Page 80 of Rules, Roses, and Rivals
Now, maybe she should.
The ground should open and swallow me whole. Or maybe like I should just get in my damn car and leave. Drive until I could forget. Forget her laugh. Her skin. Her eyes the last time they were on me and not filled with pain.
Instead, I sat there, on the edge of the fountain as if the world hadn’t justshifted.
“I’ve ruined everything,” I said. Not to them. Just… to the air. To the night. To myself.
Bubba looked up at the sky like maybe he was hoping for divine intervention. “You can’t un-say it.”
Coop stood, brushing off his hands. “But maybe you canownit.”
I looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
He shrugged. “Don’t hide from it. Don’t pretend you didn’t screw up.Don’t make her carry it alone.You want to fix it? Then start by not making it about you.”
The last of the rage burned out of me like an ember dropped in a puddle.
Just steam and silence.
And the sound of laughter, echoing from the party I wasn’t sure I still belonged to.
Chapter
Twenty-Six
FRANKIE
Rachel was right. Hydrating helped.
For about five minutes.
Until we came back around the hedges and reentered the pool area.
The change in temperature was immediate. Not the air. That was still humid and thick with chlorine and spilled alcohol. Thevibe, though? It felt like someone had hit the dimmer switch on fun and cranked the gossip dial to max.
The bass was louder. The pool had more people in it. Laughter still floated above the music like bubbles popping in the sun. But beneath it, there was something else.
Eyes.
Too many of them.
Lingering on me just a second too long. Shifting away when I looked back. Faces half-turned toward their friends as whispers caught the wind.
I slowed automatically, instincts prickling. “Something happened.”
Rachel barely blinked. “Of course something happened. You’re not there to absorb the tension like a human lightning rod anymore, so someone else had to short-circuit.”
My stomach dropped. “Jake.”
“Ding ding,” she said dryly.
I tugged my sarong tighter around my waist. Like that would protect me from the aftershocks of whatever he did. “What did he do?”
“Dunno yet,” she said. “But people are looking at you like you walked in while on fire, so I’m guessing it wasn’t subtle.”
Great.
Just what I needed.
