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I move to walk past him, but he blocks my path. “We need to talk.”

“Not when you’re like this we don’t.” The sound of laughter travels around the side of the house.

“Decided to have a party?” Mya asks. “And here I thought you had a good reason for leaving the way you did.”

“Carson invited some people over, I’ve been inside waiting for you.”

“As you can see, we’re fine, Thorin. I’d like to get Eli ready for bed, we’ve had a long day.”

This time when I move, he lets me pass, and follows me. The light from the bonfire lights the way, and when we round the corner, I see Benji, Carson and Fletch. And then I notice my front door is wide open.

“What the…” I quicken my pace, and entering the doorway, I spot Jessica, and two other women snooping around.

“What the hell is this?”

Jessica’s head snaps up from where she’s digging for god knows what in the living room. “Oh, you’re home.” She smiles. “Ladies,” she turns to her friends, one blonde and the other a red-head. “This is Reese, the girl I was telling you about.” They giggle, clearly a little drunk. Jessica’s smile broadens when she sees Thorin. “There you are. I was wondering when you were going to stop pouting and come outside.”

“Is there a reason you’re in here, Jess?” Thorin’s voice is steely, with a hint of confusion. He probably had no idea Jessica was in here, either. Apparently, he’s been pouting all night.

“We needed the bathroom,” the blonde says. She fluffs her hair over her shoulder, and sticks out her chest. “This house was closer.”

I walk further inside, and feel Thorin at my back, Mya at my side.

“And what? You decided to look through my things?” My hackles rise when Jessica takes a step closer.

“No harm in looking, Reese. Awfully convenient that you live here, though.”

High school Jessica was my absolute nightmare, but I won’t fear her now. She can’t hurt me.

“You’re not welcome here, cadela,” Mya says. Cadela means ‘bitch’ in Portuguese, and when Mya starts calling someone names in her mother tongue, it never means anything good. “Either you get out, or I throw you out, all three of you.” Her expression is hard, and I have no doubt she’ll follow through on her threat. Wouldn’t be the first time Mya has gotten into a catfight.

“But we’re guests,” Jessica replies. “Thorin invited us.”

“Like hell I did,” he retorts. His body vibrates with anger, the pulsating waves hitting my back. “You heard Mya, get the fuck out.”

Jessica pouts. “So mean, Thorin. We really were just looking around. I wanted to see what became of our little Peppa Pig.” Jessica’s friends titter, and my body stiffens, every muscle tightening. Peppa Pig. I haven’t heard that name in years, and I thought if I ever did, I’d be immune to how it affected me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It rankles, shakes the gilded cage high school me was placed in to be mocked, and laughed at like a social experiment gone so very wrong.

That girl is dead, I remind myself, and I have no plans of resurrecting her.

“Must be nice,” she muses, a devilish gleam in her eyes. “Playing house with Thorin, baby and all.”

The anger inside me quickly turns to rage, and if I weren’t carrying Eli, I’d launch myself at Jessica and throat punch her for what she’s implying. For what she’s forgetting. Instead, I step closer to her, until we’re almost nose-to-nose. She has a few inches on me in her hooker heels, but it doesn’t deter me. “You blew, and blew, and blew, Jess,” I mock, because really, she blew her way through high school. “And look, my house is still standing. You can say all the shit you want about me, or to me, but to disrespect the dead, and assume this is the life I wanted?” I look her up and down, disgust coating the inside of my throat, my mouth, my teeth. “That’s shameful.”

My eyes burn, but I fight, with everything inside me, not to show this bitch any kind of weakness. Thorin brushes past me, and grabs Jessica by the arm. “Get.The.Fuck.Off.My.Property.” He grits it out, the vein in his neck popping, his face almost purple.

“B-but, Carson said—”

“I don’t give a fuck what he said!” Thorin yells. Eli startles, and starts crying, but it’s Mya who takes him and walks into the nursery. Benji appears at the door, and so does Fletch. They each grab one of Jessica’s friends, and wordlessly escort them out. “If I don’t see your tail lights disappearing down the drive way in five minutes, I will call the cops, Jess, and have your ass arrested for trespassing. You might be stuck in high school, but the rest of us grew the fuck up.”

My heart gallops when he walks her out, and all but shoves her over the threshold. She stumbles in her heels, and I hear her friends’ protests as Benji and Fletch walk them to what I assume is Jessica’s Lexus. Carson strolls in, wobbling on shaky legs, eyes red. “Dude, why’d you send them away? We were having a party.”

Thorin snaps, and pushes him against the wall. “They came into Reese’s house,” he says between clenched teeth. “And that bitch disrespected my dead brother and his dead wife.”

Carson pales, his eyes shooting to me. “Shit, Reese, I’m sorry. I didn’t think they’d come in here, said they needed to piss.”

“This was the last time,” Thorin tells him. “You either get your shit together, Cars, or you’re done. We are done.”

Whoa, that came out of nowhere real fast.