhood Friend,”and“The Kiss Felt Round the League: Superstar Jake Rodgers Cozies Up to Blonde in Exclusive Photos.”
My family’s playing Settlers of Catan around my brother’s dining room table while I return from the living room, where I was just talking to Poppy on the phone. My baby nephew is fussing, so I grab him from the swing in the corner and hold him close, sniffing up that new baby goodness. He smells so heavenly, it’s a wonder I have any anger left in me at all.
But then Jake whoops from the table, and it all comes back. I sit down across from him. And kick.
It doesn’t land on his shin. It lands on the stupid table leg, instead.
Pain shoots through my toe. I bite my lip to keep from giving Jake the satisfaction of hearing me yelp.
“JAKE RODGERS,” I whisper-yell. “I am going to kill you.”
He’s too busy arranging his longest road cards with infuriating precision to even look at me. “That’s like the tenth time today, bro. Add it to my tab.”
My traitorous brothers laugh, but my mom looks worried. She raises her blonde eyebrows. “What’s wrong, Scottie girl?”
I show her my phone—one of many posts and articles about Jake Rodgers and his new girlfriend.
“Jakey,” Mom says excitedly. “Are you dating someone?”
“Look closer, Mom,” I say.
She does. “Ah.” Her mouth stretches into a sympathetic frown. “Let me guess: Jake had you pose as his fake girlfriend again to fight off unwanted attention.”
I glare at her. “Yes, but as you can see, he alsokissedme, and let me tell you, that gets a lot more attention than him being at a restaurant with yet another dumb blonde.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, kid,” my oldest brother, Dallas, says. “You’re not that dumb.” His wife smacks his arm, and my parents follow.
Anger boils in my blood. “I hate you,” I say, pointing to my brothers and Jake.
“What did I do?” Hudson asks.
“I’m sorry, Scottie Girl,” Dad says, looking up from the board. “But you’ve been Jake’s Betty-guard for a long time. What’s different now?”
Tears burn in the back of my eyes, but I don’t let them fall. They want to know what’s different?
A pair of blue eyes that shine when he laughs, shaggy blond hair he’s always pushing out of his face, and the biggest, bravest, most unrestrained smile I’ve ever seen pop into my head.
Lucas Fischer.
My nephew stirs like he’s rooting, and my sister-in-law sees and takes him. “I’m sorry, Scottie,” she says with a soft smile. “Whoever he is, he’ll understand.”
I close my eyes with a heavy sigh. Of course it would take someone outside of the family I grew up with to see how much I’ve suffered at the hands of Jake Rodgers. Don’t get me wrong: I love my parents for basically taking him in, especially when things with his family got so bad for so long. But sometimes, I feel like they chose him over me. Protecting Jake meant sacrificing Scottie on the altar of Jake’s reputation.
I know Lucas is all flirt, no follow-through, but I won’t lie and say I don’t like it. The way he shows up at the stadium with coffee he knows I’ll pretend to hate. The way he finds me in the stadium and gives me a nod before winding up.
I’m suspicious about it, make no mistake.
But I like it.
