Page 131 of The Ruse

“That’s sweet of you to offer,” I said, looking at my sister and her boyfriend. “But you deserve to have that special moment together without me being a third wheel.”

“You wouldn’t be a third wheel,” Ava said. “It’s fine. Right, Carter?”

“Uh, sure,” he said, not looking particularly interested in the idea but willing to do it for his girlfriend. “We could do that.”

Mack stepped forward. “Or maybe I could take you first since there will probably be a few people in line between you and Cambrielle. I can help you do that weird curtsey thing we’re supposed to help you do, and then hurry back here to escort Cambrielle.”

“That might work for the first part,” Ava said, seeming to consider our half-brother’s idea. “But we’re all supposed to do that dance together once we’re all out there, and that might get tricky…”

Yeah…that wouldn’t work very well. I would look like an idiot doing the dance by myself.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll just sit this one out.”

Scarlett, who had been having a whispered conversation with Hunter, got a look in her eyes that told me she might have an idea. She said, “Hold on. Hunter and I just realized something.”

“What is it?” I frowned as I watched Hunter run off through the crowd and to the doors that led back to the ballroom.

“We just remembered someone who said he’d be here.”

“Is it someone I know?” I asked, not super comfortable with the idea of going out there with a complete stranger.

Did Hunter have an older brother?

I didn’t have much time to worry about it, though, because Mrs. Carmichael appeared at the front of the group a few seconds later to tell us that it was time to line up. We were about to start.

Wait—

Jace and Logan’s mom was here?

Asher’s aunt was here?

I frowned and looked around the room filled with debutantes and escorts. Then I noticed that Jace and Logan were standing at the far end of the line with their girlfriends Raven Rodgers and Alyssa Turner who they’d started dating last year.

If the Carmichael twins were here, did that mean…?

Almost as if I’d conjured him up in my mind, Hunter came around the corner again with a tall guy with dark hair and the most handsome face I’d ever seen following right behind.

Asher?

I blinked my eyes a few times, wondering if I was hallucinating. But no. When my eyes focused again, I was face to face with Asher.

“Hunter said you needed a last-minute escort?” he said in a low voice that made my stomach flutter when he stepped up beside me.

“Yes…I do…” I said, still not believing my eyes as I studied him. He had his hair combed to the side in a way I’d never seen it combed before. It was different and new, and yet I loved it on him.

But then, I’d probably love his hair any way he did it because I was just so happy to see him. It was like I hadn’t known just how much I’d missed seeing him the last week and a half until now.

“H-how did you get here?” I pulled my gaze away from his face to take him in. He was wearing the exact type of tuxedo that the escorts were supposed to wear. Tails. White vest. White bow tie. White gloves. “D-did someone from Ridgewater ask you to be her escort?”

Please say no.

I knew it was super hypocritical of me to hope he’d come here alone since I had asked someone else, but I really didn’t want to know if he had found a rich heiress to spend his time with over the break. I was pretty sure I’d seen Kelsie Perkins here. She was a neighbor to the Carmichaels, and I’d seen on social media that she’d recently broken up with her boyfriend. So there was a chance Asher had come with her.

“No,” he said, searching my gaze like he wasn’t sure how I felt about him being here. “My aunt was worried she’d need a backup escort for one of the debutantes and had me dress like this and learn the dance just in case.”

“You know the dance choreography?”

He nodded. “She made me practice it with her all last week.” He narrowed his brown-eyed gaze. “I probably should have said something about it when you told me you’d be here this week.”

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