Page 46 of All That Glitters
“I told you I —”
“I know what you told me, but you didn’t expect me to believe it, did you? Your phone is attached to your hip or your hand. Always. You wouldn’t have left without making sure you had it.”
“Hale…”
“Don’t play, Helen.”
Damn you, Ashton. Why did I let you put me in this position? Why did I have to say yes?
Time for a different approach with my brother.
“What I do is my business.”
“Really? That’s what you’re going with? That might work with others, but not me.”
I hated the way Hale looked at me, like I’d betrayed him, like I wasn’t the person he thought I was. And I hated that he was right. “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
“Ashton isn’t himself. You’ve said so. It was evident tonight at dinner. And for some reason he’s fixated on you. Why?”
“I don’t know. Look…” I heaved a sigh. “I’m tired. I’d like to go to bed.”
“Helen…”
“Hale…”
We stared at each other. I loved him more than anything and keeping things from him or him keeping things from me… We didn’t do that. Until we did. Until I did. Before. And now.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Please don’t ask me anything else about tonight. Please. I hate lying and I’d have to lie to you.”
I hugged him and placed a kiss on his cheek. He was my best friend. Keeping things from him… I hated it. I hadn’t forgiven our parents for the position they’d put me in, and I didn’t know how long it would take me to forgive Ashton, either.
He caught me by the hand as I walked by.
“If you won’t tell me what’s going on, what he wants with you, will you at least promise me that you’ll be careful and come to me if you need help.”
“Could you do it without asking any questions?”
He hesitated.
“Hale?”
“Yes. No questions.”
“Then I promise.”
“You’re sure that you’re alright?”
“Yes.” I smiled, bone tired and uncertain what the future would hold starting tomorrow when I went to the shell cottage located on the Glitterati estate.
My heart thumped wildly. Ascending the stairs inside the home I shared with my parents and my brother for part of the racing season, I wasn’t sure I’d get much sleep.
I was exhausted but wired. At least, my mind was. My skin buzzed where I had touched Ashton earlier. Every word he said ran through my head.
My feelings for Ashton Glitterati were complicated at best since the wreck.
Before that, I would have said I had a crush on him starting when we were kids in karts. I, along with everyone else in the endurance racing world, was fascinated by the Glitterati heir and the splash he’d made. I wasn’t interested in his money or his name. I was interested in the cut of his jaw, the wave of his hair, the flash of his smile. He’d always been cocky, always too confident.
