Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
But she finally sets her shoulders and lifts her chin like she’s putting on a costume. “Sorry, Ford. I’m not interested, and if I see you hanging around me again, I swear I’m going to get a restraining order. Go ahead and test me. My family would love it.”
Without another word, she turns and storms off.
I watch her go, my heart racing. My stomach drops, and I’m tempted to follow her.
Fucking Kat Stockton.
I shouldn’t have enjoyed that as much as I did.
She’s livid. God damn, she’s angry, and not that I can blame her—I pushed her buttons on purpose.
But she’ll be thinking about me now for the rest of her dinner.
No, she didn’t break, and a little regret floods my stomach. I wish she had bent and finally admitted that she wants what I have to offer her, but we aren’t there yet.
I’m getting close.
That fucker Matthew Keyne will be all but forgotten as she takes her seat and crosses her legs and feels how soaked through her panties are. He’ll be an afterthought on his own date.
I’m all she’ll be able to think about.
And fuck knows she’s all I’ll be thinking about too.
I move out of the waiting room and linger at the wall again. Kat’s sitting back down, trying to smile. Her face is flushed and it’s obvious she was crying, but Matthew’s too much of a spineless dork to do anything about it. Her eyes move over toward me and for one moment, she’s looking back and I swear she smiles.
But then she turns to Matthew and says something and laughs, her lovely personality sparkling through even across the room, and I turn to walk away.
Carmine looks up when I join him. “You were gone a while,” he says.
“I had some business.”
“With Kat?” I shrug and don’t answer. He sighs. “Well, how did it go?”
“She hates me.”
“That’s not ideal.”
“No, it’s not. But she’s thinking about me.”
“I feel like that’s still not great.”
“It’ll all work out.” I raise my glass to my lips and don’t add, I hope.
Chapter 7
Kat
Ford ruined my date.
Not that it was going great before, but still. Ford ruined it and he put on that stupid show on purpose. I could see it on his face before he walked away—that bastard called me into that waiting room and got my head all mixed up for his own sick reasons, and I still can’t tell what he’s really aiming for.
Ford doesn’t care about me, even if it seems like he does. There’s just no way in hell.
It was like he enjoyed messing with me. Just like he enjoyed twisting Sara Lynn’s wrist. Just like he enjoyed hurting her.
Now he’s doing it to me.
And I don’t get why.
I stretch my legs and lounge next to the pool. I want to stop thinking about him, but Ford’s been the only thing on my mind since that date. I’ve basically all but forgotten about Matthew. He was totally fine—kind of nice, mostly boring, but totally fine. I should be thinking about him instead. But no, it’s only Ford on my mind.
Since I have a day off from Shady Farms, I’m using it to work on myself, which means doing absolutely nothing. I’d like to read, but every time I try, I start drifting off and thinking about Ford again. I think I’ve gone over the same page like a dozen times at this point. Still, at least the breeze feels nice and it’s not too hot and the sun is warm on my skin, and I can pretend like everything’s okay for a little while.
Until I think of him again.
Ford’s offer keeps rattling around in my head. He wants to marry me, really marry me, because we can help each other. Grandfather wants me to get a husband, and he never specified I couldn’t choose my own, but no, this is stupid. My whole goal is to make Grandfather happy for once so he’ll be lenient with Mom, and getting involved with Ford is basically the opposite of that.
Getting involved with Ford would be like dropping a nuclear bomb on my relationship with my family.
But the thought of Sara Lynn’s face—
I close my eyes and shake my head. No, no, no. This is too stupid and a total waste of my time. I’m not going to fantasize. I need to focus on sensible choices like Matthew. Our date wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either—there just wasn’t any spark. I sat there and listened to his stories and tried to laugh, but mostly I was thinking about Ford the whole time, thinking about him kissing me at first then thinking about how much I hate him later.
And everything he said. About being my family’s punching bag.
How the hell did he know that?
Is it really that obvious?
Maybe everyone can see it, and I’m a total laughingstock.