Page 71 of Sharing Shadow Secrets
Brandon
Make sure to ask them how they met.
Pacing through the house, looking for everyone, I don’t see anybody. Going out to the patio, I find the group sitting around the firepit on an L-shaped outdoor couch.
“Taylor!” a guy with a beard says, standing.Patrick.I recognize him from Nicholas’s surprise wedding reception. “I’m so excited to meet you. Like, get to know you,” he says, giving me a side hug. “Brandon has a lot of nice things to say. This is my girlfriend, Rachel.” He points to a brunette, and she waves from her seat on the couch.
“We were just telling your friends about how we ran into the lake this March,” Rachel says.
“What? Why?” I laugh and take a seat next to Gwen.
“I dared him to,” Rachel says, snuggling into Patrick as he settles back into the cushion.
“But I had her over my shoulder. She wasn’t getting out of it,” he says, kissing her forehead.
They’re cute.Staring at the fire, I can’t wait for Brandon and I to be like them, snuggled together, so in love.
45
Friday, October 31st
Staring at my phone, seeing Patrick calling, I step away from Cryptoball’s branded lounge. Wading through a sea of people, I’m mentally exhausted from this conference and ready for it to be over.
“Everything good?” I ask after answering. It’s just after breakfast.
“Dude,” he answers warmly. “You need to fly back and surprise your girl at the Halloween party tonight.”
“I’m working,” I say tightly.
“It’s the last day. No one will miss you,” he says easily, and I envision him shrugging as he does. “Plus, Rachel and I love Taylor. Flex your rich kid card. Get on a jet.”
Little does he know I have one booked for later today.
“I’m not going to High Five.”
I’ll see her when she gets back, surprising her.
“Come on!”
I don’t say anything.
“I recall being nervous about meeting up with a girl at High Five and you pushing me …” Patrick says. “It was the best push of myfuckinglife. Now I’m doing the same.”
I look out at the resort, seeing the ocean, considering this suggestion of surprising Taylor. She would love it. I chuckle, a costume idea flashing in my mind: the mafia guy who got in a motorcycle accident.
High Five isn’t the same place it used to be.
The people that used to go there won’t be there.Well, Andrew will be there … working.
I want to make Taylor smile.
“If Declan approves of me leaving early, I’m there,” I say after a beat, knowing bumping up the jet reservation a couple of hours won’t be a big deal.
“You already know he will. If it’s for love, it’s always a yes.”
I don’thaveto be here any longer.
“Can you do me a favor?” I ask, having mentally decided that I’m getting the fuck out of here. “I don’t know how you buy a domain, but can you buy one and make a landing page? I’ll text you the details and give you my credit card info.”
