But you need to buy extra tickets for Thea to attend with whoever she wants to invite.”
“Deal.”
Without another word, Vincent walked away, and Leo pulled me in close, sighing against my neck. “It's always something.”
“But you get to play Saturday.”
“Yeah. There is that.” I felt his smile as he kissed along my jaw. “I need to go call Coach. Meet you back down here for dinner?”
“Sounds good.”
Before releasing me, he rested his forehead against mine. “It's not going to be like this forever. I promise.”
“Like what? Your father believing I'm a slut?”
His jaw tightened. “If he’d have said that, I would have punched him.”
I wrapped my hands around his fists. “I appreciate your wanting to defend me, but that's the last thing I want. Ruining your relationship with Vincent isn't part of my plan.”
“Don't worry about that. He's doing a fine job of ruining it on his own.” He kissed me, pulling away a split second before it got out of hand. “See you later.”
I snuck a snack from the kitchen before heading upstairs to my room. In the two hours before dinner, I made a chart to organize my study schedule over the next few days. Leo hadn't mentioned reserving a suite at The Harbor Inn again, so I assumed I'd either be tucked away in my bedroom or at the library the whole time.
Once I was done with that, I may or may not have allowed myself to get lost in the colorful world of Candy Crush. Most of the time, I tried to pretend that the oh-so-addictive game wasn’t downloaded on my phone. But, every once in a while, I needed to do nothing but mindlessly swap candy pieces for a few minutes.
And this was one of those times. Because I didn't want to think about Vincent or the car or the possibility of running into Tristin or the random girl Leo would be taking out. I didn’t want to think about anything.
I went downstairs at my usual time to help with dinner and found Susan preparing individual meatloaves with bacon crumbles and a homemade barbecue sauce that smelled amazing. I'd never thought meatloaf could make my mouth water, but this meal was doing it.
As I got to work making a salad, I asked her, “Do you know anything about a charity ball that's happening in a couple of weeks?”
“Oh, yes. It's a yearly fundraiser put on by the Moss Harbor Children’s Foundation. Sharpe Shipping is always the main sponsor of the event.”
Of course. Vincent Sharpe had to show off his philanthropic nature somehow. What better way than to throw money at needy children? Or whatever cause the foundation was dedicated to.
“Is it a real ball? Like with men in tuxedos and women in big, poofy gowns?”
Susan laughed. “I would describe most of the dresses as provocative rather than poofy, but, yes. That's the idea.” Lowering her voice, she added, “The tickets are outrageously expensive, so the whole event is kind of stuffy, if you ask me.”
That sounded about right. “Well, I guess it's a good thing I don't have to go.”
“Oh?” She paused in shaping what I had to guess was a vegetarian meatloaf for Tristin. “Leo isn't taking you?”
“Why would Leo take me?” I asked coyly. Though Leo and I hadn't engaged in much canoodling around the mansion, it wasn't difficult to guess that she'd found out we were together. Still, I wanted to hear what she would say.
“It was my understanding that he's courting you.”
I couldn't resist a laugh. “Yes, he's courting me. Where did you hear that?”
Her grin was wide when she said, “He told me. He seemed quite excited that you accepted.”
Did he now? That was interesting.
“We haven't talked about the ball, but he can't take me. Which is probably for the best, since it means I get out of having to dress up.”
“I'll take you.”
At the sound of Tristin's deep voice from behind me, I froze. Had I imagined it? Because I couldn't believe he would actually offer to accompany me to a freaking ball.
“That's so sweet of you,” Susan cooed to him before turning back to me. “Every girl should get to attend a fancy ball at least once in her life.”
I slowly turned until I was facing the “sweet” guy in question. I expected his expression to be as blank as it had been every time I'd seen him lately. But it wasn't. His full lower lip was curved up and his aquamarine eyes were doing something close to