Read Covet for Free Online Page A

Nancy travelled with him everywhere. She visited her sister and family on holidays but he’d never worried about seeing Scarlet through her- though sometimes he secretly wanted to so badly.
    He stopped at the fountains. This was really all Durham’s fault. Durham Evers was the Vegas brother, not Barrett. But Durham was building a soccer stadium in Conyers, Georgia at the moment and was freshly in love himself. He didn’t want much to do with Vegas which had forced Barrett to take over. And on his first day back he runs into Scarlet. Of all the luck.
    God, she was still gorgeous. Maybe even more so, though there was a darkness in her eyes. Her sunny spirit was gone and he still had no idea why.
    Was that why she was here? Had fate somehow decided it was time for this to be resolved? Even if he couldn’t love her anymore, he could at least find out what went wrong in the first place.
    He needed to find out why she left him.

Chapter Ten
    S carlet left her mother’s office shortly after their talk. Before leaving, Michelle had peeked out into the lobby to see where Barrett was.
    “Arista,” Michelle called. “Where’s Mr. Evers?”
    “He left for lunch. Said he’d be back at two.”
    “Thanks, Arista.”
    Scarlet sighed with relief. She could make a clean getaway. She leaned over, kissing her mom goodbye for now.
    “I’ll see you after work?” she asked.
    “I’m going to dinner with Aunt Nancy,” Michelle said. “I think you should join us.”
    Scarlet sucked in a breath. She’d done her best to see Nancy as little as possible being that she was Barrett’s right hand everything. The topic of him was almost impossible to avoid since Barrett was pretty much Nancy’s whole life. But it wasn’t fair to put anyone in any sort of awkward position.
    “Sure,” Scarlet said. “I’ll just go home and unpack. Take a shower and wash the airplane stench off of me.”
    “Sounds good. Daddy will be happy to see you,” her mother smiled. “I love you, sweet girl.”
    “Me too,” Scarlet said.
    As she walked into the reception lobby again, she smiled and gave a small wave to Arista. She was met with a cool glare. Scarlet shrugged and headed to the elevator.
    She held her breath until she got to her rental. She’d been worried she’d run into him coming back up but Barrett was nowhere to be seen.

    * * *
    S carlet had loved him from the moment she saw him. She was nine years old and Barrett was thirteen. Most of her brother’s friends annoyed the shit out of her. They brushed her off as an annoying little kid, but Barrett had always been different. Barrett said hello, would ask her how the fourth grade was. Ben would roll his eyes and ask Barrett to come on, hurry up, let’s go play. But Barrett was never rushed. He was a kid who was used to never having to wait so what was the need in rushing?
    Scarlet’s Aunt Nancy had been the Evers’ nanny since Barrett was four, his young brother Durham was 2, and his sister Clementine was just a baby. But once they were all a little older each child had their own nanny (rich people) and Barrett got Nancy all to himself. Which meant she often brought him with her when she was visiting her niece and nephew. Ben and Barrett hit it off right away. They appreciated different things in one another. Ben was somewhat of a nerd at school, with few friends. Barrett was an Evers and most people only seemed to want to know him because of his name, not because of who he was. Ben was Barrett’s first genuine friend, someone who didn’t care about his pedigree, only that he liked geeking out over Star Wars as much as Ben did.
    Scarlet thought about that as she pulled the rental car out of Elixir’s parking garage. She wondered if the 15 was packed with traffic or if she should take Trop down to Eastern and head south to get to the Henderson house her parents lived in.
    Suddenly the car in front of her slammed on its brakes, which made Scarlet have to slam hers as well. She barely