Page 25 of Off Limits
‘You’re serious? All those auditions? Everything you dreamed of? You’d give all that up?’
Jewel gives me a withering look. ‘I mean, I wouldn’t do it for justanyguy. Do you know how much he earns in a week?’
We collapse into giggles, and I don’t even know the answer to her question.
I crane my neck. I can see the back of his head. The girl he’s with leans close to his ear and I wonder if they’re related. ‘Who do you think the girl is?’
‘I read he brought his whole family with him to Texas. She’s gotta be his sister. They look like one another.’
I feel an odd sense of relief at her words, but his presence has got my stomach all twisting in knots, asking myself what I’ll do if he tries to speak to me. ‘Maybe he’s got a girlfriend already.’
Jewel glares at me, eyebrows raised. ‘Girl, do you not look at social media? He’s as single as can be.’
‘It’s not like you can do anything here, right under Kathleen’s nose,’ I whisper.
‘A girl can look,’ she says with a smile. ‘And admire from afar.’
We laugh again and before I know it, Kathleen and some of the other girls are shushing us. We watch as Sam Conway accompanies her son down the aisle, along with Hank Conway. Brody Conway is tall and slender, with black hair. Together, they greet various guests, before Sam and her father take their seats on the front row, Brody greeting his best man in front of the pergola. The breeze catches my hair.
It isn’t long before we’re invited to stand for the arrival of the bridal party. The bride wears a princess-style gown with a wide chiffon skirt, her hair cascading down her back underneath a long veil.
When we sit down again, the man who is officiating the wedding gives an address. There are microphones, so I can hear everything crystal clear.
The first time I hear Brody Conway’s voice, it sounds oddly familiar.
Then it hits me.
As he reads aloud his wedding vows, I feel myself craning my neck again, to get a closer look at him. I need to see his hands.
And when I do, I panic inside. My breathing alters. My palms go sweaty. Jewel gives me a wide smile which I attempt to return, but the discomfort in my chest is spreading wildly to my limbs.
I’ve met Brody Conway before.
At Surly’s.
There’s no mistaking those weirdly long fingers, the ones that pressed into my thighs as I writhed naked in his lap.
I danced for Brody Conway, only a week ago.Surly’s rules.
Now I’m watching him get married.
Chapter Eight
Jake
‘Who are all those girls?’
Thankfully, the ceremony is over. It went on forever, made worse by the fact that Lemon Conway was a bridesmaid and kept looking over and smiling at me while the bride was reciting her vows. Even the guys have started to notice the extra attention she’s been paying me. Doesn’t help that I’m here with my sister, so everybody knows I don’t have a girl. Even now, holding onto my drink, I can feel Lemon watching me with those hungry eyes of hers.
Serenity is inaccessible right now. I know she’s here. All I wanna do is see her and talk to her and—
‘Earth to Jake.’
‘Sorry, what?’
River raises her eyebrows. ‘I said, who are all those girls over there? The ones you’re staring at.’
‘CMC.’
