And that realization sits ugly in my throat.
Later, when the sun dips lower and the search teams regroup near the main fire pit, I finally see him again.
Oaks, Legend, and Royal are standing together, all arms folded and faces blank. He looks every inch the Vice President. Controlled. Focused. Untouchable.
He laughs at something Holler says. But it doesn’t reach his eyes.
He doesn’t look at me.
One of the club girls brushes past him on her way to the cooler, fingers trailing deliberately across his lower back like she’s testing a boundary.
He doesn’t react. Doesn’t encourage. But he doesn’t correct either.
Cold.
Like nothing happened.
Like I imagined it.
My stomach twists.
Maybe the bunnies are right.
Maybe I was just there.
A cabin. A lake. A girl in reach.
Maybe this is what he always does.
Maybe I was stupid enough to think I was different.
I fold my arms across my chest and look away before he can catch me staring, because if he sees pain on my face I don’t think I’ll survive it.
And somewhere across the clearing, Bethany watches all of it unfold.
She doesn’t smile. She doesn’t move.
But her eyes are bright.
Like she knows exactly what those girls just did.
Like she’s waiting to see who breaks first.
Me.
Or him.
Chapter 30
Oaks
I tell myself I’m just staying focused.
That’s the lie I lean on while the lake turns mean around us, while the camp tightens and the air gets sharp, while my wife watches from the fringe like she’s looking for a reason to light the whole thing on fire.
It’d be easier to deal with a monster in the water than the girl sitting twenty yards away pretending she doesn’t give a damn whether I look at her.
So I don’t look.
