I draw myself away from the door, rubbing the scruff on my jaw as I grab a glass of water. “That’s not funny.”
Mase clenches and unclenches his fist. “What did he mean about you and Lola?”
I close my eyes before turning around to face him. “I’m working with her. Selling her some of my stock.”
He shoots me a look. “She needs apples for her coffee shop?”
I lean back against the fridge. “Yep, and maybe you’d know why if you’d bothered to talk to her about her plans.”
Mase’s jaw ticks and he turns his glass around on the island. “Where’d you go this evening?”
I run my tongue along the roof of my mouth. “The Lagoon,” I say, taking another gulp of water.Not technically a lie.“Youwant to talk about earlier?” I ask, then feel shit for using Mase’s trauma to distract him.
His stare is dead. “You want to talk about your father?”
Touché.
I sigh and draw my hand over my mouth, trying to ignore the subtle fruity scent Lola left behind. “You staying the night?”
Mase shakes his head. “I’m sober now and no offense, but I feel like I need to shower for an hour after speaking to your dad.”
I huff a laugh. I know the feeling.
I don’t know why my father’s fighting so hard for me to work for him. I left that world behind years ago. My father told me to come home, but London isn’t my home. Pine Rock is. Lola is.
My father’s presence here though, is a harsh reminder that I’m not from this world. I was born and bred to work in a boardroom and no matter how happy I am, no matter how successful a business I build, no matter what I do, anything less makes me a failure in my father’s eyes.
I say goodbye to Mase, my shoulders relaxing a little when he doesn’t press anymore about Lola.
After he’s gone, I look over the contract my father left. The money he’s offering is ridiculous. It doesn’t matter though, I’m not going to take the job, but my father’s hollow cheeks hang in the back of my mind. I have a feeling he was downplaying how sick he was, maybe still is. It hits me just how estranged we are, that my own father was sick and no-one told me.
I can’t quite bring myself to throw the contract away, so I shove it in the drawer, out of sight, and head upstairs.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lola
He took me to this old, abandoned barn where we all used to hang out. No one was there that night because everyone was at the beach for my party. I don’t remember anything after that.
Fucker. He should be dead. I would have killed him for touching you.
I think Roman almost did.
- Conversation between Lola, age 20 and Scott, age 22
I wokeup this morning with my cheek resting against Roman’s chest. Show me where to register and I’ll sign up right now to do that every day for the rest of my life. I feel like teenage me, except instead of getting lectured for breaking curfew I’m living all my fantasies.
I’ve seen Roman every night since that first time in the coffee shop and the goodbye kiss he gave me this morning still vibratesin my chest. I’m practically skipping down Main Street while Skyler slugs behind.
“You’re too happy,” she calls after me. “And it’s too hot to be moving that fast.”
We’re heading to The Lagoon for lunch because we’re having a mini-heatwave and I need the shore breeze almost as bad as I need their shrimp po’ boy.
It feels like everyone’s opened their ovens at the same time but despite wilting under the sun I’m riding a high I don’t think anyone can shoot down.
I know eventually, Roman and I will have to tell people—read Mase—about us, but for right now, Skyler is the only one who knows. Which means, for today at least, I can live in perfect blissful denial.
My world is nothing but feather kisses, delicate touches, and Roman’s beard on my thighs.
