Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
“I will.”
“Right. I’ll see you around.”
“Yes.”
“Although, you probably won’t see me. What with that blind spot you seem to have.” He couldn’t resist the barb and he could tell it hit home because he was watching her closely enough to see the tiny wince that flickered across her brows.
She met his gaze full on. “I’ll see you, Gideon.”
The words sounded like a promise.
And Gideon, along with his Hugh G Rection, left her house feeling absurdly optimistic and heartened by the words.
“Oh.” That was all Beth could think of to say when she saw Gideon sprawled out on Cat and Cam’s couch a week later.
It was gratifying to note that he looked equally nonplussed to see Beth there. He sat up abruptly, all semblance of relaxation gone from his big body in an instant.
“Did I get the day wrong?” she asked Cat in confusion. “You did say Friday, right?”
“Yep,” Cat confirmed cheerfully. She ducked past Beth who still stood frozen in the doorway and curled up on the other two-seater next to Cam. The latter was smiling up at Beth in welcome.
Beth hovered, not sure where to go, or what to do. While tension still vibrated from Gideon’s every bunched muscle.
This was awkward. What was going on?
“Are we—uhm—expecting more people?” Beth phrased the question as delicately as she could, her eyes darting to Gideon’s frowning face every five seconds.
“Nope,” Cam said, his voice as unconcerned as Cat’s had been earlier. He leaned forward to grab a chip from the bowl on the coffee table and crunched into it.
“Help yourself to some wine, it’s a chenin blanc, your favorite,” Cat invited, waving toward the full wine bottle in an ice bucket next to the chips. Beth’s eyes fluttered toward Gideon again, he had a beer bottle clutched in one hand. As did Cam. There was a glass of orange juice on the table too, likely for Cat.
“I’m n-not s-sure…” Beth forced back the dreaded stutter and fell into miserable silence. Her cheeks heating in horror. She hated it. Hated how her tongue could betray her when she was tired or stressed or confused. It was a condition that had plagued her throughout her childhood and into her late teens. Speech therapy had helped to the extent that she’d entered her college years more confident in her speech, but still unable to truly open up in front of strangers.
“I think what Lizzy means to say—” Gideon thankfully picked up the conversational baton which she’d fumbled so badly just seconds ago. “Is what the fuck is going on?”
“How do you mean?” Cam asked. He was idly playing with the ends of Cat’s long, curly hair.
“You know what I mean, Cam. Why is she here?”
Beth gasped in outrage and glared at him. This is what you got when you allowed others to speak for you.
“No.” She was proud of the unshakable haughtiness she could hear in her voice. Not a stutter to be found. “I think the real question is what is he doing here?”
“Cat and I want to hang out with our friends. Both of you. And we’ve decided that it’s high time that you two end this ridiculous feud.”
“It’s not a feud, it’s an enmity,” Gideon corrected, sprawling back on the couch with an insouciance that Beth envied.
“What the hell is the difference?” Cam asked.
“Well…a feud is defined as a prolonged quarrel or dispute. While an enmity is a state of hostility,” Beth clarified, taking refuge in facts the way she always did. “We dislike each other immensely. But we don’t have a long-standing disagreement we could point back to as the starting point for this dislike. So enmity is the correct term.”
Gideon snapped his fingers and pointed at her triumphantly.
“See? What she said. Well done, Lizzy.”
“Uh…thanks?”
“Jesus, sit down. You’re not going to gain any inches from hovering like a nervous little rabbit,” Gideon snapped irritably.
“You’re such a dick,” she retorted with a glare. Nonetheless, she sank into the chair across from him.
“We want you to stop being enemies,” Cat said, patient as ever. “We’re sick of scheduling our events around your soap opera bullshit.”
“That won’t be easy…she’s irritating as fuck.”
“And he’s horrible as fuck,” Beth snapped in retaliation. Her glare was met with a spark of amusement in his eyes and she wondered exactly how seriously he was taking this enmity.
“She’s as mean and poisonous as a rattlesnake.”
“Venomous,” Beth corrected automatically and his eyes sparked with even more humor.
“What?”
“Snakes are venomous, not poisonous.”
Okay that was definitely a smile he was hiding behind that sip of beer before he waved the bottle in her direction.
“She’s also an intolerable smarty-pants.”
“Oh my God, stop it,” Cat shouted. The snap of impatience they could hear in her voice shut them both up immediately. Cat rarely lost her patience or her temper and it was as effective as a douse of ice-cold water.