Page 249

“You told her you fucked Hockey Brad?”

She groans. “It was an emergency. I needed a believable lie.”

“Why was this asshole Brad guy believable?”

She finally looks at me. “He showed me his knee. At a party.”

I stare at her.

“He’d torn his ACL.”

“Oh, good. That clears everything up.”

She starts laughing.

“I didn’t do anything with him, Cal.”

“I know that.”

“Then why do you look offended?”

“I’m not offended.”

She raises an eyebrow.

“I just hate Brad.”

“You’ve never met him. He’s actually a nice guy.”

“Don’t need to. Don’t want to.”

Gianna is laughing openly now, and Luca is grinning ear to ear.

Bea twists slightly in my arms. “Are you jealous of a man I did absolutely nothing with?”

“No.”

She keeps looking at me.

I sigh.

“Deeply.”

Her laugh bursts out, and I tighten my arms around her waist, kissing the side of her head.

Eventually, Sydney gets to her feet, stretching her arms over her head.

“I’m going to bed before we learn anything else about Bea’s fictional sex life.”

“Please do,” Bea says.

Luca watches Sydney walk toward the house.

Harrison goes ten minutes later. Gianna goes with him as far as the door, arguing about the horse.

Eli’s last. He crouches down beside Bea on his way past, elbows on his knees.

“So, it’s Tuesdays and Thursdays and every other Saturday,” he says. “And Marissa runs that store, not me, so if she tells you the grinder needs backflushing, believe her, and don’t tell her I said this, but she’s right about the grinder.”