Chapters (66)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Keep Reading
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sneak Peek
- Find Me
- Books by Mary Catherine Gebhard
- Acknowledgments
“I know what you’re doing,” I whispered. “You’re doing the thing. The Grayson thing. You don’t think I’ll last a day as Lottie’s girl, let alone months. You’re hoping you can push me away. Push us away. That I’ll grow to hate you. And then it won’t hurt me when you have to marry her. It won’t work.”
I didn’t see him bend down until my chin was in his hand, grip vicious. “Oh, you see me so well, Snitch.” His words were cutting, mocking, cruel.
Then he tossed me back to the ground like trash. I threw out my hands to keep from hitting the floor.
“You think you’ve figured me out?”
“I see you, Grayson Crowne,” I said through tears. “I see you. Don’t let this ruin everything. You can’t rip us out. You can’t make it disappear. I love you. That doesn’t just go away because you want it to.”
The pause he took to speak was so long I thought he’d left.
“Me or Lottie, Snitch.”
I swallowed. “Lottie.”
“Then you’re welcome. Lottie only pays a little bit less than us.”
Fifty-One
GRAYSON
You wrapped your heart in thorns, and I buried mine in secrets.
By the time I made it back to my wing, Lottie was curled up on my couch, head on her knees, staring out at the ocean.
She must have heard me come in, because she said, “So this sucks.”
I laughed. “Yeah.”
Awkwardness swamped us. Lottie or my mother had opened the doors to the beach, and chilly fall air numbed the room. But it was better—better than lingering in the stale sadness.
“You never allowed anyone in here,” she said musingly, “but you let her in here, and even now I’m forced upon you. I think they’re hoping by forcing us in close proximity we’ll have no choice but to like each other.”
I came around to see her, and her eyes were swollen from crying. In her red eyes I saw Woodsy’s words.
Your father tried that.
I’d loved two girls.
I’d ruined them both.
“I want to hate you,” she said quietly.
I looked up. “You don’t?”
“I do…Because I love you,” she whispered. “I hate you for making me love you, and then changing your mind. I hate you for choosing her.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Lottie…”
“I hate that you chose her…and I hate that I’m happy it didn’t count. I hate that I’m turning into this person. A vicious person. A greedy person. Someone who’s willing to take what doesn’t belong to them anymore.”
“It’s my fault,” I said.