“If he keeps showing up, he may as well be useful,” Dad said and I watched Nico’s eyes light like a match. Mine went cold. If Nico was going to be my father’s gofer we were done. I already made that clear to him and he clearly made his choice.
Morning came blue and sunny.The mansion’s heat clicked on and off but never reached the corners, like the house had agreedto be warm only in theory.Olivierdrove me to school with the radio low and his jaw tight.
“Don’t start,” he said when I hadn’t said anything yet.
“I didn’t.”
“You don’t have to. Your face says you’re leaving,” he pinched his lips.
“I am,” I confirmed. “After graduation. It’s not a secret.”
“You’re seventeen,” he said as if it was news to me.
“I’ll be eighteen, an official adult,” I reminded, and watched the town pass. My eyes roamed over the gray river, the mills, Main Street with its pretty store windows, tall trees, people walking down the street like they didn’t have a care in the world.
We pulled into the lot at school. This wassenior year. I said goodbye to my brother and smacked the car door shut. It pissed me off he was working for our father after he was the reason our mother was killed.
Olivier muttered, “Bye to you too.”
I just huffed as I entered the building. My brother was a lost cause and now he was sucking Nico into his sphere. I walked through the halls like I didn’t give a damn. People knew their places. I kept moving until Nico found me at my locker, the grin already softened at the edges to apologize for my mood.
“Hey, Princess,” he said. He looked good and I hated that it mattered. “I’ll swing by after school. Your dad wants me to. . .”
“No,” I said.
His blink was slow, confused. “No…?”
“You aren’t coming by,” I said. “You shouldn’t be working for my father. I won’t change my mind, Nico.”
He laughed softly, the kind of laugh that works on girls who don’t know him yet. “This is temporary. I’m helping until something real shows.”
“Thisissomething real,” I said. “Working for Marcel Bellerose is as real as it gets.”
“Harm. . .”
“It’s Harmony,” I corrected because I hated that nickname. “We’re done.” The hallway noise went muffled, the way it does right before a fire alarm. A freshman tripped three lockers down. A teacher told someone to tie their shoelace. It was all very ordinary while my lungs forgot how to breathe.
Nico’s jaw flexed. “Because of him?”
“Because of me,” I said. “I’m not dating my father’s employee.”
He stared at me, and something small and mean clicked into place behind his eyes. “You think you’re better than us.”
“I’m trying to be different from you,” I said and left.
I pushed through the doors at the end of the hall into the cold and crossed to thebleachers. Metal bit through my jeans. The field lay bare. My breath made ghosts and I liked the way the cool air made everything simple, move or don’t move; breathe or don’t. Footsteps clanged a level down.Eric Thornedropped onto the bench with the economy of a boy who knew how to take a hit and keep going.Captain of the hockey team, hands big enough to hold a life if someone would let him. He kept them tucked in his jacket like he was afraid of what they’d grab.
“Why are you sitting out here in the cold?” he asked.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied.
“You look like I feel,” he said, not unkind, not looking at me.
“Cold?” I rebutted because I didn’t have something better. As I watched him carefully, I noticed he seemed tense, maybe annoyed.
“I’m warmed up. I just dumped my boyfriend,” I blurted for some unknown to me reason.
“Good call,” he said instantly, and that almost undid me. We weren’t friends. We’d never spoken before. We’d been in the same grade since kindergarten but that wasn’t unusual in a small town, so he knew I was dating Nico. Nico, who grew up poorwith a single mom, and instead of doing well in school wanted to make a quick buck with my father. We sat like we’d practiced it. The wind pushed across the field; the goalpost shivered. From somewhere inside the bell rang.
