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“Charlie.” Sulli makes a soured face. “I can’t believe you like Charlie more than Beckett. It’s like preferring raisins over chocolate chips.”
I don’t think I’m Beckett’s favorite person right now, but I don’t mention that. Especially since Beckett is usually nice to me, but besides Charlie helping me with my fics, he has an interesting viewpoint of people. I like talking to him about the world.
“Charlie is like a rogue space explorer,” I say. “The times where he’s not provoking Moffy, I think he’s kinda cool.”
“He’s a space dick,” Sulli says, then tells Jane, “no offense.”
“None taken,” Jane says breezily. “I’m not taking sides. I love my brothers equally, and they both can equally exude dickish behavior.”
Sulli tosses a catnip mouse. “Like just yesterday, Charlie said I’m too dumb to help solve the fucking assault on Beckett.”
Jane sighs, not at all shocked, “I apologize on his behalf.”
“It’s so shitty that everyone has to apologize on Charlie’s fucking behalf,” Sulli says. “That’s not okay.”
Jane sets down her phone and adjusts Maeve against her boob. “I take it Beckett apologized on his behalf.”
“He did. He always does.”
Jane frowns. “Is there anything left to solve with the assault? We know Donnelly’s family is behind it all.”
I’ve been quiet, just petting and brushing Ophelia’s fluffy white fur, but my stomach is in knots.
Sulli tucks her long legs to her chest. “The two guys who attacked Beckett’s bodyguard are walking free with a flimsy fucking restraining order. I just want to be sure my best friend doesn’t get jumped on his way to ballet rehearsal. So I suggested hanging around him more, to and from the theatre, which means my bodyguards would be around him too. Charlie hated the idea. But fuck what he thinks because Beckett loved it.”
I can see Beckett enjoying being able to spend more time with Sulli. I wonder if Charlie didn’t like it because it meant he’d have to share his brotherly time with Sulli too.
Jane is deep in thought. “I do worry that Beckett might not be the only target.”
“Why?” I ask now.
“Thatcher seems to believe they tried to attack him because of his association to Donnelly, but why? They didn’t mug Beckett or take anything from him to sell.”
“I definitely think they fucking tried but his bodyguard got in the way,” Sulli says.
I know the truth. Donnelly didn’t follow through with stealing Beckett’s painting, and it was payback. I’m surprised my dad hasn’t spread this throughout security either, or else Thatcher would know. He’s protecting Donnelly more than I realized.
Gratitude floods me.
I want to thank him, and I reach for my phone and start typing out a text.
Thanks for keeping Donnelly’s story from that night on Halloween safe and thanks for protecting him.
I send it.
Then I add:
I love you.
And one more.
To Thebula and back again ???
I tuck my phone in my pocket.
“I just think there might be more to the story,” Jane says but shakes off the nagging thought. I really need the Queen of Curiosity to be a little less curious.
I scratch at nail polish I painted on my skin around my forearm tattoo. Neon green is swirled between song lyrics. I even swiped streaks of pink and purple polish beneath my eyes like war paint. The bottle said it was safe on skin, so I thought, why not? Results of being cooped up for so long.
And no, it didn’t take my mind off Donnelly. Not one bit.
“Okay, so Charlie’s invited,” Sulli says, returning to the party planning. “Beckett?”
I hesitate at first, but maybe it’ll be an olive branch. “Sure. Beckett…and Xander.” Two olive branches.
Jane types on her phone. “Ben?”
“Not if Xander is going,” I say. “I think they’re still on icy waters with one another, and if there’s any hope of my brother attending, then Ben can’t come.” I remember when Xander visited Penn, he totally avoided Ben the whole time.
Jane looks pained at the idea of leaving Ben out. I don’t feel great about it either, but she says, “Let me see if I can get both there. If not, then it’ll just be Xander.”
I trust her. “Okay. I also want Oscar and Jack to come.” Oscar is Donnelly’s best friend, and Jack has always been close to all my roommates and even me. I’ve opened up to him about my persona in the media before—to the point where I had tears running down my cheeks. He’s just so genuine and comforting, it’s hard to stop the floodgates from opening.
“Good choices,” Sulli says, then, “fuck,” as she knocks a glass of water off an end table. She retrieves a towel from Jane’s bathroom and soaks the spill off the carpet.
“Kinney?” Jane asks.
My sister. “I would but…”
“She’s only sixteen?” Jane guesses.
“It’s not that.”
Jane nods in sudden realization. “If you invite Kinney, then you’d have to invite our sisters and also Vada.”
