Chapter 28

The screeching of my phone jerked me awake. I felt like I was hungover the way my head spun, but it was light out, Alpha bodies were spread out around me, and that ungodly sound was still going.

Why the hell did I ever pick that ringtone?

Oh, right, because it was the only thing I could use to actually get myself out of bed on days when I had both late and early shifts at the bar. I needed to change it, because it was awful.

Joel rolled over and grabbed the phone from where it was plugged in at the edge of the bed. “It’s Trinity.”

I crawled over to him and took the phone, seeing it was still seven in the morning. Joel pulled me onto his bare chest while I answered. “You better have a damn good reason for calling me this early,” I growled as much as an Omega could.

“Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how early it was. Should I call back?”

“I’m already here. What’s up? And have you slept?”

“Have I slept… a little? Probably not as much as is advisable, but who really gets the amount of sleep they need?”

“Rin.” I dropped my head onto Joel’s chest in exasperation. He rubbed his hands up and down my body. My clothes had disappeared last night, so we were skin on skin.

“You can lecture me later. First, I’m going a little insane and need a fucking break, and since you haven’t been here in forever, I thought maybe we could revive ballgown bowling. Ocean’s already in.”

“Did you wake her up too?”

I could almost see her scowling through the phone. “Listen, you can’t be this grumpy when you’re waking up in the middle of sheer Alpha hotness, okay?”

“I beg to differ.”

“Do you want to go bowling?”

We hadn’t done that in years. Dressed up in ridiculous, cheap dresses, go to the bowling alley, and not give a shit about what anyone else thought. “I don’t have a dress.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got one for you. When I knew you were coming back I went to the thrift store and bought us all one for like five dollars each. So we don’t have to keep them nice, and they’re ridiculous in the best way.”

“What time?”

“Seven? I’ll come over at six to get ready. I still need to dig myself out from a bunch of work and I’ve got a deadline today, otherwise I’d come earlier.”

I laughed. “Okay. I’m going back to sleep now.”

“Sleep. Right.”

“Actual sleep, Rin.”

Her words were a sing-song. “Love you too.”

The phone dropped onto the bed, call ended. I snuggled into my Alpha pillow and closed my eyes.

“What was that?”

“I’ll tell you when I’m actually awake and not fake awake.”

“You’re faking it?”

“Yup.”

Joel laughed softly and turned me so I was the little spoon, fully curling his large body against mine. I had no idea why I was so tired, but there was no way to fight it, and I sank into sleep again.

“Ball gown bowling sounds fun,” Vaughn said. “Not this time because it’s a girl’s night, but I think suited up bowling would be fun too.”

Them in suits was a sight I’d never get tired of, so yes. Absolutely.

“We did it after one of the dances in school and it became a tradition. But we haven’t done it in years.”

Yesterday, when I roused from my sex-induced nap in the photo studio, Hawk bundled me up into my clothes and took care of everything else. Cleaning up, loading all the rest of the Cheria bags, and throwing the sheets we’d used in the wash before bringing me home.

It hadn’t felt like I used a lot of energy while I was in the middle of the shoot, but being looked at and posing so much took it out of me. There were sore places from the poses Janet had me hold.

Absolutely worth it.

I couldn’t wait to see the pictures.

But last night we did nothing. Watched a movie with Ellie and Warren, and I’d fallen asleep in the middle of it, and apparently slept blissfully until Trinity’s call this morning.

“Anyway, the dresses are from thrift stores so we don’t feel bad if they get dirty or caught in the ball return and ripped.”

“I’m glad you don’t want to return our balls,” Rowan said with a wink.

“Who says I don’t?”

Cade laughed and crossed the room to me. “The way you’re blushing.” He caught me and kissed me soundly. “And I know I speak for everyone when I say we’re all excited to see those pictures.”

“It would have been fun with all of you.”

“Maybe someday Janet will agree to doing one with all of us.”

I smiled, a pulse of sadness moving through me. “Maybe.”

A few minutes later my phone buzzed, Ocean and Trinity came in, and once again we were swept away into the closet. No real hair or makeup this time, just us.

I laughed when she pulled my dress out of the bag. “What on earth is that?”

“Glorious is what it is.”

“Rin, I’m a redhead. I can’t wear that!” The dress was a sunset orange. A shimmering layer covered it, making the fabric shift between yellow, orange, and flashes of purple. The neckline fell off the shoulders, with short, puffed sleeves straight out of a vintage movie. It wasn’t awful, and the fabric was really pretty. If you didn’t have red hair. I would look like one solid lump of color.

Laughing, Ocean pulled her dress out of the bag, making a face. “I think that’s the point.”

“We never went out of our way to look bad,” I said.

Trinity snorted. “Like you could make anything look bad. I don’t care what color your hair is, that’s going to look stunning on you. Now put it on. We’ve got to get moving.”

I raised an eyebrow. “In a hurry?”

“I wish I wasn’t,” she admitted. “But I uhh… sort of got promoted? Again?”

