Hannah deferred her dinner plans with Harrison. Truthfully, she’d lost her taste for her twisted game. After what happened to her dog, she wasn’t sure she cared about conquering the Goldens. She didn’t want to involve herself any further in their messed up world.

She and her father brought Custard home from the vet Monday morning. Hannah stayed home from school to help care for him, convincing her father that with only a few days of school left, she wasn’t missing anything important.

Harrison was surprisingly sweet through the whole ordeal. He brought over flowers and a huge, fluffy pet bed for Custard. He even offered to cook dinner for her and her father rather than taking her out. Hannah graciously declined and promised to go out to dinner with him later when things calmed down. Her father had been near hysterics after hearing about the events that led to Custard’s accident. He wasn’t too keen on having Harrison around.

When Hannah inevitably returned to Stanton on Tuesday, the campus seemed like an alien planet. Harrison greeted her in the parking lot with something hot, delicious and caffeinated from Starbucks. He put his arm around her and walked her to class. Savannah and her minions gave her hugs between classes and feigned concern of her ‘poor, sweet’ dog—whom they’d never met. They made sure Hannah knew they were there for her and that they weren’t shocked Cody was to blame.

At lunch, Harrison was waiting to whisk Hannah up to the Golden Gate, where more people she didn’t know suffocated her with fake concern. She couldn’t believe she’d ever envied the Goldens. Yes they swam in the beautiful gene pool and had limitless trust funds, but now that she was on the inside she could see how hollow they were. The only one who seemed to have any substance was Harrison. He was actually really sweet. He made a point to walk her to and from class, he bought her lunch and rescued her from conversations that turned to Cody bashing—which was often. Luckily Cody hadn’t been at school all week, so Hannah was spared from avoiding him.

On Thursday her luck ran out.

Cody walked under the Golden Gate, his hands stuffed in his pockets, head down. But Savannah and the rest of the Goldens weren’t going to let him go by unscathed.

“The dog slayer lives,” Savannah called loudly. “See, Hannah. I told you not to worry. You can’t kill a cockroach.”

Cody stopped walking and slowly turned around.

Keep walking, Hannah willed. She didn’t think she could stomach a full on Golden assault. And from the looks of Cody, neither could he. He was unshaven and dark circles clung under his eyes.

Cody glared up at them, his pained eyes stinging Hannah. “You’re not one of them, Hannah. You never will be.”

“And neither are you,” Blakely scathed.

“Don’t try to drag Hannah down just because you fucked up your life and now you’re nothing,” Savannah hissed.

“Let’s leave Hannah out of this,” Harrison said, possessively pulling her closer to him.

Cody bristled at the intimate gesture before shaking his head. “You’re better than them, Hannah,” he called before skulking away from the jeering crowd.

* * *

Finally the school day was over. Seeing Cody looking so disheveled turned Hannah’s stomach sour and she’d been counting the minutes until she could flee campus. She just wanted to go home to snuggle Custard and shut the world out. She hated that she had a hand in causing Cody more pain. He was already suffering. She knew deep down he hadn’t meant to hurt Custard. She’d seen the way Cody was with him, playing and roughhousing—it was love at first sight with them. And if she was honest, seeing Cody babble baby talk to her dog had unglued something in her heart. It also made her doubt Harrison’s story of Cody’s violent past.

Hannah knew she’d been too harsh with Cody. She’d been caught up in the trauma of the accident and then her days were filled with his ex-friends, more than happy to stoke her resentment. But it wasn’t an excuse. She needed to apologize. Hannah massaged her temples as she walked to her car. Cody was right. He warned her that she couldn’t get too close to the Goldens without being poisoned by them.

She was just getting to her car when Harrison called her name. She turned to see him jogging toward her. His face was glowing with a smarmy smile that her gut refused to trust. Suddenly she wanted out. This game had been a terrible idea.

“Hey, beautiful. You weren’t leaving without saying goodbye, were you?” he asked displaying his best pout. “I thought we could finally have our date tonight?”

“Oh, I don’t think I’m up for it tonight.”

Harrison looked genuinely crestfallen. “I’m sorry about today . . . with Cody.”

Hannah was momentarily stunned by his perception. But she was tired of the dread that had been following her around the last few days. She needed to end this. Cut ties and put her life back to normal. Plain, boring—vanilla.

“Harrison, I really appreciate how kind you’ve been, but I don’t think this is going to work out.”

“What? Why not?

“We’re from two different worlds.”

“Different worlds?”

“Come on. You can’t tell me you don’t see it. You live in another stratosphere.”

“I get it,” he sneered, “You think I live a charmed life, just like everyone else.”

“I didn’t say that—”

“Well let me tell you, Hannah. It’s not all been a fairytale. I’m just a guy and I thought we had a connection. I thought I’d finally found someone who didn’t see me as a trophy or a prick. But I guess I was wrong.”

“No, Harrison. It’s not like that. I just . . .”

“You just what?” he growled.

“I have a hard time believing someone like you could actually like someone like me.”

Harrison’s face softened and he took Hannah’s hands. “I don’t know how I never saw you until now, but I can’t let you go.”

His blue eyes bore into Hannah’s and she wavered.

“Listen, you’ve been under a lot of stress. You deserve a break. We both do. Let’s get away from all of this and see if there’s really something between us. Without tennis and vets and Stanton. Let me take you to dinner.”

“Just dinner?”

“Yes. Just dinner.”

Hannah’s heart fought her gut. She looked at the ground to hide her internal struggle.

Harrison gently tugged her chin so he could see her face. “Look, I don’t know what this is, but I’m willing to explore if you are. Worse case you get a nice dinner.” His perfect teeth blazed a practiced smile. “I promise to take you somewhere great.”

He was handsome and charming and he was directing all of it at her. Hannah’s inner goddess was doing backflips and promised to kill her if she denied herself a dinner date with a real life prince charming. “Fine.”

“Great! I’ll pick you up at six.”