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“I could go for some beach time,” Ryan said.
“Me too,” Rory added and looked at Ryan. “We can fly to Cali from Chicago after we see my parents.”
Everyone else jumped in, agreeing and making plans.
Arsen leaned into my side. “What about you, princess? You wanna go to California?”
“I want to stay with you.”
“What if I go with you?”
My stare whipped up to his. “Really?”
He shrugged. “Sure, why not? I think, after the way the semester ended, we all deserve a little beach vacay.”
“Yes, that.” Kruger agreed.
He was an eavesdropper.
I bit into my lower lip and looked at Arsen. “I thought you were going to visit your parents?”
“I can go after we get home,” he said. “Maybe by then, you might want to come.”
Arsen’s parents wanted to meet me, and I knew I should go. His parents had definitely proven they were supportive of us and our relationship, nothing like my biologics.
Still. It was hard.
I was nervous. Insecure. Afraid.
“Hey.” Arsen’s voice rumbled right against my ear. “Settle. It’s all right if you don’t want to go, baby. No one expects it. It changes nothing. You’re still my number one.”
I nodded and shifted my gaze out the window to all the green-topped trees across the street.
Shirley came and handed out plates of food, and a burger with a massive mound of fries slid in front of me.
My stomach grumbled, and I popped a warm, salted fry into my mouth and groaned.
Everyone dug in, the conversation quieting as we stuffed our faces.
A few minutes later, Ryan cleared his throat. “So, uh, Prism,” he said, setting down his burger. “How are things?”
His voice was hesitant, and it made me feel bad. “You can ask,” I told him, then swept everyone with my stare. “You guys can ask anything you want. I’m not keeping secrets anymore. You guys are my friends.”
“Bro, yeah, we are,” Jamie said, shoveling food in his face. He paused midway, wide blue eyes flashing to mine. “Am I chewing too loud?”
I laughed. “You’re fine.”
He went back to plowing through his plate.
Everyone else shifted their focus back to me, and all the undivided attention made my stomach flip. Arsen’s hand settled once more on my thigh, and the reassurance he radiated was calming.
“So, yeah, McClaren was arrested, as you guys know,” I said, glancing at Rush. It was his punch that had knocked him out until the cops came. “And you also already know he lawyered up super fast and didn’t even spend one night in jail.”
Arsen made a rude sound under his breath. John McClaren’s status was a real source of contention for my boyfriend. And when I say source of contention, I mean he was royally pissed off about the entire thing.
But that was the way it went when the bad guy was a senator and had an entire arsenal of connections and money to pay them with.
As pissed off as Arsen was, he knew it all too well. After all, it was the same kind of money and connections that got us out of drug charges, twice.
