Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 162520 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 813(@200wpm)___ 650(@250wpm)___ 542(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162520 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 813(@200wpm)___ 650(@250wpm)___ 542(@300wpm)
If this isn’t an initiation into our world, I don’t know what is. “Welcome to my magical summers,” I tell him later that night. “They’ve always been very unhinged.”
* * *
—
I can honestly say I’ve been enjoying working alongside Hailey. It’s new—her taking huge pointers from all of us, listening and following what we have to say. The hot, sticky summer days feel cool as fuck knowing Trent is being bamboozled at every turn. Friday, we attend Victoria’s movie night on the green, and he’s loosening his tie and curling his lip as Hailey stretches out on a blanket beside Phoebe. Both girls digging into a bucket of popcorn purchased from the outdoor vendors.
“I know she’s your sister, Grey, but what the fuck is on her face?”
Hailey put in all her piercings at one time. Septum, both eyebrows, bottom lip, studs on her earlobes, and hoops in the cartilage.
“She’s alternative, man,” I say. “A little weird. I don’t know, we’re not that close.”
“Yeah, I’ve gotten that sense.” Trent cringes while we wait for gourmet sliders from a burger food truck. “I don’t know about this.”
“You want to ditch the movie?” I nod toward the opening of The Sandlot playing on the giant projector screen. Families and couples hunker down on the lawn space with Fizz sodas and boxes of candy: Junior Mints, Skittles.
“I meant Varrick’s idea,” he whispers, eyeing me seriously. “I was already married once. I’m a widower.” A title he wears with pride. “Getting married again, while I’m in a legal battle with Jake, to your…” He makes a sour face at Hailey. Good. “Her.” He motions to Hailey as she picks chewing gum out of her mouth and sticks it to the side of the popcorn tub. (Phoebe’s idea.) “What the fuck?” he mutters, then grits out to me, “There’s nothing in it for me.”
“Really?”
“I really don’t see it.” He gives Hailey another once-over from afar.
“He’s basically handing you a cash cow. It’s the Wolfe fortune. They were building railroads and shit. Wasn’t one of them friends with the Rockefellers back in the day?”
“Carnegie, I think.”
“Old money,” I say. “Loaded for generations. You and all your degenerate offspring.” The quip comes out far too lighthearted to be real from me.
He laughs, then grimaces again. “And her degenerate offspring.” He narrows his eyes from her to me. “Thornhall. I can see how you’d like this, being her brother.”
Deep, sudden laughter rumbles out of my chest. “Yeah, yeah, I would. Who wouldn’t want to be one degree from probably a billion, maybe more. But I’m not telling you it’s worth it so I can bag a fucking dime. I don’t have to be from around here to know the depth of money from the steel industry.” I nod to him. “To be honest, the chances she accepts any kind of marriage proposal from you is low anyway. You probably shouldn’t bother—”
“Whoa.” He catches my arm before I turn back to the food truck. “You think I can’t get her to marry me?” He laughs even harder than I did, a little pissed. “Are you high right now?”
“Man—”
“I’m a twelve. She’s a two. Most of this town would pay me to be Mrs. Trent Waterford.”
I stomp out the urge to roll my eyes halfway across the Atlantic. “I don’t think my sister cares about your pedigree.”
“Wasn’t she sleeping with half the staff at the country club?”
Yeah.
Hailey did do that.
“Exactly.” I focus on the chef flipping burgers off a griddle in the truck. “My sister isn’t the marriage type. It’s not you. It’s her. The one thing I do know about Hailey, she’s not going to settle down. It’d be a miracle if you could even get her in on this. Especially since you don’t need to sleep with her. You just need to be legally married.” I collect my blue cheese sliders from the chef, letting Trent ponder this on his own. I hand him his paper tray of mini burgers. “You good?”
“You want to bet on it?” He extends a steady palm, staring me straight in the eye.
“What exactly?”
“That I’m going to be the richest man in Victoria.”
Too easy.
Manipulating him has never been hard. He’s just ego and vanity. Withstanding him has taken untapped patience, but things are changing this summer.
After I shake his hand, accepting this bet—we put twenty grand on it—he chooses to watch the movie on the blanket beside Hailey. I gladly take the spot beside my ex-wife. Phoebe grinds out a smile at me, leans her shoulder into mine, and most of the town can see.
We’re steadily moving from “exes who are friends” to “exes who might be dating.” Trent—he’s hating every second of this movie.
Hailey is whispering to him about baseball. From the physics, velocity of pitches, to the material of the balls, to the twenty-seven times the Yankees won the World Series. To the point where the vein in his temple throbs. He side-eyes her like she’s an insect crawling inside his ear canal.