And then something that’s been quietly bothering me in a part of my brain I tend to ignore simmers to the surface.
Why didn’t you ask Laney’s family for money?
What did Sabrina say to that?
Why can’t I remember?
Just remember the face she made. It saidbecause hell no.
Not my business. Not my fucking business.
But it is if I want Laney to be my business. Can’t keep secrets from her. Doesn’t work like that.
And you’re not keeping the biggest secret of all from her?that irritating worry center in my brain pokes and prods me.
But something else is suddenly bothering me too. “Allergies like that always get passed down?” I ask.
IsLaneyallergic?
He shakes his head. “Not always. Guess Laney’s lucky. Oh, shit. Unless Mr. Kisn’ther dad.”
I squeeze my eyes shut.
Laney has too much of her father in her for that to be true.
“You’ll ask her though? To take a test? And then hook up with us online so we can see if we’re related?”
Wait.
Waitagain.
“You’ve been fucking flirting with her.”
He grins, but it’s awkward. “Yeah, we didn’t really suspect Mr. K was maybe our sperm donor until last night, and I kept it up last night so no one would suspect. No offense to Laney, but we made a lot of faces I won’t repeat in front of you. Disappointing, really. Laney was hot in a bikini. But then, if we have the same genes, and we’re all awesome, it makes sense.”
“You—you—you’re ridiculous.”
“Yeah. Life’s more fun that way. Until it’s not. You know that. So you’ll ask her? And like, if we flirt with her at the reception, just know we’re all throwing up in our mouths for only genetic reasons and cover reasons while we do it.”
“Yeah,” I lie. “Yeah. I’ll ask her.”
“That’d be sick. Thanks.” He looks over at the limo again as it pulls out of the parking lot.
“Sabrina know this?” I ask.
He grunts. “It’s Sabrina.” His frown gets deeper. “But I don’t know if she knows just how much trouble the café’s in. Chandler’s kept that pretty close to the vest.”
“She knows.”
“You sure she knows?”
“Yep.”
He eyes me. Then the spot where the limo used to be.
“Dunno, man. Seems like she’d be a lot more pissed if she knew. You know Sabrina doesn’t get pissed without everyone knowing it.”
I get the worst feeling in the pit of my gut.
