Page 78 of Holding On To Good

Verity: Excuse me?

Reed: Me and McKenna don’t date. We hook up whenever one of us gets the itch.

With a grimace, she dropped the phone.

Lovely.

And yet more stomach cramping at the idea of him and gorgeous, dark-haired, thin McKenna together. Of him kissing McKenna. Touching her.

Looking at McKenna the way Verity had caught him looking at her last night when she’d been cleaning the mud off his face.

Before she’d met his eyes and he’d quickly looked away.

Verity: Does McKenna know you go around bragging about hooking up with her?

And she damn well hoped he got frostbite from her frosty tone—even via text.

Verity: Because in case you weren’t aware, it’s a completely douchebag thing to do.

Reed: Just trying to stop the spread of misinformation.

Her eyes narrowed. Hadn’t she said that exact same thing to him last night?

It was official. She did not like having her words tossed back at her. In any context.

Especially when she had a feeling he was making fun of her.

Verity: And what misinformation would that be?

Reed: I don’t date.

Even though she waited a good two and a half minutes, he didn’t elaborate.

Like. Pulling. Teeth.

Verity: Is this the part where you tell me that you don’t do strings, commitments or make promises? You just hook up?

Verity: And that those hookups are with girls who know the score? Girls who aren’t looking for anything more than a good time?

Verity: No fights or hurt feelings when it’s all over just…The End?

Reed: Something like that.

Verity: I hope you know I’m giving you a major eye roll right now.

Verity: You’re a walking, talking rebel-without-a-cause cliché, you know that? You must’ve memorized that copy of the bad-boy handbook you got at birth.

Reed: No strings.

Reed: No promises.

Verity: Yeah, yeah. I got it. You’re not the guy a girl brings home to meet her mother.

Reed: No. I’m not.

Reed: I’m the guy a girl hooks up with in the dark.

Reed: The one a good girl texts from the comfort and safety of her room when she’s bored and looking for a short walk on the wild side.

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