Diamonds Page 16
After all, he had led LV State to a national championship as a defensive back before he completely blew out his knee, ending his career. Now he was a student assistant coach for the team, which meant they always hung in the same circles. So, for now, she kept her mouth shut and tolerated her friend’s ridiculous behavior.
“You know what,” Bryna said with a smile. A plan was already formulating in her mind. “I’ll go ask him out.”
“Yes!” Trihn cried, thinking she had won.
“But…when he’s not interested I get a big fat I-told-you-so, and you bitches find guys to buy us the next round of shots.”
“Easy for us,” Trihn said. “There’s no way he’s not interested.”
Bryna smirked. This is almost too easy.
She honed in on Eric. He was easy to spot even in the crowd of football players. Tall and still built like he played ball with short-cropped dark hair and an easy smile. The guys he was hanging out with had a bunch of girls desperately clinging to them, but Eric was unsurprisingly without one. He may be telling everyone else that it was because of his psycho ex, but she knew the truth. They always said all the hot ones were gay.
“Hey, Eric,” Bryna said, interrupting their conversation. “Can I talk with you a minute?”
She felt the eyes of all the other football players heating her skin, but she kept her focus on Eric. She wet her lips and looked up at him under her long lashes. One of the other guys murmured something vulgar under his breath, and Eric shoved him.
“Sure, Bryna. What’s up?” he asked nonchalantly.
Bryna pointed her French manicured finger to a more private location. “Mind if we talk over there?”
He nodded and then followed her away. The guys immediately started cat calling him. He flipped them off, returning his attention to her. “What’s going on?”
When she stared up into his honey hazel eyes, her smile widened. God, he is fucking hot. She had always thought so. Too fucking bad.
“Bryna?”
She snapped out of her trance and remembered why the fuck she was here in the first place. “Do you want to go out sometime?”
Eric stared back at her blankly. He looked surprised, but underneath the shock was something else. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
“You’re asking me out?”
“I know shocker, right?” She tried to play it off as if it wasn’t a big deal. She had never really done this before. Mostly because she didn’t need to. She was hot and guys flocked to her. This was just to prove a point.
“Look, I…I don’t think you’re my type.” He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Nothing against girls like you, but they’re just not for me.”
Bryna's mouth fell open. “Girls like me?”
“You know what I mean.” His eyes fell to the floor.
There it was in his voice again. Was that…disgust she detected?
“No, I don’t think I do. I’ve been here less than a month. What exactly is my reputation that you can say ‘girls like me’?”
Eric sighed and his eyes found her once more. “You know what people say about you…about all the cheerleaders,” he clarified quickly. “No offense. I’m just not into that.”
“Them now and not just me.”
She didn’t even know why she was taking offense to all this. She had been expecting him to turn her down. She had expected him to say no that he didn’t want to go out with her. But she sure as hell hadn’t expected him to basically call her a slut bag whore. People like her! What the hell did that even mean?
She hadn’t even slept with anyone here! Three weeks at Las Vegas State, and while she had played the field, she was wary of getting too close to anyone. The last thing she wanted was for feelings to get involved and fuck her up again. All she wanted was some hot meaningless sex. And it was harder to come by from someone who went to her school knowing they would inevitably run into each other.
“I don’t want to get into it, Bryna. But it’s…cute that you asked me.”
Cute.
He had said it was cute. This had gone from irritating to humiliating with one word. What an asshole!
“Maybe call up your friend, Gates. He seemed into you.”
“We’re not friends anymore, but thanks,” she spat sarcastically.
Bryna turned to walk away, but Eric reached out and grabbed her arm. “Hey. I didn’t mean to offend you. I didn’t know you two weren’t friends anymore.”
“Let me go,” she growled.
Eric immediately dropped her arm. He had that look again like he was already disgusted with her, and her harsh tone only made it worse. “Whatever.”
Bryna stormed away back to her friends. She struggled to find composure. The thought of Gates irritated her to no end. He had been in love with her, and everything had gone straight to shit. She hadn’t even talked to him since he had kicked her out of his movie premiere, and now Eric Wilkins was bringing it up.
