My phone buzzes from the bedside table, and as I reach for it, I realize how late it is.
Madison:Where are you? I just had the worst game of Spin the Bottle.
Shit.
I quickly type out a message and let her know I’ll meet her by the pool in five minutes, but when I push out of bed, I feel a hand brush against mine.
Thatcher—I remember his name, at least—sleeps beside me, one arm flung across his face, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. The soft moonlight spills into the room, making him look even more beautiful than earlier, which seems profoundly unfair since I have to leave him.
His phone buzzes on the nightstand next to me, the screen lighting up with a text. I shouldn’t look, but it’s right there.
So I do.
McKenna??:I’m sorry about earlier. I’ll make it up to you, just tell me where you are.
My stomach drops through the floor. Of course. Of fucking course. He lied. He has a girlfriend and he told me whatever I wanted to hear just to get me into bed, and I foolishly did it.
What was I thinking? Girls like me don't get guys like him, at least, not without strings attached. Strings that apparently lead to someone named McKenna-with-the-heart-emoji by her name.
I slide out of bed, gathering my scattered dignity along with my purse and shoes. My head screams in protest at each movement. Thatcher doesn’t stir, his breathing still deep and even. Good. At least we won’t have to have an awkward conversation where we both pretend that didn’t mean anything.
Because if I’m being honest, it meant something to me.
I leave the room and hurry down the stairs, wondering why something that was never mine to begin with can feel so thoroughly stolen.
Only first names exchanged.
No numbers swapped.
Just the memory of his hands on my body and the knowledge that I was probably just a convenient distraction from McKenna-with-the-heart-emoji.
I’m such a fucking idiot.
Chapter 4
4 years ago
My head throbs to the unmistakable rhythm of regret and too much whiskey. Pain pulses behind my closed eyes, steady and unforgiving, keeping in time with every bad decision I made last night.
Opening my father's desk and finding those papers was the first bad decision, which led me here.
I cheated. Knowingly.Willingly.Fuck. I shouldn't have done it, and the thought of hurting Honey guts a hole in my stomach, because she doesn't deserve this. She deserves better than the hand she was dealt by our parents’ shitty blood oath, but yesterday changed everything, and it wasn't just because I found out the truth. It's because I met her.
Green eyes.
That's the first thing I think about when I try to remember her name as I reach over to find her. Fucking perfect green eyes that saw me like no one else has. A smile so innocent I want to kiss it away until all she knows is me. A laugh so pure I could listen to it for hours and never tire. I want to kiss every single inch of her until I've memorized her.
Tiff.
That's her name. Tiffany. Beautiful name for a beautiful girl who I want to lose myself in one more time this morning before dealing with the consequences of today.
When my hand reaches the end of the bed, I open my eyes in surprise.
Wait. Where is she?
I lift my head, searching the room with one eye open, but she's not here.
The pounding in my head gets louder, turning into a taunting beat that reminds me how much of a shit show my life has become.