Edward stares at me, his mouth agape. “I—well—I’m not quite sure what you want me to say to that.”
I find my sister in the crowd. She’s sitting with Amara’s parents, the grin on her face enough to warm my heart ten times over. “A little birdie told me that you guys definitely had knowledge that we knew each other when you paired us up.”
Edward stands tall, his shoulders back. “There’s no way to confirm that.”
Next to me, I feel something stir. I glance out the corner of my eye, finding Amara paying attention. “Lindsey already ratted on you,” she says matter-of-factly with a grimace.
Edward lets out a shaky breath, his eyes flickering somewhere behind us. They narrow before finding me again.
“We weren’t—” he purses his lips, his eyes jutting up as he thinks about his words. “We weren’t sure about the circumstances. We just,” a pause, “we just hoped that paths would have crossed.”
Two small hands grab my arm, pulling me toward her. They burn through the thick fabric of my tuxedo, sending shivers down my entire body.
“You want a happy couple? Fine.”
I’m not sure I can survive pretending.
Immediately, her face lights up as she looks up at me, curving her body into mine.
Edward eyes us for another moment before walking off, feeling satisfied enough.
“What are you doing?” I ask through clenched teeth, my right hand fisting my pants.
She lets out what anyone else would think was a contented sigh, but I know better. I’ve heard plenty of those. Of contentment. Of Satisfaction. Of pleasure that night I had to stay in her parents’ guest bedroom across the hall. The sound replays in my nightmares, knowing I’ll never see what caused it with my own eyes. Or be the one who causes it again.
This is resentment.
“If you think for even a second that this is going to be fun for you, you’ve got another thing coming,” she says under her breath as she waves to a family friend across the room.
Of course.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me?—”
“I would never.”
“I just want to make this as easy for us as possible.” I turn my head, my lips nearly brushing her ear, and if I didn’t know her better, I’d think she’s leaning into me.
But she doesn’t say anything.
Instead, she sits there for a second, my words ruminating, before swiftly getting up.
“Did you know it was going to be her?” my sister asks, her eyes burning a hole in me.
I throw my hands up, the alcohol hitting the side of the glass forcefully, nearly spilling out. “Why would I have known? Do you really think I would have pretended not to know?”
“Sono onetalked?” She looks around at my friends in disbelief.
I shrug. “Apparently, they were all told to sign NDAs. None of them figured the others needed to know.”
I could see Briar being a rule follower. She fits the bill. But Leo? Jesus Christ, the man has been an absolute chaos demon in the locker room for years now. A lovable one that I wouldn’t trade for the world, but a chaos demon nonetheless.
And Isla and Crosby? No.
But somehow, I do think that they’re telling the truth. Some way, somehow, they didn’t say a word to each other.
The one time Iwishedthey’d be disrespectful of the rules, they follow them perfectly.
“What did they all think they were doing today?”
