Page 173 of The Baby Bargain
"If you need anything." He doesn't explain what anything is.
I don't ask. I just nod. "I'll see you around."
"You going to Holden's Halloween party?"
"Of course." My brother throws a Halloween party every year. He's obsessed with the holiday. "Are you dressing up?"
He nods. "Won't hear the end of it if I don't."
"Right. Me too. Uh… I guess I…" Need to find a costume. And leave right now. God, there's all this hurt in his voice. He's talking about Halloween costumes and I want to jump into his arms.
This isn't normal.
I need him following these rules.
No matter how much it hurts.
"I'll see you there," I say.
He nodssure.
I make it all the way to my car before I start crying.
It doesn't make sense.
Protecting my heart should protect me from this. It should feel good. It shouldn't make every part of me ache.
I shouldn't fall asleep craving Chase.
But I do.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chase
The Ballard Halloween party is a yearly tradition. It started in high school, the first year Mr. Ballard was away on business the last week of October.
Holden took advantage of the parent-free house. Invited the entire school to his place. A dozen kids shared cheap Trader Joe's vodka then played spin the bottle with the empty container.
The next day, rumors spread. The party took on a life of its own. It wasn't lemon vodka and Sprite. It was Absinthe and Champagne
It wasn't spin the bottle. It was an orgy.
It wasn't a dozen students. It was every hot chick from UCLA and drug dealers passing out free ecstasy.
The next year, attendance was booming.
When Holden graduated, tattoo artists and clients replaced high schoolers.
Holden must know every woman on the west side.
The packed room screams of holiday debauchery.
Black lights cast the living room in a deep purple glow. White-green spider cut outs line the walls. (They're glow in the dark, of course). Webbing covers the archways.
Fake spiders cluster around the punch bowl (a cauldron, of course). And next to it: every liquor or mixer imaginable.
I cut through the crowd. Pour a drink. Rum and coke.
