I take two steps?—
“Catch the whole show?”
I jump out of my skin.
Tony.
Busted.
Leaning against the railing with a cigarette, watching me with that lazy, knowing smirk.
“I—” My face burns. “I wasn’t trying to watch. I didn’t know what to do.”
He laughs softly. “Yeah. I know. They didn’t see you.”
My stomach drops. “You did?”
“Saw you the whole time. Your hot pink toenails in that wedged heel. For a second I thought Sage had a twin sister. And I was going to have to go get holy water and a crucifix.”
“Great. Awesome. Love that for me. She insisted.” I gesture toward my pink polish and borrowed shoes. “I just needed a minute alone and then they were out here. Screaming at each other.”
He snorts smoke out through his nose. “Relax. We’re all trying to avoid that shit show. I won’t say a word.”
I blink. “It was definitely a moment.”
He takes a slow sip from the glass in his other hand. Scotch, probably.
“They do this. A lot.”
“What?”
“The nights you don’t come out with us? When you’ve got a ‘headache’ or you’re trying to catch Sean between shifts?”
He shrugs.
“This is what they do.”
I stare at him.
“She flirts,” he continues, ticking it off on his fingers. “Makes him jealous. Pretends it’s nothing. Gaslights him. Big fight. Big make out. Then they disappear for the rest of the night.”
He blows a few lazy smoke rings toward the harbor.
“Rinse. Repeat.”
My stomach twists.
“That’s not a relationship,” I say quietly. “That’s… baiting. That’s crazy.”
“Yeah,” he says. “I know.”
“Does Ethan know?”
Tony huffs a laugh. “You ever try telling a guy he’s hooked on crazy-hot?”
Fair.
“She’s got her hooks in deep,” he adds. “But I see through it.”
