Chapter Eight
Evie wasn’t joining them for dinner.
That was the text he had gotten a little while ago and he was curious why.
He’d gone to Milo’s office to ask her himself, but he noticed his friend and Reece going in there and decided to hang out in the lobby until they were done. But when he spotted Evie slinking her way across the space—in the complete opposite direction of the exit or restaurant—he got curious and followed her.
“What the hell, Slater?” she hissed quietly. “You scared me.”
“I wasn’t trying to. I was just curious why you were hiding out over here and heard you talking about visiting some town. I didn’t know you were going anywhere.”
Her head lolled back for a moment, her blonde ponytail swinging, before she looked at him again.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she told him. “I didn’t want to go up and have dinner with everyone tonight, so I was going to movie night where they’re playing Beauty and the Beast. The small provincial town is…”
“Yeah, I know. Belle sings it in the beginning of the movie,” he said easily and laughed at the surprised look on her face. “What? I enjoy Disney movies just as much as the next person.”
“Interesting. I would have pegged you for more of an action-adventure movie guy.”
“I was a kid once too, you know.”
All she did was nod.
“So…why don’t you want to eat with everyone?”
She stepped in close, and for a second he thought it was for sexy reasons, but instead she looked angry. “Because everyone is talking about us,” she said sternly. “Maisie commented on it when she came to see me earlier, and she said she and Axel noticed…”
“A vibe?”
Her eyes went wide. “Yes! How did you…?”
“Axel mentioned it to me too.”
“Dammit. And Lexi noticed too.”
“Seriously? Axel didn’t mention that.”
“She apparently said something to Maisie.”
“Which means Connor knows.”
“Oh, come on! Really?” She stomped her foot, and he knew she thought she looked tough, but he thought she looked adorable. It was sort of like Tinkerbell was having a fit.
“I don’t know about everyone else,” he said, hoping to calm her down. “I mean, Walker and Harlow aren’t here so I doubt anyone’s said anything to them, but I don’t know if Lexi or Maisie said anything to Nora.”
“I haven’t seen her at all today, and I just saw Milo and he didn’t mention anything, but…” She paused.
“But…?”
“But Reece was with him so maybe he didn’t want to bring it up in front of him.”
“Maybe. Still, I don’t know.” He pulled out his phone to see if there was anything in the group text, but it was suspiciously quiet.
Those gossipy bastards are probably chatting without me.
“I get that you’re all close,” she said, “but I am wildly uncomfortable being the source of all this attention and speculation. I hate it.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I do too, but it’s out there now and we can’t take it back. They’re going to talk about it whether we want them to or not. And you not showing up for dinner is just going to add fuel to the fire.”
