Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
I left the bar and went to my hotel room, where I searched for The Vers and started listening. While I did that, I browsed social media for The Vers, Beach Buns, and Parker Hansley. He was in town for a baking event, but it was also Corbin’s—The Charmer’s—birthday. His group seemed extremely close, especially Parker and Declan. That much had been clear when I saw them together. Declan tried to protect Parker, which I was sure he didn’t need. But Vaughn had been right: Parker had really bad luck. The more I researched, the more I understood why he was so gun-shy—bad dates, getting stood up, getting used for sex, cheating. If it was bad and it could happen, it seemed to have happened to Parker. Still, he was The Romantic. He wanted more. He loved romance. Even though settling down or having more with someone had never appealed to me, all this knowledge did was make me more interested in him.
CHAPTER TWO
Parker
I frowned when I saw a private Instagram message from Elliott Weaver. It definitely wasn’t what I wanted to see first thing in the morning. Was he finished with the man he’d been with last night and now wanted to try and get me to go out with him again? I almost didn’t let myself open it, but I didn’t have it in me. I was one of those people who couldn’t let anything go. I clicked the message.
Hey. Hope you’re having a good time with your friends. I just wanted to apologize if my flirting and asking you out really bothers you. You seemed interested the first night, and afterward, it felt like a game we were both into. But if I misread things, I’m sorry. I’ll respect your boundaries from now on.
Wait. What? I reread the message, trying to make sense of it. There was a voice in my head telling me this was a good thing and I shouldn’t be annoyed, but what the fuck? Was he suddenly not interested? Was I not worthy of his flirting?
This shouldn’t be upsetting. You don’t like Elliott. You want different things.
Well, yes, all that was true, but I also liked being flirted with by a hot guy. Sue me. And if anyone was going to call an end to this, I thought it was supposed to be me. He said if I told him not to come around anymore, he wouldn’t, and I didn’t, and… God, I was ridiculous. Why did I care about this?
I didn’t.
I sent a message to our Vers group chat: You guys up?
When no one responded right away, I got up, made coffee, then checked my phone again. The guys hadn’t messaged, and yep, Elliott’s note hadn’t magically changed either.
I had no idea what to even say to him.
I drank my coffee, then showered before the first reply came through.
Declan: Yeah, I’m up. Bastian and I are going to do some sightseeing today.
Oh. That made sense.
Corbin: Ended up meeting a guy last night. I’m not finished with him yet. I’ll be free by tonight. He signed it with a winky-face emoji.
Marcus: I’m actually meeting up with a seller about some property here.
Everyone had made plans without me? What was I supposed to do today? They’d be leaving tomorrow. I’d expected us to spend more time together because…well, because that’s just what we did, and I was maybe a little needy, but that had always worked with us. Plus, we were here for Corbin’s birthday, and yeah, we’d hung out last night and only came here to celebrate it because I had my event, but still.
Declan: Come with me and Sebastian.
“Ugh!” I tossed my phone to the bed. Now I was getting sympathy-asked to hang out with my best friend. I knew things would change after Declan fell in love with Sebastian, and I couldn’t be more stoked for him. Declan meant the world to me, and nothing was more important than his happiness. He deserved someone like Sebastian, but sometimes I was lonelier now—if we’d come to Vegas before they got together, Dec and I would have automatically spent all our time together. Hell, I’d be rooming with him now rather than on my own.
And since I’d decided months earlier to take a break from men and stop dating and hooking up, that meant I couldn’t even go find someone on my own to spend time with, so I was just…alone.
I picked up my phone again and saw two more messages—Marcus asking if I wanted to go to his meeting with him, and Corbin offering to kick his sex buddy out and go to breakfast with me. Their responses didn’t surprise me. It’s how we were with each other. It’s how we’d been from the start, but I also wasn’t going to make them change their plans around for me. I wasn’t that needy. I could handle shit on my own.