I frown. “When they find out we lied to them about everything? How could they trust me?”
He steps closer, cupping my cheek. “They will understand. Each one of them has their own convoluted story about how they ended up with their men. They won’t fault you for yours.”
I want to believe him. I’m desperate to, actually. The guilt is weighing on me, though. Every time we take a step forward, I am reminded that this all is temporary. That we started as fake. How can we go from that to something real?
The song downstairs changes to something with heavy bass.
“Jesus. Should we take these down?” I mutter as the frames start to shake.
Wyatt laughs. “Nah, they will be fine. Come on, we better head down there. Unless you want to stay up here and watch a movie or something?”
I love that he asks that. I’m tempted to tell him yes, but I don’t. I finally have a night off where I am not worrying. I am able to put the thoughts in a cabinet and have fun. I am going to capitalize on that.
“Maybe later? I promised Cora I would have at least one drink with her.”
Wyatt smiles. “Then we better not let you break your promise. Come on.”
He takes my hand and pulls me out of his room. We pause outside his door so he can lock it before we head down the stairs.
“This place filled up fast,” I yell as I take in the crowd.
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” He smirks over his shoulder.
As I follow him through the crowd, I can’t help but shake my head. I thought the last party we had here was busy, but apparently I was wrong. I guess it really does make a difference between one being spur-of-the-moment and the other being planned ahead of time.
“You made it!” Cora yells after she tosses a ping-pong ball into a cup. “Drink up, sucker!”
Kellan shakes his head. “I swear you are so vicious sometimes, I don’t know where it came from.”
“You love it.” She smirks before blowing him a kiss.
Her opponent throws the ball and misses the cup a mile wide.
“Come on, Bev, even my blind grandma has better aim than that!” she taunts.
I lean into Wyatt. “Does she really have a blind grandma?”
“No, or if she does, I’ve never met her, and for the record, I’ve spent holidays with her family because of Clay,” he murmurs into my ear.
“She always seems so sweet. I never would have seen this coming,” I hiss at him.
“It’s the James’ competitiveness. It runs in the family. Now come on, let’s go find you a drink.”
We fight our way into the kitchen, where we see Jason. His eyes light up when he sees us.
“Hey, you guys! What can I get you to drink?” he asks.
“Can I get one of those vodka drinks in a can that Cora drinks, please?” I ask.
Jason nods. “I’ll grab you a High Noon. Is there a specific flavor you want?”
“You can pick whatever.”
He looks over at Wyatt. “Do you want a beer?”
Wyatt shakes his head. “Not tonight. I need to make sure this one gets home in time.”
Jason nods. “Ah, the dreaded curfew. Understood.”
