“You need a refresher already?”
“It’s been a stressful week.”
When I close the wine fridge, though, a scrap of paper flutters.
I pick it up.
You can’t escape me that easily. You’re going to bend over for me.
“Fitz?”
“Did Fidget take the Pinot,” I ask as an excuse, “that I put in here?”
“I bet my mom took it. Or the troll.”
“Tell me.” I amble over with a bottle. “Did you ever call her that to her face?”
The note must be old. I don’t want to upset Winnie.
She spears an olive. “Only in her vicinity. Accidentally.”
I lie down on the soft nest of blankets. “I bet that turned into a nuclear war.”
I let her run her fingers through my hair.
Try to tell myself that everything’s fine.
37
WINNIE
“Winnie! Winnie!” My sister shakes me awake. “I think Knox is cheating on Brinley.”
I snort awake. My mouth tastes like cotton. There’s a note on my chest. My stomach flip-flops, then I remember—the stalker, the dangerous one, has been captured. Fitz says he adored me. My family has moved out of my house—well, temporarily.
“I mean, if he’ll cheatwithyou—”
“Winnie, Brinley is nice.”
I grasp at the note. “I drank too much,” I mumble. My eyes are blurry as they try to focus on the words.
I’d fuck you awake, but your family showed up.
“What’s that?” Kathy asks.
“Nothing. Why is it so early? Why are you all here? I thought Fitz got you a hotel.”
“We already had breakfast at the hotel and checked out,” Mom calls.
“The morning’s almost over, Winn,” my dad adds cheerfully from the kitchen.
“It’s nine a.m.,” I groan.
Vroom!In the kitchen, the blender goes off.
I pull the blankets back up over my head.
“Yeah, so anyways,” Kathy chatters on, sitting on the edge of the couch. “Brinley and I really bonded last night.”
