Free Destiny Undone: The Complete Series Box Set by Amanda Heartley

I’m sure. Not as sexy as Gabe , I thought, absently. “Sounds like it sucked. Poor kid. I guess part of this is my fault.”
    “To be honest, working with the dolphins was pretty cool, but yes, part of this is your fault.” I put my hand on my hip and mocked, “You’re a straight up bad influence on me, Jonathan Church.”
    He chuckled again and I rolled my eyes. “What time should I pick you up tonight? Christian wants us to come over for a smoke out. His Dad bought a bunch of new glass hookahs on his trip to Burma and Chris wants to test them out.”
    “I’ll pass. I’m really tired and I have to plan Mills’ party. Aven and I have a lot of details left to figure out.”
    “Come on, Pep. I can’t be the only guy showing up without a date. I thought it was you and me?”
    “Let me tell you what ‘you and me’ got me, Church. I’m sentenced to six weeks at StinkLab or Daddy is cutting my allowance back to a thousand dollars a month. I can’t even get my hair done for that! So yeah, tonight, I’m staying home. You’ll just have to go hookah alone.”
    “Fine, if you don’t want to go, but that doesn’t mean I have to go alone.”
    “Don’t be such a dick. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I looked at the phone, shook my head, and hung up. No sooner had I ended the call when Aven tapped on the open door—her big brown eyes wide.
    “Bad time?” she asked.
    “Nope, this is actually a good time. Come on in, I’m tired, but we can finish these party plans.” I hugged her and we sat on the floor with our notes. This is what I needed—a distraction from life. No more Church getting me in trouble. I’m breaking that bad habit—especially when there are men like Gabe Gregory in my life.

Chapter Eight — Gabe
    The first week with the interns had passed and surprisingly enough, Pepper was still here. I could hardly believe it, but when I pulled into the empty parking lot on Monday, there she was, leaning against her convertible BMW, wearing shorts and a tank top. She smiled and held up a bag of pastries and coffees. That’s nice of her.
    I walked over and accepted the coffee with a smile from behind my sunglasses. “Thanks, I needed breakfast this morning. How was your weekend?”
    “I’m here, and I’m on time. That should give you a clue,” she laughed. I liked the sound of her pretty laugh though I didn’t hear it very often. Most of the time when I was with her, she was focused and quiet, watching and learning. Yeah, she’d surprised me since I hadn’t expected to see her curiosity and her intelligence shine through. It was true, she wasn’t a college graduate—or even in college for that matter—but she definitely had the mind for it.
    “You ready for this week? It’s all week with Bobbie Jo. She’s going to be working with the animals on a few new tricks and I’ve convinced her to make you part of the show. You ready to ride a dolphin?”
    “You know it! But I’m not sure Bobbie Jo is. I think she really wanted Tracee.”
    “Tracee knows more, but Singh likes you. He thinks you’re his playmate,” I laughed. “Maybe that’s why Bobbie Jo is so put out by you. Singh is kind of her baby. She’s been working with him for two years and you’ve gotten more tricks out of him in just one week. ”
    “Yikes, I had no idea. Well, she’s the pro, not me. I’m just here for a few more weeks.” Pepper smiled and I slid the card into the reader, the door opened and I tapped on the keypad to disarm the security door.
    “So you aren’t even trying to get the spot?”
    “I didn’t think I had a shot, I mean I don’t have a degree or anything. It’s not like you’d want to keep me without college papers. I know that’s not how it works and…” Pepper’s face scrunched up into a frown, “I don’t want my Dad to buy me a job, Gabriel. I don’t think I could live with that.”
    “I understand, and for the record, I wouldn’t do that anyway. Like I told you last week, you