Page 46 of Welcome to Blackbird Hollow
“Wait, Fallon,” I say, laughing, dumping the lettuce into one of those old-fashioned salad spinners, “how the fuck did stealing a corkboard satisfy the deal?”
“Weren’t you listening?” she demands, throwing her hands up in the air. Fallon is a terrible storyteller, but I’m sure as shit not going to tell her that. Not a single shred of her recounting was even in chronological order. She turns to face me, crossing her arms over her apron, a simple black garment with one line of text embroidered in white: “I’LL FEED ALL YOU FUCKERS.”
“Yeah,” I tell her delicately, beginning to spin the lettuce. “Iwaslistening, but?—”
My sentence is broken off by Caden’s arrival in the room. He’s holding one end of a massive vintage chalkboard and walking backward into the big, open kitchen. It’s gotta weigh a ton, but he’s carrying it with one hand, while Wyatt’s gripping it for dear life on the other end.
“Don’t even know why I’m helping you with this,” he teases Caden as he sets his side down with a grunt. “Aw, fuck. It’s facing the wrong way.”
“I got you, Mr. Hayes,” Caden says, his tone sarcastic, as he grasps the board and begins to turn it so the corkboard faces out. I should be focused on dinner preparations so Fallon doesn’t go for my jugular, but the wide, beautiful expanse of empty cork draws me in like a riptide.
“You’re such a nerd,” Caden laughs, looking at me. “Lit up like a damn Solstice tree over a corkboard.”
I giggle, popping the lid off the salad spinner. It feels good to be teased like I’m one of them. I have a strong feeling that if any member of the Hayes family is super nice and polite to you, it means they don’t like you very much. But being ribbed on like this? Perfection.
“Before you fill it up with all those ideas in your terrifyingly massive and beautiful brain,” Wyatt says, walking over to the counter, something serious weighing his tone, “we gotta talk.”
I freeze, my heart climbing into my throat. I thought we’d ironed things out, more or less. Had Caden suggested things were moving too fast between us? Or that there just wasn’t enough room in Blackbird Hollow’s hedgerider unit for me? I swallow and push my racing thoughts away—no, he wouldn’t bring up something like that in front of everyone, I don’t think. And he sure as hell wouldn’t have kissed me likethatif he just intended to throw me to the curb.
“Okay,” I say, abandoning the salad for now. Beside me at the stove, Fallon’s paused her sautéing, peering over her shoulder at her brothers with a guarded curiosity and some degree of worry.
“When you emailed your parents,” Caden says, settling down in one of the mismatched kitchen chairs and folding his hands on the table, “I found Sector code on your account.”
I stare at him, my mouth parting but no sound coming out.
“Now, we don’t think you’re some traitor or spy, Alice,” Wyatt says, and he means it. “I just wanna make that clear from the get-go.”
Fallon snorts. “Of course she isn’t.” She says it fervently, like it’s more a hope or a prayer than a statement. My heart clenches.
“Makes sense that Sector would keep an eye on someone like you,” Caden says with a shrug. In the kitchen’s lamplight, he looks so young, and yet he wears seriousness as easily as a high school jersey. “And I’ve got things pretty much handled, so hopefully that email won’t blow your cover. But…I gotta know if they’ve made attempts to track you before.”
“We need to understand your history with Sector a little better, Alice,” Wyatt adds, his expression open, though his brows are furrowed. “And I’m sorry to be asking you about what might otherwise be private. It’s just, if we wanna work together here?—”
“Yeah, you need to know,” I say with a nod. “Look, I’m really sorry about the email issues, Caden. I would’ve never asked to use your computer if I knew.”
The youngest Hayes sibling shrugs, nonchalant. “Shit like this is bound to happen.”
“I should’ve told you everything already,” I say, guilt gnawing at me. I dig one hand into my hair, fingers curling into my scalp. “God, I’m sorry. I just got so wrapped up in everything. It’s been such a whirlwind. It’s like the rest of the world stopped existing.”
Beside me, Fallon’s gone back to sautéing without a care in the world. “Now, I know my brother didn’t dick you down so good you forgot about the entire world, Blythe,” she says.
I turn bright red and let out a sound that’s somewhere between a stutter and a laugh.
“Fallon,” Wyatt implores from where he’s leaning on the kitchen island, his eyes fluttering closed as he steeples his hands. “I’m begging you. For just thirty seconds?—”
“Mr. Rabbit!” I shout, clapping my hands to my mouth. All three Hayes siblings look at me like I’ve lost my mind. “I’ll answer all your questions about when Sector and I crossed paths. But right before I came here, they bugged my apartment.”
Wyatt’s eyes widen in alarm as Fallon sucks in a deep breath, but Caden’s cool as anything, just nodding along as I speak. I’m gesticulating wildly now, the lettuce long forgotten on the counter behind me. “I have this stuffed rabbit from when I was a kid,” I explain. “They put some kind of a listening device on his eye.”
“And where is Mr. Rabbit now?” Caden asks, one brow arching.
Wordlessly, I raise one hand and point upstairs, where he’s perched on Wyatt’s old nightstand. In the bedroom where I’ve been sleeping for more than a week now—the one that’s already begun to feel more like home than the apartment I leased for a year.
The one I might have dangerously jeopardized because of my admittedly intense-ass crush on Wyatt Hayes.Fuck. I should’ve thought to have someone else check over all my stuff before I even came into the house.
“Alice,” Fallon says, clicking off the stove and setting the pan off to the side. “Go get Mr. Rabbit.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I say with a nod, fleeing the kitchen for the stairs.
