Page 102 of The Ruthless Boys (Adamson All-Boys Academy 2)
“He just keeps saying he’ll send a car. That’s all I know. I guess it’s a secret or something.”
I lean back in the sand to watch the guys surf, and I try not to think of all the ways this could go wrong. If Dad finds out too soon, he’ll definitely stop me from going. And then even if I do go, and we pull this fake engagement off, he might push back against the Montagues—no matter how rich they are. He’s just stubborn like that. I must’ve inherited his pigheadedness.
“Well, take lots of pictures for me? I’d die to see a party like that. Do you know what you’re going to wear yet?” Besides my massive diamond engagement ring, you mean?
“No clue,” I say, laying back on the towel and staring up at the afternoon sunset. This plan is so crazy, it might just work. Might being the key word, of course.
Might also fuck up my whole life, so there is that.
But oh well.
Nobody ever said Chuck Carson was a coward.On Saturday, I get up early, pack a bag and carefully tiptoe out of the dorm room I’m sharing with my dad for the summer. He’s being paid to teach some summer school classes at UCSC, and they’ve offered us up free housing in the meantime. Archie left early this morning, but if he sees me sneaking out with a bag, it’ll be hard to casually play off the staying with Monica tonight, love ya, bye thing I’ve got planned.
As promised, there’s a car waiting in the visitor lot. The driver helps me get my bags in, and then closes the door behind me. I don’t think about where we’re going as we drive, not until we pull up in front of the San Jose airport.
“What the hell?” I murmur as the man opens the door, and my phone pings with a text message.
Here’s your ticket, have a safe flight. SJC to JFK, nonstop.
It’s from Church.
My mouth twitches as I squeeze my phone in my hand. JFK, as in John F. Kennedy airport, as in fucking New York City. He didn’t think to tell me that the party wasn’t being held in California?!
“Christ.” I sound like Ranger now, I think as I take my bags in, and check them at the counter. I’m flying first-class, so I at least get to enjoy the lounge until boarding. That, and my seat is big and comfy, and the one next to it is also booked under my name, so I don’t have to make small-talk with strangers.
Not quite five hours later, and I’m in New York with my bags, smiling as I spot Church’s honeyed hair in the crowd.
“How was the flight?” he asks, directing his driver to collect my luggage. I’m still uncomfortable having other people do stuff for me, but I don’t pitch a fit about it. “I’d have sent you on our jet, but the timing on this worked out better. I hope you don’t mind?”
“You’re joking right? I rode first freaking class. How could I possibly be upset about that?”
“Well, once you see what our jet looks like, first class will appear to be a dump.” I roll my eyes as Church takes my arm and leads me to the car. What I don’t expect to see is an empty limo. Somehow, I imagined the rest of the Student Council would be here waiting, too. “None of the others could make it,” Church explains, reading the thoughts on my face. See what I mean? It’s the little tells. “It’ll just be me and you for the evening. What say you, Charlotte Carson?”
“You said I’d be wearing a dress,” I begin as we climb into the back of the car, and the driver closes the door behind us. “But I’ve been thinking. If there really are going to be students from Adamson there, then I need to stay incognito, don’t I? I have to dress like a boy.”
“You wore a dress to the Valentine’s Day party, didn’t you? Nobody but Ranger seemed to put two and two together, that ugly Chuck the Micropenis was the same dashing beauty that makes up Charlotte Carson.”
I narrow my eyes on him, his long form folded in the corner, legs crossed, hands resting on his knee. He studies me with that amber gaze, and I resist the urge to squirm. We went through something in the woods that day, between Ranger’s near-drowning and Spencer’s faux-death. It changed the dynamic between us, from bully and victim to … something else. Friends, I think. And who’d have ever thought we’d end up engaged. Lucky me!
“Nobody was looking at me then. If you waltz in there and announce me as your fiancée, people will look. They’ll scrutinize and study me, and they’ll figure it out.”
“Two things,” Church says, pulling the ring from his pocket and handing it out to me again. My heart flutters strangely in my chest the way it did when Ranger gave me the box with the pin. Only this time, it really is an engagement ring. I refused to take it before, mostly because it’s worth gobs of cash, and I was pretty damn certain I’d end up losing it. “First, we’ll announce you as Charlotte, the cousin to Chuck, the same way you did to Spencer at that party. And second, we don’t have to tell anyone about our engagement other than my parents. They know all about you and Adamson, and the secret they’re supposed to keep.” He pauses for a moment and rubs at his chin. “Though my sisters are fucking awful gossips …”
