Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Cassie: I’m on it, Jules. Love you, girl.
“Letting my mom secretly keep tabs on me? You’re a sneaky little turncoat, Julia.”
She narrows her eyes. “Like you’re not texting with my mom too.”
“Hey, I can’t help that Georgia and I are besties.” Ace smiles over at her like a guy who would lick the ground she walked on if she asked, and I silently wonder when he’s going to become aware of his feelings for her.
But when he wraps his arm around her shoulders and sways her playfully from side to side, I get the feeling that denial is his coping mechanism of choice. The two of them are in sync, and it’s not just because they’ve known each other forever.
“Hey, Scottie!” Julia exclaims across the room suddenly, startling Ace’s arm off her shoulders when she shoves her hand into the sky to wave. I turn slowly to look, though my heart is pacing anything but slow, and lay eyes on the girl who invited me here tonight in the first place.
She’s standing in the back of a rowdy crowd, but for some reason, I can see her perfectly.
Her long brown hair is pulled up in a fancy ponytail with loose strands curled around her face, and her fit body is covered in a tight black dress, a jean jacket, and black Converse sneakers. Her eyes shine in the DJ’s lights.
Fuck. She looks incredible.
She notices Julia first and then me, her gaze flicking theatrically in a double take. It takes a minute and several mini conversations of explaining herself, but eventually, she maneuvers herself away from the boisterous crowd that includes her douchebag boyfriend and the flirty blonde who sat beside him in our English class.
I can’t seem to find it in myself to look away as she closes the distance between us, no matter how much I know I should. Several idiots gawk as she crosses the room, but I’m not surprised. Scottie’s petite build and uniquely striking face are hard to resist, especially for a bunch of dudes with low impulse control.
When she arrives, her eyes on me, Julia smothers her in a hug so intense the two of them end it in giggles. Ace and I look on like a couple of schmucks, but Julia quickly includes us.
“Scottie, do you know Ace and Finn?”
“Yeah! The three of us have English class together,” Ace confirms. “Scottie here is the one who invited Finn tonight.” He waggles his eyebrows at Julia. “Remember…I was telling you how Finn has no friends except for the one girl—”
I knock the back of my fist into his stomach, a gentle warning, and he stops immediately. Julia smiles and laughs.
“I’m kind of sad your dad isn’t actually enrolling,” Scottie jumps in to tease, and Ace groans.
“Trust me, you’re not. He’s a caricature of a human.”
“Says the apple under the tree,” I say with a gravelly chuff.
Scottie’s eyes meet mine and then flutter to Julia and Ace too. “I didn’t think you were coming tonight…any of you. It got late.”
I tilt my head toward my three-piece-suit-wearing roommate. “Someone had a bit of a clothing crisis.”
“That wasn’t the only reason,” Ace counters, but someone yelling both his and Julia’s names steals his focus. A few seconds later with a brief excuse to us, the two of them are heading toward a guy I’ve only seen on ESPN before, Blake Boden. Evidently, Ace knows our star quarterback in a more personal sense.
“I’m glad you came,” Scottie says, her voice a mere whisper now that we’re alone.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She nods, and a piece of hair falls in front of her face. My fingers reach out to tuck it behind her ear before I can stop them.
My stomach feels like a lead-filled helium balloon—simultaneously in my throat and my toes. Her eyes lock with mine for a long beat, the unspoken connection between us tethering just the two of us to a moment and making the crowd disappear.
But the contact is broken suddenly and violently, when a body barrels into hers, making her sway so hard she almost falls.
It only takes a second for me to realize it’s her boyfriend—a brutal reminder of how little business I have stealing moments with her at parties.
“Wha the fucks, babe?” he slurs. “You over here flirting with this dude in my face?”
“Dane,” Scottie says placatingly.
“She wasn’t flirting, man,” I correct, stepping closer to him. “Just saying hello.”
He tosses his head back on a laugh as he roughly wraps his arm around Scottie’s shoulders. “And what’s a friendly hell-o it was.”
Every bone in my body wants to get nose-to-nose with this drunk fucker and tell him to stop being so fucking aggressive with Scottie, but a loud cry across the room startles our attention. The flirty blonde from the back of English class is on the floor and holding her wrist with a grimace on her face. Several girls help her stand on unsteady feet.