Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
“Bellamy said if Max hurts you, he’ll kill him.” And it was that which made me question if it were in fact true because Bellamy was not a guy to stick his neck out for a girl he barely liked unless it was dire.
Another eye roll, followed by a snort. “Since when does the villain play the knight in shining armor?”
I wasn’t sure if Bellamy was a villain or just the villain in my story—he sure felt like it right now.
“He’s saying crap to get to you,” Nora sighed. “That’s how Bellamy works. Just ignore him. I promise, it’s bullshit.”
Bullshit...I pushed to my feet and moved to the window.
The setting sun cast a warm amber glow over the dilapidated neighborhood. Movement caught my attention. A guy across the street pushed a mower over the lawn, stopping to tug his shirt over his head. He was all abs and cut muscle and tanned skin. Then I noticed the tattoos that wound around his wrists. Bellamy. Of course he lived across the street from Nora, hence why she looked after his brother. Why didn’t I remember that?
Nora popped up beside me. “Don’t get suckered in by that.”
I was a sucker for it, though. And why the hell hadn’t she told me she lived in the same neighborhood as him? “You live across the street from him?”
“Yeah.”
I narrowed my eyes, pretending like I’d never noticed the boy had all that going on. Like I’d never been in the backseat of that van with my hands up his shirt. Or on Jackson’s bed with his dick in my mouth. I thought about the girl he’d been with last night, the way he literally made me insane.
I pushed back from the window, and we started on our project. Halfway through the outline, Olivia texted me.
Olivia: So I hear that Bellamy asked out that blonde girl that was at the party, Sheridan.
That fast? My stomach twisted, and I fought the foreign feelings bubbling in my chest. That girl at the party, … Why did I care? And why did I feel like this? I stamped my fingers over the screen.
Me: Okay. Good for him?
Olivia: Just thought you should know. Wouldn’t want you to get screwed over. Sheridan is a ho. So is he.
Olivia: You’re way too good for Dayton trash, babe.
I knew she was just trying to make me feel better, but she didn’t.
After Nora and I finished our project, I politely declined her mom's offer to stay for dinner, my mood now pitch black. The moment I walked through Nora’s front door, I spotted Bellamy, shirtless and covered in sweat with some lawn tool in his hand.
Our gazes locked. Olivia’s words rang through my head. No harm, no foul. But I was already harmed and fouled. So I promised myself I would not engage because God only knew what in the hell would happen if I did...
20
Bellamy
Arlo cut through the freshly mowed lawn, clutching a Mason jar while he attempted to catch fireflies. I tinkered with the edger, finally getting it to start. I hated doing this shit, but Dad wouldn’t do it and Mom got embarrassed when the yard looked like shit.
“Bubba?” Arlo shouted over the whir of the engine. “Can I water the flowers?”
“Yeah. Sure. Just not where I’m working.”
Movement across the street caught my attention when Drew stepped out of Nora’s house. I hated, absolutely hated, that I’d tried texting her several times over the day just to see if she’d unblocked me. Drew Morgan shouldn’t matter. She’d gotten me arrested. Given me blue balls the entire time she was evidently screwing around with Bennett, demolished my car, and caused this insane amount of jealousy to erupt in me like an angry volcano. Then she had blocked my number. But damn, if that sundress didn’t hug her in all the right places, and the way she walked like some Victoria Secret model on a runway just made it all the worse.
She crossed Nora’s yard, her gaze every so often directing toward me. The urge to say something rose its head like an angry serpent, and I tried to fight it. I tried to act like I couldn’t give two shits less, but by the time she stepped off the curb, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I needed a reaction.
Cutting the engine to the weed-eater, I swiped at the sweat trickling down my stomach. “Didn’t get enough to look at last night?” I grabbed the waist of my jeans and tugged them down to my hairline.
No reaction. She completely ignored me, then stopped beside a rundown SUV and opened the driver’s side door.
Literally couldn’t stand it. “I see Bennett listened to you and didn’t press charges.” Her ignoring me was doing things to me...
Her chin dropped to her chest, then she slammed the door and marched across the street. “What the hell do you want from me?” She stormed up my drive, coming to halt a few feet in front of me. “You got your blow job.”