Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
What kind of weird game was he playing? Did he take some kind of happy pill every once in a while? My little heart gave a tight, confused squeeze. “Um, well—”
Yuki’s phone started ringing obnoxiously loud, and she cursed before walking away, answering with a “Yes, Roger?”
“I’ll ask her,” I explained, tilting my head in the direction she had gone. I threw out the first thing I thought of. “How was work today?”
“Fine. I wrote out too many tickets.”
He’d actually answered. Huh. “Did a lot of people play the dumb card and say they didn’t know something?” I asked, not expecting much more of a response.
“Half of them.”
I snorted, and the corners of his soft mouth went up just a little bit.
“I’ll take the kids,” he said. “You decide you want to eat, you know where we are.”
He was serious about inviting us over. I wanted to wonder why he was being so friendly but wasn’t positive I should find out. Instead, it was probably best to just accept it. “Okay, thank you.”
But Mr. Rhodes didn’t walk away. He stayed right where he was, just being all big and muscular. No big deal. “How’d it go today?”
“Really good. They know my friend.”
“The kids?” He didn’t ask how or why they recognized her though.
“Yeah.”
He nodded, but there was something very casual about the way he did it that didn’t sit right in my head, but I wasn’t sure why.
“Is your friend staying the night?”
“I have no idea, probably not.” She had a show tomorrow in Utah, so I highly doubted it. I just hadn’t wanted to ask.
His next nod, again, was a little too casual.
“Dad, can we eat now?” Amos called out from where he was lingering right outside the garage.
The older man replied just as I turned a little to catch Jackie by him, but this time, she was looking at me. Again. That funny, funny expression on her face. Little Rhodes and Mr. Rhodes headed out of the garage, not saying a word to each other, and it made me snicker.
Jackie wasn’t following after them though.
“You okay?” I asked her, hearing just a hint of Yuki’s voice from around the house, still talking on the phone.
“Umm, no?” she croaked.
I took a step closer to her. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to tell you something,” she said very seriously.
She was starting to scare me, but I didn’t want to put her off. “Okay. Tell me.”
“Please don’t be mad.”
I hated when people said that. “I’ll try my best to think about what you’re saying and try to take it with an open heart, Jackie.”
“Promise you won’t be mad,” she insisted, her slim fingers tap-dancing at her sides.
“Okay, all right, I promise not to get mad, but maybe I’ll get frustrated or have my feelings hurt.”
She thought about it for a second and nodded.
I waited for her to tell me . . . whatever it was she was scared to say.
And then she did. “I know who you are.” The words were rushed and so fast I almost couldn’t take them apart, so I squinted at her.
“I know you do, Jackie.”
“No, Aurora, I know who you are like I KNOW WHO YOU ARE.”
I had no idea what the hell she was trying to say.
She must have sensed that because she dropped her head back, squeezed her eyes shut, and said, “I know you were Kaden Jones’s girlfriend . . . or wife . . . or whatever you were.”
My eyes went wide.
She kept going. “I didn’t want to say anything! I . . . I saw your messages with Clara a long time ago . . . so, I . . . I looked you up. Your hair isn’t blonde anymore, but I recognized you the first time I saw you. There was like a whole page dedicated to women he was seen with, and there were pictures of you two together, like old pictures, I saw one or two of them before they got deleted—”
“Oraaa,” Yuki called out suddenly. “Roger’s being a party pooper, and he’s on his way to pick me up.”
I was going to need to ask Yuki if there was a crystal for mental clarity I could get.
“I’m not going to tell anyone, okay? I just . . . I wanted you to know. Please don’t be mad.”
“I’m not,” I told her, stunned. Just as I opened my mouth to say something else, Yuki came around the corner, huffing.
“I wanted to hang out with you for longer,” she said, sounding exasperated.
Jackie hesitated. She took a single step back, braced herself, and spat out in a quick stream, “I love you so much. Today has been, like, the highlight of my entire life. I’ll never forget it.” Then, in the time it took me to blink, Jackie came forward, kissed her on the cheek, and took off running before suddenly stopping and turning around. “I’m sorry, Aurora!” she shouted before taking off again. Yuki watched her part of the way, a faint smile on her face.