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The last thing we needed was for this altercation to go public. Paytonloveda platform. With the fire and the circling press, she’d find one, too.
“Why don’t we all take a breath,” Aubrey suggested. I hadn’t spoken much to KC’s bandmate. Her concern, though, remained fixed on her friend. That made sense. KC didn’t sound great, even if she looked better than I expected. “Dix…if we had to rearrange some stuff, can the movers stick around to help or do we need to do it ourselves?”
“I’ll take care of everything,”Dixsaid. If I had to peg him at an age, he was at least a couple of years older than me. Definitely too old to be acting so possessive about KC.
Far too damn old.
But rather than be dissuaded by my look, he kept himself between all of us and KC. His arms were folded, and the intense dislike in his eyes when he glanced at Payton would be troublesome if she weren’t being such an annoying twit at the moment.
“Great,” Aubrey said, then pivoted to Jonas. “Answer KC’s question, please. Why are you offering?”
He shifted his stance, a flicker of unease in his expression as he raked a hand through his hair and then shrugged. “I have the room. She’s my stepsister. The school will approve it. Then she doesn’t have to deal with Payton and you’re still right across the hall.”
It was so…reasonable. Who was he and what had he done with my hot-headed baby brother? I gaped at him, but Jonas just ignored me.
“There’s plenty of room,” he told KC. “You can bring your furniture if you want. Most of my stuff doesn’t take up the whole suite.”
Not that hers did, but he grimaced at the wording. I was right there with him. Payton sniffled again, her tears had evaporated and her expression had soured the longer it went on.
“Fine, move in with your stepbrother,” she said. “Maybe Daddy will want to see you then or at least, not forget you the next time he shows up.”
“Bitch,” Aubrey said, taking a step toward her. “Shut up before I sew your mouth shut for you.”
“Did you hear her?” Payton demanded. “She just threatened me.”
“Nope,” Dix said. “Didn’t hear a thing. Maybe you should go see someone if you’re hallucinating. It’s never a good sign.”
That wasn’t supposed to be funny, but a flicker of laughter seemed to chase across KC’s rather gloomy expression, and I hated that Dix had been the one to coax that expression to life.
Hated him.
Shaking off that somewhat irrational reaction, I tried to focus on what was at hand. “We can look into alternative spaces.”
We didn’t really have a lot of options at the moment. There were two older buildings closed for renovations, so space truly was at a premium after the fire. Lachlan staying with me was a problem, but Jonas would kill him if Lachlan was in their room so that left…
“Or she can just stay with me,” Jonas said. “It really doesn’t involve you.” The snap was directed at me, when Payton looked like she was going to say something he just turned away from her. “KC? If you want? I can help move your stuff.”
Fuck, this had disaster written all over it.
Rather than answering immediately, KC glanced at Aubrey. The two girls just stared at each other for a long moment, then Aubrey shrugged.
“Not a huge fan either, but I will be right here. It’ll be almost like rooming together.” There seemed so much more meaning to the way she said that, but I didn’t know the possible context or details.
“Temporarily,” KC said. Her poor voice. The more she spoke the worse she sounded. Yes, we needed to wrap this up so she could rest. “We will work on alternatives, but I can’t sleep in here.”
“Let’s get your things…” Aubrey said, but KC didn’t turn away immediately. Instead, she eyed Jonas.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Zero hesitation. “What do you want me to carry?”
That seemed to galvanize everyone. Dix headed for the coffee maker, while Aubrey and KC went to their bedroom and Jonas eyed the boxes. When KC came out with both guitars, I rubbed a hand over my face. They were the reason she’d passed out. The need to hang onto them.
When Jonas offered to take them, she startled me when she allowed it. The hesitation ended. Then she was going back for more things and Dix was carrying the coffee maker across the hall.
“So that’s it, she just gets to move in with Jonas? No repercussions?” Payton sounded very unhappy.
“Listen,” I told her, pitching my voice low. “Do you really want to start a ‘she said, she said’ war with her? Right now, you don’t have a lot of allies. Let this go.”
