"Hey." She crosses the kitchen and kisses me once. "How was Cain's?"
"Fine," I say. "Boring."
She searches my face for a second. I've had three days to build the wall, and I know exactly how to look like nothing is wrong.
"These are terrible," Lileah announces from behind her, gesturing at the biscuits.
"They're not that bad," Olivia says, turning back.
"They're raw in the middle."
"That's called texture."
Lileah stares at her. "It's called salmonella."
I move to the counter and steal one before either of them can say anything. It is, objectively, quite bad. I eat it anyway.
Lileah watches me. "Well?"
"Rustic," I say.
After a while, Lileah's gone upstairs and we're alone. Olivia's sitting on the counter, watching me wash up, which she alwayslets me do because she says I'm faster, and she's not wrong, but I also think she does it on purpose so that I do the cleaning.
"You're being quiet," she says.
"I'm always quiet."
"Quieter than usual." She tilts her head. "Since Cain's."
I keep my eyes on the sink. "Just tired."
My phone lights up on the counter beside her.
She glances down at it automatically; I see the exact moment her expression changes. The small crease that appears between her brows, and the way her breath shifts.
"Hayden." Her voice is careful now. "Why does Miles keep texting youdon't open it yet?"
I turn the tap off, turn to face her, and grab my phone.
"He's working on something for me," I say. "Research. He's not finished yet."
She looks at me for a long moment. A long, searching, careful moment.
"Okay," she says quietly.
But her eyes don't veer from mine right away and when they do, it's slow. Reluctant.
Like some part of her already knows I'm lying.
Thirty-Two
Olivia
It'sone of those days that feels like it was made up.
The sky is too blue, and the air is just cold enough to feel clean, and everything is slightly too good to be entirely real. I’ve loved every moment with Hayden. There are days I still think about what I did, when I see the scars, the guilt hits me and he sees it. He always tells me not to think about it, it’s in the past.
I ruined his life with my decision, and I have to move past it. Hayden and his family have. Yet, there are times I struggle with it.
