Toe the Line Read Online Penelope Ward

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, College, Contemporary, New Adult, Romance Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
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“Yeah,” Archie muttered. “Sure.”

He did not look happy. He actually seemed very on edge.

After another tense moment, Nora interrupted his silence. “How was your flight, Archie?”

“It was fine.”

“Do you have plans tonight?” she asked.

“Not sure yet,” he murmured. Then he looked up from his plate, making eye contact with her for the first time in a while. “How are you feeling, Mom?”

Nora seemed to force a smile. “Good, honey. I’m great.”

“Good.” He reached over and squeezed her hand, a surprisingly tender gesture.

The dynamic between Archie and his mother was certainly different than the one he seemed to have with his dad.

I kept waiting for Archie to say something—anything—to me during dinner, but he never did. After his initial joke about our encounter, I’d ceased to exist to him. Things were just as I’d always remembered them to be.

Just when the tension from earlier seemed to have dissipated, Mr. Remington reignited it.

“I was talking to Rodney Erickson the other day, Archie. He says he can get you in for a law internship at his practice here on the island this summer.”

Archie sighed. “Can’t I just enjoy my summer in peace?”

His father glared. “It’s a great opportunity and will look good on your law school applications. Now is not the time to be burying your head in the sand. I’ve already discussed it with him. You can’t embarrass me by not showing up.”

“It doesn’t take much to embarrass you, does it, Dad?” Archie shook his head. “Yeah, sure. Give me his number. I’ll call him.”

“Good.”

Things once again went quiet. Archie’s face reddened, the stress seeming to emanate from him despite the silence. His father definitely had some kind of hold on him. “Dinner was great. Thank you, everyone,” he suddenly announced. His chair skidded against the floor as he got up from his seat.

Everyone watched as Archie swiftly left the dining room—even before the dessert I knew Nora had made. As expected, he’d graced us with the bare minimum of his presence. But given his father’s antagonizing nature, I couldn’t say I blamed him.

• • •

It wasn’t long before I saw Archie again. That night, rather than ignoring me at home, he was ignoring me in front of a bunch of people at the beach. I sat on the sand across from him, yet no one would have known we lived under the same roof.

He’d also wasted no time hooking up with some girl. A blond clung to his side, laughing at his every word. How does one step off a plane in the afternoon and have a girl at the ready that same night?

Cici’s breath smelled like alcohol as she leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Archie’s back in town, I see.”

“Yep.”

After the introduction in the bathroom and the tense dinner, I was kind of hoping I could forget about him for the rest of the night. Instead, my eyes constantly wandered over. If Archie was upset about anything that had happened over dinner with his dad, you wouldn’t know it now. He stood talking and laughing, soaking up attention from not only the blond but from everyone around him.

It was interesting how you could have a miserable personality but still attract so much attention based on looks alone.

My observation of Archie was interrupted when a couple of guys entered our space.

“What’s up, Cici? Who’s your friend?” one of them asked.

“Noelle, this is my cousin, Xavier.” Cici pointed her cup toward him. “X, this is my new friend, Noelle, from New York.”

Xavier had a full-sleeve tat, a lip piercing, and wore a knit hat despite the warm weather. “Well, hello, Noelle from New York,” he said.

“Xavier actually goes to school in Boston, too,” Cici told me as I nodded his way.

My eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yeah. I’m at Berklee College of Music.”

“Oh cool.”

“What about you?” he asked.

“Heading to BU in the fall.”

“Nice. We should exchange numbers before the end of the summer and meet up in the city.”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

I ended up spending the next half hour chatting with Xavier. He was apparently a talented bass player. He seemed nice enough, although he got a tad touchy-feely with me, occasionally placing his hand at the small of my back as we talked. I didn’t mind it too much, but it seemed a bit forward, especially considering how close his hand was to my ass. Before he left, we made informal plans to “hang out” more this summer, although I wasn’t entirely sure what I thought about that.

I spent the remainder of the evening hanging with Cici and her friends while sneaking glances at Archie. After a couple of hours, I figured I should head back. Overall, I felt good about how my first night out had gone. I’d met new people and was already managing not to be a loner, unlike the other two summers I’d spent on Whaite’s Island. And even though Archie had never bothered to acknowledge me, he had to have noticed I was there. At one point, he’d gone off somewhere with that girl, and I’d lost track of his whereabouts.


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