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My best friend betrayed me.
Everyone online hates me.
My reputation is in shambles and I’m about to be blacklisted by my—no, byeveryfashion agency in the country.
It’s been a rollercoaster kind of day, which is why I didn’t question when Deej told me to come to the farmhouse instead of flying back home to sort things out with my agency.
It can wait a day. What can you solve by flying out now? At least stay here until the heat dies down.
The moment I arrived, no one mentioned anything about the online drama or Ru-Carpsel. Rather than tiptoe around me, they turned the music up and danced with me. I was able to forget for just a moment.
Until I saw him.
Until his chocolate brown eyes looked at me with so much concern that I instantly remembered all the bad things I was trying to forget.
I have no idea why he’s here. Who invited him? It wasn’t me.
Deej walks into my line of vision and steals my attention away from Dare.
“It was me,” my sister signs.
I scowl at her. Grabbing her hand, I drag her to the verandah. The sun set a long time ago, but there are enough porch lights to illuminate us.
“What are you talking about?”
“I was holding onto your phone earlier, remember?”
I nod. Deej confiscated my phone so I wasn’t tempted to read more hate comments or watch the counter for my hashtag climb.
“I saw a video message from him.” She gives me a ‘you know better than that’ look. “It wasn’t the first message he’d sent. He was worried about you.”
“I know. I was going to answer, but I was…”
“Dodging him,” she signs.
“You had no right.”
“Nope. Not a one.”
“So why?” My chin wobbles with emotion. “Why did you bring him here?”
This farmhouse is… it’s sacred to me. Not everyone speaks or understands sign language, but even when I don’t understand or they can’t fully communicate, there’s still so much love. It permeates everything they do, everything they are.
Dare being here is like… giving him a VIP pass to my heart. I’ve been trying so hard to keep him at arm’s length. Put up barbed wires and electric fences. And now my sister snuck him in through the back door.
“Do you remember when you pushed me to invite Niko and Ryo to go bowling with us? It was long before I could even admit that I was interested in my boss.”
I frown. Is now really the time to go traipsing down memory lane?
“How are you suddenly Team Dare? Didn’t you send Sazuki to his office to break us up a few days ago?”
“Things change.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“If you knew what he did for you, Yaya—”
The porch lights flash on and off. I glance over and see Niko skipping onto the verandah. She’s got Beth, Dawn and Max Stinton’s daughter, in tow. Talia is right behind them.
