Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 105921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
I told myself that through the afternoon. I had a mission. Tenn was just a guy. I didn't need anything from him. I could resist temptation. He wasn't that great anyway.
I repeated those words until I almost believed them. Almost.
I let Tenn deliver August and Nicky to Savannah for their kids' dinner and sleepover. If I had done it, I probably would have snatched August back and used him as a shield. Not that I needed a shield. It wasn't like Tenn was going to attack me. It wasn't Tenn I was afraid of. At least I had dinner as a buffer before I had to face being alone with Tenn.
Apparently, Sunday dinner was a big deal at Heartstone Manor. Everyone was there except Parker. Despite my hasty packing job, I was not the most underdressed. That award went to Tenn's younger brother, Finn, who showed up in board shorts and a faded t-shirt. In my yellow sundress, I was definitely the most casual of the female contingent, though no one made me feel weird about it.
I sat beside Tenn, avoiding his gaze, letting the conversation wash over me, trying desperately not to think about what would happen after dinner. If this was my house, I could think of a thousand chores to delay bedtime. At Heartstone, I didn't have my own space to retreat to. I didn't have anything.
Every time I glanced at Tenn the side of his mouth was quirked up in a half-grin that was almost as appealing as his full smile. Bastard. He'd been grinning like that ever since I'd agreed to let August stay with Nicky overnight. I'm sure he thought we were going to get naked the second dinner was over.
Well, wouldn't he be in for a surprise? I wasn't that easy.
"Scarlett?"
I looked up, eyes searching the table. I'd been off in space and had no clue who'd said my name.
"How's the cataloging going?" Hope asked, lips curved in a polite smile, a hint of amusement in her eyes. Did everyone know about August and the sleepover? Was I imagining her knowing look?
I'm just being paranoid, I assured myself. "It's going. I finished most of the guest wing before lunch. I haven't decided where to start next."
"Parker asked me to tell you that you can work in her room whenever you want. She'll be gone for at least three or four days."
"Oh, thanks, that works." I hadn't even thought about cataloging rooms that were occupied. I wasn't used to the idea of valuable art being scattered throughout a house as if it were nothing more than an interior design choice.
The vase I'd found in the guest room earlier was Ming dynasty, I thought from the Yongle period. I'd seen one at the auction house a few years before that had gone for a hundred and fifty thousand. And this one was in better shape. It wouldn't stay that way carelessly stashed on a rickety end table in an unused guest room. I'd moved it to a high shelf in the library where no one could bump into it and send it crashing to the floor. I wondered what treasures I'd find in Parker's rooms.
"Where did Parker go?" Finn asked, slouched in his chair, seeming disinterested in his own question.
"Hopefully to talk Tyler into coming back," Bryce said with a smirk. He took a long sip of wine. "He was the only one of you I could stand, so of course, you had to drive him off."
"Bryce!" At the far end of the table, an older woman shot Bryce a surprised look, her darkly drawn eyebrows high, mouth tight.
Bryce ignored her. The woman shook her head and looked around the table. "I'll apologize for my son. I've tried to teach him manners, but none of them stuck." She gave a weak smile and, following her son's example, sipped deeply at her wine. She must be Aunt Ophelia. I hadn't met her personally yet, but if she was Bryce's mother, I could wait. Forever.
Sterling rolled her eyes at both of them. "I hope she's up there serving him with papers. He's a total asshole. Not a surprise you like him so much," she said to Bryce. "I'm just shocked she didn't get rid of him before now. Parker deserves better."
"Here, here," said the brunette beside Sterling. They clicked glasses and grinned matching smiles at each other.
It's funny how genetics works. Sterling could have been Bryce's sibling with her golden blond hair and startling blue eyes. Both of them looked like they'd tumbled off a screen into real life. Quinn, the brunette beside Sterling, couldn't have been more different. She was pretty; that, they had in common, but she was dark to Sterling's light. Taller, rangy, with sharp cheekbones that were austerely elegant rather than beautiful. But when they smiled, they almost looked like twins.