I smack his arm. “I don’t need your permission.”
“Good girl.” Penny nods, but she’s still slightly off-kilter. She brings her trembling hand to her chest. “Fuck, I hate those girls.”
“Okay, Sweets.” Carter seems to be catching on to what I’ve noticed. He places a hand on her shoulder. “What the fuck has gotten you so worked up?”
“Nothing,” she bites out. “They’re just stupid.”
“Penny,” I say carefully. There is more to it, and that much is obvious.
“Here. It’s a double.” Declan reappears then and hands her a new Long Island. She rips it out of his hand and starts gulping it down Dec’s brows knit forward as he slides his hand to her back. “Lucky, you have to take a breath, alright?”
“I’m fine.”
Carter stares at Penny for a long moment. “You know, we have some serious pull here, right? If something happened, we can handle it for you.”
Declan’s eyes are burning into Penny’s face. “I’ll say something if you want me to say something.”
“We can’t, so let’s drop it.”
I’m an expert at reading people. I think it’s my best talent. It’s only for a second, a literal blink, but her mask falls for a moment. I see an explosion of pain in those dark blue eyes. A myriad of sadness in the look she gives Declan, and by the way he nods, eyes all soft—it’s clear that something much worse than Morgan being insufferable is the reason for her mood.
She swallows, and her eyes glaze over with tears.
“Alright, what the fuck is going on?” Carter’s voice is low, but stern now. He steps toward them both.
I reach for his hand, squeezing it, trying to calm him down. I don’t think he realizes this isn’t his fight, even if he wants it to be. This is something private to them. Hurtful. Important.
Declan blinks, tearing his eyes away from Penny. He lets out a long breath, shaking his head. “Morgan just made some stupid comment. You know how she gets. Always in everyone’s business.”
“About what?” Carter asks, insisting.
Declan scratches the back of his neck, his throat bobbing when Penny’s gaze falls to the floor.
“About Wy,” hemutters.
Carter’s brow furrows, but I don’t know who this person is. Penny has mentioned him before, but not enough for me to understand what we’re talking about.
“The fuck did she say about Caulfield?”
“Declan,” Penny pleads in a whisper. When he looks back at her and those tears are still brimming in her eyes, she shakes her head. She’s about five seconds away from breaking into pieces or taking her glass and smashing it into Morgan’s head. It’s all over her.
She needs an out, and Carter is a dog with a bone right now.
“Do you want to go to the bathroom?” I ask her.
“No, I’d actually like to do a shot of tequila,” she says, eyes snapping to mine. “You in?”
I blink. Oh—uh. Ihatetequila.
But I take another look at those glassy eyes. I think about all the kindness she’s shown me since the very moment that I showed up at her house, and I remember that her other half, the one who isn’t Declan, is sitting in another country right now. Penny can’t call Avery in the middle of a gala full of mean girls. She can’t run to her.
I nod at her, gesturing to the bar. “I’m in.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
carter
Arden and Penny are drunk.
