“Itwasa surprise,because I definitely had it right! I mean, it’s the freaking pass—” He flushed. “Er. It’s a date I used to know in thepast, and as you know, I have an extremely good memory.” He made an impatient gesture with his hand. “Anyway. I maybe got a little agitated, which is entirely understandable given the circumstances, and um… maybe possibly, by which I also mean definitely, made a somewhat rude comment about going over there to teach the receptionist how to type correctly.” He frowned. “It’s sort of a blur.”
“You didwhat?”
“Yes, okay! It wasn’t my finest moment! But the long and short of it is, your name is on some kind of terror watch list—or whatever the hospital equivalent of that is—so they’re not giving out any information on her condition unless Rafael Goodman shows up in person with identification or submits a notarized affidavit or something.”
I peered at him for three entire beats with my mouth hanging open before I exploded. “Are you kidding me?” I scrubbed my hands through my hair. “Is that even legal?”
“Which part?” Green eyes peeked out from beneath thick eyelashes. “The part where they want ID, or the part where I pretended to be you? ’Cause the illegality of the second thing means I can’t really call them out on the possible-illegality of the first.”
I tilted my head all the way back and groaned up at the umbrella. “Jesus Christ, you’ve fucked this up.”
“Me?No.” His nostrils flared. “No, no, no. This situation wasalreadyfucked-up, ever since my sister decided to keep something this important from me. And it’s further fucked-up because you know more than you’re saying, andyou’rekeeping me in the dark, too.”
“Pfft. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He leaned in over the table again. “Do you know, when you lie your nose twitches like a teeny, tiny bunny rabbit.” He reached out, lightning fast, andboopedthe tip of my nose with his finger.
I clapped a hand to my face. “Fuck you! It does not.”
He smiled smugly. “‘No way, Mom! Me and Jay weren’t drinking out on the beach.’Twitch. ‘Sorry, Gagey, Dad says you can’t come out on the Zodiac with us. He needs you to work the tour.’ Twitch, twitch. ‘No, Jay, I don’t have a crush on anyone.’Twitch, twitch, fuckingtwitch.”
Oh my God, I hated him in that moment.Hated. How dare the man notice shit like that and not care about me? How dare he know me so well and just walk away? I clenched my hands into tight fists beneath the table.
“Now.” Jay drew a deep breath. “I admit I may have used slightly unorthodox means in an attempt to get information—”
“Slightly unorthodox? Jay Don, you wouldn’t recognize integrity if it walked right up and started sucking your dick.”
He gasped. “Youhypocrite.Like you wouldn’t have done the same thing if it were Beale in that hospital? Or Gage? Or Fenn? Or your dad?”
“I wouldn’t have had to,” I growled, “becausemyfamily doesn’t keep things from me.”
This was blatantly untrue, as evidenced by Beale’s entire relationship with Toby and basically every ridiculous decision my father ever made, including but not limited to inviting my archnemesis to play a concert on the Key, but in that moment, I wasn’t concerned with accuracy. I wanted to hurt him. And I did.
Jay’s green eyes flared with pain, and he sucked in a short breath… and my triumph tasted like ashes because—fuck me sideways—when Jay hurt, I hurt, too.
I held up a hand before he could clap back. “Sorry. I’m sorry. That was… shitty and uncalled for.” I swiped the back of my hand over my sweaty forehead. “We just bring out the worst in each other.”
“We didn’t use to,” Jay said softly.
“We didn’t use to do a lot of things,” I countered. We’d gone from being people who told each other everything to being people who couldn’t tell each otheranything. I squeezed my eyes closed. “Look, this whole thing is so complicated now. What do you expect me to do? Trot off to Wyoming and bring her a Get Well balloon? I’m in charge of the Extravaganza. I promised my dad.”
“Then un-promise him! Rafe, this isserious.I have no idea what’s wrong with her. You don’t wanna deal with Aimee? Fine! Just come to Wyoming with me, get me past the dragons at the desk, and leave it to me.”
I ran my tongue over my top teeth, pondering this. It was tempting, not gonna lie. The more time I spent with Jay Rollins, the less time I wanted to spend with Jay Rollins. The man was dangerous to my mental health. And if he was on the case, then Aimee would be well cared for, and I’d be out of their drama for good—
“Come on, Rafe,” Jay insisted. “You owe me that much.”
Uh. What?
I peered at him across the table, then tilted my head and peered at him some more, like maybe he’d become less of an entitled jerk if I shifted my perspective.
But no. Nope. Same entitled jerk no matter which way I looked at him.
I didn’t owe Jay Rollins any-damn-thing.
“Come on! Rafe, you said you love her, right? You carry her breakup letter like a lucky charm?”
I huffed out a laugh. That was one interpretation.
