“Heads-up!” Henry shouts as he throws a rock up into the tree to knock loose the bananas. He misses by a mile and the rock falls to the ground with a thump.
Theo shakes his head, scrubbing his hands through his hair with a frustrated groan. “I don’t know, that’s the problem. She won’t answer me.”
“She doesn’t want you to worry.”
He picks up a stick and stabs it into the wet dirt. “Too late for that. I’ve been worried about her since the moment the plane crashed.” He tosses the stick into the brush. “If I’d just found her purse—” He cuts himself off with a groan.
Guilt on guilt on guilt.
As if sensing my distress, Comet places his head in my lap. I run my fingers over the soft edges of his floppy ears. “I wish I could help.”
“Maybe she needs to talk to someone other than her protective older brother. Will you try?” he asks.
“She hates me! And I’m scared of her!”
“She’s harmless,” he says.
My eyebrows skyrocket.
“Mostly harmless.”
I cross my arms.
“She means well.” He helps me up and then puts his hand on the small of my back and pushes me toward his sister. “Good luck,” he whispers, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. He picks up a rock and chucks it into the tree that Henry is trying to shake with his bare hands. “Ten quid says I can get one down first.”
“Uh, hey!” I say as I approach the princess. She’s lying flat on her back in the soft dirt, and it worries me how pale she is.
“I’m fine,” she replies automatically in a flat voice.
“Tell that to your face.”
She scowls at me. “That was rude.”
“Yeah, well, so are you.” I blow out a breath. “I know you don’t like me, and I’m sorry that my coming to Canada caused us to get on that plane, but your brother is really worried about you, and he would feel a lot better if you’d be honest about any symptoms you’re having. Tell him when you need to slow down, or take a break, or eat.”
She rolls her eyes. “Why do you care if I don’t like you? Just because you’re hooking up with my brother again doesn’t mean we have to be bezzies who braid each other’s hair.”
WhydoI care? If there’s really no future for Theo and me, it shouldn’t matter.
I press the issue anyway. “I think there’s a world where we could have been friends.”
“There’s not.”
“Only because you’re determined to hate me. You never gave me a chance.” It feels like she decided to hate me before we even met, and definitely before the story of the wedding blew up on the internet.
A horrible thought dawns on me, and my brain screeches to a halt.
“Did you leak the story of our wedding?” I ask.
Hurt flashes in her eyes, and I realize immediately that I’ve made a really stupid mistake. She stands up, smoothing her torn skirt.
“Wait! Come back!” I follow her as she turns on her heel and stalks away from me.
She stumbles, grabbing on to a tree for support. Theo reaches out to her, but she shrugs off his touch. “Keep your girlfriend away from me.” She takes off again, surprising me with how quickly she scales over mossy logs and slippery rocks.
“Bollocks.” Theo sighs heavily and follows his sister into the mist.
“What happened?” Brooke asks.
