Page 16 of Through the Flames
“Where exactly are we going?” Sierra asked warily, like she already knew she’d walked into a trap.
“Hunter’s house,” I said casually, as if the name didn’t make my stomach do that stupid, swoopy thing it always did when I thought about him.
Which happened alotmore often than I wanted to admit.
“Who?”Was she fucking with me?
“You know, Colt’s best friend,” I explained.
She raised an eyebrow. “Who?”
She was fucking with me, right?
“Colt, Hailey’s boyfriend.” As she opened her mouth, I held up a finger to cut her off. “Don’t you darewhome again, you’re not an owl. Hailey, my old roommate — Colt is her boyfriend, whom you’ve met, might I add. We’re going to his best friend’s house.Hunter. I’m sure you’ve seen him around.”
“Can’t say I have.” There was the barest twitch at one corner of her mouth.
“Huh. Maybe it’s just me then. I feel like he’s everywhere.”
It didn’t seem possible. Hunter always stood out to me, even when he wasn’t doing anything. He was the kind of guy who could take up space without saying a word.
A little bit intense, a little bit dangerous, like a locked door you knew concealed something wild — but you’d never see it unless you found the right key.
I actually glanced around, like he might suddenly show up just because I’d thought about him too hard.
Ugh. Pathetic.
The only sound to be heard was the deafening, rhythmic whine of the cicadas, and nothing looked out of the ordinary.
Sierra actually snorted as she pushed past me through the door and said, “It’s called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.”
“What?” I scrunched my nose. What on earth was she talking about?
“Also known as the frequency illusion. It’s a cognitive bias. Makes you think you see something, or should I saysomeone, more often when it’s really just because you’re paying more attention to it … orthem.” She cocked her head to the side, her lips pursed in amusement. “In other words, is there anythingyoumight want to talk about?”
Huh. That was a lot to unpack, and I wasn’t even sure where to start. I did not have a thing for Hunter. Icouldn’thave a thing for Hunter.
No matter how gorgeous he was, there was only so much rejection a girl could take, and this girl right here was just about at her limit.
I’d never been happier to see my brother’s truck, gleaming under the late evening’s sunlight, pull into our parking lot.
Heat was crawling up my neck as I slunk past Sierra. “Would you look at that? Our ride is here!”
I knew Sierra wasn’t going to be thrilled when Dom pulled up in his ridiculous red truck, but honestly, I hadn’t expected the way she practically turned to stone when she spotted his rumbling monstrosity.
I’d be lying if I wasn’t cackling on the inside as I watched her face once she realized it was Dom who was picking us up.
The tension between these two was weird in a “we’re either gonna fight or fuck” kind of way.
Personally, my money was on the latter. I figured something was up, but I hadn’t anticipated just how deep the tension ran until she tried to hide in the back seat like a startled cat.
Just to fuck with her a little more, I made her sit in the front with him.
Once I’d settled in, the rumble of the engine and the music playing through the speakers almost swallowing his and Sierra’s bickering, I couldn’t help but let my mind circle back to what Sierra had said.
Hunter never flirted with girls, nor did he ever look at any of them like he had any interest in them.
I mean, sure, people stared at him all the time. That man looked like a carved statue — tall and broad, with a ridiculous jawline and tousled blond hair, which somehow managed to accentuate the intensity of his already piercing eyes.
