Page 89 of Ugly Duckling
“All thanks to you, yes.” She rolled her eyes. “I feel like I’ve been chasing after you since we met in high school. All I ever see is your back.”
I winked at her. “But it’s a really nice back, right?”
Parker scoffed. “Conceited much?”
I stood up and started to the sink with my dish. “If the shoe fits.”
Twenty-Two
A fuck must be earned. I can’t go around with a bucket of fucks, giving them out to everyone. If I feel you earned a fuck, I will give a fuck.
—Sutton’s secret thoughts
SUTTON
“This is a nonissue,” Malone said as she shuffled her papers into a neater stack on top of her desk. “I’ll handle it from here.”
After telling her thank you, I headed outside and immediately called my mom, knowing she’d want to hear the latest update.
She answered on the first ring. “How’d it go?”
I told her everything that the lawyer had said, ending with, “She doesn’t think that it’ll go past this point. There’s no reason to go to court for this, though she does feel like the lawsuit might shift to them suing me.”
“Great.” I could hear the frustration in her voice. “I guess we have that to look forward to next.”
My phone beeped, and I pulled it away from my face to glance at the screen.
I grinned hugely when I saw Lottie holding a bass up by the lips, the hugest, cheesiest smile spread across her face.
“Awww,” I cooed.
“What?”
I forwarded my mom the message, and Mom did the appropriate gushing over her.
“You’re different,” she said after a while. “You’ve been there for just over a month and some change, and already I can tell you’re happier. You love being there, don’t you?”
“I love it,” I agreed. “I love them. They make me happy. I had no idea how unhappy I was until they literally fell right into my lap.”
“I’m happy, Sutton,” she said softly. “I wish that you would’ve given him a chance in high school.”
“What?”
“Oh, you know what I am saying,” she grumbled. “That boy totally had a thing for you. He asked me if he could ask you to prom, you know. Daddy said yes. I was a resounding yes. Then he never did because you were you.”
I knew what she meant by that.
I was me.
I always saw the bad in people, and never could look at someone and think they were genuine.
No one was ever genuine.
Well, no one before I’d reconnected with Gunner.
I had a feeling that Gunner and his motorcycle club family were really genuine.
And scary.
