Page 106 of Bend

Just makes it harder to stay properly angry.

“I wasn’t trying to play any of you,” she says. “I know it probably looked like that, but I wasn’t. I just… didn’t know how the hell to handle it.”

I keep my arms folded across my chest, but some of the tension leaves my shoulders.

Echo twists the bottle cap between her fingers. “I’ve never felt something for three guys before. Let alone three guys who are on the same team, friends with my brothers, and all tangled up in each other’s lives.”

“Yeah, bit of a nightmare.”

“Exactly.” She lets out a breath. “Every time I thought about telling you all, it felt like I was about to throw a grenade into the garage. So I kept putting it off, and somehow convinced myself waiting would make it easier.”

“Yeah, well, hiding it didn’t exactly make it less of a bloody mess.”

“I know.”

Her voice goes quiet.

“I feel like shit about it, Thorne. Especially with you.”

That lands harder than I expect.

“Why especially me?”

She looks at me then. “Because you trusted me.”

My jaw tightens.

“You let me in about Wolfe,” she continues. “You told me things you clearly don’t talk about with anyone else, and I was sitting there with all this other shit going on that you didn’t know about.”

I look away toward the beach.

She’s right.

I did trust her, more than I meant to.

And finding out she’d been keeping something that big from me made every conversation feel different after the fact. Like I’d been standing there with my chest cracked open while she was still trying to work out whether she could trust me with all of hers.

“I should’ve told you,” she says. “I should’ve told all of you.”

“Would’ve been nice.”

“I know.”

For a moment, neither of us says anything. The music drifts around the side of the house, muffled by the wind, and somewhere near the fire Revel laughs loud enough to carry.

I unfold my arms and rub a hand over the back of my neck.

“Talking about Wolfe wasn’t easy for me.”

Her eyes lift to mine. “I know.”

“No, I mean it was properly fucking awful.” I let out a quiet laugh. “Felt like I was handing you a loaded weapon and hoping you wouldn’t use it against me.”

“I never would.”

“I know that too.”

The answer comes easier than I expect.