Page 30 of Be My Bride

“I’ll see you later.” I hang up.

Mom’s probably steaming.

I’m going to pay for that when I get back home.

Thud. Thud.

“Who is it?” I yell.

Hansley hears my voice and opens the bathroom door. He’s still on the phone, but his eyes meet mine and, in that moment, we share a silent conversation.

This is bad, right?

Really bad.

Can we fix it?

He gives me a helpless look.

I wrap my arms around my torso and try to steady my breath. The world keeps shifting around me, but there has to be a way out. Right?

There’s no way one tiny mistake will ruin the carefully constructed existence I’ve fashioned around me, is there?

Persistent knocks on the front door break me out of my frantic thoughts.

“I'm coming! I’m coming!” I grunt.

I’m guessing the person outside is Venus with questions about why I crashed her wedding celebrations. Or maybe it’s Amina wondering if I’m completely insane. It can even be Tierra, ready to ream me over the coals for failing to stop her friend from making a huge, drunken mistake.

My fingers wrap around the doorknob.

I pull.

Yank it open.

Glance over a pair of dusty sneakers, wrinkled jeans, a grey T-shirt.

My heart pounds as I keep looking up.

To a scrawny neck.

To lean shoulders.

To a pair of dull grey eyes.

My jaw drops and I croak out. “Thad?”

Eight

Hansley

“We’re sorting it out,” I hiss, scrubbing my palm against my face. “Asia deleted the posts. It’ll blow over.”

“It’s on every freaking tabloid, Hansley.”

I cringe. “I’ll take care of that too.”

“How? How the hell are you going to fix this?”

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