I knew her like a habit. Instinctually.
I leaned in, lips brushing the shell of her ear. “Happy anniversary.”
“Happy anniversary.” Her teeth found my earlobe and gave a tug. “Are you going to kiss me or what, Gaflin?
“I don’t think I heard you.” I liked hearing her say it, how she needed something from me. She was fierce and independent, yet she chose me to be the one who showed up for her.
“Right here.” Her lips landed on my thrumming pulse. “In front of everyone.” They trailed up to my jaw. “Kiss me.”
I grabbed her chin, guiding her mouth.
My hands skimmed up her sides, fingers knotting in the fabric of her dress where it pooled on her lower back above the curve of her ass. The sharp point of her heel dug into my calf as shehooked her leg around me. She’d pull back, teasingly, and I’d follow. I was willing to go to extreme lengths for her red lips.
“You might want to clean up,” she said. “I ruined that pretty face of yours.”
“I’d argue you improved it,” I challenged.
“True.” She pressed one last lingering kiss to my cheek.
A riot of cheers came from the direction of our table. Evelyn’s jaw hung open. Jared wolf-whistled. And just like that, I was on top of the fucking world. I had the girl, the friends, and the life we all dreamed of having together. No one could take that from me.
“I’m going to go talk to them. Explain how I finally gave you a chance.” She smirks.
“Go. I’ll be right behind you.”
I went to the bathroom and stared in the mirror. Anyone who saw me could tell how fucking gone I was for her. I couldn’t stop smiling. No way in hell I was going to wipe off the lipstick she’d left all over me.
The face looking back at me belonged to the man Avery Fucking Sloane had no problem ruining in public with her kisses.
I was feeling a dancing in the clouds, could die happy from that moment alone, type of good. It seemed like cosmic proof that everything would work out. We’d waited and been thrown around by life. But we’d walk out of the club and into the rest of our lives together.
Pushing out of the bathroom, I found Avery leaning against the opposite wall, the multi-colored lights sweeping over her, casting her form in otherworldly hues. My heart leaped.
“Hey, miss me that much?” I teased her, desperate to hold her again in front of everyone. The guys were going to have a field day when I got back to the table. I could deal with an endless barrage ofI told you so,if it meant I finally got to show her off.
She slid out of my reach, eyes narrowed and mouth pressed into a hard line. “Is it true?
“What?” I asked, blinking in shock at her expression.
She held up her phone. “Don’t say it’s fake or old or a coincidence. That’s my shirt from yesterday, and I know she stopped by this morning.”
On it was a tabloid post.
Two photos. One of Avery getting two coffees from our favorite spot across town the day before. The other is Liza in the same shirt right outside my apartment.
Which of Wesley’s girls wore it better?
The club was a furnace fueled by writhing bodies, but I went cold.
“Really, Wes? Is this why she isn’t here? I leave for a few hours, and she swoops in. I know we weren’t exclusive, but she was dating Luca. Tell me this isn’t what I think it is?”
I could see it in her eyes. Hope vanished like sunshine choked out by a storm. She was waiting for me to tell her she was wrong, that it was just another lie. No one believed in me like Avery. Every fight we’d ever had was because she knew I was capable of more.
But I saw the headline for what it was: A warning.Maddie’s gift.
If I kept going with Avery, this would just be the start. I could handle what Maddie had fabricated and sold about me. It burned me out a bit, but if I was the only one whose reputation was on the line, so be it.
But this was Avery and Luca. Maddie wouldn’t stop with them. She’d keep going until everything we’d all worked for was gone.
