Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
“I wish I could have come with you guys,” she said on a pout. “That party looked fun.”
“Wouldn’t know. I didn’t go.”
“Obviously.” Everyone knew I hated parties. She took her phone from her pocket and tapped the screen a few times. “Seriously, though, Hendrix is so hot. If only—”
“Gross. Even if he were single, trust me, you wouldn’t want to touch him with a ten-foot pole. He’s a man whore.” I held up my hand. “Excuse me, a rehabilitated man whore.”
Behind us, the grill sizzled, the scent of frozen patties thawing wafting over my shoulder.
“Wolf was a man whore, too. Didn’t stop you, little Miss Don’t Date Bad Boys.”
He was a six-foot-three high schooler with more muscle than most fully grown men. There wasn’t a girl in Dayton who didn’t want him—yeah, myself included. Of course he was a whore. She lifted a Judgy McJudgerson brow at me. “Monroe told me all the stories about those Dayton boys.”
What happened to girl code, or what happens in Dayton stays in Dayton? Monroe was giving confusing messages in our co-management of Cassie. “And from the sound of it, Wolf was Grade-A bad.”
“Yeah, well, learn from my mistakes.” Guilt niggled at me for calling Wolf a mistake.
A look of what could only be described as pity crossed Cassie’s face. “I guess you saw Wolf was with that girl on Saturday night?”
Girl? What girl? He was with me on Saturday night. Something in my chest sank, like a foretelling of things to come.
Cassie must have seen something on my face shift. “I did tell you not to get attached to him again. To throw your words back at you, you should stay away from bad boys. And seeing as he literally blackmailed you, I’m thinking you’re drawn to extra toxic—”
“What girl?”
She pulled her phone from her apron. “I saw it on Hendrix’s InstaPic.” Then she tapped over the screen and held it out to me.
I’d deleted social media after Wolf and I broke up. I could have just blocked him, but I didn’t even want to catch a glimpse of him in the back of someone else’s picture, the way he was now in Hendrix’s story from last night.
In the Hunt brothers’ backyard, Hendrix, Lola, Zepp, and Monroe stood in a group, smiling at the camera. But my focus quickly shifted to the background.
My heart sank at the sight of Wolf sitting on the trampoline with Nora. “That’s his ex,” I said, all too aware of the bitter tone of my voice.
He was with her on Saturday, right before he had walked to my house. I didn’t know how to feel about that. He’d chosen me over her, but the way she was looking at him—like he was the only thing she’d ever wanted. I knew that feeling well.
Just when I thought I could finally be brave and admit my feelings for him, when I had hope, doubt shoved its bony fingers in the old, barely patched cracks of my heart and pried them open.
I passed Cassie’s phone back as sirens rang out somewhere in the town. “Why would I care who he talks to?”
“Because you do.”
“I don’t—”
“Not according to the heartbroken expression on your face right now.” She shoved her phone back into her apron pocket. “Look, he’s your ex. I get it. But have you thought that maybe he’s leading you on as some kind of payback?”
Everything in me recoiled at the prospect of Wolf even being capable of something that cruel. But I didn’t want to admit that, yes, I had considered it. “He’s not leading me on.” It was a weak defense.
“Sharing a bed with you isn’t leading you on?” She ticked off her fingers. “Driving you to school, breakfast, taking you to Dayton…”
I felt like Monroe was the angel on my shoulder, and Cassie was the devil. Or was it the other way around?
“It’s not like that.”
“I’m just saying, the guy hated you two weeks ago. Like, major lingering butthurt. He blackmailed you, Jade.” She shrugged a shoulder. “And he was hanging out with his ex last night.”
She was right. When we’d first moved into the house, I had felt the hatred pouring off him. Who was I to say what a person was capable of when hurt? I’d been absent from Wolf’s life for a year and a half—a stranger. I couldn’t trust my own emotions where he was concerned, everything felt through the hazy warmth of first love. I loved him, and probably always would, but by the looks of it, he could just as well love Nora. And she hadn’t broken his heart.
Twenty-Two
Wolf
Back in Pikestown, Dog’s paws dug into my thigh when I drove into the Kanga Mart parking lot. I’d spent the last hour listening to Mrs. Seaton lecture me on how she’d seen me look at Jade in Wal-E-Mart. How I’d kept glancing back at her in the truck when I dropped Dog off yesterday. I hated how people with more life experience had no problem pointing out what I already knew but wanted to deny.