He’s back at our table, turning his glass in slow circles, and he stands the second he sees me, concern written all over his face.
50
Magma
I watch Carla run.
“Carla…wait…” Robyn calls after her. She turns and jogs after Carla. The two of them disappear down the hallway.
I stand there staring at Ridge and Flint.
Neither of them says anything. The bathroom door hangs open behind me, the gold mirror still crooked from where I bounced Malachite off the wall…twice.
Shit!
I start after her.
Ridge puts a hand on my shoulder and stops me before I take a second step. “Carla looked upset. You might want to let Robyn handle it.”
He’s right. It doesn’t make standing here like an idiot any easier. My dragon is prowling under my skin, snarling at me to go after her, and every muscle in my body agrees with him. I make myself stay put. I’ve done enough damage in the last five minutes to last a decade.
“You and Carla.” Flint stares at me like I grew a second head. “What the fuck?! Since when?”
Shit!
Crap!
There’s no way out of this one.
I scrub a hand over my face. “I’m so sorry, Flint. I…messed up.”
“Mistveil.” Ridge says it slowly, looking shocked to his core. “It was Mistveil, wasn’t it?”
I nod once. “I’m so sorry, Flint. I should have told you.”
“You and Carla hooked up on Mistveil?” Flint looks just as shocked as Ridge does.
I nod again. I want to tell him that it didn’t mean anything, that it was the island, the danger, the adrenaline. The words won’t come, because they’d be a lie, and I’m all out of those. I grip the back of my neck and squeeze until it hurts.
“Why did you push so hard to get us together?” Flint asks. “I don’t get it. You’re acting like you… Like…” He waves a hand at me, at the bathroom, at everything. “Why did you play matchmaker?”
“Guilt,” Ridge says.
I nod a few times. “I felt terrible for moving in on your female. For?—”
Flint starts laughing. “Are you kidding me? Carla was nevermyfemale. We toyed with the idea of dating, but it never happened. It isn’t like that at all between us. Not even close. I’ve tried to tell you that, and more than once, but you don’t seem to hear me.”
He has tried. I have to agree.
“Because he’s riddled with guilt,” Ridge says, folding his arms.
Flint laughs again. “Is that why you were looking at Malachite like you might want to kill him? It had nothing to do with me, did it?”
“You were jealous,” Ridge says.
“I’m jealous as fuck!” I admit. It’s out before I can stop it, loud enough that I glance down the hallway to make sure nobody else heard. “I felt very guilty after Mistveil. I thought I ruined things between you two.”
“No, you didn’t. It—” Flint starts to say when Brook arrives.
