Felice hurt me. But no one wins if I keep hiding from living.
19
SECRETS, SECRETS, SECRETS
Margot
We’ve just slidinto Rhys’s truck to head home, my hormones buzzing and my adrenaline crashing at the same time after having gotten through tonight without slipping in front of the triplets’ parents, when my phone vibrates with an incoming call.
Rhys and I both glance down at it.
“My sister,” I say to him.
“I thought your sister was Daphne.”
I smile. “I changed her name to Jessica D in my phone just in case she called when I was with someone. Everyone knows seven million Jessicas. The D is for Daphne. Do you mind if I take this? She doesn’t call often when I’m free and vice versa. Especially with us in different time zones right now.”
“Might lose signal somewhere.”
I slide my hand back to his thigh. “Yep. Exactly when we pull up to the cabin.”
He starts the engine, then tucks his hand over mine while I answer the phone. “Hey. Everything okay?”
“Yes! It’s great. Are you alone?”
“As good as alone.”
“So you’re with Cyril?”
“No, my roommate.”
That gets a squeal that’s loud enough that Rhys gives me theso you’ve been talking about me to your sisterlook.
“We just left Lucky’s house,” I tell her. “He had a cookout.”
“I am almost insanely jealous right now.”
It’s so easy to smile at her voice. “Almost? Not all the way? You must’ve had a good day.”
“Oh my god, Margot, I stopped by Bea’s burger bus on my way home from work today, and people had launched a reverse protest to support her. It was so freaking beautiful. Simon’s out in LA—he left for his movie shoot—so Oliver stepped in and did that thing Simon was doing with helping serve burgers shirtless, and Bea kept calling Ryker to run to the store for more ground beef, and I convinced her to make donuts for her secret menu item one day next week to celebrate having such a great day today.”
I smile and sink deeper into the seat, idly stroking Rhys’s thigh while I get the updates from Daphne on her best friend, Bea, and everything in Athena’s Rest. “I thought Oliver already had a job and no plans to overachieve by doing something like gettingtwojobs.”
She laughs.
“Today was charity work,” he calls in the background. “Very different from a job.”
“And do you remember the Camilles?” Daphne says.
“As in Bea’s ex’s family?” I ask. Bea had basically the worst breakup in history several months ago, so the fact that she’s dating one of the world’s current most popular actors now—her ex’s favorite actor, in fact—is the kind of karmic justice that I’m here for.
Bonus that Simon’s an incredibly nice guy and appreciates what he has in her.
“Yes,” Daphne squeals. “Oliver ran into Damon Camille—he’s the dad, Bea’s almost father-in-law, the ambulance chaser attorney who’s sued like half the town—and Damon was likeif you ever need legal representationand Oliver looked him dead in the eye and saidI can afford every lawyer in Manhattan and then some, and I protect the people I love, and I hear you’ve been a dick to some of them, and I am so serious, the next day, Damon announced he’s retiring.Retiring. Bea thinks Simon might’ve had a talk with him too, but there are two new big dogs in Athena’s Rest, and the guard is changing, and it’s beautiful.”
“So Bea doesn’t have to worry about him suing her for calling her bus Best Burger Bus anymore?”
“Margot, you’re so far behind. She told the whole world about how Jake dumped her after stealing her restaurant, and that that’s why she opened the burger bus. She rebranded it as Spite Burgers and started new socials and I think she’s going to be the first billionaire burger bus owner in existence.”
