Ward's Castle
“Oh, there’s my brother.” She points to a truck parked next to the curb as she starts to pull me toward it. A man a handful of years older than me steps out, pulling his sunglasses off.
“Who do we have here?” he asks Wendy. “And does Carole know?” Oh shit. I guess her brother is on to them too. He’s smiling, though.
“This is Lila. I told you about her.” Her brother—Mick, I believe his name is—comes around the front of his truck. Wendy releases my arm to hug him before he then offers me his hand.
“Yes, I’ve heard a lot about you.” He gives me a warm smile, his eyes flickering over me. He’s handsome. I wait for some flutter of excitement to hit me, but it doesn’t. The hell?
“Lila, it’s time to go.” I drop Mick’s hand at the sound of my name. I turn to see Colin standing there in his normal suit. He’s always so buttoned up. I glance around, not seeing Mason anywhere.
“Where’s Mr. Mason?” Wendy clips his name. Both she and Carole think it’s odd that I call him Mr. Mason. Sometimes I drop the Mr., but he’s never offered for me to call him anything else, and for some reason I refuse to call him anything else until he does.
“Busy,” Colin responds. My heart sinks at the thought of him not picking me up. Damn. Why does it hurt so much?
“Hey.” Wendy grabs my hand, and I know I’m doing a terrible job at hiding my emotions.
“Just going to miss you,” I lie, hugging her one last time.
“Text me when you get there,” she whispers into my ear. I nod.
“It was nice meeting you, Mick.” I give him a smile before I turn to head toward Colin.
“Is there anything else we need to grab?” Colin asks.
“No, that moving company got everything a few hours ago.”
He nods. “Then let’s get you home.” He motions toward a black SUV.
“Are you going to tell him I was talking to Mick?” I ask when he opens the door for me to slip inside.
“Yes.” He gives me an apologetic look.
“Good.” I smirk before I drop inside, suddenly feeling a bit bratty. He couldn’t even bother to pick me up. Now we can both be annoyed. Who am I kidding? I'm not annoyed. I’m hurt.