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“How? It’s a major financial decision. It affects us both—that’s our pact.”
I sit up. Shit. “I can’t—”
“We keep our word to each other,” she says. “Right?”
Nobody has a nose for hypocrisy quite like a teen. I look over at the calendar. Twenty-one days. “I have to at least tell him. He’s…” trying to seduce it out of me. “He’s in misery.”
“Oh, no, no, no, no, noooo!” Carly can see she’s got me and she’s enjoying it. “Making a commitment is a promise. If you’re good for your word, saying you’ll do a thing is like doing a thing. Same as,” she adds. “We keep our word, us two. And Henry and the rest of the Worldwide Cocks, what with their do-the-right-thing bullshit and then they try to trick you? Please—”
“Okay, okay.” I hold up a hand. “But I’m giving it back.”
“If you so decide after your cooling off period, then yes.”
I look at her standing there, all on fire. “I don’t know if I hate you or love you more right now.”
She grins. “And you cannot verbally commit to it. No I’m giving you your company back but I have to humor my sister.”
I toss a balled-up sock at her.
“Bird,” she says.
* * *
When April told me a car was coming, I assumed it would be my own personal limo, as is the Locke Worldwide way, but when I step out onto the sidewalk with Smuckers in his fave riding purse, it’s Henry standing there, holding the door open.
He pulls off his aviator glasses. My soul lights up like a switchboard.
“Good morning,” he says. His brown suit fits perfectly over his broad shoulders as if to say, Oh, all of the places you will not go! But really, really want to!
“Hi,” I say, like I’m not awash in the Henry Locke magic. I slide into the limo, positioning Smuckers on the cock blocker side of me.
He sits next to me and hands over a java chip Frappuccino. Because of course he remembered. It’s part of the seducer’s job.
“Thank you.” I sip. “So. A groundbreaking ceremony.”
“It’s one of the things you two’ll be doing now.” He pulls a small blue vest from a bag. It has the Locke Worldwide logo embroidered on the side of it.
“Oh my god.” I put the cup in the holder and hold it up. “I don’t know about this.”
“Come on,” Henry says. “A little team spirit.”
“Poor Smuckers. He’s officially on team Cock Worldwide.”
Henry narrows his eyes. “What was that?”
“Cock Worldwide?” I study his eyes, get lost there for a second. “What? Are you honestly telling me you’ve never heard that?”
He gives me this look, like he thinks I’m joking. “Cock Worldwide. That’s not a…thing.”
“You don’t know?”
He looks uncertain. “Nobody calls us that.”
I snort. “Yeah, nobody except everybody who stands on the ground looking up at the giant cranes. I get that the logo is supposed to look like a building between two bushes, but seriously? And just…the giant cranes? Erecting massive buildings?”
He looks at me, genuinely surprised. It comes to me that nobody wanted to tell him because they’re too busy worshipping him.
“People wouldn’t call us that,” he says.
