Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“I told you,” he said.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said with a laugh.
I clicked through the wave of texts in the group chat first. Katherine, Lark, and English were going insane because of the ring. And how could I blame them?
I’d gone out of my mind at the sight of it. Of Gavin fucking King proposing to me. Fake proposing. Whatever. My brain clearly could not tell the difference.
My breath had gone short. My mind all fuzzy. And tears had nearly come to my eyes. Not only was it utterly massive, but it was also stunning. Maybe the prettiest ring I’d ever seen in my entire existence. It fit perfectly, like it was mine. Except it wasn’t mine.
Gavin had made a joke out of it, like we both always did, but it wasn’t a joke. In that moment, it had felt so very real. I couldn’t stop staring at it. Even as we flew across the country. I continued reading the crime novel Gavin had interrupted the night before. But I’d kept getting distracted by the weight of the ring on my finger and the way the diamond cast rainbows across the room when it caught the light.
“They are really freaking out. Should I put them out of their misery?”
“It’s the right thing to do,” Gavin said with that sly grin. He was tapping away at his phone.
I pulled up the group again and selected video chat. A few seconds later, all three of my friends were on the screen, shrieking at me.
I held my hand up. “Oh my god, hold on. My eardrums, Christ. Not all at once.”
“What in the fuck was that picture, Whitley?” English asked first.
“Yeah. What is going on?” Lark asked.
Katherine tugged little Beckett closer and shot me an imperious look. “Explain yourself.”
“Well, I might have done something rash.”
English snorted. “That’s your MO.”
“When he asked, I said yes.”
“Who?” they all asked as one.
Gavin leaned into the camera and waved. “Hi, ladies.”
The phone went deathly quiet. All three girls had wide eyes and shocked expressions.
I couldn’t keep my face neutral. “You can all breathe. It’s a joke.”
“What the fuck, Whit?” English snapped.
“I don’t get it,” Lark said.
“You’re at the wedding,” Katherine guessed intuitively.
I pointed at her. “Bingo. I flew with Gavin to Texas for his cousin’s wedding. He needed a plus-one.” I grinned at them. “I just wanted to raise your hackles.”
“You’re a bitch,” English grumbled. “I actually went to your apartment to try to yell at you.”
“Sorry, airplane mode. I missed all your calls.”
Gavin leaned over again. “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her.”
Katherine smirked. “I bet you will.”
I snorted at Katherine’s quip. Typical Katherine.
“Okay, I’m going to let you all go now. We’re almost to the hotel.”
English shot me a look. “Call me later, okay?”
“Love you.”
Then, I hung up.
Gavin chuckled. “They were having a fit.”
“I knew they would. Especially when I sent them a picture of the ring.”
“I thought you were going to tell them our grand scheme.”
“It might have been too much, even for them.”
English had still looked pissed. I was probably going to get an earful when I finally called her back. She wouldn’t want to rage in front of Gavin. That was more Katherine, but she’d just smirked, as if she had known this was all going to happen.
“I’ll tell them how it all turns out when I get back.”
“You and your stories.”
“Hey, I have good stories,” I argued.
“Ah, yes, The Crazy Adventures of Whitley Bowen™.”
I arched an eyebrow. “You’re the one who brought me here to be another crazy story, King.”
His smile was genuine. “I never said otherwise. And I like the stories anyway.”
That look told me he was telling the truth, but I still felt wary. The girls always thought my stories from my ill-conceived relationships were a riot. But the people I dated thought they were a time bomb, waiting to blow up in their face. Not that Gavin and I were dating …
“Here we are,” Gavin said as the car rolled up to the front of a fancy hotel downtown. “Everyone from out of town is staying here.”
I followed him up the stairs as a bellman dealt with our luggage. The hotel looked like something straight out of New York. Maybe not as nice as Percy Tower, but still swanky.
I had to remind myself that this was a Texas oil dynasty. Of course they’d put everyone up at the nicest hotel in town. And they had done it because they wanted to, not to keep up with the Joneses, like my parents.
Gavin checked us in and then passed me a key. We took the elevator to one of the top floors, and he opened the door to a massive suite. There was a balcony overlooking the city and oil fields beyond. A king-size bed was set back into its own bedroom with a bathroom that made me want to crawl into the enormous tub and live there permanently.