Page 5 of Twins for Three Bad Boys

The girl looks up first, and her eyes widen.

“Oh, wow!” she breathes.

Max turns slowly. His expression shifts so fast it makes me nauseous. Surprise, annoyance, calculation.

“June,” he snaps.

The box slips from my arms and hits the floor with a dull thud before bursting open.

My mug rolls out and bumps the bed frame. Stickers scatter like confetti. The wooden fox slides across the carpet.

Everything I was this morning spills out onto the floor.

I can’t speak.

Max sits up, reaching for his shirt like putting clothes on will rewrite the scene. “What are you doing home so early?”

I blink at him.

“I live here,” I manage.

The girl scrambles off him, grabbing her jeans with shaking hands. She looks young. Pretty in the clean, soft way that makes my skin crawl with unfairness.

Max sighs, sounding inconvenienced. “June, stop staring. Let’s talk.”

My laugh comes out thin and jagged. “Talk?”

The girl’s cheeks flush as she pulls on her jeans.

“I didn’t know,” she blurts. “He told me you guys were basically⁠—”

“Shut up,” Max snaps at her, then looks back at me, eyes hard. “June. Calm down.”

My hands curl into fists at my sides.

“You’re fucking someone else in our bed,” I snap. “You don’t get to tell me to calm down.”

Max rolls his eyes. “It’s not a big deal.”

I stare at him.

Not a big deal.

Just the day I got fired over rumors I didn’t even understand. The day I walked out of a school without saying goodbye to kids who say Miss June like it’s their favorite word.

And now this.

My chest might split in half.

“Who is she?” I ask, though the question isn’t about her. It’s about the shape of my life collapsing.

Max barely glances at the girl. “It doesn’t matter.”

The girl keeps her eyes on the floor, chewing her lip. She looks uncomfortable as she avoids my eyes. I don’t see regret, just impatience.

Max shrugs. “It didn’t mean anything.”

The words punch straight through me.