Page 33 of Rosie and the Beast Next Door

“I didn’t mean—”

“You never do.”

“Is it going to be like this the entire time I’m here?”

“Like what?” Gaslighting. One of Lily’s specialties.

“Nothing,” I muttered. “Have a nice day. I’ll see you aro—” She shut the door in my face. I headed down the drive and hadn’t made it three houses when I got a text from my dad.

Dad:Can you please not provoke Lily?

I went through a million ways I could respond to the text before deciding to ignore it. My family was never going to change. I was always going to be the bad guy. The one who took too much. The one who betrayed them all, then left and never came back.

And I would doanythingto get out of here and get back on my team.

Even accept Rosie’s proposition.

I might not be selling my soul to the devil, but I was selling it to Rosie Forrester, and I wasn’t sure if there was all that much difference.

Chapter 14

Rosie

Rosie: How did your date go?

Jules: Terrible.

Rosie: No! Why?

Jules: Everything she said sounded like a question. And she talked with food in her mouth.

Rosie: Just give me ONE quality you like in a woman.

Jules: A redhead. With blue eyes.

Rosie: You do know that’s the rarest hair/eye genetic combo, right?

Jules: And?

Rosie: Fine. I’m moving on to Bennett. Best of luck on your own.

Jules: That’s not the threat you think it is.

I set my phonedown as a knock sounded on the door. I’d just started making a profile for Bennett on Rendezvous but got caught on the picture portion. Did I have a single picture of my brother without his lime green fishing hat on?

Dylan stood in the doorway holding my expensive, blinged-out water bottle. I reached out to take it, but he pulled it back, a furrow in his brows. “What are you doing?”

“Taking my water bottle back?” Why was I making it a question? Dylan and his ever-present scowl had me all off-kilter. Probably because he took up my entire doorway.

Or maybe it’s because you asked him to pretend to be in love with you.

Yeah, that might have something to with how I suddenly had no idea what to do with my hands or how to stand normal.

“This water bottle has my electrolyte drink in it.” He stared at me as he sipped from the straw in challenge.

He had me so discombobulated, I didn’t know what I would normally do in this situation. Laugh? Snatch the water bottle straight from his hands and drink his electrolytes as I stared him down? Ignore it completely?

“So about the whole pretending to be in love with me sitch …” I cringed. I could have done anything,anything, but bring up that up.

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