Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“I can’t believe we did that,” Charlotte said happily as Allison shut us in. “It was like the movies.”
“There are movies about people traveling the world. Climbing mountains. Having adventures.” My lips quirked up in a smile. “You wanted to emulate the scenes where people buy food off the street.”
She made a noise of dismay. “Adventures sound exhausting. Nonsexual ones, I mean. Climbing a mountain? No thanks. I don’t even like an incline on the treadmill. This is a big adventure for me, anyway. I mean, eating hot dogs in the back of a chauffeured electric Mercedes? When was that going to happen to me?”
I took a bite and considered her words.
Wicking a bit of mustard from the corner of her mouth with her ring finger, she went on. “You have to look at everyday life as being full of adventure, or you’ll get bored.”
“That’s…an unexpectedly wise statement to arise from eating a hot dog.” But she was right. If she hadn’t come into my life, would I have ever tracked down a street vendor and eaten a sixteen-dollar dinner in the back of my car?
“I’m not just great tits and a raging libido,” she said happily. “I have depth.”
“I never doubted that.” I was surprised at how that depth influenced me. What other daily “adventures” would I have in my life with Charlotte?
I couldn’t wait to find out.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
(Charlotte)
Living on the West Coast had given me a skewed idea of travel, so when I learned that our trip to Connecticut wouldn’t be an epic, hours-long road trip, I was a little disappointed.
“Here I was, picturing rest stops and gas station snacks,” I said wistfully as we pulled up to a massive stone wall and set of towering iron gates. “And we’re here already.”
“The car is electric,” Matt reminded me. “We wouldn’t need to stop for gas.”
“I said snacks,” I replied, admiring his profile as he concentrated on the road. He was heart-stoppingly handsome a hundred percent of the time, but there was something extra hot about him when he was driving. “I’m glad we didn’t have Allison bring us. I like this. Just the two of us.”
He gave me a smile as we passed through the gates. “I wanted the extra time with you to myself. The calm before the storm.”
My stomach pitched. He’d been making jokes like that for the past day, but it seemed like the closer we got to his childhood home, the more frequent those jokes were becoming, to the point that they didn’t feel like jokes anymore. They seemed like dire prophecy.
I’d brought all the clothes Sophie had advised me to take—and since she’d been the editor of a fashion magazine before, I trusted her taste—but looking the part was one component. If I stuck out like a sore thumb, would he decide that our relationship was a bad idea?
I wasn’t supposed to exist, in the first place, and wouldn’t have unless Scott had gotten sick. What were the chances I would fit in better among Matt’s high-society relatives and friends?
We drove through a wooded area, then past meadows of wildflowers like something out of a storybook before the house came into view.
“Oh, that’s not nearly as big as I was imagining,” I said, relief loosening my nerves’ grip.
“What?” A look of understanding dawned on his face, and with a small chuckle, he said, “Oh, no. That’s the groundskeeper’s house.”
The groundskeeper’s house was larger than my parents’.
It seemed like we drove forever before I spotted mansard roofs and white stone rising from behind the trees. “That’s your mother’s house?”
“That’s it,” Matt said, guiding us around a manned gate with a wave to the guard inside.
“And that was a security checkpoint…on the property.” Maybe I was starting to sound rude about the level of wealth on display, but it was difficult to get my mind around it. “Groundskeeper, guards… I assume there are servants in the house?”
“Yes. My mother lives for reinforcing the status quo.” He pulled the car around an enormous, weather-stained fountain and stopped in front of the huge front doors to what appeared to be a miniature Versailles. “Appearances were very important to her, after she married my father. She didn’t come from old money and she’s still insecure about it.”
Then what would she think of me?
As if reading my thoughts, Matt reached across the center console and squeezed my knee reassuringly. “It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks of you this weekend, all right? I love you. And I decide who’s a part of my life. Not my mother and her friends.”
It should have reassured me. It made me queasier.
As soon as we got out of the car, someone in actual livery appeared to take the key fob Matt tossed them. One of the huge, arched front doors opened and a man who appeared to be in his fifties stepped out. His brown hair was thinning on top, and he had a face the color of boiled chicken, like a man who’d never seen the sunlight. And, like the other guy, he was dressed super formally.