The Best Kind of Forever (Riverside Reapers, #1)(46)

“Aeris, right? It’s so nice to meet you!” Her titanium arms wrap around me in a hug that definitely cracks something. She’s a lot stronger than she looks.

“Oh, the pleasure is mine,” I say, slightly off-kilter from the physical and social encroachment.

When we pull away, I can’t help but gawk at the blinding gem. “Congratulations on the engagement.”

She holds her hand up and wiggles her fingers. “Thank you! It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I waited seven years for this idiot to propose.”

Casen narrows his eyes playfully. “Hey, I got around to it, didn’t I?”

“You did,” she laughs, drawing his arm over the front of her body.

“How did you two meet?”

“We met in high school, but we hated each other at first,” Casen answers.

Josie nods in agreement. “I couldn’t stand him. We were classmates in history, and he cheated off my final. When the teacher found our answers to be the exact same, they failed both of us and had us attend detention for an entire month. All of it went on our permanent record. Casen refused to admit he cheated. And because of this, we both had to retake the class. We were at each other’s throats for a while before the tension turned into something salvageable. And here we are, seven years later.” She punctuates the end of her story with a loved-up nuzzle to his chest.

I can’t imagine spending seven years of my life with another person. You would know everything about them by that point. I like the stability of that, though. They’re a few of the lucky ones to have found their lifelong partner early. “Wow, that sounds like a roller coaster.”

“It was, but it was worth every turn,” Josie confesses, a look of longing drifting over her features.

“It sounds like—”

The sight of a girl jockeying her way through a crowd of people halts my sentence. Her slender body hurtles toward us, and her cat-like eyes do a foxtrot around the group before landing on Hayes.

“Hayes, can we talk?”

Who is this girl? And how does she know Hayes?

She has flawless, golden skin, a button nose, and pink lips that look like they’ve been permanently bee-stung. Her bone structure had to have been sculpted by an artist. She’s wearing a satiny-looking pink slip, and a small, gold necklace—which I can only assume costs more than the down payment of my entire apartment—rests on her chest. Her small boobs are perfectly proportioned to her lean body. She looks like a model. Actually, she looks like one of those super clean girls that you never imagine ever having to poop. Like Kendall Jenner.

Hayes’ voice tips into the realm of shock. “Now?”

“Now.” She practically snaps at him, but it’s juxtaposed by a polite smile that has a hundred watts of power behind it.

His throat rolls with a gulp, and he mouths a sorry before following the girl into a more private section of the restaurant.

I do my best to ignore the envy coming to a boiling point inside of me, watching as her nightshade, pin-straight hair disappears among the sea of people.

“Who was that?” I ask Casen, anxiety using my internal organs as its own punching bag.

Casen scratches at his beard. “Uh, I think her name is Sienna. She’s one of our sponsor’s daughters.”

Sponsor? Daughter? Sponsor’s daughter?

Oh my God. Could my dad have been telling the truth?





23





A BLAST FROM THE NOT-SO-DISTANT PAST





HAYES





“Hayes.” The glower on Sienna’s face is harrowing enough to dry up my throat.

Shit. I was dumber than I thought to believe I could avoid her the entire night. Of course she’d be here. Of course she’d want to talk to me. Of course my mistake would come back to bite me in the ass. And now Aeris is going to have so many questions.

“Sienna. I…uh, hi,” I stammer, my fingers reaching up to loosen my tie, the room suddenly feeling a hundred degrees hotter.

“So that was it? You were just going to ghost me?” she exclaims, her tone toeing between hurt and anger.

In hindsight, I should’ve been upfront with her about the nature of our fling, but a part of me was worried that she’d spill to her father and he’d pull his sponsor.

I suck down a lungful of air as regret sinks like stones in my stomach. “I’m sorry, Sienna. I thought it was obvious I wasn’t looking for anything serious.”

It’s a weak argument, I’m aware. I don’t really know what else to say to her right now.

Wisps of sadness fall over her face. “You used me, Hayes.”

“I’m really sorry. It was never my intention to make you feel that way.” A dagger slips between my ribs at the implication of her words.

“I’m not…mad at you. I’m just disappointed.”

That makes two of us.

I go to open my mouth, but nothing seems to come out. Sienna’s a sweet girl. She didn’t deserve to get caught in the crossfire.

“Your new girl is beautiful,” she says, offering me the smallest of smiles. “She’s really lucky.”

“And the next guy who meets you will be just as lucky,” I tell her, my guilt defusing just a little as her cheeks pinken.