‘Ah-ha!’ She jabbed her pointer finger into her brother’s chest with an accusatory glare. ‘I was right!’
‘Lydia Virginia Sarah Powell,’ Jackson replied with a shallow bow. ‘I guess there’s a first time for everything.’
‘It’s not what you think,’ I said, following her into the room, just in time to see my best friend punch her brother in the arm as hard as she could.
‘Really?’
‘Really,’ I replied.
Lydia turned on her heel and glared at me.
‘You mean the Oglethorpe Country Dumb fundraiser wasn’t attacked by a werewolf?’
‘OK,’ I said, taking a surprised step backwards. ‘It’s exactly what you think.’
‘How did you know?’ Ashley asked as Jackson massaged his newly injured arm. ‘Is this some kind of twin telepathy thing?’
‘No, it’s an I-woke-up-to-one-thousand-messages-about-a-wolf-escaping-from-Oatland-Island-wildlife-refuge-and-crashing-the-dance thing,’ Lydia replied. ‘Last night was a full moon. Jackson didn’t come home, neither of you are answering your phones. Didn’t take a genius to work out y’all had to be mixed up in it somehow.’
She shook her head at Ashley in disgust. ‘Twin telepathy? You really are as stupid as you look.’
‘Please don’t,’ I held Ashley back with one arm as she rolled her sleeves up to the elbows, ready to fight. ‘Lyds, start from the top. Who is saying what about a wolf?’
‘Depends who you ask,’ she replied, eyeing the biscuits on my desk. ‘There’s the official report that’s on the news, wolf escaped from the refuge, but obviously the refuge is denyingit because it’s not true. If you look at social media, Kayleigh Cavanaugh is crying about a rabid dog on Instagram, Maxon Jones is all over TikTok claiming he punched a wolf in the face, and Jennifer Vance texted me to say no one saw the two of you leave the ballroom, which naturally meant the wolf must’ve eaten y’all, and I know you can’t believe a word she says most times, but this time I had a bad feeling. And then—’
‘I think we’ve got it,’ Ashley cut her off, earning a bitter glare for her trouble. ‘Thanks for the “he said, she said”.’
‘And then,’ Lydia said again, louder this time, ‘I went to the DeSoto and found—’ She fished around in a tote bag hanging from her shoulder and pulled out several items, presenting them one at a time before laying them on the bed. ‘Em’s shoes, purse, and my idiot brother’s phone and valet ticket. I know Jackson doesn’t abandon his car overnight without good reason, so there were only three possible answers.’
‘Can’t wait to hear ’em,’ Jackson said.
She held her hands out and, without her having to say a word, Jackson grabbed a biscuit and tossed it to her. Ashley and I exchanged a look but neither of us said a thing.
‘One, y’all really were eaten by the wolf,’ she said, splitting the biscuit in half. ‘Two, y’all hooked up – and we both know that’s less likely than reason number one. Or, number three, one or both of y’all got hurt and came back to Bell House to heal. So, on a scale of one to absolutely, how extremely correct am I?’
‘Very nearly absolutely,’ I told her, jumping in before her brother could. ‘Jackson tried to stop the wolf attacking me and got cut up for his effort.’
‘I knew it,’ she said, squinting in triumph before turning to her brother. ‘You really tried to fight a wolf?’
He nodded.
‘You are so stupid.’
‘I think you mean brave.’
She raised an eyebrow, a perfect mirror of the expression I’d seen on his face a few moments before.
‘You couldn’t find your butt with your hands in your back pockets. Here—’
She passed me my evening bag and I immediately opened it to find my phone. The screen was blank.
‘Probably waterlogged,’ Jackson said when I pressed every possible button over and over. ‘Put it in a jar of rice to dry out, we’ll have it working by tomorrow.’
‘Don’t panic,’ Lydia said. ‘You can message Wyn on my phone.’
Jackson held up his own phone, a picture of a baseball field on the lockscreen.
‘I can text him,’ he said. ‘I have his number.’
