“What he did to Cade has been completely forgotten about,” Cade spoke up. I hadn’t realized he was so close to us. I looked up involuntarily. Now my cheeks were burning. “And if Cade can find it in himself to forgive Brody, everyone else should be able to give him a second chance, too.”
“Although not everyone is as much of a saint as Cade,” Aiden said darkly. I knew Cade’s new boyfriend – or, well, just boyfriend, given they’d been together for a couple of years now – didn’t like me. After all, he’d been the aforementioned dreamy football hunk, and while the title was misleading (he hadn’t actually knocked me out), my nose still remembered the shape of his fist.
Coming on this trip had been a mistake. Keaton was such a nice guy, he’d probably invited everyone he’d ever interacted with. Or it was just a pity invite.
I shouldn’t have taken it.
“Look, it’s all fine between us now,” Cade said. He actually glanced my way this time, and there was sympathy in his gaze. I had the feeling he was doing what he could to try to make me comfortable. He was the only one – with Keaton distracted, I was getting dirty looks from Xavi, Aiden, and Ace. “After the avalanche, we started hanging out as friends again. Then I moved to be with Aiden at Crowhill Cove College, and Brody became part of the group as well. He was even in one of Keaton’s short film projects. You’re the only one out of the whole group who hasn’t hung out with him since then.”
Xavi shot me a mistrustful look, but his eyes also roved up and down my body – like he was assessing me. “If you say so.”
“Look, I’m not the same guy that I was back then,” I said, finally deciding to actually speak up for myself. If I didn’t, then all the friends Olly had brought with him that I had never met before were going to have a bad impression of me from the start. “I agree with you. I was an asshole. I’ve changed a lot.”
It was Ace’s critical gaze that swept over me this time. Up at the front of the group, Keaton had stopped outside one of the doors in the hall, so I had the feeling we’d reached our rooms. We all stopped walking at around the same time. “You still wear that same leather jacket,” he pointed out.
I gave him a wry smile. “Yeah,” I acknowledged. “But I grew up and sold the muscle car.”
“Shame,” Ace said, his eyes flicking away as if I no longer held his attention. “That was the most interesting thing about you.”
I wanted to change his mind. I wanted to tell him about how I’d sold it after graduation so I could get the capital needed to start my own business. How I was becoming a self-made man, which surely qualified as pretty interesting.
Apparently, though, he no longer cared about what I had to say.
And neither did anyone else – because Keaton was handing out keys at the front of the group, ushering couples into them in pairs. Olly went inside one to wait for him; Cade and Aiden stepped forward to take another; two pairs of Olly’s friends grabbed their own keys and disappeared.
The number of rooms available was dwindling, and so was the number of people left to go in them.
Xavi, Ace, Taeho – and me.
Considering the frosty reception I’d just had, there was only one thing to do.
Please, god,I prayed.Please tell me I’m sharing a room with Taeho.
“I’ll share with Taeho,” Xavi said, stepping forward and grabbing the key card from Keaton’s hand, sending my stomach plummeting all the way down into my boots.
“That leaves you two together,” Keaton said, holding out the key to Ace and beaming at us both. “Have fun! I’ll see you at dinner. Don’t be late!”
Don’t be late?I thought to myself.
I shouldn’t be here at all.
Ace
“Wait,” I said, but Xavi was already happily unlocking the door to his new room.
Along with his new roommate, Taeho.
That little bratknewI was interested in Taeho. Damn him. Why did he always have to take what other people wanted?
I turned in the other direction, but Keaton was gone. There was no one else to appeal to. Within a matter of seconds, it was just me and Brody standing there in the hallway.
I sighed.
Way to ruin a great weekend before it even began.
“Sorry,” Brody said, and the tremor in his voice actually made me feel bad for him – for about one microsecond.
I unlocked the door, trying to think of something to say that would make him feel better. I didn’t want to be an asshole myself, even if I was dealing with one. “It’s cool,” I said.
