Page 115 of Sloane

“I’m not angry. Stop trying to manufacture drama.”

I was grumpy now though. It’d be great if people stopped trying to tell me how I should feel about the fact that my new nickname should be Two-Face.

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Missy had been working behind the scenes with Travis, so I was cleared to leave that afternoon on Travis’s plane bound for San Diego.

Yeah, the dude had his own private jet. I could only imagine how posh the beach house I was going to be staying at was.

Doubt began to seep in once the plane took off.

Hopefully the other guys were cool. How awful would that be, to live with bitter assholes like I used to be?

What if the PTA was a hottie?

A year ago, the idea of an attractive woman helping me would have had its merits, but today the thought made me want to puke. Women used to throw themselves at me—which I’d had my own issues with back then, but I’d never once wanted to be invisible.

Now that’s all I wished for. I’d even thought about growing my hair out to cover the left side of my face, like the emo kids used to do when I was in high school.

And what about the PTA’s daughter?

I still wasn’t sure about that. I liked kids and before the accident had even thought I’d have my own someday, but what if I scared her daughter? I didn’t even know how old her kid was. Would she be able to understand I wasn’t the boogeyman? The last thing I needed was to give some little girl nightmares because of my scars.

This is a bad idea.

Just as I was about to tell Travis I changed my mind, Ryan said, “Josh is taking Tank to the groomer, so he’ll be fresh and clean when I bring him over tomorrow.”

The thought of finally seeing my golden retriever after almost a year made me clamp my mouth shut.

Chapter Forty-Three

Sloane

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I murmured under my breath when we pulled into the driveway of Travis’s beach house.

Fortunately, the only person to hear me was my buddy. Once we touched down at the airport, we’d said our goodbyes to Travis, and he got in one car while we got in Ryan’s.

“I told you this place is nice.”

Nice didn’t begin to describe it.

Starting with the stamped concrete circular drive and lush, green grounds. But it was the Pacific Ocean in the background and the smell of the salty air that really had me in awe.

“I can’t believe I’m going to be living here. I don’t know how Luke ever leaves his house.”

Ryan laughed. “Well, having four kids to feed probably motivates him to go to work.”

“I don’t know, I’m sure he could afford to stay home. I think Cassie makes at least double what he does.”

“Okay, then just having four kids in the house probably motivates him to go to work.”

That made me chuckle.

“They’re good kids, though.”

“Of course they are. You think Luke would let his kids act like hooligans?”

Luke was a former Marine, but he did his time and got out then joined the SDPD. He’d also been Maddie’s sergeant on the SWAT team until recently when he was promoted to Lieutenant. His wife, Cassie was smokin’ hot and took absolutely zero shit.

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