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“Ah, fuck you, man!” Benny shouts, on his feet now. “I’ve done nothing wrong! You’re losing it! Stop embarrassing your sister—don’t you think your dad has already done that enough?”
“Stop talking about my sister,” Colt grits out.
“You brought her up!”
“This isn’t good,” Babette whispers beside me, and then Colt barrels towards Benny.
Guests spring from their seats, avoiding the collision between the two men. Zoey’s brother decks my cousin, and they brawl over the fold-out chairs. Crunching them beneath their pushes and shoves and rageful fists.
“COLT!” Zoey yells and bangs the gavel to the podium. “Stop fighting!”
Aunt Effie clutches her chest like she’s experiencing a first-class heart attack. No one can split them apart and end the fight, and I can’t just stand here and gawk.
With urgency, I go to Zoey.
“October,” she says as I stand at her side. She flinches as Colt pounds a fist into Benny’s face. He’s rolled on top of my cousin.
“Give me.” I take the microphone from her hand. “If everyone would calm down, I have a secret to share.” My voice booms throughout the bookstore, and the shouting morphs into muffled muttering. Curious glances meet me and Zoey. I repeat the words again, and Colt and Benny stop throwing punches.
Zoey’s brother stands off of my cousin, whose mouth is bloodied, and Colt dazedly backs away and spins towards the podium. Confusion in his glazed gaze.
“That’s right,” I say with little inflection. “I have a secret that none of you know. Wouldn’t you really like to know why Zoey is here?”
Zoey looks horrified. “October.”
CHAPTER 23
Zoey Durand
What is she doing? If she thinks exposing our search for the missing girl will help Colt—I don’t know how! These people are more secretive than October, and they’ll just continue to safeguard everything. We need to be covert, not show our asses.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
October isn’t relenting. Is she on a power trip? Her threatening eyes are eating the souls of the audience, and I’m wilting beside her like a frightened deer. Mount me on the wall! I’m fucking done for.
“I would like to know why Zoey’s here.” Antler Queen Anna emerges from behind a bookshelf. Has she been at the book event this whole time?
“It isn’t to write a book?” Effie questions, her hand cemented to her heart.
October slips me a single, brief look that says, trust me. Of course I trust her—how could I not? And so I don’t stop October as she speaks into the microphone. “She is writing a book.”
What? I try to mask my confusion, but it’s fucking hard.
“But it’s not focused on the history of Mistpoint Harbor. It’s a memoir about us.” Whispers gather. “About our love story.”
Our love story. My heart skips a measure, and I rest my eyes against October’s sentimental gaze. She blinks away the softness to address the crowd. “We used to be together in high school. I’ve always had feelings for Zoey, and she’s recounting our time here.”
Effie is stunned.
I’m stunned. October Brambilla just told the most important people in town that we used to be together. That she’s had feelings for me.
“Holy shit,” her cousin Isabella says with a laugh. “I knew the rumors were true.”
Colt—my brother.
He’s smiling at me. He nods to me like I chose a good apple. A good person. Like October loves me how I deserve to be loved, and without a word or glance, Colt drifts out of the bookstore. No one even notices his departure.
October has everyone entranced. “I asked Zoey not to tell anyone what the book is truly about—and I’m sorry if you found her insincere. She is a horrible liar.”
I let out a laugh. Jesus, she is a great liar. So good that I even believe we’ve been in Mistpoint just to write our love story.
“Why didn’t you want us to know, OB?” Benny questions, using balled paper napkins to soak up his bloody lip.
I think about the real answer. How October probably just thought about this ploy. How I was the one with the fake book. I didn’t intend to include her in the lie.
I didn’t intend to grow so much closer to her while I’ve been back.
October lifts the microphone to her mouth. “You’re all nosy.”
Some people scoff.
Some laugh.
She hardly bats an eye. “And I’d rather you stuck your nose in the history of the town than the history of my love life.” She cocks a brow. “But this interrogation is too much. So now you have answers, and you can leave Zoey alone.” She passes the microphone to me, our hands brushing, and I sense the audience scrutinizing our interactions way more than before.
My heart is racing.
“Anything you’d like to say, Zoey?” Anna Roberts, one of the most prominent members of the town council, asks me.
“Um, yeah.” I’m in love with October Brambilla. The microphone is sweaty in my grip. “All I can say…is that this book about me and October—it’ll be a good reflection of the town. For how much you all seem to despise my family, I still love Mistpoint Harbor. I had my first kiss here. With October at the fishing pier.” More whispers. “I guess you’ll read about that at some point.”
