Page 25 of The Invitation
I’m not sure I believe that, but I also know pushing Gannon won’t net the results I’m after. And I highly doubt that it’s anything important, and if it were, he wouldn’t have talked to my siblings about it and not me. It’s not how we roll.
“I need to go,” Gannon says. “I’m meeting a few people at a restaurant for a business dinner, and I just arrived.”
“Have fun.”
“Sure.” He sighs. “Let me know if Jonah calls.”
“I might.”
He chuckles. “Talk to you later, Ripley.”
“Later.”
As soon as I end the call, the phone buzzes in my palm with an incoming text.
Jonah: Are you available for a call in ten minutes?
Me: Yes.
Jonah: Great. Talk soon.
“Can’t wait to see what this is all about,” I say, sitting on the edge of a lounge chair.
My mind spins with a million possibilities for why Jonah wants to talk to me. Each one is more far-fetched than the next. When I couple it with Gannon and Tate agreeing that I should be the one to handlethe proposition, it gets me no closer to an answer. It only increases my curiosity.
“I just read a report that the public perception of our family hasn’t fully rebounded following Dad’s attempted implosion of Brewer Group.”
Our family’s struggles since Dad’s crimes, including the attempted murder of both Mom and Bianca, have only brought us closer together. Before Dad went to prison, Gannon never called me. He and Tate could barely stand one another. Renn didn’t bother to come home often, and Jason lived in his own world. But now? Everything has changed for the better.
I only wish I could carry a bigger piece of the load—that I could do something to help ease the burden of Dad’s sins on my siblings.
My phone vibrates in my hand. The group chat I share with my friend circle is lit up on the screen.
Georgia: Has anyone seen my sunglasses? I know I had them at The Swill this week, but I haven’t seen them since.
Tate: Nope.
Jeremiah: Let me look by the pool.
I smirk, my cock hardening as visions of Georgia’s beaded nipples rip through my mind.
Me: Check in the pool, too. She lost a few things there today.
Before she responds, I exit the text app and answer Jonah’s call.
Chapter Seven
Georgia
Ripley: Check in the pool, too. She lost a few things there today.
My face burns as I stare at his text.The audacity.
I start and erase ten responses before I throw my phone on the couch. There are a thousand versions ofYou’re an assholethat I want to put into words, but none of them feel sufficient. Besides, ignoring him will get under his skin worse than me repeating something he already knows.
Do Jeremiah and Sutton know what happened? Are they aware that Ripley saw me topless? Has he been making jokes to them all afternoon, and now I’ll be teased about it until the end of time?
I fake cry as I get up and head into the kitchen.