Ocean and I both looked at her. “What? When?”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

She stepped into her dress, which was an outrageous neon green satin with gold sequins. Probably a cast-off from one of the hundreds of movies that came down to Clarity to film. Private beaches were perfect to film on since there were no tourists, and the people who owned them had no problem taking the studios’ money for practically no work. “Well, when Tracy got in the accident, she was working on a lot of stuff. Not only that, she was the features editor. They weren’t going to fill the position, but it was obvious really fast that wasn’t going to work. Evan read some of the stuff I was finishing up for her and gave it to me. I found out day before yesterday and I’ve barely come up for air.”

My mouth dropped open as she ran out of steam. “Holy shit, that’s amazing. Not that Tracy died, but that they gave it to you. Isn’t that what you’ve wanted?”

“Yeah.” She’s quiet. “I mean, eventually. I thought I’d have time to write features without being put in charge of an entire department first, but yes.”

I looked over at Ocean, and her face clearly shared my worry. “We don’t have to go out tonight, Rin. If you need to catch up, that’s totally fine. I’d like you to, you know, sleep at some point, but I don’t want you to stress more.”

“No.” She shook her head. “Please. I can’t stare at words for another second or I’m going to go mad. I want to do this. I just can’t spend all night doing it.”

“All right,” Ocean said. “But just so you know, just cause you’re a big time writer now doesn’t mean we’re taking it easy on you.”

Trinity scoffed. “I don’t need you to take it easy.”

Ocean’s dress was a sparkling white with one shoulder bare. I caught the hesitation in her eyes when she saw it, but honestly, of the three of us? The dress was something she could wear and pull off. “You look hot.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I am one-hundred percent entirely serious. There are Alphas who would lose their shit over the way your ass looks in that dress.”

“Thank you.”

The words were soft, so I put a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay? The other day⁠—”

“I’m okay.” A smile that didn’t match her eyes. “Well, I’m not, but I also don’t really want to talk about it. Let’s go have fun bowling.”

“If you need me, I’m here.”

This time her smile actually reached her eyes. “I know.”

I pulled on the dress and groaned when I saw the shoes. Gold heels that were just as tacky. If not more so. Colored jewels glued on the fake leather, like a craft store threw up on them. “I never thought I’d say I was happy to put on bowling shoes.”

“You’re welcome, Rin. Thank you so much for buying me shoes,” Trinity said with a smirk, turning back from the mirror.

“I can’t believe you’re going to make me walk out there in front of them like this.”

“You look hot,” Ocean said. “Really. Besides, I don’t think you could put anything on that would change the way they look at you.”

“Because none of it’s real,” I muttered.

Rin snorted. “I’m calling bullshit so hard it’s not even funny.”

I glanced back toward the closet doors, like I could tell if they were pressed up against the other side listening, or that our voices would carry. “I’m paying them to be here. It was your idea.”

“Yeah,” she said. “But I had to interview them a lot for that piece. We talked about everything under the sun. They told me if they were going to let someone into their anonymous bubble, it needed to be raw and honest and not just paint them as cookie cutter people.”

She wasn’t wrong. The huge feature—which had ended up on the front page of her magazine—was incredible. It was the reason she’d convinced me to call them in the first place, despite her giving me their phone number breaking her NDA and possibly endangering her job. She’d painted them as polite, commanding, and intelligent. Caring and not simply men who would fuck you for money.

They were every one of those things.

But it didn’t change the fact that we had an arrangement, and we were hurtling toward the expiration date, no matter if I wished we weren’t.

“Meeting them and talking with them was the reason I knew they’d be good for you. Because I’m telling you, when they talked about their clients, they spoke with polite distance. The way you speak about acquaintances or those ‘friends’ from work who you know but you’d never see in any other situation. When they spoke about them, not once did they look they way they do when they look at you.”

“But—” I put my hands on my hips and leaned over, taking a breath because my chest felt fucking tight. “You didn’t see them with a client. Maybe this…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud. That maybe they were like this with everybody, because the idea hurt.

“Or maybe they want you, and you’re letting Beau get in the way because you’re scared of a repeat,” Ocean said.

I glared at her, and she glared right back. I hated that she wasn’t wrong. I was terrified of getting hurt again. Because as much as Beau’s actions did hurt me, I already knew the St. James pack doing the same would destroy me in a way I would not recover from. So I had to keep my distance.

Had to.

A soft knock on the closet door saved me. I pulled it open and found Rowan staring down at me. His eyes followed the lines of the dress, and he smiled. “Your car is here.”

“Thank you.”

I made sure the girls were decent before I let the door fall the rest of the way open.

They grinned at me as I stepped out. “I know. It’s something.”

“I love it,” Vaughn said. “You’re like a shiny present for me to unwrap.”

A flush stained my cheeks, and Ocean nudged me with her elbow like she was saying I told you so.

“Are you sure you don’t want one of us to drive you?” Cade asked.

Trinity waved a hand. “The car’s already here. We’ll be fine.” She looped her arms through both Ocean’s and mine, any tension from the closet forgotten. “Now let’s go bowl like absolute shit.”

We laughed as she pulled us out of the room, but I couldn’t help but notice every one of the Alpha’s eyes remained on me until we were out of sight.