Long Gone Girl Read Online Free Page A

Especially after his encounter with
Ginny.
    He was going to have to set Miss Whitney
straight—that they were no longer ‘an item’, if they ever were at
all.
    “I didn’t think I’d see you here,” he
continued, keeping his tone cool and even. Disinterested. “Not
after you unceremoniously turned me down this morning.” In fact,
she’d told him that she’d rather stick her head in an oven than go
to the beach with him.
    Dana tossed her perfectly styled raven locks
and teetered closer to him on ridiculously high, patent leather
pumps. He noticed she had to walk with her weight forward on the
balls of her feet so her spiky heels didn’t catch in the spaces
between the wooden boards of the boardwalk. In her bright yellow
sundress, with a fully made-up face complete with garish red
lipstick, she looked as out of place as a buttercup at the beach.
Given the way she was presently dressed, he strongly suspected that
vanity played a part in her rejection earlier today.
    He was starting to wonder what he’d ever
seen in her.
    On reaching his side, Dana curled one of her
manicured hands proprietorially around his forearm, also making him
suspect she’d seen him talking to Ginny. “Now, now, Jett honey,”
she practically purred, her voice dripping with cloying sweetness.
“I may not like the beach itself, but you looked so hang-dog when
you left this morning, I had a change of heart and thought I’d come
find you. Mommy and Daddy have a beach house just a little further
down the boardwalk and as they’re away in Europe…” She pressed her
breast against his arm as she leaned close to murmur suggestively
in his ear. “I’m sure there’s lots of other things we could do
aside from getting all wet and sandy…”
    If Dana had slapped him in the face with a
wet fish, Jett would’ve been only slightly less surprised. Dana
Whitney, the twenty-year-old virginal miss was literally throwing
herself at him. Cognizant of her reputation and her family’s
high-flying position, he’d done little more than kiss her on the
few dates they’d shared. Now warning bells clanged, loud and clear.
Dana was not the kind of girl you loved and left. No, sir-ee. For
some completely unfathomable reason, it seemed Miss Whitney must
have marriage on her mind.
    But he certainly didn’t. Not now.
    “Dana,” he said gently and removed her hand
from his arm. “The thing is—”
    “You’ve found someone else already, haven’t
you?” she accused, green eyes flashing with anger. “Don’t deny it.
I saw you flirting with that other…floozy a few minutes ago.”
    “Now, Dana. She’s an old friend from
school.” He couldn’t very well deny that he hadn’t been flirting,
but Ginny certainly didn’t deserve to be a called a floozy.
    “I don’t care who she is.” Dana crossed her
arms, her perfectly-plucked eyebrows arrowing into a deep scowl.
“You need to choose, Jett. Is it going to be me or her? I won’t be
two-timed.” Steam fairly poured out of her ears.
    Jett sighed and ran a hand down his face. He
would have preferred breaking up with Dana in a less public place,
but she wasn’t giving him any quarter. His choice was easy though.
“You’re right, Dana. You’re a lovely girl but I’m afraid things
just aren’t going to work out between you and me—”
    “You’re choosing her?” Dana shrieked, and
more than a few heads turned in their direction. “I didn’t want to
believe Mommy and Daddy,” she continued shrilly, poking him in the
chest with one, long red fingernail. “They warned me about men like
you. But they were right. Pilots are worse than sailors. You’re
probably stringing a dozen girls along in the state of New Jersey
alone. Well, you’re welcome to your polka-dotted bimbo, Jett. Good
riddance. You deserve each other.”
    With that, she turned on her heel and
stalked off down the boardwalk, black curls bouncing and her skirts
swishing in time with the exaggerated sway of her hips. A fury