All-American Princess - Maggie Dallen Page 0,10
Yeah, yeah.
A little while later after stocking the paint shelf, I did as I’d said. Tess opened the door upstairs, thankfully, and her eyes widened in surprise at the sight of me. “Jack, what are you doing here?”
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “I’m headed to a party at the lake—just an end-of-summer thing. I thought maybe you might want to come?”
She bit her lip, her brown eyes clouded with indecision behind her glasses as she fidgeted with the long sleeves of her shirt. “Oh, um. That’s really nice of you, but I don’t think—”
“Everyone will be there.” I added that in quickly because holy crap, what if she thought I was asking her on a date? That was exactly what I didn’t need.
She stopped her fidgeting, her eyes flickering up to meet mine. “Everyone?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, most of the seniors from Pinedale High, at least.” From the sounds of it, Amber had invited the whole school. If it wasn’t for her last text, “Brandon won’t go unless you go,” I wouldn’t have been going at all.
But if I had to go—and let’s face it, Amber’s text had been friend-guilt at its finest—then at the very least I ought to use the party to help this nice girl escape her horrid sister, right?
Tess blinked at me, the effect owlish thanks to those coke-bottle lenses. She shoved them up her nose and sniffed. “Hang on just one second, okay?”
She ran off into one of the two bedrooms and shut the door behind her with a quiet click. Well, okay then. I took another step into the living room and looked around.
Oh crap, my dad was right. This was sad—everything about it.
The furnishing was sparse, but it wasn’t just that. It was how few boxes there were sitting around, how little effort had been put into unpacking and making this a home. Not a picture to be seen—though granted, they’d only been here for a few hours.
Even so, there was something incredibly desolate about the scene around me, like this was a home without a heart.
The same door snapped open, but instead of Tess, it was Lila standing in the doorway, one arm resting against the door frame above her head like she was posing for a photo shoot.
And she should have been.
My mouth watered at the sight of her—all perfect curves and graceful lines. A crazy, heady combination of seduction and innocence in short shorts and a tiny top that revealed a sliver of her flat stomach.
Her smile was wide and sunny, almost like she hadn’t been a diva earlier or tried to seduce me to prove some point to her sister. “Thanks for inviting me, Jack. I’d love to go.”
Four
Lila
Jack wasn’t happy about me going with him. Did I care? No. Of course not. I wasn’t here to make friends, and even if I were, I had more than enough guys looking down on me without adding one more to the roster, thank you very much.
He helped me into his truck. Yes, a truck. A beat-up, old red thing that looked like it should have been put out of its misery years ago.
His hand came to my waist as he helped me up. I will give him this—he had good hands. Solid. Warm. Just the right amount of rough callouses.
But there would be no more of that. I was a woman on a mission, and this guy was just a means to an end. When he got into the driver’s seat, I glanced over at his profile. Oh yeah, Mr. Judgy over here was pissed that I was tagging along. I knew very well he’d meant to bring Tess.
So did Tess.
But I was the one sent here to do a job. She was just here as Daddy’s spy. No doubt she’d already called to tell him that I was on my way to meet Brandon.
Hopefully.
If he wasn’t at this party, I was going to be so pissed. The last thing I wanted to do with my last days of freedom was go to some boring lake party and hang out with a bunch of hicks.
On cue, my phone dinged. Another photo from Siobhan and Evie, my besties. They were currently in Ibiza partying it up, which was exactly where I should be right now. I scowled down at their kissy faces mocking me from my phone.
Evie: Wish you were here!
Yeah, right. They were probably laughing it up at my expense right about now while they drank champagne on some