She groaned. “I’d only had my sling for a day, and I was freaked that you’d somehow be able to tell by looking at me... And thenyou’d be pissed that I hadn’t told you about everything. It was irrational, but I just plain chickened out.”
“For the record,” I said, giving her a small smile. “I clearly had no idea about you and Paul. I thought maybe you’d just realized after a year apart that you didn’t need me around anymore.”
Jaz gasped dramatically. Then she reached out and offered me her pinkie finger. “I will always need you, Paige Malone. I just didn’t realize how much until you left.”
A swell of emotion crashed over me, and I smiled at her through bleary eyes while I hooked my own pinkie around hers.
“Forgive me?” she whispered.
“Wags always forgive.” I pulled her into my arms before she could stop me and was enveloped by the familiar scent of her sweet almond lotion.
She embraced me back, clinging to me so hard that it hurt, and I had to complain through tears and laughter.
“Haven’t lost your brutal hug power,” I said, grinning as I wiped my cheeks. “Spinebreaker,” I added in my best pro-wrestling-announcer voice.
“Ha! No one’s called me that in a long time.” She laughed a little, wiping her eyes on the hem of her T-shirt. Then she blinked at me and spoke in a soft voice. “Look. Not gonna lie, there are so many more messy details about this year I haven’t told you yet. Don’t know how much Seb has told you—”
“Seb? Almost nothing. You know him. He’ll keep your secrets if you ask him to.” I scratched the back of my neck. “At least, he used to. I’m still trying to figure him out. You trust him?”
“Daddy does, if that says anything. He claims Seb is a hard worker.”
“Our Seb?”
She laughed softly. “Right? I guess he’s sort of half our old Seb, half... something new. Something different from what he was becoming the past few years. Going away changed him.”
“No surprise, considering what he endured at that Yooper boot camp.”
Jazmine’s eyes widened. “He told you stuff about it? He hasn’t said but a couple words to Benny and me about his time up north, but we both suspected something bad happened there.”
“He told me a little,” I admitted.
“Huh.”
Anxiety flared. “What is it?”
“Nothing.” She hesitated. “I was just thinking it was funny he hadn’t shared any of that, but that he had told me a little about... other things.”
“What does that mean?”
She slowly arched a brow.
My stomach lurched with panic as my thoughts went in wild directions. “Oh my God, did he tell you about the cave grope?”
Jazmine’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
Shit! “Forget I said that.”
“Are you joking? I’ll never forget that. Explain!”
“No, you first!” I said, terrified.
She hesitated again, making a strained face, then blew out a breath. “Okay,fine. Seb’s low-key obsessed with you, which you probably already knew if you’ve been groping him.”
“I haven’t groped anything!”
“Jesus, did he gropeyou?”
“Forget the groping! It was accidental. What do you mean ‘obsessed’?” A tremor went through me. “In what way?”
