Page 11 of All Jacked Up

The sorrow that came with every word he spoke felt as if someone I cared for had died. And in a sense, they had. Ransom was killing the guy I’d thought I knew. Revealing someone uglyin his place.

He didn’t ask what it meant, which was fine since there was no way in hell I was telling him who I was now. Screw that.

“I questioned her choice myself,” Arden said with a chuckle, “but she was so full of excitement that I couldn’t convince her otherwise.”

That was a lie. He’d praised my choice. But back then, he had praised me about everything. I hadn’t realized it until I listened to him speak about Opal Carver. He was doing the same with her.

“I’ll take your advice happily in choosing mine,” Opal told him.

Kiss-ass much there, Miss Carver?

I wanted to roll my eyes at her, but instead turned my attention to the rest of the room. The couples, groups at other tables, were smiling and talking. Everyone fitting in and being wanted. Something I realized I’d started to take for granted as of late. Forgetting how this felt. To feel like this. The outsider. The one being mocked. Leave it to folks from good ole Madison, Mississippi, to show up and remind me.

A lady appeared at our table then, and I lifted my eyes to see her smiling at me. She was nervous. I recognized that look and knew what this was.

“I’m sorry,” she began. “I’m probably breaking a rule here or something, but blame it on the martinis.” She giggled. “You’re Juliette Romeo, aren’t you?”

I nodded, giving her a reassuring smile. “I am.”

It amazed me when someone noticed me. It was even more mind-blowing when they acted like I was famous. I wrote stories in my pajamas and went days without washing my hair. There was nothing special about me. She should ask Ransom and Opal Carver. They could tell her just how lacking I was. No reason to get all jittery with nerves in my presence.

“I am a massive fan. I swear I’ve read your books ten timeseach. I can’t wait for the next one.”

“Would you like a photo with her?” Arden asked in his charming tone he often used with readers. “I would be happy to take it for you.”

He always used any chance to promote me and my books that he could. He knew if I stood up and he took pics, others would notice. He saw that as future book sales.

“Oh, would you? I mean, if you’re okay with that?” She looked at me hopefully.

“Of course,” I replied, sliding out to stand up beside her. She was visibly trembling, and that, too, was just hard to believe. “I didn’t get your name.”

She beamed. “Mary Ann,” she told me.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mary Ann,” I told her.

Arden came up behind me and held out his hand to her for her phone so he could take the photo. She handed it to him, barely glancing his way before turning back to me.

“You are as gorgeous in person as your photos. I always thought they were airbrushed or Photoshopped, but they aren’t,” she gushed.

I was thankful my makeup was good at hiding my pinkening cheeks. I still didn’t know how to handle compliments like that. Those about my books, yes, but when it came to my appearance, I had lived so much of my life being overlooked that for someone to think I was attractive, it was foreign to me.

“Thank you,” I replied. “Makeup and low lighting can do wonders,” I joked. It was one of my go-to responses.

“If that is makeup, then please tell me where to go to get some.”

I laughed, then turned toward Arden, who was ready with the camera. He took several, then handed the phone back to Mary Ann.

“Thank you. So much. I’m sorry for interrupting,” she said, glancing at the other two at the table for a moment.

When her gaze locked on Ransom, she stilled and studied him as her eyes widened.

Panic welled up in my chest when it dawned on me what it was she was seeing. The resemblance to the man in the books she’d read so many times.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

When her eyes swung back to me, widening, I was scrambling for a response. Something to get her moving along and not saying what it was she was thinking.

“He looks just like Draven,” she blurted before I could stop her.

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