Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 128742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Another flashbulb goes off. Then another.
Deep dread crawls up my spine. Ben has stopped in his tracks, his expression going stricken when he realizes his picture is being taken.
“Abbey!”
Flash.
“Does Gunner know about you and Lord Tulley?”
Flash. Flash.
“Abbey! C’mon, darling, smile!”
Feeling the color drain from my face, I grab Lee’s arm and dig my fingernails into it. “Get me out of here,” I beg. “Please.”
Luckily, the car Jamie hired is pulling up to the curb.
Lee snaps to action. “Get in,” he commands. “Jamie, let’s go, mate.”
Jamie throws his coat over my shoulders and helps me into the car, with Lee sliding in beside us.
“Notting Hill,” Jamie tells the driver.
It isn’t until we’re speeding off that I realize we’d left Jack and Nate there.
But I’m too shaken to care right now.
39
THERE ARE A PRECIOUS FEW SECONDS OF BLISSFUL IGNORANCE BEFORE the memories of last night present themselves forward. It wasn’t a dream. I am the girl who spent the evening barricaded in Lord Tulley’s bathroom. I’ll never show myself among noble society again.
Can’t say I’m too bummed about that bit.
Downstairs, I prepare myself to take a ribbing from the guys as I walk into the kitchen for breakfast. Having all night to stew about it, I’m sure Lee has a few more I-told-you-sos to get out of his system, not to mention a thorough interrogation about my relationship with Nate. He was so upset about my secret keeping that he went back to the pub after we got home last night, where I’m sure he griped about me to some poor bartender trapped behind the bar.
“Morning.” I sit at the breakfast bar beside Jamie. He gives me a shoulder squeeze while Lee remains mute, sipping his tea like I’m not there.
Jack pushes eggs and sausage on a plate for me. “Morning,” he murmurs to me, watching Lee from the corner of his eye.
“Everything okay?” I ask warily. “I know last night was a bit chaotic, but— ”
“House meeting!” Lee interrupts, shooting to his feet.
“What?”
Arms crossed, he looms over us with a hard glare. “We’re having a house meeting, Abigail. Right now.”
“Oh. Okay.”
He’s still pissed at me. Clearly.
“I’ll be nice. I’ll permit you to choose what we address first.” He bares his teeth at me in a feral smile. “What shall it be? Your sordid love affair with our friend Nate or the fact that you placed yourself in danger last night despite numerous objections from yours truly?”
“I figured we’d start with your I-told-you-so,” I answer. “Because that’s what you really want to say, isn’t it?”
Before he can murder me for my insolence, the doorbell rings.
“To be continued,” Lee growls before stomping off. A moment later, there’s some commotion at the front door before a stunned Lee comes chasing after an angry Yvonne. She’s wearing a black peacoat that flaps around the knees of her dark-blue skinny jeans as she marches toward me.
“Bitch!” she hisses at me. “You must think I’m so stupid. Have a good laugh, did you?”
A queasy pretzel knots up my stomach. “Yvonne, I don’t— ”
“Do not even try to play dumb! I heard that one”—she nods toward Lee— “going on at the pub all about you and Nate. You going to lie straight to my face?”
Lee blanches. The repentant flicker in his horrified eyes tells me he feels bad about gossiping.
Yvonne curls the fingers of both hands around the top of Jamie’s empty chair. Her knuckles are nearly white. “I’m a complete mug, aren’t I? Try to be nice and the first thing you do is stab me in the back. Fucking slag.”
“Hey.” Jack shoves back from the counter and stands. “That’s enough. You don’t get to come storming into my house and yelling at my roommates because your boyfriend dumped you. Take it out on him.”
I swallow the lump of regret in my throat. “Yvonne, I don’t know what you heard, but I’m sorry,” I say sincerely. “I swear nothing happened until after you broke up.”
“Do I look fucking mental? All those trips driving you all over the bloody country. You did this on purpose. You bitch.”
“No, you need to go.” Jack approaches her, pointing the way out. “I’m not having it.”
I try again to apologize to her. “I really am sorry. Honestly, Nate and I only got together after— ”
“I don’t want to hear it,” she snaps at me, livid and red-faced. “You’re a cow and a bad person, and you can fuck right off!”
At that, she stalks out of the flat and slams the door behind her, leaving us all stuttering to catch our breath.
I’m still trying to make sense of what happened when Jack rounds on me. “Seriously, Abbey?”
I blink. “What?”
“You and Nate are, what, a couple now?”
“No. I never said that.”
“You told her you ‘got together’— ”
“Yes, got together. Hooked up. Whatever.” Embarrassment creeps up my neck as my dirty laundry is aired to the entire house. “Which you already knew about, Jack.”