Ugh! Just another reminder of that night. Another reminder of what she had lost. Another reminder that she had let him get to her. Another reminder of how fucking pissed off she was at what he had done.
She took a deep breath and shut down. She locked away the image of him. She swallowed hard. This wasn’t right. His name held no power over her. Never again would he hold any power over her.
Jude.
She locked away the image of Jude, the man she had once loved, telling her he was married with a son. Locked away the memory of him turning around, following his wife out of the banquet room, and leaving her forever.
She shouldn’t let this get to her. Gates was out of her life. Jude was out of her life. And Eric Wilkins didn’t matter.
THE ALL THAT GLITTERS SERIES has been in my head for several years, and I’m so glad that I was finally able to write Bryna and the start to her crazy world. This book would not have been completed without many other people helping me!
First, I’d like to thank the random hostess at the Mexican restaurant three years ago, who gave the absolute best service my sister and I ever had. She had a really freaking cool name, too, that I’d never heard before. I wasn’t sure how to pronounce it, and she told me it was pronounced Brihn-uh. So, I’m not sure if she’ll appreciate that I immortalized her name as a slightly manic gold digger, but thanks anyway!
Second, to the group of girls who read this book while I wrote it, gave me feedback, and generally kept me from going crazy! Jessica—thank you for loving the assholes I create, no matter what villainous things they do. Bridget—thank you, in turn, for always loving my nice guys and inevitably making me want to write books about them. Rebecca—thank you for good music and seemingly sharing a brain with me. And, of course, thank you to Diana Peterfreund, who whipped my ass into shape and gave me invaluable advice while writing. ♥
Also, to my early readers—I really appreciate you taking a chance on Bri and your expert feedback. I know she’s kind of a lovable unlikable character, but she just kind of owns it. So, thank you, Trish Brinkley, Katie Miller, Lori Francis, Jessica Sotelo, and Amy McAvoy.
Ahhhh! Lauren Blakely, thank you so much for the incredible blurb for this book as well as for taking a chance on my angst-filled ride. P.S. Can we go to Paris? I need some new jeans. Also, thank you to Emma Hart, Kendall Ryan, and Corinne Michaels, who let me drive them crazy during the months before this book released.
I’d like to thank Sarah Hansen of Okay Creations, who created this brilliant masterpiece of covers for the All That Glitters series. I basically handed you the titles, and you completely blew me out of the water!
As always, thank you to my beautiful editor and formatter, Jovana Shirley at Unforeseen Editing! You always do a fantastic job on all your books, and this one is no exception.
Additionally, thank you to Christine at Shh Mom’s Reading, for dedicating so much time to putting together all my release information and generally keeping me on task!
I’d also like to thank my family, who encouraged m
e to write this book when the idea to write a how-Bryna-became-a-gold-digger book popped into my mind on the seven-hour drive to New Orleans for our cruise. Thanks for dealing with my randomness when I’d get up at three a.m. on the ship, pull out my laptop, and just start typing away because I couldn’t get Bryna out of my head. Couldn’t be here without you. Love you Mom, Dad, Brittany, and Shea. And, of course, I couldn’t get through everyday life without my fiancé, Joel, and my two puppies, Riker and Lucy. ♥
Last, but certainly not least, YOU! I want to thank you for taking a chance and reading the first in this new series I’m already wildly obsessed with. Thank you for purchasing this book, for hopefully loving it, and for writing me a short review on what you thought! I can’t wait for you to get the second book in the series, Gold! Love you all! And thank you for letting me pursue my dreams!
USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR K.A. LINDE has written the Avoiding series, the Record series, and the Take Me series as well as her new adult stand-alone Following Me. This is the first in her four-book All That Glitters series.
She grew up as a military brat traveling the United States and Australia. While studying political science and philosophy at the University of Georgia, she founded the Georgia Dance Team, which she still coaches. Post-graduation, she served as the campus campaign director for the 2012 presidential campaign at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
An avid traveler, reader, and bargain hunter, K.A. lives in Athens, Georgia, with her fiancé, Joel, and two puppies, Riker and Lucy.
K.A. Linde loves to hear from her readers! Feel free to contact her here:
kalinde45@gmail.com
www.kalinde.com
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@authorkalinde