“They changed it last night. Bryce sent us all a text.”
I glance to my kitchen island, where my phone sits with my keys and wallet.
His eyes follow mine.
“You were with her all night,” he says, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “I was really hoping I’d misread the situation.That you’d say you ran out of coffee or some shit and went to get a cup from her this morning.”
I don’t say anything as I tug my boots on.
What can I say? I was reckless and got caught.
“You need to tell him,” he says.
I stand. “Why? The summer is almost over. And she’ll be back at school, and I’ll be gone,” I say.
“Because it could have been him standing on your porch this morning.”
“But it wasn’t.”’
Royce shakes his head.
“Can we talk about this later?” I ask as I shove my phone into my pocket.
The truth is, I have no fucking clue what to say. I wasn’t expecting any of this to happen.
“I’m not the one you need to talk to. You need to have a man-to-man conversation with Cabe before he finds out some other way.”
I know he’s right.
Jovie
Something is wrong.
I tell myself that for the hundredth time as I sit cross-legged on the floor of my cabin with a textbook open in my lap and absolutely no idea what the words on the page say.
I’ve read the same paragraph three times.
The sun went down over an hour ago.
I slam my book closed and toss it onto the nightstand.
“Stop it,” I mutter to myself.
Friday morning. That’s the last time I saw him, and everything was normal.
Normal for us anyway.
We’d showered together, shared coffee, and kissed goodbye before we both headed out to start our day.
I saw him sporadically that afternoon as a film crew and photographer followed him, Bryce, Royce, and Shelby around the academy grounds.
Axle avoided eye contact, which wasn’t unusual with his brother and cousin around, so I didn’t think anything of it.
We have this unspoken pact of sorts. What’s happening between us is our business and no one else’s.
We’re adults.
And it’s complicated.
