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“Dinner,” Shay said as she went to the couch. She raised a wine glass to me. “We’re having a night in. We’re gonna watch a movie, eat, and bitch.”
I looked between her and Grace—who stayed close to me, making it impossible to ignore her presence—trying to figure out why it was necessary that I be there for their girls’ night. “And you need me here for that?”
“I need you here for it because we need to come to an agreement,” Shay said as she turned the television on. She took her time to cycle through movies. “You two are important to me.” She paused, putting the remote down. She didn’t look at us. “I don’t want to know what you do. I don’t want to be involved in it.” She raised a hand. “I meant you can’t ask if I can join in—”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, not following.
“Your group thing,” Shay said, looking at me like I was stupid.
“What group thing?” I demanded. Then I glanced at Grace. “Did you tell her about all of it?”
It must have come out harsher than I intended, because Grace immediately took a step back from me. “Not on purpose. I was upset because Kyle had just walked in on us. I figured the only way he would know what I was doing would be because of Shay.” She waved both hands, trying to keep my attention. “I jumped to conclusions that I shouldn’t have. There wasn’t a way to hide it from her after that.”
I looked back at Shay, calming myself. “Did you tell Kyle?”
Shay’s expression twisted up like I had insulted her. “No. No, I didn’t,” she snapped back at me. “Why would I? If I have a problem with what you’re doing, I’m gonna say something to you.” She sniffed and returned her attention back to the television. “Like I did.”
I couldn’t argue with her. Even with her threat of bringing our mother into it, she’d said something and gave me theopportunity to stop her. I nodded. “Have you figured out how he ended up walking in on us?”
Grace shook her head. “Kyle hasn’t said anything about who tipped him off. He fired Adam pretty quickly, but he has said nothing to our parents about it.” She went to the couch and sat beside Shay. “I don’t know what else to do. I’ve been trying to fix everything that I fucked up.” She looked up at me. “I don’t want to be the reason there’s strain between the two of you. How do I fix your relationship?”
I shook my head, ready to argue that Grace had done nothing here, but I stopped. “You told me you didn’t want me to hide you,” I began carefully. “I lied to you and said I wouldn’t. There wasn’t a way for us to do this without Shay finding out. There wasn’t a way for this to be a healthy relationship, even with Cam and Adam involved.” I took a breath. “I knew what I wanted, and I couldn’t see past that.” I gave her a weak smile. “It’s my fault because I talked you into it from the beginning. There’s nothing you need to do to fix this.”
Grace opened her mouth, then stopped, turning to look at Shay. “Should I tell him?”
“Tell me what?” I asked.
“I don’t think telling him is gonna make it easier for you to move forward or fix things,” Shay said dismissively. She shrugged. “But if that’s what you want to do, do it. You’re the one that wants something from this.”
That’s when I caught on. “Is this about what you were doing with Cam and Adam?” I asked. “The play you had on all of us?” I eyed Grace. “You weren’t just hamming it up to keep it going, were you?”
“I wanted it to keep going because I’ve never felt anything like that before,” she admitted. “Whether it was just with each one of you or all of you, it was something I don’t think I’ve ever felt before. I don’t want to let go of it.” She dragged her fingersthrough her hair. “This wasn’t supposed to be serious. It wasn’t supposed to get this way. But it did, and I don’t want to let go of it.”
I nodded because we’d already figured that out. After having been with her alone, I could see how Cam would have been fooled. But after talking with Cam and Adam, it had been too obvious.
“I encouraged it,” Shay murmured. “I didn’t talk her out of it like I should have.” She and Grace exchanged a look, and Shay shook her head. “It was supposed to be pulling one over Kyle. But I knew someone would get in too deep, and I was right.”
I don’t know why that surprised me. “So it was a gamebothof you were playing?” I asked, not really sure how to take it. “Wow.” I didn’t know if I should’ve expected Shay to be involved or not. “And you were threatening to get Mama involved? What the hell were you gonna tell her? You got me to fuck your friend and now I’m not wanting to play the game anymore.”
Shay slouched down on the couch, her attitude deflating quickly. “I wasn’t gonna call Mama. I know she’d be mad at me if she heard all the details of everything.” She raised a hand to keep me from interrupting her. “It wasn’t meant to hurt you. We were more concerned about knocking Kyle down a few pegs.” She paused, then took a breath. “I don’t expect you to understand. And I didn’t expect feelings to get involved.”
“You think I’m like that? That I can just sleep with someone without feeling something?” I asked, not bothering to hide my anger. “All of this was to get back at Kyle. I knew that and I get that. I knew that the moment I let her take me to bed. What I don’t get is why you had to be involved.”
“Because she’s my friend,” Grace spoke up. “She knows why I would want to do something stupid like this.” She stood up and held out both hands, trying to placate me. “If you want to hold this against someone, be angry at me. Shay doesn’t deserve it.”
“Okay, I’ll entertain that,” I said. “But why bring us all together tonight?” I leaned back against the doorframe, wanting nothing more than to escape. I had been used. I didn’t even know how to grasp the phone call with Adam. Did they even know all of it?
“So I can fix this,” Grace said uneasily. “I can beg for your forgiveness in all of this charade because I wanted it.” Her voice cracked, and I knew it was genuine. “It started out as a terrible idea, something you didn’t really deserve. Cam and Adam didn’t deserve it either. And I will do anything that I can to make amends for it.”
But I couldn’t just blindly accept it. I shook my head. “You don’t get to pull shit like this and expect everything to just be okay because you got caught. You want to use people to hurt other people, everybody gets hurt. That’s how shit like this happens, Grace. You fuck everybody over, including yourself.”
I didn’t wait for either of them to argue. I jerked the door open. A delivery girl stood there with her fist raised, ready to knock. She looked startled, and I just shouldered my way around her. I needed to soothe the raw feeling that this left me with.
Staying for dinner didn’t seem like an option.
Chapter 13
Grace
