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They were in the lodge van, heading back. Ryder sat on his right, Brody and Dan in front of them.
“I saw you guys sitting at the bar, all cozy. You were talking because your lips were moving.”
If only he knew.
“So, sitting at the bar talking isn’t allowed either?”
“It’s not like you’re a Chatty Cathy, even with family,” Brody said, clearly listening in.
He shouldn’t have put his hands on her. Sawyer knew Birdie was an innocent, but he hadn’t been able to help himself. She’d slapped him, he’d chased her, and they’d ended up making out.
She’d thought those two people last night had been wanting her in their hot tub for a chat.Christ,his blood ran cold when he thought about Birdie walking around anywhere but Lyntacky without supervision.
“How come she’s so sheltered, Rye?”
His brother shrugged. “She’s always been that way. It used to drive her siblings crazy.”
“It seems weird in this day and age that she can walk about the place happy all the time and completely unaware,” Sawyer said.
He felt his brother’s eyes on him.
“You’re worried about her.”
“No, curious.”
“Birdie is complex,” Ryder said. “I mean, we’re friends but not real close. I don’t think she’s close with a lot of people really, which is weird considering how friendly she is. There’s Leah, but she’s been gone for years now. Not sure if they’re still in touch.”
“As in Dan’s Leah Reynold?” Sawyer asked.
Ryder nodded.
“She’s not my anything.” Dan sounded angry.
“Leah is loud, confident, and a man-eater, nothing like Birdie. What’s weird is how they were friends,” Sawyer said.
“She’s not a man-eater.” Dan growled.
Sawyer knew his brother had been in a relationship with Leah and then she left Lyntacky. No one was sure what happened, and considering Sawyer didn’t talk about Jolena, he couldn’t really ask questions.
“They met each other on the first day of school, and Leah looked out for Birdie. Why the interest, Sawyer?” Ryder asked him.
He shrugged, not willing to go into detail about what Birdie had told him last night.
“I’ll rephrase that. You rarely care about anyone but family, especially after She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, who we know nothing about but is on your arm, hurt you. So, what’s the deal?”
Sawyer looked out the window as they passed a driveway. He saw the name Trainer on a letterbox.
“Do you really think she’s in some kind of financial trouble, Sawyer?” Ryder pushed him.
He looked at his little brother and nodded. It wasn’t his story to tell about the gambling and dirty talking, but he hated hiding stuff from his brothers. “I do, but she can’t know I told you that.”
“What aren’t you telling us?” Brody asked him with that uncanny ability he had to know when anyone was holding out on him.
“Cone of silence,” Dan said, pretending to place something on his head.
“Cone of silence,” Ryder and Brody said, doing the same.
They’d brought this in to play as children. When the cone of silence was in place, not one word of what they discussed while they invoked it could be spoken to anyone but each other.
