Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 85484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Banks: It would be nice.
Me: Will the rooster be gone when I get back?
Moss: SO WELL PLAYED.
Maddox: It really is impressive.
Banks: The rooster will not be there.
Me: I come home tomorrow.
Banks: I said it won’t be there.
Me: Deal. But I’m just deactivating it—not deleting it. Don’t fuck with me.
Banks:
I swipe open the app and, as promised, deactivate Sparkles’s account.
Pippa sighs. “I wish I had siblings like yours.”
“You want Banks? I’ll let you have him.”
She laughs. “I can’t imagine what it’s like having that bond. Greg and I never had it. He was the golden boy, and I was the kid sister who couldn’t shine bright enough. I was the diamond in the rough who didn’t come out of the rough. I just got in the way.”
Nope. I pull her into my chest and look down at her.
“But it’s fine,” she says, smiling sweetly at me. “They’re my family but not my people.”
“So you wish you had a big family growing up, but you don’t want one now. Right?”
She starts to frown but catches herself. “Exactly.”
I search her eyes, wondering how much I will have to dig through to get to the truth. The diamond in the rough. Because maybe she’s right. Maybe she’s been pushed down for so long—maybe even hiding—so she doesn’t shine too bright and attract all the goodness that’s coming to her.
I’ll help you, Pippa. You just gotta trust me.
“Wanna blow this joint and go back to our room?” I ask, wiggling my brows.
She laughs. “No, I don’t. Bloom Match paid for this. We need to experience it because I have to be prepared to give Bridgit the details.”
I groan, rolling my eyes.
“I’ll tell you what,” she says, playing with the collar of my shirt. “I’ll make you a deal.”
“What’s that?”
“If you can make it through this cooking lesson, I’ll let you pick what we do for the rest of the night.”
My brows lift to the ceiling. “Really?”
“Really.”
“And you have to do it.”
She gulps.
“Deal,” I say before she can change her mind.
She’s going to squirm for the next hour and a half. I’m going to try not to be too bored with chicken tikka masala. But when this is over, I know what we’re going to do.
And it’s not what she expects.
I grin. “Here comes Bobby. Let’s hurry this up and get out of here.”
Then I go to the sink to wash up again, trying not to laugh again at Banks’s reaction to his successful foray into app dating. The fool.
24
PIPPA
“This is what you wanted to do?” I ask, laughing.
“Don’t laugh. It makes me self-conscious.”
“Right.”
I’m sitting at the bistro-esque table on the balcony of our room. Thunderclaps sound off in the distance before bolts of lightning strike through the sky.
Jess hands me a glass of wine and then sits across from me.
We had dinner at a small restaurant by the river that Bobby suggested. As promised, it was quiet and slow—and the food was delicious. The owner, Ted, came out to check on us, and he and Jess hit it off. I sat back and watched them chat it up about lumber prices, cars, and the best place to fish in the state.
I sipped my wine and appreciated the moment. They welcomed me into the conversation and listened to my unsupported opinions as if they mattered. But even more impressive was how easy it was for Jess to make friends with Ted.
Making friends has never been super easy for me. Growing up, my parents didn’t have people they hung out with on the weekends. Greg was always too busy wrestling or preparing to fulfill his destiny to know other kids’ names. Even in the two semi-serious relationships I’ve had, the guy wasn’t overly friendly to other males.
I’ve never stopped to think about why that has always been a reoccurring theme in my life. But now, after seeing Jess and his interaction with Ted—and thinking about the way Jess interacts with the world, I can honestly link my previous choices back to my parents.
I never felt valued. Never felt as though I was worthy of notice.
I orbited their world, but I was never part of it. I was always so … alone.
In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that I dated egocentric men whose worlds were equally small and whose interest in others was virtually nonexistent.
And that is not Jess Carmichael at all. He treats me as if I am his world.
“It was nice of Ted to send us back with a bottle of wine,” I say before taking another sip.
“I don’t even like wine, and this shit is good. It’s from a winery in Georgia. Landry Family Winery or something like that.”
“We’ll have to see if we can find them at home.”
Something I said makes Jess’s eyes light up, and he sets his glass down.