The Hating Season (Seasons #2) - K.A.Linde Page 0,98

was before you cheated on me, Josh. I can’t go back to being that innocent and wide-eyed with wonder over you. I put my entire trust in you. I gave you my whole heart. And that girl just… doesn’t exist anymore.”

“I understand,” he said sadly. “But I still love you.”

I swallowed and nodded. He stepped forward then and pressed a kiss to my forehead. I closed my eyes as his scent enveloped me.

“Good-bye, English.”

Then, he walked away, and I let him.

And I wished then that there were a blue-eyed Manhattan playboy with a penchant for fantasy novels and a love for lacrosse here tonight instead. I wished I could cry on his shoulder about Taylor… and have him tell me it would all be okay.

But I did none of those things.

I just went back to the party to see Winnie and live this new life.

37

Court

The stick cracked into the cue ball and smacked hard into the red three ball, and I pocketed it in the top-left corner.

“Phew,” I muttered, leaning back against the pool table and forcing a smile. “Thought I’d miss that one.”

Camden had just lit a new joint and passed it to me. “I think you’re going to miss them all.”

“Ass.”

I waved off the joint even though I probably needed it. My anxiety had been through the roof since English left. It had been ten, going on eleven, brutal days without her. Not a call, not a text, not even an active notification that she was online. It was as if the world had screeched to a stop.

“Suit yourself,” Camden said as he took a hit of the joint. “Make your next shot.”

I stared down at the pool table and saw essentially no clean shots. I was fucked. Camden was a better pool player than me anyway. I usually lucked into a lot of my success. As per usual, apparently.

I lined up my next shot. Camden chuckled softly behind me. Yeah, I was going to miss it. We both knew it.

“I don’t think you understand how geometry works,” Camden said when I whiffed the ball.

“Fuck,” I grumbled.

Camden smirked at me as he took his own pool stick and effortlessly made his next three shots without looking up. It really was pointless to play with him.

“Did I ever tell you that I found out who had leaked that image of you with Jane?” Camden asked as he nailed the next shot. He glanced up at me. His face was surprisingly indifferent, but I could see something else simmering underneath there. That darkness that lurked just beneath the surface.

“No, you never mentioned that. How did you even find that out?”

He shrugged. “I have sources.”

“Well?”

“Do you know Margery Wells?”

“No.”

“I think you do.”

I stilled. “Is that… English’s old boss?”

“Indeed.”

“What a bitch!” I gasped out. “She got ahold of pictures of me and released them just to fuck with English.”

“Actually, I believe that she had you followed.”

“Jesus Christ. How did you find any of this out?”

Camden shrugged once more and then pocketed another ball. “Like I said, sources.”

I’d never get a straight answer out of him. Camden was a powerful man, who ran one of the largest hotel companies in the world. He was not easily discouraged from getting what he wanted.

“Also, no one fucks with me or my own,” Camden said, lethally quiet as he easily won the game, pocketing the final ball. He straightened and smirked at me in his victory.

But I just put my hand to my chest. “Aw, I’m touched.”

“Fuck off, Kensington,” Camden ground out.

I laughed and stepped forward to pull the balls out of the holes and rerack for another game. I was going to lose. But at least I was losing to a friend.

I finished the rack and stepped back. “Winner breaks.”

It was then that Katherine Van Pelt stepped into the room, looking like a hundred pounds of femme fatale. She wore a slinky red dress and matching cherry-red lipstick. Her hair was down in waves, and she wore black fuck-me heels. I’d never go for Katherine. With the feud between my brother and my best friend, I’d have to be an idiot, but I wasn’t blind.

I whistled at her as she strutted inside. “Going out?”

She dramatically rolled her eyes. “Yes,” she said curtly. “Big plans.”

Camden’s expression was neutral. No one should be able to look at her in that dress and be neutral. Let alone her husband. Who I was certain wanted to at least bang her.

“Do you have a reason for interrupting us?” Camden asked.