Page 33 of The Confidant
Says the guy dating the daughter of the seventh wealthiest man in the United States.
“Drive safe, guys,” Scarlett said. Before I could say that she better tell that to the guy with the fast sports car, she shut the door and walked arm in arm with Xander back to his Bugatti.
Should I just give up all hope of her still wanting me now? Or wait until he proposed with a ten-carat rock?
Because yeah…if Scarlett’s father was trying to hook her up with Xander because of his daddy’s money, I was in trouble. Even with the recent success ofThe Confidant, there was no way I’d ever be able to compete with someone like that now that my trust fund was gone.
“Hey Evan.” Mack turned to face us commoners all the way in the back. “Is Lissa still planning to come?”
“I think so…” Evan frowned. “Let me see if she texted me.”
He pulled out his phone and seemed to scan through his recent texts. “Ah, dang,” he said.“It looks like she had a family emergency and won’t be able to make it tubing after all.”
His look of disappointment seemed slightly exaggerated to me.
“Oh that sucks,” Cambrielle said, turning back with a sympathetic look. “I hope it’s nothing serious.”
“Hopefully not.” Evan slipped his phone back into his pocket. He paused for a moment, and then asked, “Do you guys mind if I still come?”
“If you don’t mind being the only single guy up there, it’s fine with me,” Cambrielle said. To Addison, she asked, “You okay with that?”
“Sure.” Addison shrugged. She angled her face toward me and asked, “You don’t mind having my stepbrother tagging along with us, do you?”
“No, that’s just great,” I said, even if there was a slightly paranoid part of me that wondered if this had been their plan in the first place.
But I tried to push that thought away. Because how likely would it be that I was destined to go out with not just one but two girls in the past year with super overprotective family members keeping a close watch on my every move?
11
HUNTER
“I thinkI’m ready to head back to the lodge for some lunch,” Addison said after we’d made it back to the top of the hill again with our snow tubes. “What about you?”
“Sounds good to me,” I said. My stomach was literally growling, since it apparently thought going down a hill and being pulled back up it again a dozen times was enough of a workout to burn through my breakfast.
We’d been at the Eden Falls ski resort for the past two hours and it had actually been a lot of fun so far. I’d never been tubing here before, since I usually went snowboarding when I came with my friends, but it was definitely something I’d have to do again.
Maybe I could convince Scarlett to make a quick stop here next weekend before we headed back to spend President’s Day weekend with our families in New York.
“Should we wait for everyone else?” Addison turned back toward the group of our friends who were just making it to the top of the hill again. “Or just tell them to meet us down there?”
“I’m good with either,” I said.
She’d planned the date, so I was just along for the ride.
Though…in all honesty, I wouldn’t mind a few minutes where I didn’t have to watch Xander flirting with Scarlett.
Like, I knew they were on a date, but did they really have to go down the hill on the same snow tube?
I wasn’t sure whose idea it had been to go down the hill together, but it had taken everything in me to keep my jaw from dropping at the sight of Scarlett on the lap of some guy she barely knew.
At least, Ithoughtthey barely knew each other. That was how Scarlett had made it seem, right?
But who knew, maybe they had a secret summer fling while he was spending twenty hours a week at the church on the same property as her house, and I just hadn’t noticed anything because I’d been too distracted by my deep dive into church history.
Everyone ended up walking back to the lodge with us. Addison and I were at the front of the group and everyone else trailed right behind us, with Scarlett and Xander bringing up the rear.
Which was probably good, so I wouldn’t have to accidentally overhear their conversation.
