Page 108 of Rinkmates

“Are you ready?” Riley asks, lacing his fingers with mine as we make our way around the opulent fountain at the center of the circular drive. I swallow as I gaze up at the white stone steps leading to the grand wooden double doors of the mansion before me. Those columns seem to reach to the heavens.

“Yes.” No. This is insane.

And it’s just the house they spend their summers in.Just.

My eyes drift to the sprawling stone facade to the gleaming windows that line the upper floors. Ivy creeps up one side, giving the villa an old money charm.

How could I be ready to walk into this castle of a home? I’m a trailer girl.

Even when my life was more stable, we had a one-story house with four rooms—just enough for us. But this…I look up at the towering enormity before me. It’s just way too much.

“Then let’s go. I should warn you; my parents aren’t the friendliest. Or friendly at all.”

With a deep breath, Riley leads me up the white stone stairs and rings the bell. A booming chime resonates throughout theentrance. We wait and my heart does its own dance behind my rib cage.

More seconds pass.

I inhale the scent of freshly cut grass.

The fountain splashes away behind us.

“You don’t have a key?”

Riley shakes his head. “I’m just tolerated here, Liora. The minute I moved out, that key was gone.”

Bending down, he presses a gentle kiss to my forehead, his touch around my waist growing more reassuring. In this moment, it strikes me that what he craves is stability. A reminder that he’s not a mere possession. Something his parents own.

The entrance slides open, and a woman, who appears to be in her early sixties, greets us.

From the google search I did before, I know it’s his mother, Eleanor.

Her red mouth stretches into a wide grin as she says, “Riley, darling! You’re finally here!”

But nothing, except that huge mouth with all those way-too-white teeth, moves on her face. Not one wrinkle. She looks unreal in her shiny white designer dress and that pinned-up brown hair.

I squeeze Riley’s hand and we enter the grand foyer that seems to consist of nothing but white marble.

I glance down at my simple red dress, feeling underdressed and out of place.

“You look beautiful,” Riley whispers, flashing me a hint of that cocky grin of his.

Heat rises to my cheeks. Shit. Is it that obvious that I don’t like it in here?

“It took a long time for you to arrive,” Eleanor says, and Riley’s smile drops.

“We had to wait for Rosalie’s classes to finish,” Riley says, and I almost do a double take when I see him.

It’s not the Riley I know.

There isn’t even a hint of that cockiness in his smile or a twinkle in his eyes anymore. He simply stands there, a mere shadow of his lively self, watching as his mother closes the door behind him.

If it weren’t for the way he grips my hand and the racing of his pulse, I might think he had turned into a statue. I don’t want him to be like this. It’s not him. It’s not my Riley.

“Ah yes, this poor girl, always so hard on herself.” She sighs and looks at me. And the whole foyer turns colder than it already is.

“Mother, this is Liora James, my girlfriend,” Riley says, and at the wordgirlfriendmy stomach does something funny again.His girlfriend.

Her critical gaze sweeps over me head to toe.

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