Page 138

Then he turns to Lex. “So you want to play games, little brother?” he asks, his voice so cold that even my icy armor would have shivered.

If it were still around.

But it’s not.

“How could you do that?” Joan asks quietly.

I turn to her, see that her face is completely ravaged as she looks at her youngest son.

“How could you do that to your brother? To Violet?” Her bottom lip trembles, tears filling her eyes and spilling over.

And her words are quiet.

So damned quiet and un-Joan-like.

As though something irrevocable has been broken inside her.

“Mom,” Lex says, clearly feeling that, his face clouding, the first blip of something other than anger and jealousy creeping into his expression. “I didn’t⁠—”

He pauses, wisely cutting off the rest of his words.

Which likely would have been something along the lines of I didn’t mean to.

Didn’t mean to film us? Didn’t mean to send it to TJ?

Her chin comes up, mouth opening⁠—

“Get out.”

I stiffen.

Because that’s not quiet and it’s not Joan’s voice.

It’s Steve’s.

“What?” Lex whispers.

Steve takes a step toward us. “Get the fuck out of my house.”

“I—” Lex’s eyes dart to the side. “But I live here.”

During the season he shares a house with some teammates, but in the summer, he comes here.

Comes home.

“Not anymore you don’t.”

Something cold settles on his face. “So Ace’s feelings get hurt and then you’re suddenly all up in my shit?”

“No,” Joan says, moving close to her husband and showing a united front for the first time in…well, I don’t know how long.

But certainly the first time since I’ve been here.

“No,” she says again. “You’re no longer living here because you did some unconscionable, and because I find that I can’t even stomach to look at you.”

Then she turns to me, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

I open my mouth to tell her it’s not her fault, to apologize for my part in the deception, but she’s already turning away.