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And yet when it finally dawned on her that she’d just stripped down to her underwear, she couldn’t even dwell on the fresh round of embarrassment because a new realization had swooped into her head

"Where ao?" she said miserably "Is Chris at our apartreen eyes own, then up to her face "I don’t know," he sputtered "Look Claire You’re freaking out and you need to dial it down, okay?"

"Where a her voice over the loud dru of her heart "I don’t even have a car! My parents drove Oh shit, o home with them, Dylan! They’ll hover over me and my mom will stuff me with cookies because she thinks cookies are the solution for all of life’s troubles, and--"

A sharp sting on her cheek made her head jerk up

She blinked in shock and reached up to rub away the pain "Did you just slap me?"

Dylan’s perfectly sculpted jaw tensed "No, I flicked you"

"You flicked ripped both her shoulders "Get it together, McKinley My brother is the assle in this equation, okay? My o out there at all You don’t need to face your boss or coworkers, and if you’re not ready to talk to your parents, then you don’t have to And fk all those country club jerks from Chris’s firm You don’t owe them any explanations Understand?"

She nodded, feeling nuht," Dylan went on "Chris is probably at the apartood idea at thetalk over with?"

She shook her head Talking to Chris was definitely on her agenda, but not now As furious as she was that he’d taken off instead of handling the situation like an adult, she couldn’t deal with hiot far, far away frohts

"I guess I can go to a hotel," she said in a tired voice "Can you dropfor his response, she hurried toward the suitcase and carry-on she’d left beside the door She and Chris had been scheduled to leave for their honeys were already packed and waiting

She kept her back to Dylan, rooting around in her suitcase and pulling out the first iteht blue sundress She yanked the dress over her head and s that you could see the white band of her bra, thanks to the dress’s backless halter style, or that the skirt was indecently short This dress had been meant for Aruba, the first stop on their three-week honey

"I can’t believe he just left," she whispered