Page 47 of Snap

Fuck that.

"Have you met the team?" I asked her, genuinely curious.

She glanced towards my father. "Not yet. We didn't want to…"

"Draw attention to yourself until you could announce your engagement to the world?" I asked.

She flinched. "Yes. We want to avoid the ugliness."

"Rubie—" Dad said in warning.

“What?" I turned innocent eyes at him. "I'm trying to be nice. You want me to make an effort don't you?"

"Yes I do, but don't goad her," he said firmly.

"It's okay," Skye said. "I don't mind if she speaks her mind. She's a strong young woman. I wouldn't expect anything less from your daughter." She turned adoring eyes on my father.

"It's a really good thing I didn't have breakfast this morning, because it would end up a puddle on the floor right now." I smiled sweetly.

"Just wait," Skye said. "Someday you'll fall madly in love with someone."

Her words brought every drop of Ollie's betrayal back like a flood of heartbreak. It would have hurt less if she'd slapped me across the face.

She obviously saw the impact in my expression. Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. "Oh shit, I'm so sorry. I just… I just want you to be as happy as I am."

"Yeah, I want you to be as happy as I am too," I snarled.

So much for not taking my frustration out on her. The words were horrible, but I couldn’t take them back once they were out there, even if I wanted to.

When it dawned on her what I meant, her expression fell.

My father was quicker to respond. "Rubie! What the everloving hell, girl? Something terrible happened to you, but that does not mean you get to wish misery on somebody else. Especially someone who is only trying to look out for you."

He moved to put a hand on Skye’s shoulder.

He was right, what I said was shitty, but I didn’t want to make this about Skye. This was about Ollie, and me. Just thinking about the man made my heart race. And ache.

I scrunched up my face and curled my hands into fists. They stung after I’d broken the skin on my palms the night before.

"He treated me like shit, Dad. The photo, the lies, everything. If I ever see him again, I’m going to punch him in the face. No, correction, I’m going to punch him in the dick. Then in the face. Then I want to rip off his balls and shove them down his throat. After that?—"

Dad held up a hand. "Okay, okay, we get it. I’ll deal with him when I get time."

I hated the tear which trickled down my cheek. I hated myself for caring for Ollie Fucking God’s Gift Tucker. I hated him for fucking up my life.

I dashed away the tear. Deep down, under the anger, I knew I couldn't lie to myself. I was furious, but I could never really hate him.

I loved him so much it hurt.

CHAPTER 15

OLLIE

I looked down at the floor. All around me, the excitement buzzed. I could have put my hand on it, touched it, tasted it.

I wanted to be away from it. The last couple of days were crazy. Everywhere I went, I felt like I had eyes on me. The guys stuck up for me, but my mother could hardly look at me. I told her what happened, but she saw the photo.

Everyone saw that fucking photo.

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