Page 31 of Temptress

I stabbed the brush back into the bottle of nail polish and snatched my phone up, swiping the screen to answer.

“Hello?”

“Sloane, oh thank god!” Darcy sounded frantic, and that panic only clutched my chest tighter as she said, “I need your help.”

I shot up off the couch, the tiny hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “What’s the matter? Are you okay? Where are you?”

“I’m at the school. Tonight’s the cheerleader bake sale, and I don’t have anything to sell because Dadburned everything!” she said, her voice rising the more hysterical it got. “I know it’s last minute, but you’re my only hope. Do you think you could make some cookies really fast and bring them up to the high school? It starts in an hour, and if I don’t have everything the rest of the squad will never let me live it down.”

The knots in my stomach twisted even tighter, only it was no longer worry over her safety that was causing them. “Um, that’s—can’t your dad just run to the market and buy something really quick?”

“They have to be homemade,” she said with a sniffle, and I felt like I was being gutted at the sound of tears in her voice. I could hear footsteps through the line, like Darcy was on the move, and a second later, the sound of a door shutting. “Some of the older girls already don’t like me,” she said in a whispered voice, the slight echo leading me to believe she’d closed herself in the bathroom. “If I don’t have anything to contribute for the bake sale, they’ll just have something else to make fun of me about.”

This was the first I’d heard of anyone at school giving Darcy a hard time, and it tore at my heart. “Oh, sweetie. I’m sure they like you just fine.”

“They don’t,” she murmured defeatedly. “I try not to let it bother me, because they’re basically mean to everyone who isn’t in their group, but I don’t want to give them another reason to mess with me.” She sniffled again, and my resolve flew right out the window. “Please, Sloane. Can you help me?”

At her question, I moved to the powder room and flipped the light on, taking in my reflection. My hair was still in a towel. My face was still covered in gunk. And my nails were still wet.

But I knew none of that mattered.

I heaved out a breath and asked, “You said it starts in an hour?”

“Yes. So you’ll do it?”

It was the excitement in her voice that put the final nail in my coffin and proved once and for all that there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for this girl. “I’ll be there.”

And I was going to need every single bit of that hour to get ready.

* * *

Fifty-five minutes later, I was guiding my car into one of the last available spots in the packed parking lot of the high school.

It was just my luck that I’d prepared a few extra batches of cookie dough the last time Darcy and I had baked together and kept them in the freezer so I could pop them in the oven whenever she was in the mood for something sweet. While the cookies baked, I’d managed to make myself presentable, scrubbing my face clean of the mask and rinsing the conditioner from my hair. There had even been time for me to give it a good blow dry, so it looked extra shiny and full, not that it mattered. I didn’t have anyone to impress, after all.

I killed the engine and threw the door open, balancing the large container of peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies in my hands as I hustled into the school.

I moved down the hall at a quick clip, rushing toward the cafeteria where Darcy had texted to say the bake sale was happening.

The large room was already filling up, so I stood on my tiptoes, frantically scanning faces in search of Darcy’s, not realizing I’d been holding my breath until I spotted her at the far end of the room.

“Excuse me. Pardon me. Excuse me.” I wormed my way through the crowd, biting down the instinct to cuss out the rude people who refused to move out of the way when they saw me coming, and heaved out a breath when I finally got to Darcy.

“I made it,” I said with a smile as I dropped the container onto her table. It was impossible to miss her strong, stoic father standing behind the table with her, but I made a point not to let my eyes drift from her face, no matter how intense the desire for just one look at Silas Bridger might have been.

Her entire face lit up as she looked at me, then a moment later, she was rounding the table and throwing her arms around my neck in a hug so tight, she was practically choking me. “Thank you so, so,somuch! I don’t know what I would have done without you. You’re the absolute best!”

I hugged her back, giving her an extra squeeze before we broke apart. “It’s my pleasure, sweetheart,” I assured her as I reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m just glad I could help.”

With the task now complete, the longer I stood there, the more awkward I started to feel. There really was no reason for me to stick around.

“Well, now that the day’s been saved, I’ll leave you to it.”

Her face fell just a bit. “Oh. You aren’t sticking around?”

I could feel Silas’s gaze drilling a hole in the side of my face, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of looking in his direction. “No, honey. I’m going to head home. But let me know how it goes, okay? I hope you sell out.”

I gave her one last wave, turned on my heel, and started out of the cafeteria.

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