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“Don’t look so shocked, Rayne,” Lana scolds. “You’re not as good at hiding how you feel as you think you are.”
“I don’t feel anything,” I say between my fingers.
She rolls her eyes. “God. You’re just like Mom when you do that.”
“Do what?”
“Act like you’re so fucking sweet and innocent. But I see the way you look at me. It’s the way Mom looked at me, too. You’re the most judgmental person I know, but you refuse to be honest about it.”
Woah. That got real very quickly.
And just like that, I get mad even quicker.
“I’mthe most judgmental person you know? Have you met yourself? You know what—”
I cut myself off, Mom’s voice in my ear.Rise above it.
God, that’s getting harder and harder.
I stand up and brush the crumbs off my lap directly onto the floor. “I’m not really in the mood to get attacked anymore. I’m sorry about what happened with Brady, but—”
“What happened with Brady?” Alexis asks, looking from me to Lana.
“She almost let my son drown in the ocean because she was flirting with her boss.” Lana sounds incredibly blasé about the entire incident. I’m guessing that’s the alcohol talking.
“Oh my God! He’s the one you had a crush on, right? Did you hook up with him?”
“Is that seriously what you’re worried about right now?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “I saw Brady earlier. I know he’s fine. What I don’t know is whether you’re boinking your boss or not.”
“‘Boinking?’” I shake my head. “That’s gross. Don’t say that.”
“Don’t be so prim, Rayne. Tell us,” Lana says. “Let’s hear how you’re going to ruin your life by getting involved with a fucked-up prick who yells at your sister.”
Alexis snaps her attention back to Lana. “He yelled at you? Why?”
“Because she was yelling at me!” I explain before Lana can distort things. “Kirill defended me. But after you left, I told him to stay out of it. And we aren’t together. I’m not going to ‘ruin my life’ by getting involved with him.”
Lana gulps down more wine and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “Yes, you are. It’s the Garner family curse. We all pick the wrong people to fall in love with.”
All three of us go quiet.
Lana is lounging back in her dining room chair, her elbows splayed and her shoulders bunched around her ears. She glances over at us. “What? Is this news to the two of you?”
“Kind of,” I admit. “Are the two of you not… happy?”
“Christ no.” Alexis shakes her head. “But I don’t think anyone is happy. Are they?”
“Some people are happy,” Lana slurs. “But not us. Because of the curse.”
I sit back down and pull my chair in closer. I don’t think anyone should talk louder than necessary. I can hear Mitchell and Dustan murmuring in the den, so I don’t want their voices to carry.
“You aren’t cursed.”
“Yes, I am,” she says. “And so are you. Everyone in the Garner line has to have at least one divorce. I mean, look at Dad. His sister has been married three times.”
“That’s because Aunt Tracy is a loon,” I argue. “She collects taxidermied pets.Other people’staxidermied pets. I think she might be a serial killer.”
