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Selma sits up on my bed a few days after my cottage encounter, propping up on her elbows, studying me. “You look weird.”
Raising an eyebrow, I jerk my chin in her direction, not removing my eyes from my laptop screen. “Youlook weird.”
“You’re not even looking at me.”
Pulling myself from the UNE Marine Biology program page on my laptop, I swivel in my desk chair and face her. She blinks up at me from over her phone, studying me. “You hadsex!”
My cheeks heat; Avery and I share a look, and she mutters “here we go” under her breath. Selma flips her off, tossing a throw pillow in her direction, and Avery laughs. “You’re not a fucking psychic, Selma. You always think everyone’s having sex just because you aren’t.”
She looks like she wants to respond, something poised on the tip of her tongue, but then she clamps her lips together and shifts, swinging her head in my direction. “Okay, well if it’s not sex, then why do you look so flushed?”
Groaning, I turn back to my computer and resist the urge to check my phone. I shouldn’t be salivating for Kieran’s call, but he did say he’d be collecting on his payment, and I’m itching to get my locket back.
Yeah, just the locket. That’s it.
Exhaling, I lift a shoulder, settling on the easier topic to explain. “I think I’m gonna try to re-enroll in a marine biology program, but I’m still weighing my options.”
“Have you even told your sister yet that you stopped going?” Avery asks, picking at her fingernail polish.
“Nope. She knows I got a scholarship, so she thinks that’s taking care of expenses.”
“Does she know how long a bachelor’s program lasts? Because, I hate to break it to you, but most people have graduation plans by the time they turn twenty-two, and you’re not a good enough schemer to pullthatoff.”
I stick my tongue out at her. “She thinks I’m doing a dual program that combines the bachelor’s and master’s. Some schools offer them, and they sometimes take an extra couple semesters.”
Selma purses her lips. “And why can’t you just tell her you dropped out?”
Lowering my voice as a shadow passes beneath the doorframe, pausing in the hall for a brief moment before continuing along, I scoot closer to the bed. “I just don’t want her to worry. You know how she is; it’s only gotten a thousand times worse since our dad died and Poppy was born. She shouldn’t be spending her time agonizing over my mental well-being when I’m doing just fine.”
“But… you’renotfine.” Avery points a finger at my chest.
Of course I’m not.But what does telling Caroline accomplish? She’s not my personal savior.
An ache flares in my chest, making my heart shrivel as I think about how I wasn’t her savior, either. How, when she needed me all our lives, I didn’t even know. Didn’t help her once.
Some sister I am.
“And it’s my prerogative not to be, isn’t it?”
She opens her mouth to say more, but then Carter’s busting through the en suite bathroom door, hair wrapped in a towel, blue eyes lined with thick, smudged makeup. “Okay, bitches, the air in here is extremely pessimistic. Time to stop being fucking party-poopers and get dressed. We’re going out.”
Chapter 14
Juliet
Spicy, woodsy cologne hits my nostrils before anything else, and I don’t have to open my aching eyes to know Elia’s standing close, probably judging me. “So. Marine Biology?”
Lifting my head from the back of the couch, I glance at my brother-in-law as he flops on down beside me, shuffling my body weight. It’s the first time he’s initiated a conversation since that night at the fundraiser, and the topic makes me uneasy.
The hangover pounding between my ears doesn’t help. Carter’s dragged us out clubbing every night this week, sampling the hottest bars from here to Augusta, and I’ve never been more exhausted in my life.
I’ve only heard from Kieran twice in this time. Once, after I swallowed my pride and asked about his father—a question he redirected to the healing of my pussy. The other time, it was a picture of him, shirtless, from the waist up. His fingers were wrapped around the chain of my necklace, abs on delicious display. I didn’t respond to that one, instead saving it in a private, hidden folder on my phone for late night use.
Because, try as I might, I can’t stifle my attraction to that man. Which is why I stopped replying to him; I don’t need his complications. Don’twantthem, regardless of how he makes me feel.
He’s probably not the only man out there that’ll see me. Maybe the others haven’t been looking hard enough.
I’m sure they’ll still want me after our town’s most notorious psychopath put his dick in me.
