Page 87 of Villainous Summer

Watching her make the three-story trek up the stairs, I scrubbed my face, the day-old scruff abrasive on my palm.

I screwed up. The words left my mouth, but I was too pissed off at my father to say the right things.

I vowed to patch this up later.

Summer

Ifumed all day over what happened. It wasn’t his unwillingness to talk to me about his dad. It was how I was wrong.

Sure, for twenty minutes after he dropped me off, I was annoyed with him for being short with me. But once I cooled down, I realized he was right. I did the same thing to him the night before. Verbatim. We took turns with our little tantrums, but we both had them for various reasons.

Once again, it was proof that I didn’t need this kind of complication in my life. Seeing Cory had set something off in me.

I liked the way Van was protective of me, but at the end of the day, he wouldn’t understand my choices. And if he ever found out, he wouldn’t accept it. Who would?

I was being silly, but my pride couldn’t admit it.

I would make amends with Van soon.

After seeing how upset Cory was, I knew I made the right choice in sending the proof of his cheating alongside the embezzlement evidence. It had only been a few days since I had sent it in, but maybe justice would be served quickly.

In a few hours, I was expected at my dad’s for dinner.

At the grocery store, I swung by the coffee shop inside, grabbing their biggest iced pink energy drink spritzer.

Waiting on the side for his drink, Nico Evjen hovered around the counter.

Taking my place beside him, I bumped him with my shoulder.

He was surprised but gave me a wide smile. We chatted for a few minutes as he got his tall dark drip—a boring choice, but whatever—and I got my drink.

He scrunched up his nose, grimacing. “Those things are full of chemicals.”

“So is everything else in the world.” I took a big long drink from the straw and moaned. “Mmmm, tastes so good.”

He snorted, then grew serious. “I was actually hoping to bump into you.”

“Oh, no, last time you said that, I spiraled all night and ended up barfing up neon red shots.”

He furrowed his brow, shaking his head. “I’ve been hearing complaints from that Cory guy. Turns out someone out there is making his life miserable. I guess some gal he was chatting with online messaged his fiancée with proof of him cheating, and she moved out this morning. His phone is going off all the time from people asking for cows and landscaping. And something about lost keys. He said someone posted that he kidnapped a dog, even. So, now, none of his neighbors will talk to him.”

I stuck out my bottom lip in false sympathy. “Sucks to be him. Karma is a bitch, isn’t she?”

Nico tapped the rim of his coffee lid. “I would hope if a single person was behind all this, they covered their tracks well. Maybe used a VPN and a different email address, stuff like that.”

“I don’t know what you mean, but I’m sure they did.”

Nico clapped me on the shoulder in a reassuring, brotherly way. “Glad to hear it. I got to head back to work. Tell everyone hi.”

“You could tell them yourself if you come to trivia tonight at the Skol House. I’m dragging Autumn out with me.”

Unlike Wren, Devin, and me, Autumn never let go of her crush on him, and while he wasn’t the guy for me, maybe I could set him up with my sweet cousin.

Something passed over his face, and his eyes softened. “Man, I haven’t seen Autumn in almost a decade. She was just a kid. I wish I could, but I have to get going. We’ll have to all get together some other time.”

“Enjoy your lame coffee.”

Walking away, he waved at me.

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