Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
“And by ‘quite a few bites,’ they mean millions of eyeballs on every single one of our press releases,” Mason says. “The twins here were responsible for that Valentine’s day feature about that patient who went to Mexico to get braces and is now dating her Mexican dentist.”
“Well, to be fair, that dentist’s abs sold that article.” I still remember the picture the couple sent to us, thanking us for bringing them together.
Multiple media outlets featured that photo in their prime-spot articles. We couldn’t have paid for better ad placement.
The picture was of two attractive people in swimsuits at a warm destination. It accompanied articles published in February, when people were sick of the cold after an unusually long winter and yearned to be somewhere warm, where they, too, could fall in love with foreign medical professionals.
Yeah, that campaign worked stupidly well and actually got us a ton of new customers.
“Right,” Nathan says. “Well, we’re not getting naked for the media, though, because I’m confident we don’t even need any pictures for this story. Just the headline is attention-grabbing enough.”
“I agree.”
“In other words, you both agree with what I was saying,” Liam says. “It sounds like it might work.”
“Yeah.” Nathan grins sheepishly. He gets too excited when a new idea comes to him sometimes. I’ve learned to just let him go with it when it strikes because otherwise, he may forget his own brilliant idea.
“I just want you to carefully consider the consequences,” Liam says to Ava.
She solemnly nods at Liam, then looks around the table at each one of us. “What about the consequences for you?”
“There will be no consequences to us, unless people start looking into your personal life, Ava,” Nathan says.
“It may or may not happen,” I agree.
“But what if it does happen?” she asks again, her eyes darkened by worry.
“It doesn’t matter,” Mason says. “Family comes before business. If people don’t like us, they can go ahead and give their money to our rivals. That just means they’re not our market. There will still be people who like us enough to do business with us.”
“Also, people have short attention spans these days. As time goes by and we release new stories, they’re going to slowly forget the old ones.” I notice Ava’s wearing a big smile on her face. “So? Have you made a decision?”
“Not yet.” Ava’s smile grows wider as the skin around her eyes crinkle.
“What’s made you so smiley, then?” Ollie asks playfully.
“Mason called me ‘family,’ and none of you guys batted an eye,” she says.
“Of course, you’re family.”
Ava
“Where is she?”
My blood freezes at the sound of my mom’s shrill voice at the front door.
My front door.
Which has just been opened by one of the Hunters.
Oh, no.
I check my appearance. I’m decent; I’m wearing all my clothes.
These days, I often walk around the house with an item of clothing missing because someone’s yanked it off me. I could always put it back on, of course, but sometimes the attention I get from the boys convinces me that less is more.
And that’s the kind of thing I need to hide from my mom who, nevertheless, seems to have found out anyway.
I dash toward the front door. Ollie’s there, trying to keep my mom calm. I’m glad it’s him and not someone else. My mom dislikes him the least out of the Hunters—that’s how it used to be, anyway. Maybe she just outright hates all of them equally now.
As I pass Mason, I gently push him back on the chest and hold a finger against my lips. I want everybody to stay as quiet and as undetected as possible.
Seeing as my mom’s literally marched in here looking for me, she’s probably already heard the rumors that Principal Morgan’s warned me about. Or, maybe Joseph’s already told her his side of the story. Who knows?
Regardless, there’s no need to give her visual evidence of the debauchery that's been going on in this place.
“Hi, Mom.” I give her the biggest, sweetest smile I can as I push Ollie away from the door.
I know all five of them are probably curious and worried, but there’s nothing they can do to help me. This is something I have to face on my own. Them getting involved is only going to make this worse.
“What do you think you’re doing, Ava Green?” my mom asks, her voice low enough so neighbors won’t hear, but vehement enough to convey her anger.
“What are you talking about?” I feign innocence. Probably not the best strategy, but I’m not exactly prepared for this.
I’ve been rehearsing how I’d tell my mom about my relationship with the Hunters, but I haven’t come up with a good script. Joseph’s dumb lawsuit and its aftermath have been keeping me busy, and I was hoping it would take more time for my mom to hear about it.