Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 114492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“Josh Faraday, you better get your gorgeous ass—” I begin, but I stop.
Holy shitballs.
Isabel Randolph just waltzed right up to the edge of the pool! Oh my God. She’s even more beautiful in person than on the big screen. I feel faint. How is this my life right now?
“Reed!” Isabel says, waving happily toward the swimming pool, her eyes focused immediately to my right.
I glance to my side and Reed’s standing just a few feet away from me in the pool, holding a drink. When did he get into the pool? And, hey, he looks mighty fine, I must say.
“Hey, Isabel, you came,” Reed replies, smiling broadly. “Awesome to see you.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it. Hey, Josh,” Isabel says, turning her attention to Josh a couple feet away from her on the ledge of the pool. She kisses him on both cheeks and then unabashedly looks him up and down. “Wow. You’re looking awfully... fit.”
Josh opens his mouth to reply, but before he can say a damned word, his face pales like he’s seen a freaking ghost.
“Josh Faraday,” a blonde woman says, emerging from the milling crowd and sauntering toward him and Isabel. “I had no idea you’d be here.” She squeals. “I don’t see you for seven long years, and now, out of nowhere, I get to see you twice in two weeks—and both times without a stitch of clothes on?” She giggles gleefully. “I guess there’s a God, after all.”
Nineteen
Josh
I feel physically ill.
I look at Kat in the pool and her face is a mixture of rage and... well, no, nothing else. Just rage. Shit. I look at Reed in the pool and he grimaces at me like I just got pounded in the face with a sledgehammer.
Jen takes another step forward, advancing on me like she’s gonna hug me, so I do the only thing my drunken brain can come up with to save myself: I cannonball into the pool.
The minute I emerge from my splash-landing—or is it a crash-landing?—I throw my hands up at Reed. “What the fuck, man?” I ask, my voice low but intense.
Reed throws his hands up in mimicry of my posture. “You didn’t tell me you were gonna be in Vegas this week, Faraday—how the fuck was I supposed to know?” he says, matching my energetic whisper. “I invited Isabel to the RCR concert when we saw her last week in New York. You should have told me then you were gonna be in Vegas if you didn’t want to see—”
“I didn’t know I’d be here—it came up last minute. Why didn’t you at least tell me Jen was coming tonight? Jesus, Reed. Help a brother out.”
“I didn’t even know Jen was coming—I didn’t even know Isabel was coming. She said she’d try, and that’s the last I heard.” He lowers his voice to barely above a whisper. “And I sure as fuck didn’t know she’d bring Jen, man.” Reed glances furtively at Kat.
“Fuck,” I say. “Not good, man.”
“It’s your own damned fault,” Reed says. “Play with crazy, you’re gonna get crazy-burned.”
I turn to Kat, ready to apologize or assure her or laugh with her—hell if I know where her head is at right now—and the expression on her face makes it clear she’s pissed (though about what, I’m not sure).
“Kat, listen,” I begin. “I—”
There’s a loud splashing noise right behind me. Jesus, no. I wheel around, hoping my gut is wrong. But it’s not wrong, unfortunately—Jen just jumped into the pool in her bra and underpants, giggling and squealing like she’s auditioning for Girls Gone Wild.
I grunt in frustration and lunge over to Kat. “Kat, I’m not even remotely interested in her. I told you that—”
“Josh!” Jen says wading up to me, her jaw-dropping tits on bodacious display in her see-through electric-blue bra. “Isabel didn’t tell me you were coming to see RCR, too. Awesome.” She puts her hand on my arm and leans into me like she’s gonna kiss me.
I jerk my arm and lurch back from her violently, toward Kat.
“Jen, I’m here with someone.” I motion to Kat. “I’m on a date.”
Jen’s face instantly turns to ice. “Oh.” She clenches her jaw. She blatantly looks Kat up and down. “So are you gonna introduce me to your date? Unless, of course, you don’t know her name?”
I feel physically sick. “No need to be—”
“Actually, he doesn’t know my name,” Kat spits at Jen. “He hasn’t asked me for it and I haven’t supplied it, despite the fact that we were just about to fuck in this pool.” She glares at me sideways and then flashes a sweet smile at Jen. “I’m Kat.” She puts out her hand.
Jen takes Kat’s hand like she’s picking up trash from the side of the road. “Jen.” Jen looks Kat up and down again. “A Vegas girl, I presume?” Her nostrils flare. “When in Rome, I guess, huh, Josh? Charming.”