Page 168 of Wicked Little Darling

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I whipped it out, thinking it was Reese—but it was Val.

My first thought was that he was sick again, and I answered quickly. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Oh my gosh, Dakota!” he yelled, and the excitement in his voice stole all the tension from my body and made me smile. “I won! Iwon!”

I laughed. “What did you win?”

“The NPA competition! I beat out four thousand, seven hundred and ninety two people! Iwon, Dakota!”

Oh, right. He’d been entering the national photography competition every year since he was old enough to participate. He never thought he would win, but he always tried.

And holy fuckingshit, this was monumental—because the winner always got offered some kind of deal with some of the most prestigious organizations that were always looking for gifted photographers. Val would’ve been fine on his own, but this was a huge leg up and would make things a hell of a lot easier for him.

“Holy fucking shit,” I said. “That’s amazing, Val, congratulations. Where are you? Let’s celebrate?—”

“Dad is throwing me a party at the manor next weekend, will you come?”

My stomach sank, but I tried not to let any disappointment bleed into my voice. “Yeah, of course I’ll come. That’ll be great.”

Fuck. I was heading toward Albert’s office right now, and what I had to say to him might make Val’s party a little tense.

“You should bring Reese, too,” Val said. “There’ll be tons of people, I think. Lots of food, Dad’s getting it catered.”

Double fuck. “I can ask him, but no guarantees.”

“Oh. Yeah, no, I get it.” He sounded disappointed, which tugged at my heartstrings. Damn it.

“But I’ll convince him,” I said, having zero confidence I could convince Reese to do anything.

I mean, who the fuck wanted to be around my family?Ididn’t even want to be around my family. Val was the exception, but the rest of them?

The biggest concern was Everett, but…if Reese was gonna be in my life—he was, wasn’t he? He’d stay, right? He wanted that too?—then sooner or later, they’d be in each other’s space. And I’d be there to act as a buffer, to protect Reese from him if he tried anything.

Besides, I couldn’t keep living in fear of what Everettmightdo. At some point I needed to just do or have what I wanted, him and everyone else be damned. So why not start right now?

What if Reese didn’t want the same things I did? What if I was the only one who really wanted this? Or wanted it more?

But wasn’t it worth the gamble? And when I looked into Reese’s eyes, I could see the truth: he felt deeply for me. He feltsomethingfor me, whether it was love or a deep attachment and fondness, I wasn’t sure. But I knew he cared about me on some level.

I’d never get those words he’d said when he was sad and drunk out of my mind. Never. And I never wanted to. They were as precious to me as he was, those words, because they’d come from a truth he buried deep inside himself, something he’d dug up and handed to me in a moment of vulnerability.

He trusted me with that truth, and I was going to cherish it.

Butdamnif I wasn’t feeling kind of insecure about everything. Was that normal? Did everyone in a relationship feel like that? Like they could lose their person at any moment and knew just how devastating that loss would be? Like when that person left, they’d take so much more than they’d given?

Were we even in a relationship? Fuck, this was what I was talking about. One worry led to another, just unlocking a whole new world of worries that were stressing me the fuck out.

I knew that as soon as I saw Reese again, I’d open my mouth and it would all come tumbling out. I couldn’t help myself; I wanted to tell him everything, give him all my thoughts and feelings when I was with him.

Even when I wasn’t.

When I got back on campus, I automatically scanned the area for a glimpse of Reese, even though I knew he was in class right now. I was always looking for him, always wanted to see him, be near him. I wanted to go wait outside his class and drag him off into a dark corner somewhere.

It was very tempting, but right now, I had something important to take care of.

I jogged up the stairs and pushed open the door to the administrative building.

Albert had better be here, and if he wasn’t, I was going to track him down.