Page 59 of Sweet Addiction
Dillan is quiet as we walk back into my house later that night. Tension hangs heavy between us, and I can’t blame her. I did this. I forced her here. I wasn’t worried about how it would hurt her, just how it would help me. And why? Because she bruised my fucking ego two years ago? Who am I kidding?
“Princess...” I reach for her, but she steps away from me, a mask of indifference reflecting back at me.
“Just don’t, okay?” Her words are soft but sharp enough to cut. “I’ve got work to do.”
She grabs a pink polka-dot bag from the kitchen table, the one I know she keeps her computer in, and heads for my office before quietly closing the door behind her. Dismissing me in my own house. And maybe I deserve it. I don’t fucking know anymore.
We’re crossing lines faster than we can draw them in the damn sand at this point.
We’re not friends.
I’m not sure we ever were.
But what the hell are we?
Enemies?
A month ago, I’d have said yes.
Taunting Dillan Ryan has been my favorite fucking pastime for the past two years.
So I’m going to need help figuring out what the hell I did to hurt her, and why the thought of hurting her guts me.
Fuck . . .
My phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it free, ready to ignore whoever’s calling, until I see the text.
Ryker
Feel like grabbing a drink?
Rome
Fuck yes.
Ryker
West End?
Rome
See you in ten.
I debate telling Dillan I’m leaving, but ultimately, she said she wanted space.
Consider this space.
Ryker and I take our beers and find a table in the back corner of the bar, apparently neither of us in the mood for the crowd tonight. I sit with my back to the packed bar, hoping to avoid any attention and pull my hat low.
“How was dinner?”Ryker signs and says, but it’s hard for me to even hear him.
“Honestly, it was kind of fucked up. Have you ever noticed how Dillan’s family talks to her like she’s...”—I try to find the words to explain myself—“I don’t know. Like she’s a joke?”
My cousin sits across from me, watching my lips as much as my fingers. We all learned sign language as soon as he lost his hearing, but even now, nearly twenty fucking years later, he still laughs at all of us when we occasionally mess it up. It’s as easy for him to read our lips as it is for him to decipher our sign language. “Think about it. Her brother and sister have been world-famous singers since they were teenagers, and Asher’s probably going to be an all-pro quarterback eventually. That’s a lot to live up to when you’re the normal one.” He lifts his beer but stops and stares at me.“Any reason why you guys hid your relationship from all of us for so long? And don’t give me the same shit about Lucky and Lexie you fed everyone else. I’m not buying it.”
“It’s complicated.”Fuck, is it complicated.
“Look,” He leans back against the wall behind his chair, eyes narrowed, and a protective gleam in his eye.“I don’t even know how long you guys were hiding this thing, but you obviously know her pretty well if she’s living with you. But here’s the thing. I’ve known that girl her entire life, and she is different. She’s not built like Lilah and the rest of them. She’s softer.”
