Page 42 of The Grand Ruin: Lance & Scarlet-Part One

I don’t bother to look at my friend before leaving because I know his assessing eyes are already trying to read me. And I sure as shit don’t want to be read.

Once out on the street, I contemplate the work I can get done when I get back to the office. I have a mountain of emails to get back to and a meeting with Ben to hopefully put to bed the unidentified payments that have been leaving the company’s account. All perfect distractions from my mother.

Thinking of distractions, Scarlet Lowell quickly stomps her way into my mind—and not for the first time this year either. Three times I almost reached out to her in weeks following the gala, and at Christmas, I went as far as looking up her address, thinking I could take a trip out to their home. To do what? Who fucking knows. I never went. But it’s safe to say that my mother isn’t the only one who’s been living rent-fucking-free.

I pull out my phone and find the reel of images I have favourited on my camera roll, my feet coming to a stop on the pavement.

My teeth pull in my bottom lip, and I glance up and down the street, contemplating another option.

No, you dumb shit.

Work.

I need to work.

Scarlet

My stomach churns as we pull up to Nina’s dance studio, but the nerves are short-lived as she eases over and pulls open the back door to the Audi.

“Hey, you!”

“Hey!” I say, reaching for the bouquet of flowers that are lying in the crevice of her arm.

“Thank you.” She slides in next to me as Vinny shuts the door behind her, placing her bag on the floor at her feet. When she looks up at me, smoothing out her dark-brown ponytail, it’s with the most perfect smile. “Happy birthday, Scarlet!”

“Thank you. And I told you it’s Scar.”

“Right, of course!”

Vinny leans into the back seat with a bottle of champagne and two flutes. “From your brother.” He smiles, handing me a gift-wrapped box.

I look at Nina in shock. “Okay, you’ve taken my actual brother and replaced him with an impostor. Mason does not do gifts.”

“He sent me those flowers this morning.” She laughs, arching a brow at me as if she’s challenging my words.

“Well, maybe there’s hope for him yet. How do you do it? He just came to the house and took Dad to his appointment. That’s twice in one week he’s voluntarily come to Lowerwick.”

Her face grows sly. “I may have used some really hot lingerie to persuade him last night.”

“Oh, wow, too much information.” I chuckle.

Her eyes widen a little. “Shit, sorry. I tend to have zero filter.”

I nod, laughing as I say, “I gathered that when you told the entire dinner table that I wanted to go back to uni last night. You really threw me under the bus with that one.”

The wine we’d consumed had made me a little loose-lipped during our conversation in the kitchen. I’d told Nina I wanted to go back to study medicine, and she seemed to see straight through my excuses when I told her I was happy waiting for Dad to get better.

She cringes, grasping my arm, her eyes genuine. “No, because I thought about that all night when we got home and into bed. I overstepped. It’s not my place, and I’m so sorry for doing that, but Mason needs to help you. You should be able to study, Scar. I told him of it too.”

I look into the rearview mirror and catch Vinny’s eye.

He likes her too.

“I know, and I want to. I just don’t know if now’s the time.” Which is the truth. If anything, it’s harder now to find spare time than ever before. With Dad’s appointments and health being that much worse.

“That’s fair enough, but definitely don’t write it off.” She side-eyes me, her smile sly.

It’s always been my dream to be a doctor. When Dad got sick, I had to leave university. It gutted me to quit. I lost my friends and my dream job. But being away sent Dad into one of the worst relapses I’ve ever witnessed.

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