Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 84952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
A grin ghosts her lips. “Holt and Oliver run a real estate investment company. Holt is my buddy. He’s the one I go to when I need help convincing my parents of something. Oliver is … Oliver.” She laughs. “He’s more of a jokester but still super smart. He’s a good mix of them all, I think.”
That all sounds doable.
“Wade is serious. He’s an architect. He just works … and that’s it. He has no life. Boone is the wild one. You met him.”
I nod.
“He’s my best friend, besides Bellamy. It used to be me, Bells, Boone, and Coy, but then …” She holds her hands out. “Whatever. I don’t know. But I’m close with Boone. Coy is off touring the world most of the time now so we don’t see him as much. I’m excited he’ll be here tonight, though. He flew in just for the night.”
I furrow my brow. “Is he military or something?”
She bursts out laughing.
“I … Is something funny?” I ask.
“Hollis.” She says my name as a complete sentence. “Coy is Kelvin McCoy.”
I snap my face to her. “The country music guy?”
She nods with a look of amusement on her face.
“Wait. Your cousin is Kelvin McCoy. No shit?”
“No shit.”
What the actual fuck?
I withdraw my hand from her leg and follow my GPS’s instructions to turn right. Up ahead, the road is lined with cars on both sides.
“Mason family hack,” she says, sitting up in her seat. “Pull up to the driveway. It’ll be blocked off, but we’ll tell the guy it’s me, and he’ll let me through.”
“Nice.”
I do as instructed. A man stops us on the road. A rather large man with a suit on leans into the car.
“Hey, Nate!” she says. “Can we get through, please?”
“Hey, Larissa. Sure thing.”
He steps back from the car, and we’re allowed to proceed up a driveway made to look like cobblestones.
“That guy looks like he could throw down.”
She winces. “I bet he can. He owns a bar called The Gold Room. I think being able to hold your own kind of goes with the territory.”
We proceed up the tree-lined drive. The house in front of us is even more impressive than the Landry’s. It appears to be three stories, all brick, with a manicured lawn that’s lit up by little hanging lanterns in the trees.
It looks like a movie set. There are no two ways about it.
“This is pretty, huh?” she asks.
“Pretty fucking incredible. Holy shit, Riss.”
She grins. “This is my favorite place in the world.”
“I thought it was with me,” I say as I park my car behind a Range Rover.
“You’re totally a close second.”
I shake my head, knowing she’s full of shit.
She doesn’t wait for me to open her door, but she’s so excited to get inside that I can’t blame her. She reminds me of how I feel on the first day of football practice. I can’t deny her that kind of joy.
A arch has been erected out of golden-colored lights. Larissa takes my hand as we approach it.
“They don’t spare any expenses, do they?” I crack.
“No. This is my aunt’s claim to fame.”
We walk through the lights to see what appears to be icicles dripping from the top. It’s incredible, and I wish I had this kind of money lying around to put to my claim to fame.
Not that I know what that would even be. But still.
We enter through an oversized wooden door, and it’s party chaos in the most sophisticated way. There’s music playing through speakers hidden from view. Balloons in golds and silvers coat the ceiling with little ribbon pieces extending down and floating just a few feet overhead. The house is crowded with people wearing everything from suits and dresses like Jack’s event to jeans and T-shirts.
“What do you think?” Larissa asks.
“It’s … something.”
“Come on. Let’s find my family.”
I suck in a breath and allow her to lead me through the throngs of people. We’re stopped every few steps, and I’m introduced to someone new. It’s not until I hear someone yell Larissa’s name that I put a face with a name.
Kelvin McCoy, the guy I listen to all the time while I’m going over the playbook, stands in front of me with his arms wrapped around my girl. He holds a cup of beer in one hand and grins at me over Larissa’s head.
“Hey,” he says to me. “You must be the famous Hollis Hudson.”
Larissa ducks out from under his arms.
“Hollis, this is my cousin Coy. Coy, this is Hollis.”
Coy shakes my hand and pulls me into a man-hug.
“It’s nice to meet you,” he says. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Boone keeps me pretty up-to-date on the family. And Mom told me that Riss was pretty crazy over some dude—ouch!” he says as Larissa sticks an elbow in his side. “I probably shouldn’t have said that,” he jokes.