“Ash will get over his issues. He’s angry with himself more than anything. He thinks he’s responsible for taking care of me, and he’s pissed that he failed.”
I cock her head at her. “Are you pissed?”
She shakes her head with a little frown. “I’m only upset that he doesn’t trust my judgement of you. He’s hellbent on you being in league with Joey, and it’s clouding his decisions.”
I don’t think he’s upset. I think he’s decided I’m evil, and I’m going to spend the rest of my time at Hannaford fielding both of Avery’s brothers and their desires to get rid of me. At least Ash doesn’t want to kill me. I groan, and Avery smiles ruefully.
I shake my head to clear it. “Back to Harley, I’ll pay for a hotel for him for the entire summer break. He’s my responsibility.”
She raises her eyebrows at me with the shadow of a smile on her face. “The bill for the hotel he stays at comes in at seventy thousand dollars if he stays for the entire break. Then I give him a credit card with a fifty-thousand-dollar limit, and he uses that to cover food and boy stuff. He usually uses about ten grand of it. Do you have a spare eighty grand lying around to fund his summer holiday?”
“Fucking rich people. Who spendsseventy thousand dollarson a hotel?!” I sputter.
Avery throws herself back on the bed and laughs so hard tears, stream down her face. I’m laughing too, but it’s more of an angry sound. “I’d pay ten times that if he’d let me pick where he stays. The hotel is on the coast, right on a cliff, so he can be moody and watch the waves and mope. That’s all these boys are good for, really.”
I groan and grab my phone. This is my mess; I need to be the one to clean it up. “Does he have a bank account? Give me the details, and I’ll transfer the cash across. I’ll do eighty-five so he has a buffer. Fucking boys.”
Avery’s head snaps around so she’s scowling at me. “You have money? You have enough money to pay for that?”
I let a smug little grin creep onto my face. “I do. I’m going to be working over summer break, so I’ll just take an extra job to cover his break.”
“Take an extra—what the hell is happening right now?”
Chapter 30
Icall a taxi to pick me up from Hannaford by 8 a.m. the next morning.
I'm the only student who doesn't have a car of their own or parents who send a chauffeur to collect them, but it's not at all surprising to me. What is surprising is that Avery helps to carry my pathetically small amount of belongings down to the school entrance. I carry the bag with the safe tucked in it.
We had spent two hours in her room last night getting to know each other. The switch from bully to best friend had flipped so suddenly and completely that I felt like I had whiplash. She was actually really funny, and smart too. Before I went to my own room for bed, she had put her number in my phone and made sure I could text her.
Now, standing together by the gate, we laugh about the shocked looks from the other students. “They should know by now that I do what I say I will. You should find next year much easier to tolerate.”
I laugh, and she grins at me.
“Avery.” Ash steps up beside us, and I flinch. I can't hear his voice without thinking of how he wanted to destroy my life. Avery stiffens, and then turns to him with sharp eyes.
“Please stop ignoring me. Whatever happened, I can help you fix it.”
She laughs, and it sounds like the one she had always used with me; cruel and lacking in humor. “Lips fixed it and wanted nothing in return, so don't concern yourself.”
“Floss—”
“Don't youdare.”
She had told me last night about how much she loved Ash and how she had spent years fixing his entire life. She wouldn't be angry at him forever, but it would be a while before she got over him ignoring her call.
“I beat him for you. I'll fucking kill him, if that's what it takes to get you to stop looking at me like that.”
My taxi rolls in. She shakes her head at Ash and walks up to drop my bags in the trunk. I move to follow her, and his hand shoots out to grab me.
“Whatever you've done to get her on your side, I will fucking end you for it. You think my brother is bad? You have no idea what I will do to you next year.”
“Why don't you want her to have friends?”
The glare he leveled at me was so dark, a shiver ran up my spine.
“She can have friends, just not Mounty trash,” he sneers at me, his eyes icy blue.
