Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 89012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“Cash, preferably,” Foxx says.
“Thanks, Foxx. See ya, Jess.” Banks hops out of the truck and is halfway up my driveway before I get both feet on the ground. “I’m going to my house.”
I laugh. “Why? To hide? Think he won’t look for you there?”
“He’s gonna look for me at your house first. Gives me more time.”
I wipe the rain off my forehead. “I told you not to do this.”
He walks backward across the yard. “I didn’t expect to be going to jail the same night. It’s a lot to manage in one day.”
I laugh as I watch him jog to his back door. What a fool.
I step inside my kitchen. It feels like forever since I’ve been home. I make a quick drink.
My energy dumps, and I slump against the counter.
What the hell happened tonight?
My eyes squeeze shut.
I acted out of instinct tonight. I saw Ashley in trouble, and I reacted. I didn’t think about it, and I always think about it. I never act without thought. I know better; I’ve trained it out of me.
Or so I thought. Clearly, there was a crack in that mindset.
My whole life could’ve been over in the blink of an eye. It might’ve if Banks hadn’t been with me.
“Holy fuck,” I grumble, still processing everything.
How did everything move this quickly? Paige said she didn’t expect me to fall this hard—how right was she?
How is this affecting Ashley? Her ex hit her. Holy fuck.
Who is with her? Becca. Becca and maybe Sara. Maybe she called her mom.
But I wish it was me. It should be me.
I wander around my kitchen, wishing she was here. Wishing I was holding her. Wishing she was holding me.
“This has all gotten away from me,” I say, setting my glass on the counter. “I’ve lost control of this whole situation.”
What will this look like in another week? A month? A year? The thought scares me. I already feel so strongly about her that I’m not sure that I’m even thinking clearly anymore.
I start heading to my bedroom when a knock raps on the door. The fuck? I go to the foyer and peer out the peephole.
Banks?
I yank open the door and burst out laughing.
“This is not funny,” he says through his closed mouth.
I wipe tears out of the corners of my eyes. “What in the hell happened to you?”
He stands on the porch covered head to toe in pink glitter. The rain is burrowing the sparkles in his hair and gluing them to his eyelashes, and his shirt, which I know was black earlier in the evening, looks like a unicorn shit on him.
Pink sparkles everywhere.
I pick an especially shiny piece off his forehead. “Is this a heart?”
“Fuck off,” he mumbles.
“What happened? Did you find a unicorn and try to fuck it?”
He starts to step inside, but I block him.
“No way,” I say. “You aren’t tracking that into my house. Sorry.”
“Mad …” His eyes go wide. “I’m afraid to go back home.”
I smirk. “Why?”
“Every time I turn on a light switch or open a door, another bucket of this shit dumps on my head. My house is covered in fucking glitter.”
I can’t control my laughter. I dig my phone out of my pocket and look at the screen.
Jess:
“That’s why he was so nice to you,” I say, blowing out a breath. “He was setting you up.”
“How’d he know about the stickers? He had to know to plan this.”
I shrug. “Paige wouldn’t have told him. She’s solid.”
Banks exhales, and glitter flutters in the air. “Stop laughing at me.”
“I can’t.” I chuckle and snap a couple of pictures before he can stop me. I send one to Jess. Maybe it’ll keep me on his good side. “This is the best. You’re going to find glitter for years.”
“Can you just let me come shower?”
“No. It’s raining. Go stand under a gutter or something.”
He sighs. “I just stood up for your honor, or whatever, and you’re turning me away?”
“Glitter is a hard limit.”
His shoulders slump, and his head falls forward. “Tell your brother Jess that this is war.”
I laugh as he walks back across the lawn. “I think he already declared war, Banksy.”
He flips me off and keeps walking.
Me: You win.
Jess: I know.
Me: How did you know?
Jess: Moss. He knew something was up and opened that package. We figured it out pretty easily. So we got Dad to lie for me and say I was out of town so Banks would feel ballsy. And as soon as I knew I was right, I got him. Little shit.
Me: I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.
Jess:
Me: Jesssssssssssssssss
Jess:
Me: Night.
I need a vacation.
I go into my room and straight to the bathroom. I need to wash the jail off me. The smell of the bar, the filth of the jail cell, the rain mixing it all together.