“Hey, lovebirds!” Atlas's voice cuts through the tension like a machete. He saunters in, grabbing an apple from the bowl without breaking stride. “We leaving or what? Void's not gonna climb itself.”
Asher's jaw tightens, but he steps back, giving me room to breathe. “Yeah. We're leaving.”
I watch him walk away, my pulse still thundering from the memory that clings to my skin like oil. Two years in that yacht. Two years of learning to survive things that should have killed me.
And now I'm worried about a boy with pretty eyes and a mouth that promises sin.
Priorities, Ivy. Get your fucking priorities straight.
I shove the phone deep into my pocket, the same way I wish I could everything else in my life.
“Okay, and what about this?” Punk sniffs, tightening her hair in the pony she has piled it into. “I’ll come to the third one because I won’t be fucking sick!” Punk has never been interested in the slopes. Not ever. It’s cute that she’s trying now that she’s dating Atlas.
Luce zips up her coat. “Are you sure you don’t want to come? If only to watch your brother-in-law take on the games?”
Punk clutches at her stomach. “I wish I could. I don’t know what I ate yesterday, but I feel off this morning.”
The alcohol. And the lack of food.
I don’t say voice it. We’ve all lived through our range of eating disorders, and I’m not about to trigger Punk’s.
“Doesn't matter.” Atlas pulls her against him, her small frame disappearing into his chest.
Camille presses herself into Asher's side. Guilt sinks its teeth into my ribs, gnawing at bone.I'm stealing this from her.Some people search forever for their person. Maybe he's hers.Maybe I'm the villain in her story.
“If you don't change your face—” Luce's elbow finds my ribs, her smile forced and brittle. “You're going to broadcast that you want him buried inyourguts instead ofhers.”
I feel his eyes on me before I spot him, a specific warmth crawling over my skin. When I look up, Asher's stare is a physical thing connecting us across the room, holding me captive. My lungs freeze.
Altitude. That's all it is.
And lack of oxygen.
“Is the A/C on?” I dip down to one of the drawers in the island of the kitchen, pretending to look for something. Anything. Hopefully a thing that would make sense when I — “A-ha!” I pop back up, holding a small tin. “I knew I stashed this in here.”
“You did not!” Luce gasps, snatching it off me and popping open the lid.
I snap it closed and take it back, dropping it into the pocket of my bomber jacket. “I did. Let’s go.”
We bolt from the house in a chaotic mess, and when Jord rushes us into the waiting city car, I'm painfully aware of who's next to me.
Asher’s thigh presses against mine, searing me right through his jeans. Shit. How the hell did we land in this arrangement?
“Where's Parker?” Jord stares out the window opposite me.
I shrug. “Sick. Whatever they drank last night must have been good.”
“Speaking of,” Luce murmurs without looking up from her phone. “Where did you all go?”
How’d I end up sandwiched between both Jameson boys?
When his thigh rests against mine again, I reach into my pocket for my phone, desperate for a distraction. When the hell did I become such a fucking school girl?
“Everywhere,” Asher answers absently, but judging by his tone, I’m gonna say that it was uneventful. “They were the only two who ate, so maybe that was it.”
Resting back, I open the last text I sent to Leon as the car ascends the steep hill that leads to the drop-off point for Mount Void.
I miss you this time of year.
