Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
“Jessie, hi!” The first, with perfectly straight, bleached white teeth, threw out her hands in a faux display of excitement and friendship. They hugged, the woman rocking Jessie from side to side before stepping back so the next could do the same thing, and then the next.
“Hi, Pamela. Jody. Bess. How are you all?” Jessie said, her lack of enthusiasm evident.
“Just great! It’s been so long,” said the first of them, Pamela. She made a show of pouting. “I wondered if we’d ever see you again. You moved to the other side of the world.”
“I don’t know how you do it,” another said, her hair fairly short and very blond. “Living in the sticks?” She gave Jessie an incredulous look. “All the bugs and critters.” She issued a pronounced shiver.
“Not to mention everything shuts down early, right?” the third said. “What if you need to run out in the middle of the night for… I don’t know, wine or something? You’d be stranded!”
“What would I do without delivery, am I right, girls?” Pamela leaned into the others, and they all started laughing uproariously. Jessie merely smiled at them, offering no comment.
“This is my niece, Aurora, by the way,” Jessie said.
They looked Aurora up and down, the set of their shoulders and the tightness of their jaws saying they were intimidated.
“Well, look at you, girl!” Pamela leaned away and put a finger to her chin. She glanced at her friends and then leaned into Jessie. “To be young again, huh?”
“Yes,” the second said, narrowing her eyes slightly at Aurora. “Though I’ll never understand young women these days. They make a big stink about smiling. Don’t they know they look positively wretched if they look miserable all the time? No offense!” She offered Aurora an insincere smile. “But you all don’t care about marriage either, right? So I guess you don’t care about getting a man.”
Aurora added a heavy dose of power and hostility into her eyes and bearing. All three women’s smiles faltered, and they quickly shifted their attention back to Jessie. How these women hadn’t been killed by now was anyone’s guess. They wouldn’t last one day in a shifter pack.
“Too bad looks fade,” Pamela said. “But look at you, Jacinta! You’ve lost weight.”
“Yeah, I work out with Austin a lot. My fiancé.” She showed them the ring.
“Oh my God!” Pamela turned and thrust Jessie’s hand at the others. “I heard about this a moment ago. Is it really Harry Winston?” She narrowed her eyes at Jessie, dropping the hand. “He didn’t just buy one of those boxes on eBay and slap another ring in it?”
They started laughing like it was a joke. Their bodies didn’t lie, though. They were as jealous as people could be. Self-conscious, too, sucking in their stomachs or holding their arms in front of their bodies. Those things made them incredibly spiteful—and from there, it was a quick jump to destructive.
“Is he one of those Paul Bunyan types?” the second asked. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s handsome, and he looks great for the party, but does he live in flannels and board shorts?”
“They live in the boonies.” The third nudged her friend. “They don’t wear board shorts—they wear holey sweats.”
“He wears threadbare jeans a lot of the time, actually,” Jessie countered, looking out at the other people, clearly bored. “White T-shirts.” She looked back at the third. “And he looks hot in them. Well, you know, you’ve seen him. He’d look hot in board shorts or holey sweats, too.”
Their “excitement” at seeing Jessie again was waning fast, and their scowls and snarls started to crack the façade of politeness.
“What’d you say he does?” Pamela quirked an eyebrow. “Venture capitalist?”
“Investor, but he also inherited a sizable trust.”
“And you’re…” Pamela was squinting and shaking her head slowly. “You take care of an old house?”
“Yes, basically. I manage a very large estate and the people who work there, like the cape-wearing butler. He came with the house. As such, I can use the funds for my own benefit. When needed.”
“Like lipo?” The third lifted her eyebrows accusingly.
“I got a tuck done after I took on the house, sure,” Jessie said breezily, explaining away what the magic had done. “But the rest was through working out. Again, you’ve seen my fiancé. How do you think he got that body? He’s helped me get in shape.”
“Well.” The second showed disdain at Jessie’s dress now. “You’re sure showing it off in that dress. Are you sure you should be exposing so much of yourself with your son here? I mean…” She looked around and then lowered her voice. “He’s probably embarrassed that his mother is dressing like the girls he’s in college with.”
“Or like your niece.” Pamela indicated Aurora. She tilted her head to the side. “It’s not a good look, Jessie. Your fiancé doesn’t have any kids. He doesn’t realize.”