The Punk and the Plaything (When Rivals Play #3) - B.B. Reid Page 0,3
to make my broken heart beat again became too obvious to ignore. I tried to run from it, but some inexplicable need to seal our fate had me spinning on my heel to face him again. “Better yet, Jameson, do us both the favor, won’t you?”
This time, when I walked away, I didn’t dare look back. With every sorrowful step, I could feel him watching me. I didn’t dare let my shoulders sag as I kept my chin high. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time we turned our backs on one another.
A year no longer seemed like such a short time away, and I had a feeling by the end, my heart will have been broken a thousand times more. Pathetically, there was nothing I cared to do about it. I deserved every bit of the pain Jamie had promised.
Eight Months Later
“YOU WANT ME TO DO what?”
I stood in the farmhouse kitchen, biting down on my lip as I gave Lou my best bedroom eyes. Never mind the fact that her boyfriend sat a few feet away with one eye wisely on me and the other on the large breakfast he was wolfing down. Lou couldn’t cook for shit, so I had one guess who was responsible. The sweet thing Wren was lucky enough to call grandmother. She’d been staying with them for the past couple of months. Considering Wren and Lou were still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, no one outside of the three of them knew why. The moment I tasted Winny’s cooking for the first time, I stopped caring. Hell, I hoped she never left.
Winny hadn’t had any trouble making friends in Blackwood Keep, so it was anyone’s guess where she was right now, but my guess was she was with the elderly gentleman up the street who I’d witnessed flirting with Wren’s grandmother a few times. I was willing to bet my entire inheritance that Wren knew nothing about it.
“Buchanan,” Wren slowly said as he chomped down on a cinnamon roll, “what did I tell you about that flirting shit?”
“Me? Flirting? With Lou? Not sure I’m daring enough to fuck my best friend,” I teased. “Too slippery a slope for me.”
I almost laughed when his eyes did that weird shit changing from a dull gray to a startling blue. I thought any moment now, his eyes would shoot lightning from their depths, and I’d be dust. The jealous fucker looked more pissed about me taking his place as her best friend than the possibility of me getting in her pants.
Of course, it went without saying I’d never cross that line. At least, now I wouldn’t. A few months ago, I was close to falling to my knees and begging Lou to make me forget. My sink into depression was interrupted when Lou shoved my shoulder.
“Do you know how much time and dignity it took me to wear him down? Leave him alone.”
Since the two of them looked like they’d tag team my ass, I backed off with a shrug. “Are you going to help me or not?” I grilled her.
“No,” Wren answered before she could.
Rolling her eyes, Lou whirled on him before planting her hands on her hips. “Excuse me,” she snapped, giving me hope. “I have lips and a tongue—not to mention a brain. I can speak for myself.” She then faced me again before he could rebut. “Sorry, bestie.” Wren growled at her for calling me bestie, but then his lips tipped up in a satisfied smirk when she added, “Wren says I can’t.”
She rounded the island, and he welcomed her onto his lap before wrapping his arms around her waist as I gave them both a blank stare.
“I thought we’d broken past your ‘us against the world’ phase. We’re one big, happy family now, remember?”
Wren was a former Exiled lieutenant, who came to Blackwood Keep seeking haven for Lou. She’d witnessed his boss murdering an innocent family, which had effectively ended Wren’s career as a criminal. In exchange for our protection, he offered to free Ever’s mom from Fox’s clutches. Ever and Wren both harrowingly held up their end of the bargain, though no one expected us to become attached. Now we have a reformed gangbanger and a still at-large pickpocket added to our merry band of misfits.
Subtly, I patted my dress pants and sighed when I felt my wallet still tucked inside. Lou was as slick as she was brazen.