Page 60 of The Players

She’d been worried about telling me, but I immediately gave her my blessing. The arrangement the boys and I had was always one of openness and freedom. And I was so happy my friend found someone who made her happy, just like I was happy Lowell had found Randy.

Besides, I’d found Easton.

Ah, Easton Hill.

Was our relationship complicated? Yes.

Was I still unsure if I could trust him? Also, yes.

Did I find myself mindlessly attracted to him every time he got near me? One-thousand percent yes.

I knew he still had a dark side. The fact that he’d saved me in that fire didn’t negate that. But I also knew he’d been manipulated by his father for his whole life and, where his father left off, Savannah had continued.

The cruelty of this past month had been all her, something that was confirmed by her confessions before her death. She’d murdered my parents and used her money and connections to cover it up. She’d tried to murder me and my grandmother, barely missing because I fought back. The knife wound in her abdomen likely did her in, but I would never know if she could have been saved had someone gone in and found her before the fire consumed her. Easton had made it clear that he wanted her reign of terror to end. He’d let that build burn down around her, thus closing the book on her crimes.

The Hill and Bright families made sure the papers called in an accident. The news had claimed she’d gone into the closed grocery store on a whim, and it had caught fire with her in it. The details had been glossed over. The questions that swirled around had been dismissed. If there had been a funeral, it was not publicized.

In a week, it was like she’d never existed.

Spencer was gone. No one saw him after that night. I didn’t have the nerve to ask Easton what had happened to him.

With Savannah gone, what did that mean for my parents’ murders? It meant that the person responsible couldn’t hurt anyone else. It also meant my father’s name could not be cleared. That bit of information ate at me like an ulcer, but at least I knew the truth, the story we’d suspected from the beginning.

It felt like a sorry consolation prize.

The Hills might have suspected I would not be satisfied with the outcome because a week after the occurrence I got a call that a college fund had been set up in my name. One hundred thousand dollars was waiting for me, no strings attached. When I asked about who or why it had been set up, the bank had no information, but I knew.

It was Hill Hush Money.

I wondered if I should take it. I contemplated giving it back, but I knew my parents would have wanted me to have a fully funded education. It also turned out to be the exact amount I would have gotten from my father’s life insurance if his death hadn’t been ruled a suicide.

So it seemed like a sign I should keep it.

There was a bonus too. My grandmother got a call a day later letting her know that any lingering medical bills had been paid, and the remaining mortgage on her house had been covered.

We both knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth. We’d been through enough hardship. It was time to move on.

So, money was no longer a problem. My only problem now was balancing three guys while trying to finish high school.

Yes, I was still dating Hector. He’d been nothing but wonderful throughout the whole thing. I was also dating Mills again. He’d apologized for his behavior, taken me to a fantastic dinner, and given me some of the best make-up sex I’d ever had. And though Easton didn’t seem keen on sharing, he knew the deal.

But tonight’s double date might test those waters.

“Well?” Randy said, raising one trim eyebrow. “Are you ready to go or what?”

I smeared pomegranate lip gloss on and gave myself a once over. I had curled my hair and let it fall around me, long and loose. The sundress hugged all my curves nicely and the sweater would keep me warm if Easton didn’t warm me up first.

I stood up. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

We walked down the hall and past my grandmother asleep in her chair, the Turner Classic Movie channel droning on quietly in the background. I tiptoed over and kissed her forehead. She didn’t wake but sighed contentedly. I knew she felt much better knowing our financial problems were at an end, and I felt much better knowing she could rest easy. It would make going away to college in the fall less painful than it might’ve been.

Quietly, we let ourselves out of the front door. Easton’s blue G-Class Mercedes-Benz waited in my driveway, looking out of place in my rundown neighborhood, but I was long past caring about that now. I’d been through too much to worry now about what my neighbors thought of me.

I walked to the driver's side and peered in.

Easton looked incredible. The designer suit coat and tailored shirt open at the throat made him look good enough to eat. His cologne wafted out, a scent that left me weak in the knees. His blue eyes matched the color of the sky on the horizon as the sun sank into the trees.

He was one of the most beautiful humans to walk the earth, and he was here to get me.

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