Of course, he’d never found out that his best friend was sleeping with his baby sister before. That was new, too.
With Craig momentarily restrained, she turned to Andy and crouched down on the floor where he’d landed. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He touched his fingers to his bloody lip. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. You’re bleeding.” She spun and looked at her brother over her shoulder. “He’s bleeding, Craig.”
“Good.” He struggled against Asher’s hold. “And I’ll do it again. Get up, Fisher.”
“Would you just stop already?” Kat cried. “Can you get him out of here?” She appealed to Asher. But she’dunderestimated her other brother’s anger, too. He might be holding Craig back, but he was just as pissed.
“I think it’s best if Andy leaves.” Asher spun Craig around and shoved him toward the door to the backyard before pushing him outside. “I don’t know what you two were thinking with this.” He waved his finger between them. “But I think it’s clear you weren’t. Seriously. What did you think would happen?”
Andy struggled to his feet.
Behind them, the door opened and some of the others piled inside. But Kat didn’t turn to see who it was. It didn’t matter.
“We treated you like family, man.” Asher shook his head. “Wetrustedyou.”
Kat opened her mouth to object, but Andy spoke first.
“So, it’s like that?”
Asher’s fists were clenched at his sides.
She stood in the middle of the room—Andy on one side, her family on the other.
“I think you should go, Andy.” Chase stepped forward. His face was riddled with confusion and he was obviously missing most of the details, but it didn’t take much to read between the lines of the situation.
“You don’t have to?—”
“Maybe it’s for the best,” Kat.” Charli put a hand on her arm and pulled her back, leaving Andy alone on one side of the room. “Just let everyone cool off. We can all talk later.”
“To hell we can.” Craig had reentered the room. “Get out.”
Andy looked in her direction and held out his hand. “Come with me, Kat.” It was an impossible ask, and he knew it.
A frustrated scream rose up inside her, and she swallowed it down. The exact thing that she didn’t want to happen was playing out. She knew Craig wouldn’t understand. She knew it would all implode. And now she was going to lose someone she cared about. Andy was going to walk out and as much as she hated it, she was going to have to let him.
She took a breath and looked down, away from his extended hand, unable to meet his eyes. “I’m sorry, Andy.” She took a step away.
Her family came first. They had to.
Chapter Twenty-Six
After the disastrousdinner when Andy left and like a coward she hadn’t gone after him, she’d stayed to face her family’s barrage of questions.
Thankfully, Annie stepped in when it became clear that Kat didn’t have the capacity to answer any of them. They knew enough.
And they’d already all formed their opinions about it. It didn’t matter what she said about it. They were angry. Especially Craig and Asher. They felt betrayed, and Kat couldn’t blame them.
Theyhadbeen betrayed.
By both of them.
She’d slipped away from the big house as soon as she could. Kat expected that Andy would be waiting in her apartment. But there was no indication that he’d been there at all.
She texted and left messages on his phone that wentunanswered. She waited up as long as she could but finally succumbed to sleep shortly after midnight; the events of the evening had exhausted her.