Page 46 of Driftwood Daffodil 2

“Memphis, look at her.”

I was pretty sure she was a cheerleader. Those girls were in the popular crowd. I was somewhere between scum and outcast. Not exactly two crowds that mingled.

“Since when does a girl who looks like that speak to me?” I looked around at the faces filling the hall. “Have you heard anyone call me whore or something else?”

“Come to think of it, no.” Memphis’s eyes narrowed as he joined in my scan.

“It’s weird, right?”

The last time this happened, Atlee hit on me. I was not the girl guys like Atlee hit on.

“It is weird.” Memphis agreed.

Finally.

“Do you think it was Gio?”

That made me snort. “The last thing Gio would do is tell someone to be nice to me.”

“Says the girl who agreed to marry him.”

“Hey, at least I’ll know I hate my husband going in.” Not to mention, agreed was a strong exaggeration. It was more like tricked, fooled, or forced. Those all worked.

“Whatever.” Memphis let out a breath telling me he was done arguing, for now anyway, which gave me a chance to survey the area.

Barely anyone so much as looked our way, and the odd person who did just smiled. Except for one guy, who was glaring at me like I kicked his mother or something. He really seemed to not like me. Not that that was unusual or anything, but there was something in his eyes.

“Hey, you.” My finger flew up. “How do you spell whore?”

A few people looked our way while Memphis slapped my hand down. I don’t know what he was so upset about. This was a serious problem that needed to be fixed. I’d be doing the world a great service.

“H O R E.”

Oh, my god.

My eyes went wide and immediately searched for the voice calling out letters. I hadn’t been this excited since I discovered Memphis’s aversion to cinnamon. Everything I made that year had a sprinkle of the spice. Unfortunately this wasn’t anywhere near as joyful as that, because the person who called out the letters was fucking Atlee.

His lips spread in a large grin, “According to you anyway.”

Asshole.

And again, I wondered why was he everywhere?

Memphis puffed his chest out and grumbled something, but I couldn’t make out what he said. I was too busy staring at the prick strutting down the hall next to Atlee.

Gio looked different. He was wearing the same white button up shirt and black pants he did every day. All the guys had to wear the same thing, yet the uniform seemed to make him stand out somehow.

I was suddenly very aware of the dark stubble coating his jaw and how his muscles flexed while he strode closer. He appeared bigger and stronger maybe? It felt like he was going to eat me. Why I decided to open my mouth, I’ll never understand.

“I want my underwear back.”

Memphis’s eyes went wide, making me realize my mistake.

“Why does he have your underwear?”

“It’s a long story about trust and betrayal.” I waved him off and returned my glare to Gio. “And I want to know what he did with them.”

Gio arched a brow that made me want to shrink back into the wall. The way his eyes darken gave me a pretty good idea of what he did with them. Pretty sure I didn’t want them back. I liked those panties too.

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