He chuckled. “Well, I appreciate that you’d at least serve me some of the soup kitchen’s food.”
“So…how much doesThe Confidantmake each month?” I asked, so curious after all the buildup.
He looked like he was fighting a smile, probably proud of whatever he’d been able to make so far. So I knew it had to be pretty good.
“With all of the special monthly memberships, it’s around five figures a month,” he finally said.
“Five figures a month?!” My jaw dropped. “Daaaang.”
That was some serious cash.
I knew most of the students at our school had parents who brought in five or even six figures a month—my mom being one of them—so that wasn’t an unheard-of monthly income. But man, that was an awfullotof money for a high school student to be making on his own.
“I got lucky.” He shrugged like it was no biggie.
“No, Hunter. That’s actually really amazing.” I put my hand on his knee. “Like, I’m kind of in awe of you right now.”
He got all bashful, his cheeks flushing at my compliment. Seeing his humility just reminded me of the fact that Hunter Blackwell really was the cutest and sweetest guy I’d ever met.
Man, I love him so much.
“So you’re not mad at me for keepingThe Confidanta secret?” he asked, like he was worried I might feel betrayed.
“I’m a bit bummed that you didn’t tell me, just because it would have been fun to know. But I get that we all have things we keep to ourselves.”
“I promise I don’t have any other secrets,” he said. “No other secret identities or secret Internet girlfriends.”
“Well, that’s good because I don’t have any of those things, either.”
I just wouldn’t tell him how close I’d been to almost having a husband tonight.
Yikes! That would have been insane!
Should I tell him about that? Or just let him look up my email if he got curious?
I didn’t have a chance to decide because my dad and Archie stepped out of the parsonage a moment later.
When my dad noticed Hunter and me sitting close on the bench, I worried for a moment that he might tell me to stay away from him because Hunter was an apostate. But he simply sighed, like he was tired and it was out of his hands now. My dad called out, “It’s probably time for you to head to bed, Scarlett.”
“Okay,” I called back. “I’ll be right in.”
I turned to Hunter, and he said, “I better let you go then.”
I nodded. “Thanks for dinner.”
“Anytime.” He bent forward and kissed my cheek. “Thanks for coming with me.”
I stood from the bench to give him a hug, but when I did, my phone fell out of the pocket of my skirt.
Hunter bent over to pick it up. When he was handing it to me, we both seemed to notice at the same time that I had missed a text from Xander a few minutes ago.
“Xander’s still texting you?” Hunter asked, his gaze darting down at my phone again as I took it from his hand.
“I guess?” I said. “I mean, I haven’t heard anything from him this week, but apparently, I have a text from him so…yeah…”
What did he want? He hadn’t reached out to me ever since I told my dad I couldn’t go through with the ceremony. I didn’t know how he had reacted to the news that he’d have to wait for the High Priest to reveal another girl to fulfill the role.
I swiped my thumb across the screen and read the latest text.
