Page 97 of Burning for Alexander

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And then my cousin Rosie had caught wind of it and had quickly shot off a bunch of texts while I was in the middle of my personal grocery shopping on a weekday afternoon.

Rosie

Say no to the InstaGay.

Why? And how do you even know about this?

Rosie

I heard it from Maya who heard it from her brother.

Maddox asked me for a favor. And you have to admit it’s not a bad favor.

I linked her to his Insta.

Rosie

So the man has abs that are more visible than other people’s. So what? What would your crush say if he saw you on a very public date with a beautiful influencer?

I stood motionless as the blood drained from my head and face.

What crush?

Rosie

Fine, we’ll play it like that. Let’s say you had a crush on… Oh, let’s say the sheriff.

That is abhorrent. Guy’s a total snooze.

Rosie

Oh, really? Fine. Then let’s say it’s the FIRE CHIEF. Anyway, imagine if he caught wind of you carrying on with the pretty boy from out of town and it made him feel some kind of way. How would that make YOU feel?

I stared at the screen of my phone long enough to get bumped by Mrs. Hoffman’s cart. “Sorry,” I murmured, moving further off to the side by the endcap, where bags of beef jerky tried hard to jump into my cart uninvited.

She was right. If Judd Kincaid accepted one of these dates with Adrian Hayes, I would lose my fucking mind. Which meant it would be mean and hypocritical if I did it.

Did my sister put you up to this?

Rosie

No, but Uncle Blue knows this guy is into you and asked me at Thanksgiving what the deal was. I told him the truth, that I had no idea. But between you and me, Grape? The two of you look at each other like something’s going up in flames.

I took a deep breath and shot off a text to my father.

You’re a meddler who needs an intervention.

Papa

Your sister asked for those classes, I swear!

What are you talking about?

Papa

Her WSET classes… Why? What are YOU talking about?

Ella is taking wine classes?

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