Page 17 of Fake Coral and Keys

Lily perks up in her seat. “Kane is head of the finances department.”

How the man is head of anything is beyond me. I’ve never seen a man so uninvolved with life around him. I couldn’t imagine walking through life so distracted. If I could get the entirety of the money I’ve hidden away, I’d be using it to travel, stay in fancy resorts like this one, and drink in every single moment life had to offer. But then, I didn’t come from money. I was poor. Everything I have, I worked for.

Okay, fine. Not everything. I did steal a huge chunk of money. But I’m paying for it now. That’s for sure.

“Didn’t Jim work in finance, too?” Justine asks, practically petting my arm.

Everyone stops what they’re doing. It’s like someone hit the pause button. Mouths hang halfway open with unspoken words frozen on their tongues.

Note to self: Find out who the fuck this Jim is.

Heather sets her fork down on her plate with a loudclink. She glances between Justine and Daisy, her eyebrows climbing upward. “Who’s Jim?”

Daisy waves away her mother’s words, but I can feel how her entire body tenses next to me. I grip her knee under the table. Her eyes flutter to mine, then down to her drink.

“No one important,” she says, adjusting the umbrella in her drink. I think this is her second? Maybe third?

Justine huffs. “Uh, I’d say he was very important.”

If looks could kill, Justine would be sliced into a thousand pieces with the daggers Daisy shoots her way.

Her mother leans forward, staring directly at Daisy. “Who’s Jim, Daisy?”

“Yeah,” Lily chimes in unhelpfully. “Who’s this Jim guy?”

Suddenly it hits me. After Jim. Not after gym like I thought. Daisy had mentioned she was tired of living in after Jim, and I hadn’t understood. I do now, though. I would put all my money on this Jim person Justine keeps mentioning are the broken promises Daisy referred to when she asked me if we were just pretending. I’d also bet that Justine knows a hell of a lot about this Jim character.

“Jim was someone I dated for a bit,” Daisy says. “Seriously unimportant.”

Lily looks satisfied with this answer, but Heather’s eyes stay on her daughter’s face for a minute before turning back to the conversation around the table.

Justine opens her mouth, but I place a hand on her arm. Her eyes fly to me, and she clamps her mouth shut. I squeeze her forearm, making sure I have her full attention.

“Daisy tells me you work for a marketing company?” I don’t give a flying fuck what Justine does for a living, but I’ll do anything to keep her from bringing up Daisy’s past again. The trite little woman seems hellbent on trying to upset Daisy.

Justine leans forward and props her elbow on the table, resting her chin on her hand as she looks at me. Her eyes slide from my face down to my chest, then back up. “You’re interested in marketing?”

“I’m interested in the people in Daisy’s life,” I say.

She smirks and takes a sip of her drink. “I am in marketing. I work for a large company and handle all the marketing for our clients.”

I glance at Daisy. She’s back to stirring her drink, but her eyes are fixed on me. There’s a strange expression on her face. Is it anger? At me? Justine? I can’t help but feel like I’ve done something horribly wrong, but I’m not entirely sure what it is.

“She also uses her expertise to help me market my clothing line,” Lily says. “She’s my hero.”

Justine puts a hand to her chest. “You’re too sweet. You know I do it for the free clothes.”

Lily bursts out in canned laughter so fake it makes it seem like I’m the most honest person to walk the planet. “Speaking of clothes.” She turns to Erin, who’s been oddly quiet through most of dinner. “Let’s get some shots of my new bathing suits before sunset.”

Heather’s fork clinks loudly to her plate as she drops it. “We haven’t finished dinner.”

Lily points to the ocean behind us. “We need to get ready. The sun will set in like an hour.”

Lily stands abruptly and drops her napkin in the center of her plate. She moves around the table and grips Daisy’s hand, removing the fork from her fingers.

Daisy’s eyes go wide. “What are you doing?”

“We need models,” Lily says, bouncing up and down. She clutches Daisy’s hand and pulls her from her seat. “Come on. It will be fun. I have the perfect bathing suit for you.”

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