Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 78164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
I grab my phone and call Carys.
“Why are you calling me so early on a Saturday morning?” Carys asks, yawning.
“Hello to you, too.”
“Is anyone dying?” Gannon asks from the background.
“No,” I say. “Why would you ask me that?”
“Then why the hell are you calling us this early?” Gannon asks.
I roll my eyes. “I’m not calling you. I’m calling Carys.”
“You’re going to learn boundaries one way or the other,” my brother says.
“Yeah. Later,” I say. “Carys, I’m having a slight emergency, and I need your help.”
“For the love of God, Tate …” Gannon mutters, sighing heavily for my benefit, I’m sure.
The line gets fuzzy for a moment before Carys’s voice rings through the line.
“What’s your emergency?” she asks.
“He probably found out Kelly isn’t real,” Gannon says.
“She is real, asshole. Trust me. I fucked her for six or seven hours last night.”
Carys sighs. “So … emergency?” Carys asks impatiently.
“She might be real, but she was gone this morning,” I say, the words a little wobbly as they come out.
“What do you mean she was gone this morning?” Carys asks.
I pace the room. “I don’t know. She was gone. I went to sleep with her on top of me, and I woke up alone. She took her clothes and the pie and left.”
“Pie?” Carys asks.
“Tate, are you drunk?” Gannon asks.
“No, I’m not drunk, asshole. God, I hate you sometimes.”
“We have something in common after all.” Gannon snorts. “I hate to be the one to tell you this. Actually, I’m not. I’m overjoyed that I get to be the one who tells you this—Kelly isn’t real. At worst, you have a drug problem we don’t know about, and you imagined all of this. At best, she gave you a fake name.”
I gasp. “Kelly would never do that.”
“You sure?”
Hell, yes, I’m sure … aren’t I?
My gut tenses even harder. It almost feels like I’ve taken a punch from Ripley because the wind has been knocked out of me. How dare he suggest something so asinine?
“We had a connection,” I say, talking over Gannon’s chuckles. “I was charming. I took my clothes off. I entertained her with stories and oysters, and I made her come—”
“Stop!” Carys groans. “We get the picture.”
“I’m starting to worry she got sick or something,” I say.
“Or maybe she just played you,” Gannon says with entirely too much glee.
I narrow my eyes. “She didn’t play me. She was totally into me.” I start pacing again. “But let’s play devil’s advocate for a minute and say there was a chance she wasn’t into me. How would you even substantiate that idea? I’m Tate fucking Brewer. Women love me.”
“All of them but her,” Gannon says.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“No, you’re right. I don’t. I’ve never had a woman walk out on me—ouch! I’m kidding, Carys. I’m kidding.”
“No, you’re not,” she says. “No one in their right mind would walk out on you. I just don’t want to think about you with other women.”
“There were no women before you. You’re the only one who mattered.”
“Come on,” I groan. “Let’s focus on me here.”
The sound of them kissing crackles through the phone.
“I need a new best friend,” I say.
“Yes, you do,” Gannon says, although the sound is broken up by what I’m assuming is Carys’s lips.
“I really should’ve fucked your stepmommy,” I tell Carys. “Then you could’ve known what it’s like to have someone from your family reject you.”
Carys laughs. “Aurora isn’t my stepmommy anymore, remember? So if you had hooked up with her, she wouldn’t have been my family. Besides, I like Aurora. She wouldn’t reject me.”
“Like Kelly rejected you.” Gannon chuckles again.
“I hate you,” I say. “Both of you. All I needed was for you to tell me that there must’ve been an emergency, and that Kelly will call me later.”
“We aren’t lying to you,” Gannon says.
This bastard.
“Tate, I’m sure she’ll get ahold of you,” Carys says. “Have you ever known a woman not to call?”
I grin. “No.”
“And have you ever wanted a woman you couldn’t get?” she asks.
My grin turns smug, and I stand taller. “Absolutely not.”
“So she probably had work this morning or something and had to run. She clearly knows what room you’re in, and I’m sure she’ll be knocking by dinnertime.”
“See? That’s all I needed.” I move to the bathroom and flip on the shower. “Was it that hard?”
“Oh, it’s very hard right now,” Carys says, whimpering.
I roll my eyes again. “Bye.”
Carys yelps and giggles as the call is disconnected on her end.
I don’t have time to put my phone down before it starts pinging. I glance down to see my text app going off repeatedly.
Ripley: Well, well, well.
Bianca: Be nice, Ripley.
Ripley: I am being nice.
Jason: I’d like to think I’m too mature for this, but I’m up with my coffee in hand.
Renn: Gannon works fast.
That fucker.
I know this is about me without asking. I’m partially impressed that Gannon has lowered himself enough to gossip. Maybe he’s human, after all. But I’m mostly irritated in their amusement at my predicament.