Trey turned slightly to look down at me. “You sure?”
Swallowing hard, I only nodded, not trusting my voice.
She’d fuckingthreatenedme, but I wasn’t about to get into it here.
“Great,” Trey said cheerfully. “Well, good to see you, Addie.”
Without another word, he dragged me away, toward the bar in the corner where the bulk of the Lawless family was gathered.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
Trey grinned. “Happy to help. That woman is crazy.”
I hummed noncommittally as we joined the group, but I couldn’t help but wonder.
Exactlyhowcrazy was she?
seventeen
. . .
LANE
Annoyance radiatedoff Sutton in waves when she and Trey approached me and the rest of my family, Trey’s arm slung casually over her shoulder. I wanted to punch him in the face for touching my girl like that, but I could sense there was something else happening there. Sutton’s irritation clashed with my own until my lungs were thick with the scent of it, like breathing in thick smoke.
I supposed it was my fault for not making Mama aware that the status of my…relationshipwith Addie had changed.
Mama had a heart of gold and wanted everyone to feel included. Despite having been there when I woke up in the hospital and hearing me ask for Sutton multiple times, she likely thought she was doing me a favor. I couldn’t fault her for that.
But Icouldfault Addie for showing up here while I had made it clear as day we would never be anything more than, at best, colleagues from here on out.
Maybe I hadn’t made it clear enough.
Unperturbed by the gathering of the entire Lawless clan, many of them glaring daggers at her, Addie sidled up to me and pulled me to the side.
“I’m going to head out. Walk me to my car?”
“Sure,” I said. I wanted to have a little chat with her anyway.
Before heading out of the barn, she pulled Mama into a hug, and I didn’t miss the way Aspen and Reagan wrinkled their noses in disgust. Trey’s face was a careful mask of calm, not his usual relaxed expression.
What the fuck is going on?
Addie said goodbye to my brothers, Aspen, and Reagan as we walked away, but none of them said it back.
“This was fun,” Addie said happily when we reached her SUV. “I’m glad your mom invited me.”
She rose onto her tiptoes, hands finding my shoulders, inches away from kissing my cheek before I pushed her away.
“What are you doing?”
“I thought…” Her blue eyes instantly filled with tears, and I fought the urge to roll mine.
“Itoldyou when you came to see me in the hospital that this wasn’t happening between us. We’re friends. No, wewerefriends. Now we’re nothing.”
“You don’t mean that,” she said, hand finding mine, attempting to lace our fingers together.
I pulled free. “I really, really do.”
