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“What are we waiting for? We’re ready for our repeat trip to the palace,” Nate jokes.
It seems like a lifetime ago that they all turned up for Ace’s party when we first arrived. The house was fucking trashed that night, yet James totally let it go. Maybe I should have figured back then that he wasn’t so bad.
I shrug the thoughts off. Things have changed a lot since then. Hell, one look at Ace with Remi cuddled into his side says everything.
“Where the hell is Conner?” Remi asks, looking around when I join her and Ace at her car for the trip back to the house.
“Fuck knows, he disappeared straight after the game. Didn’t say a word.”
Ace and Remi share a look.
“What? What’s the look for? What’s he doing?”
“Nothing we need to worry about, I’m sure. Come on, get in, the soda’s waiting.”
“Ha ha. Funny.”
“Oh my God,” Remi whines, dropping her head into her hands when we pull up outside James’ house.
“She’s not really… fucking hell, she is. Your mother is so fucking clueless sometimes, Princess.”
I stare out the window to see Sarah standing at the front door, dressed to the nines waiting to invite everyone in.
“What does she think this is, a fucking tea party?” I mutter in astonishment.
“Excuse me,” Remi says, jumping from the car before it’s even stopped. We both watch as she marches up to Sarah and starts waving her arms around in frustration.
“Shall we head around the back?” The rumble of engines sounds out behind us.
“Yeah, that’s probably for the best.”
Remi joins us once she’s successfully managed to make Sarah go inside and hopefully hide for the rest of the night. I understand why they wanted to be here, even more so why they warned us about having a raging party. But that’s not what this is. Even Heighters can behave themselves sometimes. If we say it’s a quiet one, then a quiet one it is.
We direct everyone around to the backyard. Everyone pulls the chairs and loungers around the firepit that Ace immediately begins lighting while Ellen emerges with a tray of… fucking hell… appetizers.
She passes the tray around like we’re at a dinner party while a couple of the guys dump a cooler beside the chairs and start passing out beer. They hungrily clear Ellen’s tray, much to her delight, and she goes rushing off for more food.
Well, this is the weirdest fucking after game party I’ve ever been to.
A little guilt nags at me that all of this is for my benefit, but as I look around at everyone laughing and enjoying themselves, I can’t find it in me to care.
The only thing I really care about right now is that one person is missing.
Grabbing a soda from the side, I fall down into a lounger slightly away from the others and just watch as they all catch up on their lives.
It’s good. It’s nice to see some of the old guys. Conner and I saw them all at Halloween, but everyone was mostly fucked-up by the time we turned up.
Remi glances over at me, concern filling her eyes when she finds me alone with only my soda for company. She’s just about to come over when she suddenly stops, pulls her cell from her pocket and lifts it to her ear. She listens and then spins on her heels and heads around the side of the house.
I leave it a couple of minutes, telling myself it’s probably just Sarah being weird again, but when she doesn't return, my curiosity gets the better of me and I make my way around the house to see where she’s disappeared to. But as I turn the corner, I grind to a halt, hardly able to believe my eyes.
Chapter Thirty-One
Hadley
“Hmm, Hadley,” Hilary says as she wipes down the counter. “There seems to be a gorgeous boy outside, waving at you like an idiot.”
My head whips up, and I see Conner grin.
